Brazzil

Cristaldo,

Unsatisfied in writing one text in this subject, now you wrote one more, with a different beginning.

If you are really concerned about the missteps of the Rio Branco Institute, then do something: Take your PhD degree, go to the Institute, and try to prove them wrong on the matter.

While much is tongue in check, the author makes many great points, something which I thought I would never say on this blog. But he also points out an "offical" attitude, that could be dangerous to Brasil's future. The current President, and his croneys are preaching to the masses, that a good education and expereince are not necessary to manage Brasil, can you imagine any other developing country in the world saying this? While calling the PT "The Supreme Ignorant" may be a little harsh. Graduating a class of foreign service personel who don't speak English would be political and economic suicide. Unfortunatly, it would take an educated and expereinced President to realize this. The recent harshness of the critisizm of Lula is encouraging.

I must say that I agree with the "Well Done" poster when they said: "Graduating a class of foreign service personel who don't speak English would be political and economic suicide." I am an International Relations student and I would never be able to get a job as a foreign service officer or even graduate if I couldn't speak any other languages. Luckily for me, I speak spanish and portuguese, and it looks like I will need it--the folks in Brazil can't speak english...

I don't agree to several points made by Cristaldo in his article, but anyone is free to have (and publish) their own opinions. However, I have to agree that the current government is leveling everything down. The current "president" (has the title but not the competency for it) seems to be so amazed by his feat, that decided he is the role model for the current and future generations. BIG mistake. I don't want my children to be illiterate or protected (meaning discriminated) by some sort of quota. I don't want my children thinking that you can succeed without working (in spite of a certain labor party founder that hasn't worked for many years). I believe Brazil will only be the so called "country of the future", when it decides to invest in education and stops believing in shortcuts. Unfortunately, the same people who need the education, are the ones who vote and elect a president like that. It is a vicious circle, and once started it is hard to break. It is populism at its worse.

All throughout the ages, there has been one or another language used by numerous language communities as means to communicate with others whose language they did not speak. Greek had its hey-day; latin followed not so far behind; French was the darling of the 18th century; German had its popularity (mainly in philosophy and chemistry); today, well, its English time! Although there are concerns that the current onslaught of English can wipe out dialects and reshape cultures (see, for example, Robert Phillipson's book "Linguistic Imperialism"), this is hardly a valid argument to drop the requirement of English as an eliminatory subject (currently, the eliminatory subjects are Portuguese, Brazilian History, General History and Geography). However, English (and French or Spanish) are still classificatory, and are part of the curriculum.

Anyhow, does anyone know of someone who practices the "Neblinismo"?

Best regards to you all...

People usually associate learning a new language as "giving up your nationality". The way I see it, it's all about absorbing other cultures. Let's steal it and make it ours, hundreds of years from now, who will know who invented what? Take it. Take history and philosophy as well.

A way of learning the culture, is learning the language. And I'm in the way of learning my fourth language (not counting portuguese and latin, that's just for fun).

"And I'm in the way of learning my fourth language (not counting portuguese and latin, that's just for fun)."
Wonderful! How did you learn all these languages? Maybe you can give us all a snapshot of your brilliance!
Please, even though I appreciate posting by well-educated multilingual people, let's not forget that there are thousands of Brazilians abroad who need help in learning a functional foreign language just to get by.
Let's not be so arrogant!
Thanks

I would additionaly suggest:
Agulhanegrismo, Dedo-de-Deusismo, Pico-da-Tijucaismo, Pão-de-acúcarismo, Borelismo, Salgueirismo, Mangueirismo, Rocinhismo. --
I think the author was but kidding. Otherwise, he had a real weird idea.

Besides,he KNOWS Brazilian diplomats do have to speak English, and they do. speak it.
I just have two doubts - 1) Is there a cosmopolitan city in all countries where you DO NOT have curandeiros? How about Paris, London, New York , etc., etc. ?

2) Did he get a grant from the Brazilian government (CNPQ )
or whatever to go study abroad? If he did he owes his PHD degree to the Brazilians who are monolingual, but whose $$$ were crucial for his educational project.

Why not being humble and saying thanks to these people?