Italian or Portuguese, which is more studied in the world?

classicista   Sun Oct 04, 2009 10:31 pm GMT
Sim, italiano uma língua clássica. Se vocês não sabem as diversas noções de língua e cultura clássicas e a influência e papel do humanismo e do renascimento italianos na formação da cultura ocidental contemporânea, então não há muito o que fazer. Voltem a contar quantos falantes de castelhano há no mundo, já que é só o que sabem fazer por aqui.

<<Classical? How is Italian any more "classical" than Portuguese? What an idiotic statement. >>

How many Portuguese writers, poets, composers, scientists, architects, painters, sculptors, philosophers, historians, play-writers had a decisive and recognized influence all over Europe? As much as I love our own galego-luso-brazilian classics, Italians were on another league, it was Camões who imitated the Italian epic, it was Sá de Miranda who imported Italian poetical forms, not the other way round.

But I guess this forum is one of the internet's idiots meeting place, coming here is nothing but a waste of time, então peço licença...
Fofura   Sun Oct 04, 2009 11:35 pm GMT
There were no Italy in the times of Camões.
Even Brazil is older than Italy.
Italian nation is a late 19th century invention.
Fofura   Sun Oct 04, 2009 11:37 pm GMT
Espero que Lula aproveche la ocasión de los Juegos Olímpicos para limpiar la ciudad de Río de favelas, negros y demás basura.


Caracas, Bogotá e Cidade do México têm mais favelas que o Rio.
As favelas do Rio estão escondidas, as de Caracas são visíveis em/de todo canto da cidade: fica muito horrível.
Guest   Sun Oct 04, 2009 11:44 pm GMT
Despite the attempts to cleanse Brazil's major cities like Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo of favelas, the poor population is continuing to grow at a rapid pace as well as the modern favelas that house them. In 1969, there were approximately 300 favelas in Rio de Janeiro; today there are twice as many. In fact, the population of the favelas is growing faster than the population of Brazil as a whole. In 1950, only 7 percent of Rio de Janeiro's population lived in favelas, in the 21st century it has grown to 19 percent or about one in five people living in a favela. According to national census data, from 1980–1990, the overall growth rate of Rio de Janeiro dropped by 8 percent, but the favela population increased by 41 percent. After 1990, the city's growth rate leveled at 7 percent, but the favela population increased by 24 percent. By the year 2000, this created an all-time high of people living in concentrated poverty[14].
Karioka da Gema   Mon Oct 05, 2009 1:36 am GMT
Most people like living in favelas, they have free electricity, free water, and free internet! They use orkut (brazilian version of facebook) and twitter.
They're not poor, they spend most time on the near beaches of Copacabana and Ipanema. They enjoy it. I bet most people from US would trade their Chicago apartments for a nice apartment in a favela, it's cheaper than Copacabana Palace Hotel, and it has better views toward the ocean.
Studio   Mon Oct 05, 2009 4:06 am GMT
Why is Italian more studied (popular) as a foreign language than Portuguese, while Portuguese is regarded as a more useful language than Italian. I really wonder ...
The most original name   Mon Oct 05, 2009 7:43 am GMT
Well, Portuguese is really important in 1 Continent, South America. Italian is important in another Continent, Europe. Here there is not difference

Besides, Italy is more important economically than Brazil and Portugal together. If the situation changes and Brazil is more important than Italy in the future, Portuguese will be more studied.

Anyway, there are a lot of languages more studied: English, Spanish, French, German and Chinese.

Italian and Portuguese fight for the 6th place.
***   Mon Oct 05, 2009 7:55 am GMT
>>>Italian and Portuguese fight for the 6th place.<<<

What about the 7th place? Russian or Arabic?
cyborg   Mon Oct 05, 2009 8:37 am GMT
Russian is much more important than Italian...
Michelangelo   Mon Oct 05, 2009 9:01 am GMT
>>>Russian is much more important than Italian...<<<

Actually, Russian had never played an important role in Europe, until the evil communist party ruled over the USSR, but the popularity of Russian has fallen into increasing decline, since the USSR empire completely collapsed.
cyborg   Mon Oct 05, 2009 9:42 am GMT
<,Actually, Russian had never played an important role in Europe, until the evil communist party ruled over the USSR, but the popularity of Russian has fallen into increasing decline, since the USSR empire completely collapsed. >>


And Italian declined 200 years ago! Italian's only prestige is based on its distant past. Italian is nowadays no greater than Polish or Turkish.
Michelangelo   Mon Oct 05, 2009 10:31 am GMT
>>>Italian is nowadays no greater than Polish or Turkish.<<<

Oh, Jesus. Does Poland or Turkey belong to G-8 group or very developed countries? I'm afraid Poland doesn't, but not too bad, as for Turkey, I don't think it's better than Iran. UAE and Saudi Arabia are much stronger and richer than tiny European part of Turkey. Nobody considers Turkey an European country.
Guest   Mon Oct 05, 2009 10:53 am GMT
G-8 no longer exists. Its role is played by new G-20 where Brazil has more importance than Italy.
Student   Mon Oct 05, 2009 11:00 am GMT
What about the 7th place? Russian or Arabic?

Well, I read in an article about languages that Italian is 6th, and Portuguese, Russian and Arabic are fighting for 7th place.

Italian and Portuguese have an important point. These languages are similar to English, Spanish and French (the top three): same alphabet, same vocabulary, etc.

The future of Russian depends on countries like Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Georgia, etc, where Russian was official. At this moment is the only lingua franca of the former USSR. We don't know if English can play a more important role there. If all the former Republics study Russian as second language, Russian can be even 5th-6th. It is very difficult to predict it.


Arabic is studied in muslim countries but Muslim people focus on the religious point, not as a foreign language. Anyway, Arabic is very studied in Africa and Asia, in countries where the registers are not updated. It is likely to be very studied, very we don't really know the figures.
German guest   Mon Oct 05, 2009 11:05 am GMT
In my opinion there are languages overestimated like, in my opinion, German. It is a language very studied, but you can make business with German people in English. It is a language spoken in little Central Europe by hardly 100 million people. In Asia, Urdu, Vietnamese or Persian have the same size.

Other languages are underestimated. In my opinion, the best example is Portuguese. It is spoken by 225 million people around the World and it is studied by almost anybody.