New York: Portuguese, Anyone?

[Francis Hult]

Brazzil

 

Portuguese, Anyone? 

 

New York language schools are surprised by the interest that Wall Street businessmen have recently been taking into Portuguese, Brazil's official language. What is going on?

 

The Brazilian press has been making a huge fuss over a recent proposal by Communist party congressman Aldo Rebelo which could create laws "protecting" the country's official language, Portuguese, from excessive influence from foreign tongues, especially English, as has recently been done in some European countries, such as France. 

 

Rebelo, in his proposal, wants to stop the so-called abuse of English-language words in situations when there is a suitable translation, such as in "cash"(dinheiro), "teen" (adolescente) or "delivery"(entrega). The controversy has generated a reasonably heated debate in Brazil, and no one sees an ending of the ongoing discussion over the issue in the near future. 

 

In the meantime, U.S. businessmen have recently flooded New York language schools demanding to learn Portuguese, to a point that most of them cannot find suitable instructors to comply with the current demand for Portuguese, as related to me by a foreign language program coordinator at a popular school in the Wall Street area. 

 

In an informal conversation, he told me that the demand has been troubling for them, since it is hard to find fully qualified native speakers of Portuguese who are not looking to work illegally in this country. I wonder why those centers don't make the move to sponsor Portuguese-speaking immigrants if the need is so great. 

 

Full story:

http://www.brazzil.com/p23mar01.htm

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