Scott Burrows

AUCC120
5 October 2016
I interview Pedro Fontes from Portugal on September 16th.
Pedro is a fellow Actor Training major. We have a few classes together and see each other
all time. He is from Lisbon, Portugal and came to America last year through an exchange
program.
Pedros perceptions of the United States are pretty blas. He told me about how most
people outside of the US think Woah! America its so big and cool when in reality he sees it
as just a normal boring place. He says there really isnt anything to do here. Like, you need a
car to go everywhere. Which is so true! Everything is very spread out in America, in
comparison to other countries like Portugal, which is pretty small compared to even other
European countries. Also, as a high school student last year he remembers not being able to leave
campus for any reason, whilst in Portugal you can leave whenever you want. Which he had to get
adjusted to once he got here. When he was younger he kind of bought into the perception
America is this super power, but when he was a teenager he made some American friends who
he kept in touch with and was able to figure out that was just Hollywood, sure America was
different from home but not like it was a different planet. Some other strong differences hes
noticed are drinking age as well as familial habits. From what hes seen American familys
tend to have their own separate meals at more random times, while in Portugal it is much more
of a required familial obligation to sit down and eat dinner as a unit. I also asked his opinion of
the food. He said Its good, but its terrible, like I can stand few portions of it but after that

Pedro has also noticed that here people dont just go hang out or just do something, they
have to make a plan and stick to it. Back home, he would usually go to a caf or something after
school, everything was very casual. He also found that many of the houses, particularly around
the suburbs, here look a lot alike. In Portugal, everything is much older so things are much more
unique to the place that you go.
When I asked Pedro, what he feels are misconceptions people have about his culture, he
said Usually they dont even know where it is [Many people] think Portugal is in South
America. People dont even assume hes Spanish. and when they ask him what language he
speak. Ill say Portuguese and theyll be like Ooooooh, yeah. That makes sense. An odd
phenomena Pedro pointed out was that Portuguese people can kind of understand Spanish, but
Spanish people dont really understand Portuguese. Some of Pedros friends and him have a
joke where they call it speaking Portuol when they attempts to speak Spanish but cant
because it is a separate language. They have some similarities but over all theyre not that
similar.
Despite the jokes about the minor annoyances of America, Pedro really does enjoy being
here. Its chill. Its really different from what Im used to. He says its weird just being on
campus all the time, because he find it hard to like move around, so he doesnt know Hartford
that well. He really enjoys the people here, teenagers are quite different in America. I think
people here are more superficial, but its not in a bad way Its, like, easy to make friends.
People use technology here a lot more than in Portugal, he uses Snapchat as an example
you do things because you want to show it but he likes it because its different from what hes
used to. He also likes the variety of theatre companies in America, while in Portugal you end up

being limited to the few companies they have in Lisbon, while in Hartford alone you have a
variety of professional theaters. We also have more musicals in America. Lisbon has all straight
plays. Ive never seen a professional musical in Lisbon.