Brazil for Beginners - Part One

I might as well write an introduction to Brazil for all you non-Brazilians out there. Maybe these entries will start showing up on The Google when someone searches for "Brazil for Dummies" (no affiliation with the book series).

Anyway, this is the first part of many, I'll keep writing them as long as I find there is need to introduce this "fine" country.

Part One - What Is A Brazil?

A Brazil is a country of the southern and western hemispheres that is usually referred to just as Brazil (no "a" or "the", unless you're the leader of the free world, in which case you're "special").

The word "Brazil" is pronounced as it's written: Bra (as in the piece of woman's underwear) Zil (as in zilch, without the "ch"). Please ignore people that try to tell you it should be written with an "s" - as "Brasil", they're morons.

In a small and easy to swallow format, Brazil is a hot and humid country known for the Amazon Forest, football (soccer), Pelé, Gisele Bundchen, the Gracie family, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, uncontrollable urban violence and, perhaps, beach volleyball.

On the map, this is Brazil. This is Brazil in the continent of South America (the yellow country) . This is Brazil in relation to the USA (the orange country that isn't the USA).

In a less physical sense, from the USian point of view, it's a country that doesn't speak english and has, usually, the least-brown latino illegal aliens. From the European point of view, it's where Germans go for vacation and come back red as peppers. From the Japanese point of view, it's where the round-eyed gaijins and round-eyed criminals come from. For the other places of the world... I don't know, Brazilians don't really flock to either region so I guess you have to look at a map.

I guess that's it for this first part, just a simplified view of what Brazil is. I'll write a little about Brazil's population in the next installment, I'll try to keep it brief as this is a "for Beginners" series of entries, if demand for more detailed information is needed, I'll ramble on for a few hours on various subjects (requests are welcome, of course).