Coconuts asking for directions
“Stop being stubborn and ask someone for directions”
Ah, good old Hortifruti adverts. Whether they’re making excellent fruit-based movie puns or racist controversial accent-based puns, they always give me something to think about. Their latest offering covers relatively safe ground – speaking for myself, I know I’m often guilty of being a cabeça dura (literally ‘hard head’, though ‘stubborn’ would be a better translation) when it comes to asking for directions.
But people with cabeça dura living in Rio should really take Mrs Drinking Coconut’s advice – Cariocas still amaze me with their willingness to help out when someone asks for directions. It’s not so much that they’re prepared to help that I find surprising; it’s the lengths to which they’ll go. Imagine yourself in the following scenarios in whichever city you happen to call home:
- You’re driving in a car and realise you’re not sure how to get where you’re going, so you wind down your window, slow the car to a crawl and yell out your question to a passing pedestrian. Does the pedestrian:
- Ignore you;
- Mutter that they don’t know and keep walking;
- Stop and give you detailed directions. If they don’t know the place, they’ll stop the next nearest person and demand that they help you out.
- You’re in your car again, stopped at traffic lights, with cars on either side of you and again, you need directions. You roll down your window and motion to the car beside you to roll down their window. The driver of the car beside you:
- Pretends not to see you and fixes his/her eyes on the lights, willing them to change so they can escape this awkward situation;
- Winds down his/her window but the lights change so they drive off with a shrug;
- Winds down his/her window and starts giving you directions. When the lights change, the driver ignores the manic tooting from the cars behind to finish giving you directions.
- You’re waiting at a bus stop but you’re not sure which is the best bus to get to your destination, so you ask the guy standing next to you for help. He:
- Smiles nervously and edges away from you as if dealing with someone who has recently escaped from an institution for violent offenders;
- Politely tells you he has no idea where the other buses go – the city is so enormous that he only knows his specific route home;
- Spends the next 10 minutes explaining which buses you should take and then moves on to discuss a variety of other topics such as overcrowding on buses, corrupt politicians and the best places to get an ice-cold beer in the city.
[If you bothered to read all 3 questions, thanks for indulging me – I’ve always wanted to do one of those stupid magazine-style questionnaires. In case you’re wondering, responses a, b and c correspond very roughly to my stereotypical view of London, São Paulo and Rio respectively]
As today is the first day of spring and the sun is shining, I’ll leave you with a shot of a lovely big, green coconut, ready to provide refreshment.
I don’t like to ask for directions (whenever I do it feels like I didn’t do my homework). I’ve got a question for you: when driving and lost is it rude to ask for directions from inside the car if you are able to stop, properly greet the person – and then ask for info?
I’m the same Gritty – I prefer to try and work things out for myself rather than admit defeat and ask someone for help. Apparently
Mrs Eat Rio‘some people’ find that illogical and frustrating. Let’s not go there… ;)As for your question regarding the etiquette for asking directions, I think it’s OK to stay in the car, but I would definitely want to establish a friendly connection before demanding directions. Here in Rio though, it seems perfectly OK to just yell the name of the place you’re trying to get to – no one seems to mind. When someone asks me for directions however, I still feel so surprised that they might think that little old me might know the way that they can be as rude as they like (within reason).
The problem isn´t admiting defeat; it is taking someone else´s time for something which benefits only one party. So as a general rule I say fine if you get an answer but don´t get upset if you do not (and use GPS meudeus).
Hi Tom,
I don’t really know about São Paulo, but London and Rio are spot on.
I’m also constantly surprised that Brazilians ask me for directions, and don’t seem at all put off when I point out that I am English and can’t speak Portuguese well. I do my best to help and they go on their way apparently happy while I hope that they ask someone else soon because I’m really not sure that I have said the right thing even when I am sure of the way.
I have to say that my biggest surprise was when asked for directions in Belo Horizonte while walking back to my hotel after the England v Costa Rica match, wearing the obligatory England shirt! At least I got the message across that I was a stranger in town and couldn’t help.
Ha ha! Nice one John – I guess my outsider status is what makes me happy that people still ask. I always think that it means that at least I don’t look like a complete tourist. Though it does seem strange that a local would ask you for directions in BH!
I think the people here in BH just don’t expect you to be foreign. Foreigners are so uncommon here that they just refuse to believe in the possibility, no matter how obvious it may seem.
Speaking of Brazil, Until I learn a place, I find asking directions to be essential. Google maps and mapquest directions are almost always worthless in urban Brazil. The reasons being (1) that the official street name changes so frequently, over such short stretches, that mapquest has you constantly `bearing slightly left` or `bearing slightly right`, when in fact you often stay on the same thoroughfare the whole time, it`s just that it`s name keeps changing, and (2) many intersections either do not have street signs, or the street sign is in what for a norte Americano is an unexpected place, as in on a wall or on a curb, places that are going to be very hard to spot while driving, completely impossible to spot at night. So, for me, directions in the form of left turns and right turns and N number of blocks are often the only way I find something expeditiously. The technological solution is of course a GPS, but I prefer to ask directions because it forces me to practice speaking and understanding Portuguese, in a totally immersed sort of way.
Hey Carlos – asking for directions is definitely a great way to force yourself to learn direction-related vocabulary isn’t it? I must admit, I’m terrible with the street names here in Rio. It seems to me that so many of the streets have rather long, unwieldy names (recently visited example: Rua Laurindo Santos Lobo) so I go more by reference landmarks (often bars and restaurants).
Definitely a proliferation of long and unwieldy street names. My observation is that this is mainly due to the continent wide tradition of naming streets for (1) People from history, and (2) Events from history. There probably is not a city or even a town of any size in Brazil that does not have both a Rua Sete de Setembro and an Avenida Getulio Vargas. In North America street names are almost always one word only, and far less often based on historic people or events. If a street or road is named after a person, usually it is a past president, and always only their last name, as in Washington Street or Lincoln Avenue. I don`t know if North Americans used much shorter street names as an explicit rejection of European tradition, or if it was something that just happened on it`s own. That is an interesting topic.