World Cup 2014: What is Brazil Famous For?

Face palm? (Wikipedia)

This is it.  Today’s the day.  It’s time for the jaguar to drink water.

The kick off for the 2014 World Cup is upon us.  By the end of the day we’ll know if Brazil have managed to win the first game and maybe kick start the whole tournament, or if President Dilma is right to be the most nervous person in the country.

Apart from football, though, what is Brazil famous for?

This is a question I get asked a lot by my students who are eager to know foreigners think about their country. I ask them what they think they are famous for and we get a list that goes something like this:

Football, the beach, music (samba), fun, carnival, sex, beautiful women, the Amazon, that Christ statue in Rio, Foz do Iguaçu, maybe the Pantanal..

One of the reasons I ask my students to answer the question (along with it being a good idea to get them doing more of the speaking and not me), is that I no longer know what foreigners think about Brazil because I have been involved with this country for so long.  And it doesn’t do me any good to ask my friends and relatives because they are more aware of the country simply by me being here.

So I now ask the same question to you, my loyal reader.  What do you think Brazil is famous for?

Whatever answers are left in the comments I will write about during the World Cup.  Whenever Brazil have a game I’ll choose one of the topics and tell you whether Brazilians should be famous for it, or whether it is just a stereotype.

And if nobody leaves any comments I’ll just choose from my list above.

This blog piece is a part of the Multicultural Kid Blogs series on World Cup for Kids.  If you would like to follow the World Cup from the point of view of kids around the world then please go and check out the site.  There are bloggers from all of the competing countries as well as articles about Brasil and how to get kids interested in sport.