The Portuguese language is a romance language with a mixture of Arabic. It is similar to Spanish except in pronunciation. Portuguese is the fifth most-widely spoken language in the world and is spoken in Brazil, the former African colonies, a few communities in India, parts of China and Indonesia, Macau and Timor. In total close to 200 million people now speak Portuguese.
Whilst French is the official second language of Portugal, young professional Portuguese now increasingly speak English as their second language.
It is always
advisable to acquire a working knowledge of the Portuguese language. It will make an enormous difference to your stay in Portugal if you can converse at a basic level.
Ideally, language lessons should be taken prior to moving to Portugal. However, an EU directive aimed at helping cross migration between member countries, ensures you should be able to attend lessons, free of charge while in Portugal.
The courses, Cursos Lingua Portuguese para Estrangeiros, are funded by the government and held at various locations. Please note
however the government will only arrange these courses if there is sufficient numbers to warrant them. |
