About

Brazilian Gringo helps non-Brazilians adapt to life in Brazil more successfully by improving their Brazilian Portuguese learning skills and knowledge of Brazilian culture. Other topics that are frequently touched on are how to make money in Brazil, how to teach English in Brazil, how to overcome Brazil’s bureaucracy and Brazilian music.

How This Site Got Started

This site was started out of my own frustration of not knowing how to get anything done in Brazil when I first came in 2011.

One day I decided that I’d had enough of being a bail bondsman in California, and that I wanted to see what the rest of the world had to offer. I went to Mexico and worked on a farm for a while before realizing that I could contribute to the world economy in other ways. On a short trip to Cuba I stayed with a host family that desperately wanted to learn English from me, which gave me the inspiration to become an English teacher.

After completing an English teacher training course I headed South. After an unsuccessful few months of starting the teaching business in Colombia I decided to join my brother on a business trip to Brazil and try my luck here.

From the first moment I stepped foot into Brazil I knew that I wanted to call it home. During my first two months I soaked up the culture in a complete immersion environment without speaking any English. With my already fluent Spanish I quickly learned Portuguese and started thinking of myself as Brazilian.

How Brazilian Gringo Can Help You

If you’re not already a subscriber of the Youtube channel, you should become one. I’m always looking to share interesting tidbits of culture and language on the channel.

Brazil is often a frustrating place for foreigners, and is made even more so by the lack of online resources to help us achieve what we’re looking to accomplish in Brazil. You can subscribe to this website to continue to receive up to date information that will make your life easier in Brazil.

We also offer a crash course in Brazilian Portuguese that will help you achieve a level of functional fluency in Brazilian Portuguese so that you can master the basic survival phrases you’ll need to get by in Brazil. More about that here.

Brazilian Gringo Leadership Team

Josh “Brazilian Gringo” Plotkin

Josh Plotkin is the founder of BrazilianGringo.com. He has been to more than 40 countries and still considers Brazil as his favorite. He’s also an accomplished polyglot, speaking anywhere between 3 and 6 languages, depending on how rigid of a standard is applied. As a location independent business owner, Josh enjoys traveling the world and illuminating his discoveries for others to see. Subscribe on Youtube.

Jairet “Quasileiro” Crum

Whether he is in Thailand or Brazil, people seem to like telling Jairet that he is crazy for leaving behind Northern California. A long time English teacher in Asia turned recent transplant to Florianópolis, Jairet is a keen observer of Brazilian culture and passionately learning everything he can about his new home. He teaches English via Skype on italki and shares his experiences on the blog so that new teachers can be more successful in Brazil.

Brazilian Gringo Contributors

 

 

Brazilian Gringo is open to receiving new article submissions. Click here for more information.