Brazilians don’t burp.
“Brazilians don’t burp.” My husband made this declaration a few days ago. We were coming home from a movie and I had just a let out a rather loud and decidedly unfeminine burp, which put us on the always entertaining topic of releasing excess air form one’s body.
“Brazilians don’t burp.” He said it so matter of factly like, “Fish don’t fly.”
“What? Brazilians don’t burp? Like, ever?” After three years in Brazil this was a fact I had failed to pickup. “You’re telling me Brazilians, as a people, just don’t burp?”
“Think about it. Have you ever heard me burp?” I did think about and honestly, no, I can’t think of a time I’ve heard an audible belch from my husband. He might occasionally interrupt complete silence by saying “Excuse me,” but there hasn’t been anything that I can remember loud enough to dictate the conversation as mine had just done.
So, no, I can’t remember him burping but my husband also doesn’t use deodorant and he never smells like BO. I’ve always assumed that he is freakishly lacking in all unpleasant bodily functions. Maybe he’s the next stage in human evolution or a very lifelike zombie. Whatever it is, I believed it was something unique to him. Now, he’s telling me that “not burping” is a defining feature of Brazilian culture. Brazilians love soccer, eat a lot of beef and never burp.
“You can’t be serious. Everyone burps.”
“We don’t. We just hold it back.”
“What, as a Brazilian you just decide not to release the excess air in your stomach?”
“We just hold back the burp and release the air slowly.”
“How is that even physically possible?” This is something I would really like to know. Is it physically possible to drink a can of Coke through a straw and not burp? Of course I can control whether my burps are heard by the entire room or just the person standing right next to me, but there is always something audible. Isn’t there some point of no return in the burping process when you lose control of the air speed? Is there some trick that people, apparently Brazilians in particular, have mastered to give up burping all together?
This is not a rhetorical question. I want to hear from other Brazilians, people with Brazilian spouses, family, friends. Do Brazilians really never burp? Let me know. In the meantime, I’m going to pay close attention whenever I see someone drinking a soda through a straw. I’m determined to see a Brazilian burp.
My girlfriend is Brazilian and she does burp on some occasions. When we started dating I did a bit of youtube research on the Brazilian ways, habits and manners. One of the things I learned was that burping is absolutely not acceptable. The other thing was that Brazilians take many showers… Well, my girlfriend proved none of that to be true. I love her anyway 🙂
Yes, they do go on youtube and type arroto.You will see tons of Brazilians burping. Also, my former roommate was from Brazil he would belch loud like crazy.He would be in the shower and you would hear a loud burp coming from in side the shower and the door would be shut, it was so loud. I would have my headphones on listening to my music full blast in my ear and I could hear his burp over my music.