Copacabana, Brazil, boasts one of the most famous beaches in the world. Tourists from all over the world flock to its sandy shores year ’round. But if global guests hope to speak anything but Portuguese, they’re mostly disappointed.
Brazil is roughly the size of the continental United States. Almost all of its 200 million people speak Portuguese. Aside from a few beachfront shops and restaurants, the language is used everywhere.
Portuguese is an important part of Brazil’s national identity. Brazil is the only Portuguese-speaking country in the Western Hemisphere. A few hundred native languages are still spoken in Brazil, mostly in the Amazon region. But most native peoples also speak Portuguese.
Antonio Carlos de Moraes Sartini is director of the Museum of the Portuguese Language. He says Brazil’s emphasis on Portuguese dates to 1750. At that time, Portugal’s monarchy wanted to create a national identity. It wanted to be different from the surrounding Spanish-speaking colonies. Teaching Portuguese became required.
Many Brazilians have never had a chance to study other languages. English is the lingua franca (bridge or common language used for trade or scholarship) in most parts of the world. But still, only a very few Brazilians can use even basic English to communicate.
Vanderclei Silva Santos sells tropical drinks at his stand on Copacabana Beach. He struggles to communicate with non-Portuguese-speaking tourists. He writes prices and pictures in the sand with his fingers and toes.
Most of the time his beach messages work. But not always. One time a man seemed to be asking for a “banheiro”—a toilet. It turned out the man wanted to take a “banho,” or shower.
Virginia Garcia was head of the British Council in Brazil. She says English instruction in public schools is limited. But Brazil has hosted several big events in recent years. The Pan American Games, the World Cup, and the Olympics pushed the country to expand language teaching. For example, ahead of the Olympic Games in Rio, the government and several companies offered English courses to people who would interact with tourists.
“Twenty years ago, only people coming from the high classes could learn other languages in Brazil,” Garcia says. But English classes are still not widely offered.
Santos, the drink vendor, admits, “Communicating is tough. We move our hips; we smile.” Santos hopes to take an English course some day. Until then, he says, “We find a way.”
