Widebody; Low Wing; 2 Turbojet Eng
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP); Flight Crew Multiengine; Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Flight Instructor; Flight Crew Flight Engineer
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 220; Flight Crew Total 20000; Flight Crew Type 1200
Communication Breakdown; Confusion; Situational Awareness; Distraction
ATC Issue All Types; Conflict Airborne Conflict
Flight Crew Took Evasive Action
Human Factors; Procedure; ATC Equipment / Nav Facility / Buildings
On UZ38 near PABAV intersection given immediate left turn hold PPOS. All communications with ATC are in Portuguese. Communications with our aircraft are in English but all other aircraft on frequency are in Portuguese. Our grasp on what the big picture is was limited when you only understand a small fraction of what is being said.I made an aggressive turn to the left to avoid traffic; the words from ATC suggested to move your aircraft now. No easy task at FL410. We did not receive an EFC time until we asked for it. ATC asked what our position was relative to the landing airport SBGR suggesting radar failure or perhaps primary radar failure. ATC overwhelmed at this point not a good time to ask questions.After 15 minutes we left our PPOS holding pattern and joined the arrival when were asked about our ETA to a fix about 4 minutes away and then taken off the arrival before being cleared direct to a down line fix.ICAO language standards need to be maintained to have a safe operation worldwide.We do not know why these events occurred but I will ask our airline ATC liaison if he might be able to correspond with his counterpart in Brazil.
Pilot reports of a foreign language being used primarily on frequency and not really understanding what was going on. Pilot reports of aggressively turning to avoid traffic at FL410; then being taken off the approach later and possibly that they were not under radar contact.