One day, a few months after I moved to Portugal, we were in a group of 6 or 7 people, Portuguese, and Brazilians, when in the middle of a conversation about cultural differences, I stated with all the conviction in the world: “But in Brazil that’s how it is.” Instantly the other Brazilians in the group spoke up, disagreeing with what I had said and giving their versions. Unfortunately, I don’t remember the topic, but the point is that until that moment, I was certain that it was a truth made in Brazil, like putting beans on the plate before rice. After that, I started to question myself about some “certainties.” I’m from João Pessoa, a city of Paraíba in the Brazilian Northeast. So, in that moment I was questioning myself: Is this the Northeast way of doing it? Or the Paraibano way? Or the João Pessoa way? Or just the way my bubble has always done it? Had I been living a lie all this time? (too dramatic? Sorry, I got carried away.)
I like this story because it is a turning point in my life as a Designer. On that day, that box full of certainties, lessons, and facts, wrapped in a cultural and local label, ceases to be bulletproof. The good side was that I started to take this new perspective to understand some small details around me.
Let me share some examples
SMS and WhatsApp. I often hear the phrase “BUT EVERYONE USES WHATSAPP.” or “BUT NOBODY USES SMS THESE DAYS.” Well. SMS is the main communication tool of the SNS (responsible for public health in Portugal). It was essential in managing vaccination during COVID-19.
The floor plan of Portuguese properties, or “Why does this kitchen have a door?”
On a random day in the 2019 Spring in Portugal, I was with a real estate agent, visiting several apartments trying to find my future home, and I frequently came across hallways with several doors. to my surprise, one of these doors was the kitchen. For the standards of the region where I live in Brazil (or, for those I know), this is strange. Usually kitchens are somehow connected to the living room, sometimes even integrated, and even if they are separate, it is not common to have a door separating the two rooms.
So after some time, and a few winters, I understood the routine of keeping a house properly warm, so the living room isolated from the kitchen makes this task easier. And I never had to think about it, since keeping rooms warm is not a necessity in my Northeastern routine. It’s probably a way to cool everything down, but that’s another topic.
I decided to share this learnings to invite you to see things differently and perhaps eliminate a bias that may not have been considered. Everything is a reflection of culture, people, climate, religion, technology, costs or any aspect that can interfere in our lives, and this can be as fragile as an entire nation that adopted WhatsApp as its main communication tool simply because it was free, and SMS was paid, which made us abandon it without even realizing it.
So. Where are your certainties from? Family, street, city, country? Feel free to share.