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Future outlook: French vs. Portuguese | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| lichtrausch Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5961 days ago 525 posts - 1072 votes  Speaks: English*, German, Japanese Studies: Korean, Mandarin | Message 1 of 81 12 December 2011 at 2:57am | IP Logged | ||
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French, a popular language of culture, seems to be in decline, but could find new strength if it catches on as a first language in Francophone Africa. Portuguese is in ascendancy, with Brazil, a nation of 190 million, well on its way to the premier league of nations. Which language has a brighter future outlook? If that question is too broad for you, look at it this way: In 2050, which of these two languages do you think will be more attractive to a student with no ties to either language (nor the countries they are spoken in) seeking a language of economic, political, and cultural importance?
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| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6598 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 2 of 81 12 December 2011 at 3:05am | IP Logged | ||
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I'm entirely biased and I say Portuguese.
Just hopefully by then Brazilian and European Portuguese are not two separate languages :P 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| rivere123 Senior Member United States Joined 4831 days ago 129 posts - 182 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 3 of 81 12 December 2011 at 3:25am | IP Logged | ||
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Well, French will always be a favorite usefulness put aside, at least if the conditions do not change incredibly drastically.
This is a tough question for me. I will contest that the French language is not stagnant and will likely catch on well in a more developed Africa, but Portuguese will be quite attractive. See, Brazil seems to be teaching its citizenry Spanish, which would be a big turn off to any linguist or student wanting to learn Portuguese ("Why learn Portuguese when I could learn Spanish?"), but both populations will grow quickly, but Africa will edge out Portuguese for growth both demographically and economically. Meanwhile, France is ahead of Portugal in quite a few ways in Europe, and Québec's population is staying very stably Francophone. I have not analyzed this as carefully as I would if I had more time, but I think French will remain a better choice than Portuguese, however Portuguese is and will be a great suitor for learning. I suggest you do both ;) 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| hrhenry Octoglot Senior Member United States languagehopper.blogs Joined 5131 days ago 1871 posts - 3642 votes Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, ItalianC2, Norwegian, Catalan, Galician, Turkish, Portuguese Studies: Polish, Indonesian, Ojibwe | Message 4 of 81 12 December 2011 at 4:24am | IP Logged | ||
I'm completely ignorant of this. Maybe you could provide something to back that statement up. R. == 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| nway Senior Member United States youtube.com/user/Vic Joined 5416 days ago 574 posts - 1707 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Mandarin, Japanese, Korean | Message 5 of 81 12 December 2011 at 5:42am | IP Logged | ||
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I hate these kinds of threads. (No personal offense intended to the threadstarter.)
French will do just fine in France, Quebec, and most of Francophone Africa (the latter two of which are non-factors for most people anyway). Portuguese will do just fine in Brazil, Portugal, and most of Lusophone Africa (the latter two of which are non-factors for most people anyway). For those who point out that Brazilians are learning Spanish, need I point out that the French are learning English? France will probably always be wealthier (per-capita) than Brazil within our lifetimes. Brazil will probably always experience higher growth than France within our lifetimes. The two can't be compared via a universal standard because there is no universal consensus of the variables. Someone who values high living standards and a world-class legacy of the arts and culture will always prefer France, within our lifetimes. Someone who values a naturally beautiful paradise and the excitement of a vibrant emerging market with untold entrepreneurial opportunities will always prefer Brazil, within our lifetimes. Until everyone in the world exclusively values either one of the above two options, "French vs Portuguese" is an entirely moot point. Edited by nway on 12 December 2011 at 5:46am 32 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| tibbles Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5192 days ago 245 posts - 422 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Korean | Message 6 of 81 12 December 2011 at 8:33am | IP Logged | ||
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Is French really that widely spoken in Africa? Yes, I know it's the official language in many countries, but in how many of those countries do the majority of the citizenry speak French?
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| Flarioca Heptaglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 5883 days ago 635 posts - 816 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, Esperanto, French, EnglishC2, Spanish, German, Italian Studies: Catalan, Mandarin | Message 7 of 81 12 December 2011 at 1:43pm | IP Logged | ||
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As a brazilian, I would like to say that Portuguese is clearly the sole language we are going to speak, mankind surviving, at least during the lifetime of my not-yet-born-great-grandsons. Even if some of us are able to communicate, at many levels of proficiency, in Spanish or English.
Serpent, don't be afraid, I'm also quite sure that Portugal and Brazil will continue to speak the same language and our linguistic differences will continue to get smaller, in spite of what an insidious agenda continues trying to make us believe. It seems very likely that Spanish and Portuguese are going to be even more important languages worldwide in the near future. I hope to be healthy enough and see how things will change in the next 50 years. That said, the cultural heritage from French speaking people is so huge that I guess (and hope) that many of us will continue to learn French for centuries to come. Edited by Flarioca on 12 December 2011 at 2:28pm 6 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Carlucio Triglot Groupie BrazilRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4859 days ago 70 posts - 113 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, EnglishC1, Spanish Studies: Mandarin | Message 8 of 81 12 December 2011 at 5:40pm | IP Logged | ||
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I have to add some points.
-The question "Portuguese or Spanish" makes no sense, you are not talking about mandarin and danish, if you learn one you will be automatically learning a lot of the other. -The speakers of those languages will never change their mother language, but in long term i bet Spanish and portuguese will continue merging, maybe in long term future the language of latin america and some places in US will be recognized as some king of portunholglish, portugese + Spanish + English. -Africa is a mistery for me, i dont know what is going to happen with so many languages which still exist there. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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