Where Portuguese is spoken, Volunteer Program in Brasil

01 May, 2013

By Luana Cavalcanti
Translation by Harriet Batey

The Portuguese is the official language of Portugal, Brazil, Mozambique, Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, and São Tomé and Príncipe. Portuguese has co-official status in Macau in East Asia, East Timor in South East Asia and in Equatorial Guinea in Central Africa; Portuguese speakers are also found in Goa, Daman and Diu in India. With approximately 280 million speakers (210 to 215 million native), Portuguese is the 5th or 6th most spoken language in the world, the 3rd most spoken language in the western hemisphere, and the most spoken language in the southern hemisphere.

Origins of Portuguese
Portuguese is a Romance language from the Indo European family. Spoken in Galicia and northern Portugal, Portuguese originated from Gallaeci, Lusitanians, Celtic and Conii groups of people situated in the Iberian Peninsula about 2000 years ago. The sounds, grammatical forms, and syntactical types, with a few exceptions, are derived from Latin, but the vocabulary has absorbed a number of Germanic and Arabic words, and a few have Celtic origin.
Because both Portuguese and English are Indo-European languages, some words in Portuguese have a similar spelling to English and thus, it is easy to identify them and guess their meaning. Look at the following examples and see how many words you are already familiar with: favor, elevador, piano, audio, computador, hotel, bar, recepção, centro, humor, local etc.

Country Population (2011)
Brazil 193,946,886
Mozambique 19,406,703
Angola 11,190,786
Portugal 10,581,949
Guinea-Bissau 1,647,000
East Timor 1,066,582
Macau 552,503
Cape Verde 418,224
São Tomé and Príncipe 183,176
Source: Wikipedia

What is CPLP ?
CPLP stands for Comunidade dos Países de Língua Portuguesa (The Community of Portuguese Language Countries). It is an intergovernmental organization for friendship among Portuguese-speaking nations where Portuguese is an official language. It was founded on 17th July 1996, by seven countries: Portugal, Brazil, Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, and São Tomé and Príncipe.
Why should you learn Brazilian Portuguese?

START UP PROGRAM BY THE BRAZILIAN GOVERNMENT
•Employment advantages: Brazil belongs to the BRIC group, an acronym for ‘Brazil, Russia, India and China’, which means its economy has grown rapidly over recent years. During the next few years, more jobs will become available in Brazil and Brazilian companies will also expand their operations into more countries around the globe. So, you just might find yourself moving to Brazil to work or having a competitive advantage over colleagues at your company if you speak Portuguese. To know more about working in Brazil access ‘Work in Brazil’ (http://www.workinbrazil.org).

Brasil Voluntário – The Brazilian government volunteer program for the 2014 World Cup.
•Volunteering opportunities: You might have dreams of becoming a volunteer abroad; why not in a Portuguese speaking country like Brazil during the 2014 FIFA World Cup? It’s a unique chance to experience something new and exciting! To find out more about volunteering in Brazil access www.volunteersouthamerica.net. To know more about the Volunteer Program for the 2014 World Cup, Brasil Voluntário, access: www.brasilvoluntario.gov.br.

Member Countries of the CPLP
•Multilingualism: With approximately 280 million speakers (210 to 215 million native), Portuguese is the 5th or 6th most spoken language in the world, the 3rd most spoken language in the western hemisphere, and the most spoken language in the southern hemisphere. Once you learn how to speak Portuguese, learning Spanish, French and Italian become much easier. For example, the word ‘example’ is exemplo in Portuguese, ejemplo in Spanish, esempio in Italian and exemple in French. Actually, a Portuguese speaker can easily learn how to speak Spanish, French, Italian and even English in part, because of the similarity between many of the words. If you want to learn Portuguese, I teach it online via skype (limited number of students) and I am also a freelance translator: revise.portuguesetalk.com. Another website where you can learn about Brazilian Portuguese is: streetsmartbrazil.com.

Aerial view of Rio de Janeiro
•Traveling: The majority of the countries that are part of CPLC (Community of Portuguese Language Countries) are considered holiday destinations due to their paradisiacal and exotic landscapes. Because of this, being able to speak Portuguese might be useful if you are planning on coming to the 2014 FIFA World Cup or 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro! To know more about tourism in Brazil, please visit my other website: goingtobrasil.com. You can also check the Brazilian government tourism website: visitbrasil.com.