Since 2006, Portuguese has officially gained a space among the Romance languages taught at Washington University. This is good news for all students interested in Latin America and Brazil, because 51% of South American population speaks Portuguese and like China and India, Brazil is an emergent nation of political economic power. According to a recent survey by Modern Languages Association, Portuguese increased its enrollments in 22.4% between 2002 and 2006.

It is estimated than more than 200 million people speak Portuguese around the world. Besides Brazil and Portugal (including Madeira and Açores islands), Portuguese is the official language in Angola, Cabo Verde, Moçambique, Guiné-Bissau, São Tomé e Príncipe and Timor Leste. Similar to the other Romance languages (French, Italian, Romanian, Catalan, and Spanish), Portuguese comes from Latin and it is particularly close to Spanish. Such closeness facilitates Spanish speakers to learn Portuguese.

Currently, Romance Languages and Literatures offers Portuguese 101 (Fall) and Portuguese 102 (Spring) for beginners with no previous experience in Romance languages. We also offer Portuguese 103 and 104 for Spanish speakers, fast-paced classes that take advantage of the knowledge of the structure and vocabulary of Spanish. In the effort to make Portuguese a definitive part of Washington University curriculum, we also are starting a course in intermediate level: Port 215 Reading and Conversation and we offer a weekly conversational table (Holmes Lounge, Wednesdays at noon), at which all levels of proficiency are welcome.