Considering Learning Portuguese?
If you are thinking of taking up an additional language and would like to connect better to the locals in Brazil, a Portuguese language course may be ideal for you. Learning an additional language is an excellent idea given the many benefits for not just your personal life but also your professional life. It can really make you stand out when it comes to your career path. Plus, when you go on a holiday to the country where the language is spoken, you will feel more confident about interacting with the locals. The good news is there are tons of Portuguese language courses currently available, making it easy for you to start learning Portuguese right away.
About Portuguese
The Portuguese language is a romance language that is spoken in Portugal, Brazil and other Portuguese colonial and formerly colonial territories. Portuguese owes its importance – as the second Romance language after Spanish in terms of the numbers of speakers – largely to its position as the language of Brazil, where in the early 21st Century some 187 million people spoke the language. In Portugal, the language’s country of origin, there are more than 10 million speakers. It is estimated that there are also some 8 million Portuguese speakers in Africa. Portuguese is also spoken by around 678,000 people in the United States, with large communities of speakers in the states of Rhode Island and Massachusetts.
About Portugal
In the southwest corner of Europe lies Portugal, one fifth of the Iberian Peninsula it shares with Spain. Portugal has its own language, culture and cuisine. Its shape is rectangular and its longest north-south distance is 349 miles/561 km and widest east-west distance is 135 miles/218 km. It is roughly the size of Indiana, the US state. The country’s modest dimensions make it an easy spot to visit when time is short. Portugal is divided into regions, each provides unique features, history, cuisine and scenery. The regions are from south to north: Algarve, Alentejo, Lisbon and Lisbon Coast, Estremadura and Ribatejo, the Beiras, Douro and Tras–os-Montes and the Minho. Also, Portugal includes 2 island groups: the Azones which is 800 miles southwest of Lisbon and Madeira which is 600 miles south of Lisbon.
Surprising Facts About the Portuguese Language
Portuguese was originally declared a language in 1920 when Kind Denis of Portugal declared it the language of Portugal that it was recognised as a language. The language gradually evolved from Latin after it was introduced into Portugal around 200 BCE. Prior to 2009, the letters y, k and w did not exist in Portuguese writing. As a result of the influx of English loanwords, these three letters were officially added in 2009 to the Portuguese alphabet. Each verb in Portuguese comes with around six different endings. This is because the verbs are conjugated for number and person. The Portuguese language is mutually intelligible with Galician. Galician is so similar to Portuguese that speakers of either language can usually understand each other without any difficulty.
What Will I Learn?
You will learn how to speak Portuguese confidently and comfortably in everyday situations, understand what is being said to you and feel confident building your own sentences. The course will enable you to build a solid base vocabulary of phrases and words which you can use right away and you will gain an understanding of how to use grammatical and linguistic features of the Portuguese language with ease. Students will understand the structure of the Portuguese language, give their opinions and describe things in Portuguese. They will also learn how to greet the locals, order in a restaurant and master the Portuguese pronunciation.
If you’re serious about learning the Portuguese language, check out Portuguese language courses near you in the Nightcourses.co.uk national course finder.
