English and Language Borrowing

English has exerted an unprecedented amount of influence over other languages worldwide.  English has also borrowed from other languages.  For example, in the beginning days of the formation of England the language was heavily influenced by Latin, mainly through Old French.

The growth of England and the United Kingdom during and after the industrial revolution set English up to yet another path of influence with the unprecedented growth and success of the United States.  As industrialization and technology spread to other continents and non-English speaking countries they started to adopt many English words.  Most of these words found their way into other languages and are adapted to assimilate linguistically into the host language.  Brazil is no exception.  In fact, the more a country imports technology and industrialization, the more they tend to borrow from English.

In Brazil the word for billboard is "Outdoor" (pronounced "Ouchydoor").  The word for pick-nick is "peekineeky".  "Hot dog" is "hotchydoggy".  "Tennis shoes" is "tenis" and bascketball is "basquetchy".  The list goes on and on.  Note that the Portuguese language borrows heavily from English, but English does not borrow from the Portuguese language.  With the exception of the word "dodo" (came from the Portuguese word doudo) and I can't think of any Portuguese word that became part of the English everyday vocabulary.  Most Americans are aware of "piranha" (pirana), carnauba wax, and caipirinha, but these are names, not words.

The Language of Globalization

In the 80's few people from the middle class who lived in big cities could afford a membership to a so called "Video club" (Clube do Video).  Just like renting from an American Blockbuster in a small scale, one would could rent a video and take home for day or so.  Up until the 90's a phone line was a high commodity and very few people could have a residential telephone.  Of course, cell phones were unheard of.  Small tech schools where one could learn basic computer skills were just starting to very slowly become popular.  What does all this have to do with the English language?  Everything!

Luckily for the people of Brazil, things have been changing and continue to change; Brazil has a very bright future.  Nowadays many more people have computers and access to the Internet, not to mention telephone lines.  Schools are better equipped with multimedia applications, better and faster ways to deliver the material.  More TV stations and more possibilities for people to get channels in English, although this is another area that needs a lot of improvement.  But don't take me wrong -- this is just the beginning.

In Brazil, one sign that the country is improving economically is English.  Let me explain what I mean: I am not saying that Brazil cannot improve without English.  Obviously Brazil is a linguistically very efficient country with Portuguese as its language.  The use of English in Brazil is a tell-tale sign that the country is becoming economically better off and its people more empowered.  It represents the spread and more access to technology, more successful relations with other world nations, more export and, more political influence regionally and abroad.



My Youtube English Lesson Video - Begionning Level (Greetings and Farewells):
Click here if you want to learn English:
Pressione se voce precisa aprender ingles:
Oprima si quieres aprender Ingles:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkuesZcHsgA

ESL Schools and the Franchise Growth

The list of ESL schools in Brazil is huge -- most of these are very small, but some have grown exponentially.  The number of schools belonging  to a franchise keeps going up as well.  In 1950 the first Language School franchise was born in Sao Paulo under the name of "Instituto de Idiomas Yazigi" and the brand name "House of English".  In 1954 it became Yazigi Internexus, and is currently part of the group Multi, which oversees Wizard and Skill, with at least 420 units. http://www.wizard.com.br/en/About-Wizard

Another big name in the language franchise market is FISK, which started its first unit in 1962.  Today it boasts some 894 schools in Brazil and approximately 107 abroad.http://www.memesgestao.com.br/jportal/portal.jsf?post=36807

The Economy Grows the ESL Industry Grows

As Brazil becomes wealthier with higher income per capita the middle class expands -- with it the affordability of English classes and courses is going up as well. Schools are trying hard to supply more and better trained teachers to satisfy the growing demand. Typically schools only have two choices when it comes to native speakers -- either hire someone who is in the country on a ninety-day tourist visa or sponsor  http://www.transitionsabroad.com/publications/magazine/0503/teaching_english_in_brazil.shtml them, which is usually not easy.

Obviously schools must hire the large majority of teachers from what's available -- the pool of Brazilian teachers who speak English as a second language.  Most often with a heavy accent and no native fluency in the language.  This is not to say there aren't excellent non-native ESL teachers in Brazil, but by and large the country lacks teachers with native or near-native fluency.

What can be done?  Cutting the government red-tape and creating a more friendly avenue (extended work visa or a teacher guest-worker program) to allow more native speakers into the country would be a huge improvement.  This is crucial.
Secondly, (in defense of the Brazilian teacher) creating a way to send more Brazilian teachers to live and experience the language abroad is also crucial and would certainly help -- this involves money and political influence coming from somewhere when it comes to getting a visa to travel to English speaking countries, such as the USA.  It is extremely difficult for a Brazilian to get even a tourist visa to enter the USA, let alone an extended visa as a trainee teacher.  But the USA is not the only possibility as there are other viable countries out there.
http://www.transitionsabroad.com/publications/magazine/0503/teaching_english_in_brazil.shtml 
http://linkbacklink.blogspot.com

Dependency on books and grammar / Dependência de gramática e livros

Even in this age of growing Internet popularity the average student in Brazil is still dependent on books to learn English; the famous verbs "to be" and "to have" along with other parts of the speech are still being hammered on prior to any natural contact with the language.  This is understandable given the fact that Brazil is a country of continental proportions and is surrounded by the Atlantic ocean on the east and surrounded by Spanish speaking nations in all other directions, except for Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana to the North. prea/
www.teachingvillage.org/2010/04/22/teaching-english_in-brazil-by-henruck-opea/




Portugues:



Dependência de gramática e livros

Mesmo nessa época do crescimento da popularidade da INTERNET em que vivemos, geralmente o aluno brasileiro ainda continua dependendo de livros para aprender inglês; o famoso verbo “bo be” e “to have”, juntos com outros aspectos da gramática ainda continuam a ser enfatizados antes de qualquer contacto natural com a língua.  Isso dá para entender, visto que o Brasil é um país de proporção continental e está cercado pelo oceano Atlântico ao leste e por países onde se fala espanhol em todas outras direções, com excessão da Guiana, Suriname e a Guiné Francesa ao norte. 

 www.teachingvillage.org/2010/04/22/teaching-english_in-brazil-by-henruck-opea/

What kind of English?

Historically it has been a mixture of American and British English with the obvious influence of the Brazilian-Portuguese accent.  For obvious reasons American English influence continues to grow, although as far as  everyday spoken English Brazil remains isolated with most of the students who have some fluency in English living in big cities like Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo.  Tourist visiting  the country are mostly Spanish speakers and there is a very small population of native English speakers -- Contrary to Costa Rica, Mexico, and many other countries Brazil has done very little or nothing to attract the pool of American retirees from the baby-boomer generation.

Português:

Historicamente tem sido uma mistura do inglês Americano e britânico, obviamente com a influência do sotaque do português brasileiro.  Por razões óbvias, a influência do inglês americano continua a crescer, apesar de que quando se trata do inglês falado do dia-a-dia o Brasil continua isolado, com a maioria dos alunos com algum nível de fluência em inglês residindo nas cidades grandes, como Rio de Janeiro e São Paulo.  A maioria dos turistas que visitam o país é composta de espanhol-parlantes, e existe uma população muito pequena de estranjeiros que fala inglês como língua nativa.  Ao contrário de Costa Rica, Mexico, e muitos outros países, o Brasil não tem feito nada ou tem feito muito pouco para atrair o grupo de americanos aposentadas da geração de “baby-boomer”.

English words, signs and schools are everywhere

Any English speaker will be amazed to see English words written on sings, advertisement, billboards or names of businesses everywhere.  Quite often they are misspelled, improperly translated or just don't fit the message they're trying to convey.  For example, a school might have a banner that says "Free Conversation", but the real message is "Open Conversation", and not free of charge.
English schools are everywhere, especially in big cities -- these are small business enterprises, and some are part of a franchise.  http://www.transitionsabroad.com/publications/magazine/0503/teaching_english_in_brazil.shtml These schools are the heart beat of the ESL industry in Brazil.

PORTUGUES:

Quen fala inglês como língua natal fica sempre surpreso ao ver palavras inglesas nas placas, comerciais, ou nomes de estabelecimentos comerciais para todo lado.

Em muitos casos esses contém erros ortográficos, são mal traduzidos, ou simplesmente não se encaixam com a mensagem .  Por exemplo, uma escola pode ter uma faixa que diz “Free Conversation”, quando a a verdadeira mensagem é “Open Conversation”, e não “grátis”.

Têm escolas de inglês para todo lado, principalmente nas cidades grandes – normalmente elas são pequenas empresas, e algumas são franquias.  Essas escolas formam o pulso da indústria do inglês como segunda língua no Brasil.

http://www.transitionsabroad.com/publications/magazine/0503/teaching_english_in_brazil.shtml

 

Mastery of English is communication skills for the world

In the early 70's Brazil developed the ethanol engine -- this came about during extreme financial difficulty and the horrible oil crisis.  After years of hyperinflation Brazil was able to become completely self-sufficient in oil and to top it all off they found a huge oil field.  The country has become the energy powerhouse of South America.

In July 7, 2007, the statue of Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro became one of the new seven (man-made) wonders of the world.  Lately Brazil has hosted several international events, such as the Pan-American games, many international soccer major events, in addition to the  upcoming world cup in 2014 and the Summer Olympics in 2016.  English will be the common language that will be used by the world visitors.

Even though Portuguese is a beautiful language spoken by about as many people as Spanish, the reality is that it is not spoken by nearly as many countries -- Spanish is quickly becoming the second most popular language after English, especially in the Americas.  It behoves Brazil to recognize the need to create a multi-pronged program to improve the teaching of English.  English could be part of early school curricula, ideally starting at first grade all the way through high school.  English could also be taught as part of many trade school programs.  Most likely this is something attainable as people who are currently learning English already do it in a privatized way.  As the economy keeps improving people will have more money for education and companies could help subsidize some of these programs.http://www.eslemployment.com/articles/teaching-english-in-brazil-376.html

Português:

O domínio do ingles é capacidade de comunicação para o mundo

No início da década de 70 o Brasil desenvolveu o motor a álcohol – isso ocorreu durante dificuldades financeiras extremas, com a horrível crisis do petróleo.  Depois de anos de hiper-inflação o Brasil conseguiu ficar completamente auto-suficiente com relação ao petróleo, e por cima de tudo descobriu uma grande mina de petróleo.  O Brasil se tornou a potência de energía da America Latina.

Em 7 de julho de 2007,  a estátua do Cristo Redentor no Rio de Janeiro se tornou uma das novas sete maravilhas do mundo (feitas pelas mãos humanas).  Nos últimos anos o Brasil tem sido o anfitrião de vários eventos mundiais, como os Jogos Pan-americanos, eventos internacionais de futebol, além da COPA mundial vindoura de 2014 e os Jogos Olímpicos de verão de 2016.  O inglês será a língua usada pelos visitantes de todo o mundo.

Apesar de que o português é uma bela língua falada por aproximadamente o mesmo número de pessoas que o espanhol, a realidade é que ele é falado em muito menos países.  O espanhol está rapidamente se tornando a segunda língua (estranjeira) mais falada do mundo depois do inglês, especialmente nas Americas.  Seria para o benefício do Brasil o  reconhecimento da necessidade de criar um programa de várias frentes para melhorar o ensino do inglês.  A língua inglesa poderia fazer parte do currículo dos primeiros anos de escola, idealmente começando desde a primeira série primária até a última série do ensino médio (colegial).  Além disso o inglês poderia ser ensinado como parte dos programas de muitas escolas profissionalizantes.  Essas coisas são provavelmente bem possíveis, já que quem aprende inglês hoje o fáz pelo setor privado.  De acordo com o crescimento da economia as pessoas terão mais poder aquisitivo para a educação, e as empresas poderiam ajudar a subsidiar esses programas.http://www.eslemployment.com/articles/teaching-english-in-brazil-376.html

Everything to gain by boosting the ESL industry.

Brazil is a country that has everything to gain from promoting English as a second language.  You might read that  English is "everywhere in Brazil".  This is not the case when you compare to the developed nations -- look at Germany, for example, where most people are fluent in English as a second language -- They have remained German and obviously they have kept their own language.  From the developing countries of the Americas we have Mexico, who has a much larger percentage of its population with more command of English compared to Brazil.  As mentioned before, the geographical location and the dependence on American tourism contributes to this.  Sure there is English in Brazil, but far from enough.  When you look at the recent development that has brought Brazil from being the ninth largest world economy to the seventh, and with predictions for jumping up to being the fifth in 2011, more comprehensive English learning conditions to more Brazilians can only help to empower them and to empower the country in the global arena.

Brazilians want to learn English, and the schools want to hire native speakers.  The problem is that teachers have a hard time obtaining a visa and the competition favors going to other countries to teach English. One way to boost the industry of English Education as a Second Language is for the government to create a more friendly guest-work program to bring in more native English speaking teachers.  This would probably be the first step.

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How Popular is English in ""Brazil?

In the old days Latin was the "other" language taught in middle school and college.  Later, and up until the 70's French was the favored foreign language  taught in middle school and high school.  As Brazil progressed into industrialization and modernization, French was replaced by English to fulfill the curricula requirement for "Modern Foreign Language".  Students would typically have English classes from the fifth to eighth grade.  These were not at conversational level by any means.  Typically there was a beginner level book containing grammar and parts of speech for each grade.  The teachers typically did not speak English and normally had a college (undergraduate) degree in Liberal Arts ("Letras") with some emphasis on English.  So, the contact with the English language by the student was through a teacher who did not speak English; the student then learned some grammar of a language they did not speak.  This very unrealistic method/practice is still common in Brazil -- the first attempt to study English is by first trying to learn the grammar without having acquired a decent vocabulary, listening skills, pronunciation skills, or oral comprehension.  How can one learn grammar of a language they don't speak or understand?  How can someone teach a language they don't speak themselves?

In Brazil if someone wants to learn to speak English they they have to enroll in one of the many private English schools spread throughout the country.  These are usually small businesses that hire teachers based on their own criteria.  In many cases the teacher never left Brazil and has little or no experience with the language in a natural setting.  Normally they have acquired some fluency and speak with a heavy accent.  In some cases the teacher is a young person who was fortunate enough to have been able to live abroad in some kind of student exchange during high school.  These courses are expensive and only a small percentage of the population can afford.  Obviously the more expensive of these schools have video programs and sometimes are lucky enough to be able to hire native speakers -- there isn't an abundance of native speakers of English with a work permit living and teaching English in Brazil.

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English in Brazil/ Ingles no Brasil: Brazil is behind as far English as a Second Langua...

English in Brazil/ Ingles no Brasil: Brazil is behind as far English as a Second Langua...: Brazil is a huge country that has experienced unprecedented growth in many areas, especially its economy. However, it is way behind when it...

English Education Lacks Promotion in Brazil

No country can escape the fact that English is the "Lingua Franca" of the world.  There are many reasons why English is the leading language of the world -- too many to mention here, but I can mention a few.  For example, English is the business/trade language of the world.  By and large most countries use English in transactions with other countries across the globe.  English is the language of Tourism, the leading language of Diplomacy, Medicine, Electronics, Aviation, etc.  In essence, English is a language that has a leading role not only as an bridge in communication among countries, but it has also served and still serves as an avenue of communication and dissemination of a a subject matter or an industry, such as aviation, for example.  Why is it that English is the language of aviation?  Aviation needed a common language to be used in an organized manner among aviation personnel from different countries -- besides the historical and economical factors surrounding the development of aviation, English has always landed itself as the most suitable.

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Brazil is behind as far English as a Second Language / O Brasil esta atrasado quando se fala de aprender ingles como segunda lingua

Brazil is a huge country that has experienced unprecedented growth in many areas, especially its economy.  However, it is way behind when it comes to English as a second language.  Please note that this article is not about politics.
Obviously Brazil has functioned and is functioning well linguistically -- as a matter of fact, I always like to say that Brazil has a great language (Portuguese) and is linguistically sound.  I always like to point out that in Brazil everyone speaks Portuguese and there are no subcultures that speak any other language other than Portuguese as a first language.  I also would like to mention that in the past major immigrant  populations such as Italian, German and Japanese quickly learned Portuguese and never tried to make their language the official or first language.  So, one might pose the question "Why does Brazil need to learn English?".  This question could spur a long debate with all kinds of opposing views -- the intent of this article is not to decide if Brazil needs English.
http://noticias.r7.com/vestibular-e-concursos/noticias/ingles-de-brasileiros-e-ruim-diz-presquisa-20110401.html
The fact is that as far as the use of English as a second language, Brazil is behind.  I few years ago I heard someone say that there were more people learning English in China than in the United States.  At first it sounded ironic, but it quickly made sense.  Obviously China has a much larger population, and as part of their rise as a world major power they need to learn English -- obviously  they cannot use Chinese to conduct trade with their world partners.  In some ways Brazil could be compared to China -- for example, Brazil is the fifth largest country in the world, occupies a central portion of the entire South America, and is also emerging as a world major power.  Like China, Brazil needs English to communicate in the world arena, especially with its trade partners.   It is counterproductive to rely on translators and interpreters.

Even though Portuguese is a major world language spoken by approximately the same amount of people as Spanish, Portuguese is the official language of much fewer countries compared to Spanish.  When it comes to the language of tourism, Brazil has had a less pressing need to use English than, let's say, Mexico.  Let's not forget  that Mexico enjoys a great location when it comes to tourism -- it is very close to the United States and its tourism has always been dependent mainly on American Population, whereas Brazil is surrounded by Spanish speaking nations and is far away from English speaking countries.  In addition, the United States has over thirty millions of Hispanic Americans who are also fluent in Spanish.
http://noticias.r7.com/vestibular-e-concursos/noticias/ingles-de-brasileiros-e-ruim-diz-presquisa-20110401.html

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