LANGUAGE

The language spoken in Brazil is Portuguese; there are different accents, but the entire country speaks the same language.
Few people speak a second language. Many keep the tongue of their immigrant ancestors, like the Italians, Germans, Japanese and Arabic; however, there are not such communities in Natal or Northeast.
For decades, English was the dominant second language, as it was taught in elementary and intermediary schools; the educated Brazilians usually have a basic knowledge of English, probably not good enough to keep a fluent conversation.
With the advent of Mercosul (a trade agreement among Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay), Spanish is gaining more and more relevance. Don't be fooled by the apparent similarities between Portuguese and Spanish though; even though the written words look very alike, the spoken language sounds very differently (usually, Brazilians can understand Spanish speakers, but if you speak Spanish, it won't be so easy to understand the spoken Portuguese).
As the tourism business grows, more attention is paid to language matters; some of the bigger hotels and restaurants have bi or tri-lingual staff, and menus and directions in restaurants and hotels have English versions; in most smaller businesses, though, only Portuguese is spoken. Notice also that traffic signalization is in Portuguese only, and this is a major complaint of foreigners; the government says that multi-lingual signalization is under study (but the study has been going for months already).



Visit these sites for a quick tutorial on the Brazilian Portuguese language:

Learn Portuguese at home

Marko Huuhilo's webpage maintained by a Finn guy who apparently enjoyed Brazil
Sonia - Portuguese lessons maintained by a professional Brazilian teacher

This Brazilian teacher created a CD ROM for self-learning of Portuguese: Brasiliano.

If you are interested in the origins of the Portuguese Language, as well as comparative studies about the Portuguese spoken in different countries, then the authoritative page to visit is The Portuguese Language, by Adelardo de Medeiros, a researcher who happens to live in Natal.


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