I grew up in a neighborhood near Minneapolis in the state of Minnesota and graduated from Minnetonka High School, perennially ranked among the best high schools in the state and, consequently, the country. Of course, that was many years ago, in fact in 1990, before there was even anyone who knew what email or the internet was, and many years before Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Zoom became part of our daily lives.
Even so, back then, Minnetonka High School was considered to be at the forefront in the late 1980s when it became one of the first schools in the state to start offering Mandarin Chinese. Some experts from the school district correctly identified the disproportionate role that China and, consequently, its language would have in global trade in the decades to follow. It was a bold initiative that has now expanded; the school district now offers a variety of Mandarin immersion programs from kindergarten through senior year.
The same kind of bold thinking that my school demonstrated in the 80s is now needed regarding Portuguese. According to a 2017 study by the American Council that investigated foreign language enrollments in the formal education system in the U.S., Portuguese was offered in only 37 high school programs, or 0.2% of all high schools in the U.S. These numbers are likely a bit conservative, as they do not represent smaller private schools and other non-traditional academic programs, but the trend is clear: for the 6th most spoken language in the world, with about 270 million native speakers – and particularly the language of a powerful economy like Brazil – more U.S. high schools should offer students the opportunity to learn Portuguese.
When it comes to foreign language curricula in the U.S., resources are always a limiting factor. However, compared to Portuguese, over 1,500 high schools offer German classes, a language spoken by far fewer people – 130 million people worldwide. The exaggerated influence of German in American college curricula is nothing more than a vestige of a now-distant past in America – a time when German immigration was still ongoing and later, due to the geopolitical considerations arising from the two world wars.
But times have changed, and now it is time to update the language options offered in high schools. It is worth mentioning that Portuguese is not the only language that receives little attention in American schools. Arabic, Russian, Korean, Farsi, and Malay should be taught much more broadly as they can be considered much more strategic to American foreign interests than German and possibly even French, the second most widely taught language in the U.S. after Spanish.
However, here I offer five reasons why U.S. high schools, their students, and also their parents should lobby more vigorously for the Portuguese language to be included in public school curricula:
1. The job market. Despite the high number of native speakers, few English speakers learn Portuguese as a second language compared to other global languages like Spanish and French. Historically, there has been intense interest among multinational companies for English speakers who are also fluent in Portuguese.
2. Brazil: With an annual GDP of nearly $2.5 trillion, the Brazilian economy is by far the 2nd most robust economy in the Americas and the 9th largest in the world. And it is a country where English is still not widely spoken.
3. Angola: From 2000 to 2010, this oil and diamond-rich African nation was the fastest-growing economy in the world, showing an average annual GDP growth of 11.1 percent. Its vast lands, water, and mineral resources will make this former Portuguese colony a major player in Africa over the coming decades.
4. Spanish vs. Portuguese: As someone who speaks both languages quite fluently, it is easy to see why the transition from Portuguese to Spanish is easier than the other way around. And Brazilians can understand any Spanish speaker, but the reverse does not happen easily without formal training.
5. It is a truly global language. Perhaps only English and French have greater geographical penetration on a global scale. Portuguese is spoken in 11 countries across 4 continents and is the official language in 9 of them. Unlike many languages that are losing speakers due to demographic aging, in the coming years, more and more people will speak Portuguese, mainly as a result of Brazil and Angola’s economic and demographic growth. UNESCO estimates that by 2050, Portuguese will be spoken by around 335 million people.
It is time for U.S. public schools to start expanding the number of Portuguese language programs available to American high school students. Their future may even depend on it.
ARICK WIERSON
CNN columnist, television producer & political advisor
Twitter: @ArickWierson