Post #2:
When thinking about language in the South America region, most people will make the assumption that the primary language spoken is Spanish. Well many of those people will be making the wrong assumption. Most of the countries in South America used to be under the control of another country at some point in their early history. This means that they have inherited another language other than Spanish; Brazil being one of them.
Brazil originated under Portuguese rule for three centuries until the early 1800s, when they gained their independence in 1822. Portuguese was and still remains as their primary language spoken throughout the country today. Some other common languages are Spanish, German, Italian, Japanese, English and some minor Amerindian languages (People and Society, The World Factbook, 2017). Most schools will teach Portuguese as the main language, while also teaching English or Spanish as a secondary language.
The Portuguese language has transformed several times since it began being used in Brazil back in the 16th century. Like most languages, the pronunciation, spelling and meaning of many words and phrases have varied over time. For Brazilians, their language has been changed so widely, that it is almost easier to understand the Spanish language used in some things, rather than their Portuguese language (World Factbook, 2017). I found this to be surprising because I was under the impression that Brazilians were proud of their Portuguese language and used it very fluently with most people.
Another aspect about Brazil’s language I found interesting, was their indigenous language before their European rule. The Tupian was their originating language and it was often used as the ‘lingua franca’ between Indians and some Portuguese administrators, traders, and missionaries (World Factbook, 2017). This just means they used Tupian as a common way of speaking to one another in order to communicate things to people of varying languages. They used this language up until the 19th century and it was primarily spoken in the Amazon and western regions of Brazil. Tupian has also influenced Brazilians to enunciate and have more of a nasal tone when compared to their european counterparts (World Factbook, 2017).
As Brazil has developed with their language, they have also been able to develop into more responsible roles as a nation. They are currently a member of the International Monetary Fund, the World Trade Organization, and the United Nations.
Brazil was one of the original 51 countries to join the United Nations back in 1945. The goal of the United Nations organization is to maintain international peace and security, protect human rights, deliver humanitarian aid, promote sustainable development, and uphold international laws (What We Do, 2018). This organization is responsible for many things, but their commitment to help these causes does not go unnoticed and it is very impactful to the countries receiving the aid.
Brazil has also been a member of the International Monetary Fund since 1946. They were not an original member, but they joined shortly after the several original countries started it. This organization works to promote global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, aid international trade, promote increased employment and economic growth, and decrease poverty throughout the world (About the IMF, 2017).
Now before there was the World Trade Organization, it was known as the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. Brazil was, again, one of the original members of the GATT, then later joined in the accession to the World Trade Organization. The WTO is the only international organization that handles the rules of trading between nations. Essentially, their role is to keep the peace between nations when trading and to keep producers, importers, and exporters running their businesses smoothly (What is the WTO?, 2018).
To see Brazil’s strong involvement in these three organizations continue for many years shows how passionate they are for other nations. They want to see the world be successful as a whole and know that in order to get there, help is needed from them.
Most countries that are members of these organizations can and are willing to help out others, but that does not mean their own country is running perfectly. Most countries struggle with their own inequalities and the Gini coefficient is one way to measure the income inequality some countries have. Brazil is rated 19th on this scale with their gini index at a 49.0 as of 2014 (World Factbook, 2017). This means that they are in the middle, so they aren’t terribly equal or unequal when it comes to their distribution of family incomes.
When comparing Brazil’s GDP to the rest of the world, they are ranked at number 9 with their GDP based on the Purchasing Power Parity at $3,240,000,000,000 as of 2017 (World Factbook, 2017). This is the value of all their final goods and services they produce each year and is represented as the larger number value above based on prices prevailing in the United States. Their economy has been negatively affected due to a recession back in 2015 and 2016. In the last year their GDP has only grown 1% and inflation fell 2.9%. This recession was one of their worst in their history, but they are starting to make progress to recover from it all (World Factbook, 2017).
Even though Brazil is known as one of the largest countries around the world, they still have their struggles like most countries will, but also manage to maintain a strong impact around the world. This is because of their active commitment to be involved in several beneficial organizations. I have learned several surprising facts about Brazil through this research and I hope whoever is reading this, has also changed their previous assumptions about this large nation.
Sources:
