Is Portuguese good to learn?

Portuguese is a Romance language originating in the Iberian Peninsula of Europe. It is the sole official language of Portugal, Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde, São Tomé and Príncipe, and Brazil, while having co-official language status in East Timor, Equatorial Guinea, and Macau. With approximately 215 to 220 million native speakers and 50 million second-language speakers, Portuguese has approximately 270 million total speakers. It is usually listed as the sixth-most spoken language and the third-most spoken European language in the world in terms of native speakers.

Choosing a language to learn can be a difficult decision. There are so many wonderful languages to learn! If you’re completely stumped, this quiz might come in handy.

Firstly, Portuguese and English have more in common than you might think.

Portuguese is a Romance language, which includes popular foreign languages such as Spanish, French, and Italian. This is fantastic news for native English speakers! While English is not a Romantic language (it belongs to the West Germanic language family), it shares more similarities with Portuguese than you might think.

Secondly, The Portuguese language, particularly that spoken in Brazil, is possibly the most melodious on the planet.

It has the sound of music and is enjoyable to listen to; it’s no surprise that Portugal and Brazil have such rich musical traditions. Singing along to Fado, Bossa Nova, Choro, Tropicália, and Samba is a great way to improve your listening and pronunciation.

Thirdly, there are 270,000,000 people to talk to!

With 270 million total speakers, 227 million of whom are native speakers, the majority of whom live in Portugal and Brazil, Portuguese is the seventh most-spoken language in the world. Several African, Oceanian, and Asian countries speak Portuguese. Angola, Cape Verde, and Mozambique are among the African countries that have Portuguese as an official language. Portuguese is spoken in Goa, India, Macau, a Chinese autonomous territory in western China, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Equatorial Guinea, Suriname, Sri Lanka, and East Timor. In addition, there are approximately 1,228,126 Portuguese speakers in the United States. The three largest Portuguese-American communities in the United States are in Providence, Rhode Island, Boston, Massachusetts, and the New York/Northern New Jersey metropolitan area. Only 5% of Portuguese speakers reside in Portugal. The majority of them reside in Brazil. In fact, So Paulo, Brazil has the most Portuguese language speakers in a single city anywhere on the planet!

Fourth, a scarcity of Portuguese-speaking workers

Despite a large number of native speakers, few people choose Portuguese as a second language over other global languages such as French, Spanish, and English. French and German have significantly fewer speakers. French has approximately 76 million native speakers, while German has approximately 79 million (French has more than twice as many learners as native speakers!). This means that Portuguese has far more native speakers than some of the most widely studied foreign languages! Profitable opportunities are lost by those who choose to ignore it, while those who choose to learn it benefit. By learning the language, you will set yourself apart from everyone else who is looking to improve their résumés and job prospects by learning more popular languages.

And there has never been a better time to take advantage of the scarcity of non-native Portuguese speakers. Brazil’s economy has grown to become the world’s ninth-largest in the last decade (in terms of GDP). Brazil’s looming economic rise is an excellent time to do business there, and knowing Portuguese will give you an advantage over competitors. Brazil has a 200-million-person market, an enormous supply of natural resources, and a record of economic growth that has surprised even the experts. 

Fifth: Go to Brazil (And Maybe Even Stay)

It would be a waste of your newly acquired language skills if you spent all of your time working and not playing. Speaking at least some basic Portuguese will allow you to experience the authentic culture that monolingual tourists are unable to access. And, as we mentioned in reason three, many visitors to Brazil are dissatisfied with a brief visit. Opportunities to live and work in Brazil are expanding in tandem with the country’s brisk economy.

Sixth, it is a gateway language.

Portuguese is a relatively easy language to learn, particularly if you are already fluent in other Romance or Germanic languages. When compared to Asian languages like Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, or Korean, Portuguese is a must-try! Because all Romance languages descended from Latin and share grammar, syntax, and a large vocabulary, knowing and understanding Portuguese can help you learn other Romance languages such as French, Spanish, Italian, and Romanian. If you know Spanish, learning Portuguese should be a breeze because the two languages share 89 per cent of their vocabulary and grammar. It’s worth noting, however, that despite their similarities, Portuguese and Spanish are not mutually intelligible!

Reason number Seven: an abundance of learning resources

The popularity of Spanish as a foreign language benefits Portuguese learners. None of the foreign languages have as many courses, tools, and resources for native English speakers as Spanish does. This is most likely due to the rapid growth of Spanish speakers in the United States. The demand for Portuguese courses sort of piggybacks on the demand for Spanish courses. Because the languages are so similar, language learning companies that create a successful Spanish course will have no trouble creating a Portuguese course. Check out SpanishPod101 and PortuguesePod101 for good examples.

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