Portuguese is very widely spoken, so it is not some old, unnecessary language you will never use (we’re looking at you, Latin).
World language resource Ethnologue estimates that there are over 236 million Portuguese speakers in the world, including a whopping 222 million native speakers.
2. Portuguese is spoken in a lot more places than you may think.
When you think about Portuguese, chances are you immediately think of Brazil and Portugal.
Portuguese is widely spoken, has nine member countries: Brazil, Portugal, Angola, Cape Verde, East Timor, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique and São Tomé and Príncipe.
Because of historic ties, Portuguese is also widely spoken in Sri Lanka, Goa, India and Macau, China. So you might find yourself needing your Portuguese skills in Europe, South America, Africa or even Asia!
Portuguese is spoken in some very popular tourist destinations.
If you enjoy beautiful beaches or enchanting rain-forests, learning Portuguese can help you on your next trip to Brazil.
Prefer European destinations? Portugal is popular with tourists for its beauty and affordability.
Sports fans rejoice! Soccer is huge in both Portugal and Brazil. So if you love soccer, Portuguese is a great language to learn.
Not only will learning it help you enjoy tons of soccer coverage, you will finally be able to follow your favorite soccer stars on social media and actually understand what they are saying!
5. Learning Portuguese could increase your job prospects.While Brazil’s economy has had its ups and downs, the fact remains that it is the eighth largest economy in the world and has enjoyed recent growth.
Because of this, Brazil is a big player in international business, so learning Portuguese might give you an edge in the business world.
Portuguese is also becoming more popular online due to new technological developments. Around 83 million Internet surfers speak Portuguese, and the number of webpages in Portuguese continues to increase. This makes Portuguese one of the most common languages on the Web.