Why are we doing this?

The first time I went to Paris I spent one month there learning French. When I arrived I only had some basic notions of it, but three weeks later, when my mom met me there, she was astonished to see that not only could hold a conversation in French but I moved about the city quite confidently. I remember she said I didn’t look like a foreigner at all. I always thought how a foreigner would feel here in São Paulo, for in this huge and confusing city only recently some thought has been given to how a tourist might get about here; for example, the subway system has just started translating its signage to English. But I’m always stricken by the fact that most bus stops have no indication whatsoever to which buses stop there. And those that do say little more than the destination of the bus, so if you don’t know the city it doesn’t help you much. Which means this would also be hard for Brazilians from other parts of the country, who would have to resource to the next person standing there to get this information. Yes, São Paulo is not for beginners. And what can you do if you don’t speak Portuguese? Who can you ask? Our proposal here is to be this someone you can turn to…