3rd Workshop in Mérida (Spain). Report (2 of 5)

The second conference of the workshop, Learning the Language of our Neighbours was delivered by Ms. Lígia Borges, teacher at the Official School of Languages in the town of Montijo (Extremadura, Spain). She reported her experience after having been working for four years as the responsible of Camões Institute in the region, which is the responsible official institution for the dissemination of Portuguese language and culture around the world, similar as British Council, Instituto Cervantes, Goethe-Institut, Istituto Dante Alighieri or Alliance Française.

In her speech Ms. Borges talked about how teaching Portuguese started in Extremadura at the 80’s, when it was created a Department of Portuguese Language at University to form teachers. She explained the different possibilities existing in Extremadura for adult education. One of the most important institutions devoted to teach adult people are the Popular Universities, giving informal education about different subjects to adult population. But the growth of the number of students has appeared in formal education through the Official School of Languages. There are nine of these public schools in the region, where Portuguese is the second language in number of students, more than other languages as French, German or Italian. No other Spanish region has developed a policy in order to encourage population to learn Portuguese language, even with an advertisement campaign on TV, radio, newspapers and at bus-stops: “Learn Portuguese. It will open many doors for you”. Nowadays having knowledge of Portuguese language has become a very important point for those trying to get a job or to get a promotion. Many adverts for different jobs and activities include specific references. Apart from the Schools of Languages, the courses financed by the Cross border Initiatives Office (more than 1200 courses since 1996) have been fundamental to give the opportunity to adult population in small villages to learn the language of the neighbours.

Ms. Borges talked about the cultural differences between Portugal and Spain. Although both countries have similar languages, sometimes there are a lot of misunderstandings due to false friends and other aspects of formality and costumes.