{"id":3555,"date":"2015-03-24T16:44:07","date_gmt":"2015-03-24T16:44:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/eurotalk.com\/blog\/?p=3555"},"modified":"2015-03-24T16:44:07","modified_gmt":"2015-03-24T16:44:07","slug":"junior-language-challenge-why-portuguese","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/junior-language-challenge-why-portuguese\/","title":{"rendered":"Junior Language Challenge: why Portuguese?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Junior Language Challenge 2015 launched last week, with children all over the UK learning Portuguese<\/strong> in\u00a0the first round of our national competition. If you’re wondering why we picked Portuguese, here are a few fun facts about one of the world’s most widely spoken languages.<\/p>\n

Boa sorte<\/strong> to everyone taking part in the Junior Language Challenge – and if you’re a parent or teacher of children aged 10 or under, take a look at the JLC website<\/a> to find out more – it’s a lot of fun!<\/p>\n

Portuguese facts and figures<\/h3>\n

\"Portuguese<\/a>Portuguese is the official language of Brazil<\/strong>, Mozambique<\/strong>, Angola<\/strong>, Portugal<\/strong>, Guinea-Bissau<\/strong>, East Timor<\/strong>, Equatorial Guinea<\/strong>, Cape Verde<\/strong>, and S\u00e3o Tom\u00e9 and Pr\u00edncipe.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It’s a Romance language<\/strong>, along with French, Spanish, Italian and Romanian. This family of modern languages\u00a0derives from Latin, which was spoken in the Roman Empire – hence the name.<\/p>\n

Portuguese is the second most spoken of the Romance languages<\/strong>, after Spanish, and it’s the seventh most widely spoken language in the world<\/strong>. That said, there are significant differences between European<\/a> and Brazilian Portuguese<\/a>, so make sure you learn the right one before you\u00a0travel! (We offer both…)<\/p>\n

Portuguese and English<\/h3>\n

Some Portuguese words that we’ve adopted in English – piranha, flamingo, cobra, albino, palaver, mosquito. Does anyone know any more?<\/p>\n

Saudade<\/strong> is a word with no direct English translation, which means a feeling of longing or nostalgia for someone or something that may never return.<\/p>\n

Famous\u00a0Portuguese speakers<\/h3>\n

Jos\u00e9 de Sousa Saramago<\/strong> (1922-2010), who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1998.<\/p>\n

Lu\u00eds Vaz de Cam\u00f5es<\/strong> (1524-1580), often considered the Portuguese language’s\u00a0greatest poet, and best known for his epic work, Os Lus\u00edadas<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Explorers Vasco da Gama<\/strong>, the first person to sail directly from Europe to India, and Ferdinand Magellan<\/strong>, the first to sail around the world. Some people also think that Christopher Columbus was Portuguese too, although most agree he was actually Italian.<\/p>\n

Footballer Cristiano Ronaldo<\/strong> and manager Jose Mourinho<\/strong>, who are both from Portugal.<\/p>\n

Actor Rodrigo Santoro<\/strong> and former\u00a0racing driver Rubens Barrichello<\/strong> both come from Brazil, as did singer and actress Carmen Miranda<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Portuguese idioms<\/h3>\n

Like every language, Portuguese has its own idioms. Here are a few of our favourites:<\/p>\n

A\u00a0galinha do vizinho \u00e9 sempre mais gorda<\/strong><\/p>\n

Translation: your neighbour’s chicken is always fatter<\/p>\n

Meaning in English: the grass is always greener on the other side<\/p>\n

Burro velho n\u00e3o aprende l\u00ednguas<\/strong><\/p>\n

Translation: an old donkey doesn’t learn languages<\/p>\n

Meaning in English: you can’t teach an old dog new tricks<\/p>\n

\u00c1gua mole em pedra dura tanto bate at\u00e9 que fura<\/strong><\/p>\n

Translation:\u00a0water dripping day by day wears the hardest rock away<\/p>\n

Meaning in English: persistence pays off<\/p>\n

Most importantly…<\/h3>\n

Portuguese was the language learnt by Colin Firth in Love Actually<\/em><\/a>, so that he could ask a girl to marry him.<\/p>\n

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The Junior Language Challenge 2015 launched last week, with children all over the UK learning Portuguese in\u00a0the first round of our national competition. If you’re wondering why we picked Portuguese, here are a few fun facts about one of the world’s most widely spoken languages. Boa sorte to everyone taking part in the Junior Language … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11,3,421],"tags":[373,871,145,1059,439,148,942],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3555"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3555"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3555\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

Did you know?<\/h3>\n

Tom Hanks<\/strong>, Keanu Reeves<\/strong>, James Franco<\/strong> and Nelly Furtado<\/strong> all have Portuguese heritage.<\/p>\n

There’s an interactive Museum of the Portuguese Language<\/a>, which opened in 2006 in S\u00e3o Paulo, Brazil. The 12,000 square foot museum is in the Esta\u00e7\u00e3o da Luz train station.<\/p>\n