Why learn Portuguese?

Today, more than 230 million people speak Portuguese. It is one of the view languages, which is spoken in four continents: Africa, America, Asia and Europe.  It is the eighth most spoken language of the world.

Angola, Brazil, Cape Green, Guinea Bissau, Mozambique, Portugal, Sao Tom, Timor Lester and Principe all have Portuguese as their official language.

Brazil has 185 million inhabitants; it is the fifth most populated and biggest country. The Brazilian economy is the biggest of South America and the eighth biggest economy of the world according to FMI (Found Money International), after the United States, China, India, Japan, Germany, United Kingdom and France.

Body language

Brazilians use a lot of body gestures in informal communication, and the meaning of certain words or expressions may be influenced by them.

• The thumbs up gesture is used everywhere and all the time in Brazil.
• The OK gesture (thumb and finger in a circle), on the other hand, may have obscene connotations in Brazil. Avoid it if you can, people may laugh at you, or be offended (usually if they are drunk). Use thumbs up instead.
• A circular movement of the forefinger about the ear (a gesture that Germans use to indicate telephone for you) means you are crazy!, the same as in English.
• Stroking your two biggest fingers with your thumb (as the French do to say something is expensive) usually expresses a very long time.
• Touching the palm with the thumb and making a circular movement with the hand means I am being robbed! (sometimes meaning that some price is too high).
• The Hush gesture is considered extremely unpolite, just about the same as shouting "shut up!" to someone.
• An informal way to get someone's attention (similar to a whistle in other cultures) is a hissing sound: "pssiu!" It is not perceived as unpolite, but gets really, really, REALLY annoying if repeated too often. They also call cats this way, rather than the kiss noise others (the French again) produce.

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