Moving to Brazil from Canada many questions?

Question

want to make contact with English speaking Brazillians, Canadians and Americans who are living in Brazil for insight; can we get along without speaking Portuguese (til we learn) - is Fortaleza a place to start looking for smaller area - 100,000 people or less to buy a house and how much? Where is best year round weather - warmth, no storms. Possible for 50 year olds to earn enough to live there? email [e-mail] with recommendations on trustworthy contacts to help us

Answer 1

Well, if you are looking for a dry location, I don't think Fortaleza will be a good place. I mean, coming from Canada, even if you don't want live in a huge area, you will prefer to live close to the state capital since resources would be easier to get, so probably not dry area. I live more a 100 km from ocean, and nobody from abroad can say this is dry area. Also, I would say, will be just too warm for you, I believe on Summer would be more than 100 F.

Dry areas, I guess would be states in the middle of the country.

Warmer weather close to your description, I believe would be on south, also they have amazing places. If you are open to consider more places, please take a time to find out more about it. But again, I am not sure about dry.  Recently we have noticed some weather issues, but it is not often, or strong as US.

Experienced people always have a hard time here to get a job, so please be aware about it. But maybe you can find a business of your own.

Houses... I guess if you anot living in Rio or Sao Paulo, anywhere in Brazil will be cheaper. How much? At least, exchange rate: 1 USD = 1,7 BRL, nowadays.

Answer 2

hi there, I am an English speaking Brazilian, live in Sao Paulo and work for a Canadian bank. Let me try to give you some useful tips, but give more detail on what is your professions and work experience? or you plan to open your own business? In my opinion, if you don't speak Portuguese and want to live and work in Brazil you should go to sao paulo or Rio de Janeiro. Fortaleza is very touristic but not business oriented and speaking English only would make it harder to adapt i would imagine... unless you want to open a tourism related business, I would recommend you to consider Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. They are both much bigger and much more expensive than Fortaleza, different lifestyles as well. Didn-t really get it... do you want to buy a house for USD 100,000? You should start by contacting the Canadian consulates in brazil, they might be able to help you with information about Brazil, about Canadian companies in Brazil and maybe about Canadians living in Brazil as well. Regarding the best season, it also depends on where in Brazil you are going to as climates are different within the country. Feel free to e/mail me, I would be glad to help you.

Answer 3

Well, I don't think you'll find many English speaking Brazilians in the northeastern Brazil. Fortaleza has a beautiful skyline and the people who live there are very friendly as in most parts of this country, and there's a lot of poverty.

If you ever move to Brazil, you'd better move to a capital city -there are many states - because they have way better infrastructure than small cities - except in the Southern states as Santa Catarina, Rio Grande do Sul and Parana.

The best cities for a person who can't speak fluent Portuguese are Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, not only because they're the biggest ones but also because they have more job opportunities as well.

There a lots of people who can speak English or some sort of broken English in Rio because its the most touristic city of Brazil.

São Paulo is a major economic pole in Brazil and many people speak English for business purpose or are attending English classes for that reason..

Different cities and different regions within the country also have different lifestyles and the cost of living varies a lot from North to South..

Real estate  agents may help you find an affordable house or apartment, but be aware that cities like Rio can be VERY and I mean, REALLY very expensive! up to R$20,000.00/square meter in a good and safe neighborhood!

Don't forget about issues regarding work visa and stuff. You'd better look for a lawyer for it might be a bit complicated!

Answer 4

There is so much we can talk about.

My email link is open.

to quickly answer a few questions:

1 you can go by, in a limited way, specially in the north east (Fortaleza)

I would not move there, there are other places in which you can find easy jobs teaching English for example, closer to Rio.

You say you are in your 50s, but you would have another source of income? There are Visas to consider and it's not easy to get a visa that allows you to work, unless you are highly capacitated.

feel free to email more questions.

Denis

Answer 5

lol make sure you watch your back w/ favelas & slums around the country in that are more dangerous than most war zones in places like this...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGywbLBAS...