Namibia, another African country that adopts the Portuguese language

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Former Member

Namibia: Agreement On Portuguese Language Signed

by Catherine Sasman
16 November 2011

DEPUTY Minister of Foreign Affairs Peya Mushelenga and Portuguese Secretary of State and Foreign Affairs and Cooperation Luís Brites Pereira yesterday signed an agreement on the introduction of Portuguese in Namibian schools.

Portuguese will be offered as a foreign language at secondary schools as early as January.

The Ministry of Education earlier indicated that the subject offering would depend on the availability of teachers.

Pereira said Portugal would assist Namibia with the implementation of the agreement by training teachers at Unam and the provision of scholarships for Namibian citizens to be trained as teachers of Portuguese as a foreign language.

The Portuguese government will also assist with continuous teacher training in the regions, and help the National Institute for Educational Development with the development of teaching and learning materials.

It will provide textbooks and related resources like dictionaries for the phasing-in of Portuguese as a foreign language.

"Both countries recognise the growing importance of Portuguese as an official and working language of regional and international organisations," said Pereira.

Mushelenga said more than 4 000 Namibians are currently studying Portuguese, and a number of foreign ministry officials have started studying the language.

Replies sorted oldest to newest

Former Member

Guyana should be next...

11/20/112:29 PM

Former Member

Misleading topic header.

11/20/112:36 PM

Former Member

quote:
Originally posted by redux:
Misleading topic header.

What is misleading? They are talking about teaching portuguese not english.

11/23/112:23 PM

Former Member

quote:
Originally posted by Lucas:
quote:
Originally posted by redux:
Misleading topic header.

What is misleading? They are talking about teaching portuguese not english.

The already speak English and in any cas eEnglish is the most common foreigbn language taught as it is the most useful to speak. It may shock you to know that its possible that more Brazilians are able to speak internationally understood English than do Guyanese.

11/23/112:45 PM

Former Member

No language has yet consolidated or established in Namibia. The nation was founded by the German, so they speak German. When the English took it from the German they made English official but German didn't disappear. The fact that they are studying Portuguese reflects the preeminence of the Brazilian and Portuguese influence.

11/24/114:00 AM

Former Member

quote:
Originally posted by Lucas:
The fact that they are studying Portuguese reflects the preeminence of the Brazilian and Portuguese influence.

Wrong! . . . It reflects the economic reality of an oil rich Angola to its North.

BTW, since French and Spanish have long been taught in Guyana's schools, would you say that Guyana 'adopted' these languages? . . . how silly.

11/24/114:52 PM

Former Member

quote:
Originally posted by Lucas:
No language has yet consolidated or established in Namibia. The nation was founded by the German, so they speak German. When the English took it from the German they made English official but German didn't disappear. The fact that they are studying Portuguese reflects the preeminence of the Brazilian and Portuguese influence.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Namibia

http://www.grnnet.gov.na/

English is the official language. They have very close ties to South Africa. Portuguese is not spoken in SA.

Sorry English will be the most popular European language. Portuguse will be regarded as useful...most likely due to ties with neighboring Angola.

Brazilians wishing to do business in Namibia will do so in ENGLISH...which most educated Brazilians speak.

11/25/112:37 PM

Former Member

quote:
Originally posted by caribj:
quote:
Originally posted by Lucas:
No language has yet consolidated or established in Namibia. The nation was founded by the German, so they speak German. When the English took it from the German they made English official but German didn't disappear. The fact that they are studying Portuguese reflects the preeminence of the Brazilian and Portuguese influence.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Namibia

http://www.grnnet.gov.na/

English is the official language. They have very close ties to South Africa. Portuguese is not spoken in SA.

Sorry English will be the most popular European language. Portuguse will be regarded as useful...most likely due to ties with neighboring Angola.

Brazilians wishing to do business in Namibia will do so in ENGLISH...which most educated Brazilians speak.

You will see a quick declining of the English language in coming years. White Australia will adopt Mandarin as official language, Canada will adopt Spanish, most of Africa will make Portuguese official. India will reconcile with its own language re-adopting it as its education language and will make Mandarin compulsory as foreign language in schools. England will become a third rate country (like Portugal) whereas the US will be demoted to just a power. The Guyanese will continue speaking Caribbean English because no other skills are required to do cleaning jobs in Spanish or Portuguese speaking countries.

11/25/113:06 PM

Former Member

quote:
Originally posted by Lucas:
You will see a quick declining of the English language in coming years. White Australia will adopt Mandarin as official language, Canada will adopt Spanish, most of Africa will make Portuguese official. India will reconcile with its own language re-adopting it as its education language and will make Mandarin compulsory as foreign language in schools. England will become a third rate country (like Portugal) whereas the US will be demoted to just a power. The Guyanese will continue speaking Caribbean English because no other skills are required to do cleaning jobs in Spanish or Portuguese speaking countries.

Now I see you are seriously troubled.

English will be importnat because the Brazilians will need it to speak to the Chinese and Russians and South Africans if they are all in the same room together.

Brazilians will continue to master English better than will most Guyanese because they know that it will enable their businesses to better penetrate other markets.

This is unless you expect Brazilians and Chinese and Russians to fight over which of their languages should be spoken to theexclusiion of others.

Now if I were you I would set up an English school for Brazilians who cant afford to to to Trinidad or Miami to master English.

I understand that you might have to teach English first to your Guyanese instructors. Better yet. Bring in Brazilians to teach Guyanese English!

11/25/113:13 PM

Former Member

Those of us who remembered how hard the freedom fighters had to fight to break the grip of colonial exploitation that the Portugeese had on their African colonies would laugh at this.

The Portugeese were one of the last colonial powers to give up power in Africa. They were still fighting in the mid 1970s' to keep power in their colonies. They even used payed white mercenaries from all around the world to backup the Portugeese army in these colonies. To adopt the language of the Colonial oppressors shows us that colonial mentality is still deeply engraved in our brains.

11/26/111:40 AM

Former Member

quote:
Originally posted by Wally:
Those To adopt the language of the Colonial oppressors shows us that colonial mentality is still deeply engraved in our brains.

Dont worry with lucas. Namibia wants to provide their people with opportunities to speak another language of a neighboring country. Nothing more.

Lucas entertains notions of Brazil ruling the world. They cant even take care of their own people. And China is no better. 70% of them are near starvation in stagnant rural communities.

11/26/111:46 AM

Former Member

quote:
Originally posted by Lucas:
Canada will adopt Spanish, . . .

Seriously, Lucas . . . you're a 1st class DUMMY!!

11/26/112:30 AM

Former Member

quote:
Originally posted by caribj:
quote:
Originally posted by Lucas:
quote:
Originally posted by redux:
Misleading topic header.

What is misleading? They are talking about teaching portuguese not english.

The already speak English and in any cas eEnglish is the most common foreigbn language taught as it is the most useful to speak. It may shock you to know that its possible that more Brazilians are able to speak internationally understood English than do Guyanese.

Oh really?, OMG and I always wanted to learn english in Guyana

11/26/1112:24 PM

Former Member

quote:
Originally posted by caribj:
quote:
Originally posted by Lucas:
quote:
Originally posted by redux:
Misleading topic header.

What is misleading? They are talking about teaching portuguese not english.

The already speak English and in any cas eEnglish is the most common foreigbn language taught as it is the most useful to speak. It may shock you to know that its possible that more Brazilians are able to speak internationally understood English than do Guyanese.

It is a misconception to say that people of of different nationalities can only understand each other thru English. English is being around as international language since the second war only, when it took over the French language. Before French you had Spanish and before that it was Portuguese. Portuguese, Spanish and French languages dominated the world longer than English has. The situation with Chinese is going to be quite different. Note that there is a China town in every major city of every country in the world.

11/27/113:15 PM

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