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 One of the reasons given to explain why there are so many Brazilians in Orkut, Google's social networking service, is that Brazilians are warm and friendly. If so, why are there so many "hatred" communities owned by Brazilians, some with a large number of members?
Just search for communities using as keyword "odeio" ("I hate" in Portuguese). There are over 1,000, probably much more than that, but this "over 1,000" was the result Orkut provided. There are also dozens of communities that include "ódio".
On the other hand, communities in English that contain "I hate" amount to 665. Of these, 41 also include "odeio," a clear sign that these are communities created by Brazilians expressing their hatred both in English and Portuguese. Many others that contain "I hate" only in English are also owned by Brazilians. I didn't check each of the 665 individually.
Some of these "odeio" communities actually seem to have been created not to express a real hatred, but to be funny or cute.
For instance, there are 27 "odeio acordar cedo" ("I hate to wake up early") communities, the largest of them with over 12,000 members. The reason why there are so many communities essentially about the same subject is also something that deserves a deeper analysis, but let's put this aside for now.
At first I thought those were simply useless, but taking into account that Brazilians, at least, join communities to help defining who they are, what they like, etc., perhaps these are simply 'statement communities' (also, I once got a girlfriend using a personal ad that stated simply "I like to wake up early", so perhaps this IS relevant information).
But I still can't figure out what sort of useful information communities like "odeio pipoca" ("I hate popcorn" - 20 communities) or "odeio sorvete" ("I hate ice-cream" - 8 communities) convey about their members. And I really don't think they were created to find ways of banning popcorn or ice-cream from the face of the earth. Nor exactly how they could be regarded as funny.
But there are other "odeio" communities that don't seem to be so naïve. Some are against well-known Brazilian politicians and some of them may have been created even for electoral reasons or against TV show hosts.
Perhaps using "não gosto" ("I dislike") would be more appropriate for those communities, and when the 'honored' celebrity is just a celebrity, not especially known for his/her views about any controversial issue, the community is probably regarded simply as another form of 'statement community'.
Finally, there are "odeio" communities like "Eu odeio Uno". Uno is a small car manufactured in Brazil. One could expect a community about a troublesome car or for people who had serious problem with it.
But that's far from the truth and the car is dependable, very popular and no problem that required a recall, for instance, was ever reported about it. It seems that people from these communities simply don't like it, and need to express their hatred to the entire world!
I checked some posts and, besides those that seem to be there to boast that the author owns/owned several better, imported luxury sports cars (yeah, right . . . and I'm actually George Clooney in disguise), one of the most 'sensible' points I found there to support such hatred was that those people hated Unos because they found one being driven slowly in front of them.
Such a situation would be probably caused by the driver, not the car itself since some of the versions are among the fastest and most nimble cars ever manufactured in Brazil.
And when someone tried to argue reasonably that Unos are not necessarily slow cars, he was dismissed because "that was a community for people who hate Unos and period." So, understanding why people there actually hate Unos still beats me.
Oddly enough, I couldn't find any community in English where people declare their hatred to popcorn, ice-cream or any well-known car model. So, are those hatred communities a Brazilian Orkuteers' thing?
Why? Does this make sense for a people supposedly known as warm and friendly? I couldn't come up with any reasonable explanation, and I won't dare speculate.
But I would really like to know any theory you might have.
A final note: shortly after I joined Orkut (some 10 months ago), I created a community about evolutionary psychology ("Psicologia Evolutiva e Mente"). It already has around 400 members, but only half a dozen topics and less than 100 posts.
Why so many people joined it, if they have nothing to say about the subject? I believe that it became another 'statement community', which people join simply to indicate that they like or study the subject. I don't know if this is a Brazilian Orkuteers' thing or not, either. Perhaps someone could explain.
Alvaro Antunes, 39-year-old Computer Science major, presently working as an English to Portuguese translator, living in Curitiba, Brazil. He can be contacted at alvarotrans@yahoo.com.br.
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You have to realize that it is both a linguistic and cultural issue. In Brazilian day-to-day language, the word hate often tends to have a much lighter meaning, although when in the right (or wrong!) context, it can have the heaviest of meanings. A friend may say to another: "I hate you" beacuse of something really small and both will know that there`s absolutely no hate involved.
Also, and most important, there is something called Hipérbole. It is a figure of speech that we brazilians use ALL the time. People say "Estou morrendo de fome" (I'm starving to death) more frequently than they say "Estou com fome" (I'm hungry). And this is the key to explain this alleged "hate" phenomenon. It's not about hate, it is about a liguistic phenomenon of Hipérbole (or expression through exageration, if you will). Among those "Odeio" communities, I bet less then 10% are truly about hate.
Also, one thing that one needs to understand is that the vast majority of brazilian communities on orkut are not intended for discussion, at all!. They create communities expressing something, add a fun picture to it and the join. Why do they join?! Because they want that to be shown in their profile. They hope that the collection of hundreds of communities they are in gives people an idea of who they are, what they like, what they love, what they fear, what they don't understand, what they are not very fond of and only in some cases, what they really hate. Proof os this is that you may find lots of brazilian communities with hundreds or thousands of people in it and sometimes just a couple of topics opened or even none!
Also, many people enter and leave these "odeio communities" chaotically, many times they change their minds and get into one "Eu Amo"(I love) or "Eu adoro"(I addore) regarding the same subject as the community "Eu odeio" they once were members, because they have changed their minds, or just decided it will look good on their profiles.
It is all about image, all about how they want others to see them. People join these communities because they are great "ice breakers" for starting conversations, they make it very easy for people to start SMALL TALK, it makes it easier to flert as well. Obviously, this DOES refere to the rather notorious SOCIAL quality of brazilian.
A few example of "Eu odeio" communities:
- Odeio encher forma de gelo = I hate filling up ice forms
- Odeio perder a ponta do durex = I hate losing the tip of the adhesive tape
- Odeio quando o feriado cai no fim de semana = I hate when a holiday falls on a weekend
- Odeio esperar a resposta no MSN = I hate when someone leaves me waiting too long for an answer on MSN Messenger
- Odeio baratas = I hate c**kroaches
- Odeio que me cutuquem = I hate to be pinched, refering to the habit some people have to call each other attentions by touching and gently pinching
- Odeio cagar fora de casa = I hate to take a s**t outside my home (or in a bathroom other than my on)
- Odeio dormir cedo = I hate going to bed early
- Odeio lavar louça = I hate doing the dishes
- Odeio o cara das Casas Bahia = I hate the guy from Casas Bahia. This guy is an actor and Casas Bahia is some sort of store. In the TV adds, he is deliberatly annoing, so to catch the viewer's attention. Evidenty, these people don't HATE him.
- Odeio perguntas no fim da aula = I hate questions in the end of the class. This refers to when students are anxious to leave because class is about to end and the teacher asks "any questions?" and somebody answers "yes"
- Odeio Matemática = I hate Math
- Eu odeio meia molhada = I HATE WET SOCKS
Obviosly, these are not hate communities. In fact, in most cases, translating "Eu odeio" as "I hate" is a literal translation and not very appropriate. As anyone can see, most of these so called "hate"communities are ridiculous, and that is the intention. They are jokes!
PS: I love those non brazilians!