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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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
If you like this post feel free to join -- your name and email address will remain private.
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