Pen pals in Brazil

If your pen pal lives in Brazil, their Christmas is a summer one. The long school holiday runs from around December into February, so the end of the school year, the festive season and the hottest weeks all arrive together. Meanwhile one of the country's best-loved celebrations, the Festa Junina, falls in June, in the southern hemisphere's winter, with bonfires, corn-based sweets and costume square dances. If you live north of the equator, expect your seasons to be flipped in almost every letter, which makes a good running topic in itself.

A year that runs the other way

Most Brazilian schools start their year in February or early March and finish in December, with a shorter break in July. That means a pen pal of school age may be starting a new class just as yours is settling into the spring term, and sitting end-of-year exams while you are buying winter coats.

The big moments of the year are worth knowing:

• Carnival takes place in the days before Lent, so it moves each year with the date of Easter and usually lands in February or March. Some people throw themselves into parades and street parties; plenty of others use the days off to rest or leave town.
• Festas Juninas fill June, honouring Saint Anthony, Saint John and Saint Peter. They are held all over the country but are biggest in the Northeast, where São João is a major event.
• Independence Day is 7 September.
• Christmas and New Year are often spent outdoors or at family gatherings in the heat.

One country, many Brazils

Brazil is enormous: it spans more than one time zone, and the Amazon region, the dry interior of the Northeast, the big cities of the Southeast and the cooler, hillier South can feel like different countries. In parts of the South, winter nights are properly cold. Accents, food and music change from region to region too, so one pen pal's Brazil is not the whole of it. Asking where they live, and what people from other regions tease them about, usually gets a lively answer.

Portuguese, with feeling

Brazilians speak Portuguese, not Spanish, and this is the misconception most worth avoiding. Brazil is surrounded by Spanish-speaking neighbours, so the mix-up is understandable, but it can sting a little when it comes up for the hundredth time. Brazilian Portuguese also differs noticeably from the Portuguese of Portugal in sound, vocabulary and some grammar. Many Indigenous languages are spoken too, though by far fewer people.

If you are learning Portuguese, a Brazilian pen pal is a gift: you will pick up the informal, everyday language that textbooks skip, and you can offer help with your own language in return. Our language exchange guide has ideas for setting that up fairly. A simple Oi, tudo bem? ("Hi, how are you?") is a friendly way to open.

Good first questions

• What does a normal weekday look like for you, from breakfast to bedtime?
• What is the Festa Junina like where you live, and do you have a favourite food from it?
• Which part of Brazil do you think outsiders know least about?
• What music would you play for someone who has never heard anything Brazilian?

International post can be slow and a little unpredictable, so many pen pals keep the everyday conversation online and save postcards for birthdays or special occasions.