New York: Portuguese, Anyone?

[donna monheit]

To the question of what is going on, I think that unfortunately part of the answer comes from the dark side of human nature. While part of my professional life revolves around areas of educational linguistics, the another part has me involved in issues of  
human trafficking and domestic and international prostitution. Brazil is highly regarded as one of the top locations for sex vacations/sex tours where "tourists" can arrange a visit to Brazil complete with scheduled stops for sexual activities, in some cases with girls as young as 9 and 10 years old.I won't bore you with the details, but in various websites,including International Sex Guide, past and future customers discuss the merits of knowing some Portuguese to be able to get more out of the experience.As a Portuguese speaker myself and someone who has lived there and longed for the day when more Americans would begin to see the beauty of the language, this is not what I had in mind.   

Donna Sabella Monheit
-----Original Message-----
>From: Francis Hult <francis.hult at utsa.edu>
>Sent: Apr 19, 2008 8:39 PM
>To: edling at lists.sis.utsa.edu
>Subject: [Edling] New York: Portuguese, Anyone?
>
>Brazzil
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>Portuguese, Anyone? 
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>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?
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>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. 
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>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. 
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>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. 
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>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. 
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>Full story:
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>http://www.brazzil.com/p23mar01.htm
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