question for people who have visited Brazil

[colman]

Brazil is the financial leader of Latin America. Brazil also leads all Latin Americans both in size of territory and population (168-175 million). Anyway I know for a fact that Brazil has initiated a system where they are teaching the youth some Castillian Spanish and it seems that ALL of the Brazilians I have met here in Chicago have a good understanding of Castillian Spanish. My question is does anyone know roughly of the approx. 170 million people in Brazil what percentage or roughly how many Brazilians speak Castillian Spanish? I love all of the Romatic languages and always have wanted to speak another one besides Castillian Spanish, however even though I was inclined to Frech now it seems more sense to try Portugese. Their are over 215 million Portugese speakers worldwide compared to over 150 million French speakers. Man is it me or has French taken a back seat for a language coveted by people eager to learn another languange. Did any of you notice even in the Olympics where French was always part of scene it now added Spanish and Portugese.  I went to Orlando with my mother this past summer, all the theme parks had Portugese blasting from the speakers, anyway it was just something I noticed...God Bless---Colman

[corv]

... in response to question for people who have visited Bra..., posted by colman on Oct 24, 2002

Spanish is not used much in Brazil. Only down by Uruguay, even then its not true Spanish. Up until a few years ago French was the second language of Brazil, now its English. I've been to Brazil many times and tried to speak Spanish and your better off with English. Most Brazilians with and secondary schooling speak some English.

[Onephd]

... in response to question for people who have visited Bra..., posted by colman on Oct 24, 2002

If you interested in meeting a lady from Brazil, I would put my efforts into learning Portuguese.  I didn't sense that speaking spanish was helpful when I visited Brazil last month..

but thats my opinion..

[LouieB]

... in response to question for people who have visited Bra..., posted by colman on Oct 24, 2002

no idea how many speak Castellano but since the rest of Latin America is Spanish speaking it makes sense that they would learn some.  also since the languages are so similar its not much of a stretch.  although Brazil is numero uno in total economic production and population it is still only one country compared to the 20 or so Spanish speaking ones with a combined population of 400 million or so.  

French has declined significantly over the decades and centuries especially in this hemisphere.  because other than France, there is no other very powerful country that uses the language.