Estudar língua Portuguesa? Yes, you can study Portuguese at the UO

Good news for University of Oregon students who want to estudar língua Portuguesa as something more than an undergraduate language requirement. The Department of Romance Languages will offer a full Portuguese language program beginning next fall term.

“Demand is increasing, and we are looking forward to continuing to promote the study of Portuguese at the UO and to developing the program,” said David Wacks, an associate professor of Spanish and interim department head for Romance Languages.

The UO currently offers two years of Portuguese language courses – three sections of first-year Portuguese and two sections of second-year – through its Yamada Language Center. The center began offering its core Portuguese courses in 2007, and has also offered third-year classes with a focus on contemporary and social issues, along with a non-credit, self-study Portuguese class that is open to community members.

The core courses will become part of the Portuguese program in Romance Languages beginning fall term, along with a new Portuguese 150 course – “Introduction to the Lusophone (Portuguese-speaking) World.” The new offering will be a general education course, taught in English and intended to provide an overview of cultures in the Portuguese-speaking world.

“We (also) have plans to expand offerings to included third-year Portuguese language and a broader range of courses on the cultures and literatures of the Lusophone world,” Wacks said. 

The goal is to eventually offer both a minor and a major in Lusophone studies, he said. 

Portuguese is in high demand among students majoring in romance languages, Latin American studies, international affairs, business, economics and other areas of study. Portuguese has the seventh-largest number of speakers – 178 million – of all the world’s languages. There are 154 million Portuguese speakers in Brazil, which is has the world’s sixth-largest economy and is poised to host the World Cup in 2014 and the Summer Olympics in 2016.

The U.S. government has designated Portuguese a “preferred language,” and it is now taught at the Army and Air Force academies.