16/01/12 - 13h04

Cara LoFaro

Cara LoFaro is focused on Latin America and emerging markets, and completed an internship in São Paulo. Then she decided to move to São Paulo upon finishing graduate school in June 2011 and started teaching business English for Global Language.

Background

• Networking in Brazil
• Latin American and Global Studies
• Racial Equality in Brazil
• The Importance of Foreign Languages
• Learning English in Brazil
• How Proficiency in English Affects Networking?
• Airport Infrastructure in Brazil
• Will Brazil be Ready for the World Cup?

Interview

Tom Reaoch:

Today we have a special program and I’m with special person. You know that we talk about networking quite a bit on this show and Talk2Brazil has become the global meeting place for persons interested in Brazil. A couple of weeks ago I made a networking presentation to a group of members at the American Chamber of Commerce in São Paulo and as usual I always meet a group of interesting persons at these events and one, Cara LoFaro is our guest today. Cara LoFaro is from Wilmington, Delaware where she graduated from the University of Delaware in 2008, she studied abroad in Mexico, Spain, and Cuba and upon graduating she worked for former US Senator Joe Biden in his Wilmington office. She became interested in Brazil while attending the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, and obtained a Masters of Arts in International Relations and International Economics.

She spent her first year at their European campus in Bologna, Italy, and the second year at their main campus in Washington, DC.  Cara focused on Latin America and emerging markets, and completed an internship in São Paulo. Cara then decided to move to São Paulo upon finishing graduate school in June, 2011 where she started teaching business English for Global Language. She’s now Corporate Relations and English Coordinator at Global Language. So with that, Cara, I’d like to say welcome and thanks for being part of Talk2Brazil.

Cara LoFaro:

Thank you Tom it’s a pleasure to be here.

Tom Reaoch:

Well as I mentioned we met in a networking environment and we had a brief opportunity to talk after the presentation, specifically about networking and since we did agree on a couple of those points I’d like you to mention that of your feeling about networking and what that’s been and how that’s been for you in your personal and professional life.

Cara LoFaro:

Sure, well first of all I greatly enjoyed your presentation at the American Chamber of Commerce in São Paulo. You really are the king of networking, you made some excellent points, I love that term, ‘the king of networking’, it’s great. But you know your point about, you know, Brazilians are almost shy in terms of networking as this is sort of a new thing for them, they are almost embarrassed to talk to people they don’t know and I think that’s, I found that to be quite true in my experiences so far networking in Brazil, I find that people sort of are taken back a little bit when you go up to them out of nowhere and start, you know start up a conversation.

Tom Reaoch:

And we’re talking about it in a business environment right? It’s not out on the street yeah?

Cara LoFaro:

Right you know, events where they’re actually networking events, you know.

Tom Reaoch:

Right. That’s even more striking, the networking events, it’s hard to network.

Cara LoFaro:

Yeah and then you know I’m still young at this so I think, ‘Oh no, am I totally out of line here?’ but I know I’m not because I know I’m just doing my job and trying to you know, make contacts and meet new people so, but it’s actually, you know on the other hand I’ve done very well networking because I have a great excuse, I’m American, you know so I , you know my ‘in’ is, has been simply being American so I strike up a conversation, they immediately catch my America accent and , you know I say, ‘O you know, let me give you my card, this is the American way’ and then, ‘Oh, oh yeah, you’re from the U.S., oh wow,’ you know, they’re always very curious about why I’m here, you know, ‘Why would you be living here?’ which I find funny but it’s, so you know then a conversation naturally starts but it’s always that, you know the American card, oh, okay you’re American, okay so you have an excuse to just strike up conversation.

Tom Reaoch:

Now that is funny because that happened from the first day I arrived back in 1970 and it was that way and still is and people just sort of take that as being, well that’s just something that Americans do, and tend to look at that so they do excuse you because you’re an American or because you’re a foreigner, but that is the barrier breaker. Now when I first came I actually found the way to get past the secretaries or persons who were the administrative assistants when you wanted to talk to somebody, they always wanted to know, you know where are you from and actually when they say where are you from they want to know the name of the company that you’re representing and if that company doesn’t strike a bell with them then you don’t even get to talk to the person, so every time they would ask me where are you from? I’d just say, “From the United States,” because I was, I was Tom from the United States and they would pass that on, here’s an American wanting to talk to you and more often than not I would get through to talk to the person. Because if I were to say I was from company A, B or C, it just didn’t get anywhere. So you know, why would somebody from company A, B or C want to talk to Doctor Joe? So they say, well it’s Tom from the United States. Well where in the United States, in Pittsburgh and as you said they wanted to know what you’re doing here, what that’s all about and then actually the ice melts and all the barriers came down and then you can, and then Brazilians are very warm once you get over that hurdle.

Cara LoFaro:

Oh, and that’s exactly what I was going to actually mention is once, it’s after the initial hello and then they’re just so friendly, so you know, just as Brazilians are known to be, just very warm and very open and curious and then I was going to mention the other thing I always do to break the ice is I have a very strange name in Brazil but it’s Cara, C-A-R-A. My name is kind of complicated I always say to Brazilians because it’s, you know it means dude, or guy.

Tom Reaoch:

Right if they pronounce it as Cara, that’s true, that’s true.

Cara LoFaro:

So I always say my name in the American accent, you know but people always invariably say, “Oh, you’re name is actually you know, Cara” and then they don’t believe it and you know, it’s getting to the point where I think, wow, maybe I should actually you know, change my name, tweak my name while living in Brazil because it’s, you know, it’s not the best name to have there.

Tom Reaoch:

Well yeah, but it’s a talking piece. I think that if it works for that sense then do it. I’ve always had the opposite because my last name, Reaoch in Portuguese is very difficult to pronounce; well Reaoch is difficult to pronounce in any language, but even in the United States when people see my name, R-E-A-O-C-H, they have difficulty, tell it’s reach or roach or anything else, but here in Brazil it’s, you know really off the board so that’s where I became here known as Thomas. When I came here I was Tom; my life in the States was Tom Reaoch, but here the same thing, when Brazilians would refer to me as T-O-M it would be Toam and then I wouldn’t realize that they were calling me because I couldn’t associate Toam to be Tom so they said I’ve got to be Thomas, right so, then had that changed. So really you do have to think about, and I don’t say that you specifically have to think about changing your name but for our global listeners when they do come do Brazil, when you go to any other country in a different language you do have to realize how those people understand your name to start with. Because many times when we present ourselves on phones or whatever people don’t really understand who we are.

Cara LoFaro:

Yeah, It’s interesting, I don’t know if you’ve seen this trend where a lot of, I know some South Koreans and also some Chinese people who have moved, you know moved to the U.S. or Brazil and they actually change their name to a typical name of the country, you know which I think is pretty clever and brave of them to just go ahead and change their names because its, you know they just assume people won’t be able to pronounce their name.

Tom Reaoch:

Well in many cases they can’t and I agree with them, you need to be found and you have to have a way for people to find you or to remember you and if they really can’t remember your name they never get back to you, or if they’re embarrassed in pronouncing or have difficulty in pronouncing it, many times they won’t call you because of that.

Cara LoFaro:

That’s true; they’ll be reluctant to get in touch with you, yeah.

Tom Reaoch:

So networking actually, tell us about your start, you’ve had a very interesting career, you’ve done a whole lot of things. I asked you offline how old you are and if I may I’ll tell our listeners that Cara is 25 years old and has gone through just a whole series of different experiences starting, what and how many years ago with, as an interface with Senator Biden in the united States?

Cara LoFaro:

Yeah, I’ve been quite lucky to have all of the opportunities that I’ve had. I actually got the Biden job through a personal contact, a friend of mine from college who was working in [inaudible], so that’s how, and I also had previously interned for Senator Tom Carper who was other Delaware Senator, so I, you know my previous experience working in a senate office coupled with the personal contact gave me the ticket in to get the interview to work as a staff assistant for Joe Biden in his Wilmington office, so I did that for, from 2008 to 2009, just a year and three months before going back to graduate school.

Tom Reaoch:

Oh, that’s good but where you had studied political science and you were studying global studies at that time so I think at that time Senator Biden was also responsible for the foreign relations committee, so I think in what you were studying, what you had studied to be with a senator of that caliber and that focus I think that was interesting as well.

Cara LoFaro:

Oh yes, and it was, you know it was very exciting. I was definitely at the right place at the right time as they say because I started there in May, end of May of 2008 and then in August of 2008 the vice president, or the senator got the nod to be the vice presidential candidate so I had no idea, you know starting the job he was going to be even considered and that was great because I was able to help out on the campaign and I got to meet [interesting] people and you know, do all the campaigning and you know, going door-to-door and hanging up campaign signs and it was very exciting to be working for a senator on the one hand and also being part of an exciting campaign on the other hand.

Tom Reaoch:

Right, and I think too as we talk about the global world, when we’re talking about international relations and international economics from my time here in Brazil looking back to the States, many times Brazilians specifically obviously have some difficulty understanding American politics, but they have, they do have some difficulty in understanding why in many times the U.S. doesn’t look out to foreign countries and really the foreign policy tends to be something different depending on the president coming in.

Cara LoFaro:

Yeah, Yeah, I think that a lot of Brazilians have question about Americans in terms of our foreign policy and maybe don’t agree. A lot of, a lot of people from other countries don’t agree with our government but in terms of my personal experience in Brazil I found Brazilians to be very warm towards me and you know…

Tom Reaoch:

Oh no, that’s true, and I think I all of my years here, and as I mentioned I came in 1970, I came in the middle of the dictatorship and even at that time when relations between Brazil and the United States were sometimes stressed at the personal level with people; never had a problem, so over my 40 some years here in Brazil I think that Brazilians separate that, the person from the country’s politics, and that’s good I think, that’s positive. Many times unfortunately the reverse wasn’t true because when I would be back in the United States everybody sort of considered all Brazilians to be dictators.

Cara LoFaro:

Oh really?

Tom Reaoch:

And not really, yes, but now that Brazil has come to become a democratic country and is learning democracy, that’s changed quite a bit so I think that’s good. But I think what you have done in studying – first of all what took you to get into Latin American studies, where was that start?

Cara LoFaro:

That started in high school, I always had a, I was always very good at Spanish so it started actually in high school Spanish class because that was my one subject that was just very, I was very naturally skilled at, I was able to pick up learning Spanish very quickly and I liked learning it, I liked speaking it and so in college I decided to do, major in Spanish as well as political science and I just became I guess, coupled with the passion about the language I became passionate about the cultures in all the countries, all the Spanish speaking countries so I just you know thought, Oh I can you know, University of Delaware has a vast number of study abroad programs all over the world so I thought, might as well take advantage of this and you know, I first went to Mexico in my freshman year, we have a winter term so I went there for five weeks, fell totally in love with that experience with Mexico and the culture so I sort of got the travel bug at an early age than I did [inaudible]. My sophomore year I did a semester in Granada Spain also through the University of Delaware and that was great as well. Then I did a semester study in Cuba, in Havana Cuba through a different school. Of course I went there legally but at that time there were only a handful of universities in the country that had a special government license to be able to take students over there and there were very few Americans and that was just, that was an incredible experience for me in terms of being really sort of getting to know the culture and you know I was one of three Americans in my program. I studied along side of Cuban students and also students from all over Latin America because a lot of students go to the University of Havana from other Latin American countries because it’s so cheap…

Tom Reaoch:

Right, but how were you received in Cuba as an American?

Cara LoFaro:

I was, I was received well. I didn’t flaunt that I was American but I was, you know people were very friendly, kind of just like Brazilians you know, maybe they weren’t in favor of our government but they didn’t judge me just because of my nationality, so you know I was able to blend in as a student so people wouldn’t necessarily assume I was American right away because I could be from some other country, you know there was a number of Europeans there and Latin Americans so. My goal is always to try to blend in as much as possible and in Brazil I luckily am able to blend in very well as long as I don’t open my mouth because the second I open my mouth, “Ah, there’s a foreigner”, but as long as I keep my mouth…

Tom Reaoch:

Well, that’s not a problem yeah, I don’t think that’s a problem though once even being identified as a foreigner here that’s not an issue really, I think as you mentioned, you mentioned before you use that to your advantage.

Cara LoFaro:

Oh yeah, I mean in networking events it’s great but on the street when I’m walking around I prefer to blend in just for, I don’t know just for security or I just like…

Tom Reaoch:

I agree with you there, that’s true.

Cara LoFaro:

I like not standing out and I try so hard to blend in that I always end up getting asked questions you know on the street, “Oh can you tell me how to get from here or…

Tom Reaoch:

Here or there or everywhere right?

Cara LoFaro:

Then I feel proud of myself for being able to look like [inaudible] but…

Tom Reaoch:

But in all of your trips to Cuba and Spain and Mexico, obviously having studied the language was a plus and a help in all of that.

Cara LoFaro:

Oh yeah, it was great and then I was able to really – I felt that I couldn’t truly become fluent in a language until I had lived [in that] country so I was able to gain a pretty good fluency in Spanish, of course now when I try to speak Spanish I speak Portanhol because I’m so used to [inaudible] Portuguese.

Tom Reaoch:

You get it all together, but then I saw on our LinkedIn profile the you came to São Paulo in an intern program in June of 2010, was that your first tie to Brazil?

Cara LoFaro:

Yes, that was my first time so I, that was after my first year of graduate school which I actually did in Italy which was another great experience because then I learned some Italian which I loved as well, so that was fun and I actually was taking classes in English at the Johns Hopkins campus in Italy in Bologna, I was learning Portuguese and I was speaking Italian on the streets so I was getting a little confused with…

Tom Reaoch:

Little confused I would think. Well you were learning Portuguese where in Italy?

Cara LoFaro:

Yes, because through this Johns Hopkins Masters program in international relations they offer, you know you can take whatever language [you want], so what I did is, you have to be fluent in one language, you have to pass one language in proficiency, so I passed Spanish in beginning…

Tom Reaoch:

Well one second language right?

Cara LoFaro:

Yes, yes.

Tom Reaoch:

Proficiency in a second language, okay.

Cara LoFaro:

Besides English, so then I decided to take Portuguese and that’s really how my interest developed in Brazil. I started talking Portuguese and then I started studying, I was very interested in Brazil as an emerging market country and what’s going on there so I decided I wanted to do an internship in Brazil between the first and second year of the program so I went to São Paulo and I interned at a, at the Solidarity Center which is a labor rights NGO that’s affiliated with [inaudible] C.I.O in Washington D.C. and they basically promote legal rights in different countries, I guess they have offices in a number of countries around the world.

Tom Reaoch:

So again you’re networking in the States helped you and obviously Washington D.C to even get that internship.

Cara LoFaro:

Yes, talking to different people helped me to get that internship and it was an interesting experience, I met a lot of interesting people and learned a lot but then by the end of it I realized that it wasn’t the exact route I wanted to go into in the future but it was definitely a great learning experience and I improved my Portuguese a lot because all my work was done in Portuguese and that was great.

Tom Reaoch:

And I mentioned you even made presentations, I saw one of your presentations was the promotion of racial equality in Brazilian Unions and you made that presentation in Portuguese.

Cara LoFaro:

Yes I did, we, that was part of an event our organization organized for black union leaders in Brazilian unions. We had an event for them, a workshop to help them develop skills to promote racial equality in the unions and so I gave a presentation basically on some of my research I did that summer which was basically I compiled a database of you know, black leadership in the unions and you know, what unions have racial clauses and elective bargaining agreements, so we’re just organizing, I’m sorry?

Tom Reaoch:

I would ask you, do the union labor unions here have that as a, as part of their agenda racially equality?

Cara LoFaro:

Well it’s becoming more and more important and it’s getting on the agenda in the last few years especially where unions are now putting these clauses on racial equality be just a general statement against inequality or actually putting a quota in, you know, 10% of workers must be black or indigenous. We’re seeing that more and more and we’re also seeing more leaders, black leaders in unions in Brazil and we’re also seeing secretariats created in unions for racial equality which is a new phenomenon as well.

Tom Reaoch:

Yeah, and I agree with you. I would say that becomes a surprise even to me because I wouldn’t have considered – and not that I wouldn’t consider that as being an issue – but I really would not have thought that the unions were keen to that and embrace it as you mentioned.

Cara LoFaro:

Right and again, it’s a very new development I’d say in the last few years from what I have researched and a lot of black leaders in Brazil, people I talk to, union leaders agrue that the black rights movement in Brazil or just general black movement, the heart of that movement starts with the union, labor unions because the majority of the work force in brazil is black or minority and so they believe that’s at the heart of the movement for racial equality, it starts in the labor unions, which I found interesting. We could talk about the race issue in Brazil for you know many hours, many days even because it’s such a big issue. It’s very complicated because the racial issue is very different in Brazil than it is in the U.S. in terms of this creation of a black identity, which in Brazil I think there’s a lack of an identity still. A lot of Brazilians don’t identify themselves as black, where as in the U.S. the same person would, you know there’s a lack of black pride I would say.

Tom Reaoch:

I would have to agree but I would think as I saw in your profile, the conference was in Salvador Bahia and I would have to say it’s my personal feeling that let’s call that the lack pride if you will, there is much of that and it is centered in Salvador for the heritage, for the African Heritage I – you can see and feel it there but I wouldn’t say it’s something that’s throughout the country.

Cara LoFaro:

Yeah, I definitely felt that as well when I was in Salvador. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to spend too much time there, I was sort of in and out for the conference but I’d agree with you on that, there’s definitely a different feeling there than there is in other parts of the country.

Tom Reaoch:

Right and when you say even the preservation of music there and the culture, what have you, that still blends together very well in Salvador but it is an issue and I think it’s an issue that needs to be addressed in a different way because obviously Brazil’s not black and white. One of the things that when I first came here, well actually there are five different words for various shades of color, where in the States we tend to think black and white or colored persons, here they’re different shades and so it depends where you are on that spectrum and not only the – because we have all kinds of intermarriages here in Brazil with Asians with the Indians and so it is literally a melting pot so I’m not sure if it’s a racial situation here or if it’s still a class situation in terms of economics so, but that is an issue.

Cara LoFaro:

Yes, it’s such a complex issue and I don’t even know, I don’t [have] any answers but…

Tom Reaoch:

It’s given me an idea for another program – that will be a program. Find somebody to talk about because it is interesting obviously because our global listeners for persons who want to understand Brazil have a better feeling about Brazil, these are issues that have to come up and for many foreigners coming to brazil they don’t have the feeling, they can’t find information about it.

Cara LoFaro:

Right, no I think it’s a great – I think it’s a very important topic to discuss because it’s so different, you know Brazilian history, and racial history is so different from the U.S. You can just look back to the U.S. had formal segregation you know, starting [inaudible] saying you were either black or white, whereas in Brazil it was always informal discrimination, there was no formal line divided to say you have to be black or white, so anyway…

Tom Reaoch:

But still and I think there’s still an issue here and I think that’ll be worth a whole different program. But then after that you went from looking at the labor unions to studying investment opportunities; [so there’s] another internship.

Cara LoFaro:

Yes, after I got back from Brazil I worked for a consulting firm in Washington that a part of the firm looks at Brazil-U.S. business development and I was able to do some research on investment opportunities, especially related to the 2014 and 2016 events in Brazil for U.S. businesses. That was very interesting to get sort of, go to the other side of the spectrum you know, from labor unions to investment opportunities.

Tom Reaoch:

Do the private equity investors take into consideration the labor movements, how do they view Brazil as being run by a labor party?

Cara LoFaro:

I think that they find it as a nuisance right, because Brazil, the labor movement is so strong here but I don’t know. I don’t think they worry about it too much as well, I don’t think it’s a huge issue; I think it’s important though. I found it’s very helpful to have a much better understanding of the labor, the labor unions in Brazil because it’s such an important part of the equation when you’re looking at investing, when you’re looking at setting up a company in Brazil. The labor rigidity is a huge issue; it’s a huge setback in terms of investment in Brazil. It’s very hard to fire workers and [hire] workers so it’s definitely something that companies have to keep in mind when they’re looking to invest in Brazil and hire workers.

Tom Reaoch:

But in terms of investments what are the types of investments that U.S. companies were looking towards regarding the World Cup? What do they see out there on the plate?

Cara LoFaro:

The main sectors were airports, airport infrastructure and infrastructure in general, that was sort of the main area I was looking at. But of course I think there’s investment opportunities in a number of sectors in Brazil as I’m sure you’re listeners have read and heard.

Tom Reaoch:

Even in aviation, see, one of our expectations and specifically here in the Campinas region, what we’ve been in favor and hoping what happened is the development of the Viracopos Airport. For years it’s been on the table of new investments but from what the government has said, the expectation is in with these next three months with the tender, the bidding will go out for the investments in Viracopos, in Guarulhos and Brasilia and that bidding will be to privatize those airports. So our hope and expectation is that something will definitely happen and from the information that I’ve read about the government is also requiring that part of the participation in any group being formed to build or to renovate the airports they must have a proven track record, so what that does is to open the door for foreign investment because obviously the proven track record in either new airport construction or airport renovation that would be basically U.S. companies or European companies and some Asian companies. I think that is a plus for business and for the real opportunities that are here.

Cara LoFaro:

Yeah I think that’s extremely important because you know as we’ve read and heard about and seen with our own eyes the airports here in Brazil definitely need some work for these upcoming events and just in general to keep up with the investment and movement of people coming in here. The airport infrastructure definitely needs some work and fast, and I think that the aviation sector infrastructure in all areas is a great investment opportunity for U.S. companies; I think that U.S. companies should look into this and to the investments [inaudible].

Tom Reaoch:

Yeah and from our side for businesses already established here in Brazil, part of the difficulty, and again referring here to Campinas before the advent of the airline company Azul, there were basically no flights out of Campinas to anywhere. Today we’re fortunate to have a very intricate infrastructure in all direct flights from Campinas to a number of cities but then again with all of those flights the infrastructure of the airports starts to create a problem; just can’t handle, well, there’s no place to park an airplane, there’s no place to park a car.

Cara LoFaro:

Right.

Tom Reaoch:

So that’s the problem so what I generally say Brazilians don’t plan very well for success, so when things do become a success then they try to face the problem and that’s part of the general worry for the World Cup. They were able to get the World Cup and the Olympics events but to get everything together, to have the infrastructure that is needed and the legacy investments as they mentioned, that’s becoming a real effort here and some of the other interviews that we’ve had and there have been both sides persons thinking that it will happen, other persons thinking that it won’t happen so. But it’s a critical issue and it’s not only for the World Cup, because just general day-to-day business today for 2012 we need better airports.

Cara LoFaro:

Yeah and I guess the World Cup is becoming an opportunity I think for Brazil to step up to the plate and actually make some improvements in infrastructure; but as we’re seeing it looks like it’s getting delayed. On the other hand I hear Brazilians, you know I think there’s that mindset of, “Oh you know, it will all get done in the last minute” you know, which I wonder if that’s…

Tom Reaoch:

It probably will, it probably will because again that’s the way may things are done here, that the closer that it gets to whatever the deadline is, it seems that the faster people work.

Cara LoFaro:

Yeah, and then everything always works out in the end, it’s just a lot of stress [to get] there.

Tom Reaoch:

That’s the Brazilian word "jeito" right? You can always find a way.

Cara LoFaro:

Exactly.

Tom Reaoch:

But in terms of languages then you came around and now as you’ve just moved to São Paulo and now you’re teaching English, so you learned Spanish, your learned Portuguese you learned Italian and now you’re here in Brazil teaching English.

Cara LoFaro:

Yeah, I started initially with Global Language which is a language school here focused in the corporate world, so they teach business English to executives as well as Spanish and also Portuguese for foreigners and also German and Italian and French and I was lucky enough to start with them, only about a month after I got here teaching business English and we have a lot of clients and multinational companies mainly in the financial sector. That was real interesting for me because I was able to you know, talk to a lot of interesting people in the business world in Brazil and also teach, which I love doing as well. I’m actually waning off teaching, the teaching part and now focusing more on corporate relations and building our client base so that’s when the networking comes in handy for me and I’ve been going to a lot of interesting events and talking to a lot of interesting people.

Tom Reaoch:

But the lack of English is also a barrier here in Brazil because we’re talking about the investments, talking about the opportunities. Again when I came here in 1970, one of the things I did in the beginning early to make money was to teach English and I taught English for a number of years and I’ve really followed, even though I haven’t been an English teacher for all those years but I do follow the fact that many Brazilians study English but few Brazilians speak English. Now when you get into a business situation, business scenarios, it’s sometimes very difficult to find business persons that can speak English.

Cara LoFaro:

Yeah and that’s a huge problem and that’s what I’ve found with our clients. A lot of them, maybe they can read perfectly and answer any sort of grammar question on an exam but when it comes to – and maybe they can even speak the business English and have the vocabulary but when it comes to maybe networking or giving a presentation or making small talk they totally freeze and they can’t do it. That’s when these lessons that our company and many other - there’s many schools out there - offer to Brazilians, I think it’s crucial because I guess traditionally I don’t think that in school in Brazil they have a strong English program so I think that now Brazilian executives are looking to these special schools to take private lessons to be able to compete in their job and unfortunately or fortunately English is necessary to have in…

Tom Reaoch:

Yeah English today is the business language of the world; it’s not just to speak to Americans or the English anymore. As you mentioned the Chinese, the Koreans, they’re coming here to Brazil that are investing, English has become their language as well and so for an aspect of business today people need to speak English. Executives need to speak English.

Cara LoFaro:

Yeah, and they need to speak it well you know, they might be fluent, they might be able to get by and hold a conversation but to be accurate they need to know how to say the exact idiomatic expression at the right time or how to joke or the appropriate conversation to have in the appropriate environment and I think that that sort of [thing] gives these executives an edge and a competitive edge in the business world.

Tom Reaoch:

But do you feel that’s part of – we mentioned that, and I think and you think the Brazilians are shy in networking – does that shyness have something to do with the language ability?

Cara LoFaro:

That’s a good question, I don’t know, I don’t know Tom I think that, I would say no because I think the shyness is such an initial shyness, just the sort of surprise that someone’s coming up and talking to you out of nowhere, but as we mentioned, after that initial shock then they’re totally open and totally you know open to chat.

Tom Reaoch:

But open in Portuguese, open in Portuguese.

Cara LoFaro:

In Portuguese, yeah.

Tom Reaoch:

But when you bring that into an English speaking environment what I’ve seen in other business situations where you get through the hurdle of making the presentations that many executives will, you know will say the welcome in English but then ask and want to revert back to Portuguese and even though they have an ability and I feel that they could speak well enough to carry on the meeting, but they just seem to sort of back off.

Cara LoFaro:

Oh yeah, I mean I guess it makes sense, it’s not natural to speak your second language. I definitely feel shyness when I have to speak in Portuguese in groups but you sort of have to overcome it to get the job done, but it’s not natural so I would imagine there’d be a lot of shyness among executives trying to speak English in these kind of settings and that’s why they need the individualized classes that schools like Global Language, my school, offers so they can, you know practice these hard situations, these stress situations where they have to speak on the spot. I think that’s crucial for their jobs.

Tom Reaoch:

I think it’s the stress situation in any sense people bind up technically or linguistically or in any sense so I think that’s, those are good points that you bring up and real life business is a stress situation.

Cara LoFaro:

Exactly, a lot of our clients say, you know, “We can speak the language no problem, but what happens is we get tongue-tied, we freeze in these conference calls or presentations where we’re put on the spot” and I can totally relate to that, speaking other languages and you know, everything’s in your head but at that moment when you’re put on the spot it’s very hard to sometimes formulate a coherent sentence.

Tom Reaoch:

No, that’s true and what you mentioned is that, that today any of the business encounters are teleconferences or by phone or for other means and not necessarily in the presence of persons. I mean you had these global conference calls with people from different countries at the same time, that becomes confusing sometimes.

Cara LoFaro:

Oh yeah, and not only for speakers of Portuguese but you know even for people like me.

Tom Reaoch:

Of any language, right.

Cara LoFaro:

There are so many different accents out there it’s hard to sometimes understand what people are saying especially on conference calls, so you definitely train your ear for that.

Tom Reaoch:

But is that part of the raining at Global language, do you help executives through that in a let’s say, a real conference call type situation?

Cara LoFaro:

Yes, we do a number of different sort of real-life role-play situations and we try to tailor it to exactly what the student needs help on so a lot of students do want exactly that, that training with conference calls and presentations where they have to speak on the spot or, also the accent training, listening to different accents, so yeah that’s a key thing for a lot of our students, the business English students.

Tom Reaoch:

Is there an age issue or a gender issue in learning a language, say of learning English in Brazil?

Cara LoFaro:

How do you mean?

Tom Reaoch:

Like women, do they learn it easier than men do; do young people learn it faster than older people? What is your feeling, what is your take on that?

Cara LoFaro:

I think it depends, I think that younger people in general learn faster but I think it definitely depends because sometimes older people have a strong base from maybe you know maybe they learned it 20 years ago, they lived abroad and so they’re just sort of re-learning it but they have it all in their memory and so I think it just depends on the situation, but I think the younger you are the more advantageous because you can learn more quickly I think.

Tom Reaoch:

And today too, even let’s get back to the younger persons who have more connectivity with internet; most everything on the internet today is in English and even the games that the younger people play are basically in English so I see a lot of groups really learning English playing games.

Cara LoFaro:

Oh yeah, yeah, I know Brazilians who know a lot of English phrases that are straight from video games or sites and so, or cultural references you know, I think the younger generation, my generation is much more connected to American Culture maybe than, or maybe connected in a different way where they’re seeing more and hearing more English than previous generations.

Tom Reaoch:

But you do see that in your day-to-day now as a corporate relations person, companies are still keen on getting their workers, their employees to learn English?

Cara LoFaro:

Yeah, companies are more and more offering, the human resources are offering you know, as part of their training offering packages for employees to take languages, to learn English, to learn Spanish, they see it as a crucial part in their development and their performance as an executive or as a manager, so you know not all companies but it’s definitely more and more we’re seeing companies putting emphasis on this training, these important language skills and in São Paulo and other parts of Brazil.

Tom Reaoch:

No, but you also mentioned too that Spanish is important, we’re talking about English but Brazil and many companies establish their headquarters in Brazil but actually have responsibility for the rest of Latin America and their Spanish is crucial.

Cara LoFaro:

Yes, and I think that Spanish is almost as popular as [inaudible] because Brazil is surrounded by [inaudible] Spanish speaking countries an you know it’s a crucial language in terms of doing business in Latin America, so it’s very popular as well.

Tom Reaoch:

Very good, well Cara we’re going to have to cut short now we’re coming to the end of our program but I do want to thank you again for taking your time to be with us and to share all of this information, really interesting conversation with our global listeners and hope to see you and meet you again in a networking situation or not, and hopefully have you back on sometime in the future.

Cara LoFaro:

Thank you Tom it was my pleasure and I hope to see you again soon.

Tom Reaoch:

And good luck in all of your endeavors here in Brazil.

Cara LoFaro:

Thank you.