“In Portugal there has already been something. Lately it has been complete nonsense. There has been no language policy at all. I hope that Brazil, which has now created the Instituto Guimarães Rosa, which is a parallel to the Camões institute, will be a driving force behind this policy of language at CPLP”, said researcher and former rector of ISCTE-IUL Luís Reto.
“Our problem is that we don’t actually have a policy and that is essential. Basically, if you like, we have an asset that we are not capable of leveraging”, he reiterated.
In the study, the researcher analyzed four variables: foreign direct investment, tourism, migratory flows and foreign trade.
“But, in fact, as we don’t have, unlike the Spanish and others, who actually have large yearbooks on the language, unfortunately we never had a serious language policy. I hope someone takes care of this”, he added.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) ratified on November 25, 2019 the celebration of World Portuguese Language Day on May 5, making the proposal presented by Portuguese-speaking countries official.
Despite the lack of a defense and promotion policy, Luís Reto considered that the “Portuguese language is recommended. It is growing”, based on the demographics of Portuguese-speaking African countries. .
Based on UNESCO projections, Africa is the fastest growing continent in this century in terms of population and for this reason, the Portuguese language will be the language that will grow the most along with Arabic and on the Internet it is between the fourth and fifth place of most used.
“When we talk about languages, this is very complex, there are many indicators. Language has many functions, it has identity functions, it is the primary, it is the identity of a tribe, a family, a nation. Then it has teaching functions, it has functions of science, it has economic functions, it has other functions, but there are few languages that can have all these functions, so to speak, and that are also languages of international communication”, he considered. .
Geographical dispersion makes the Portuguese language “strategically more important” than Castilian, for example, which is spoken only on the American and European continents.
As for the economic potential of a language, Luís Reto highlights its direct value in the so-called language industries, such as the entire publishing sector, books, publications and then the entire teaching, translations and interpreters sector. .
“For example, if the language is in many international organizations, they have many interpreters. Then there is also a presence on the Internet. Therefore, I would say that there is a part here that is a factor directly linked to the language and then there are others, that the language It is more subsidiary, but it is also important, which is everything that is cultural and creative industries: television, radio, social networks, theater, cinema, music and so on”, he said.
“This entire component contributes to another value of the language, which is an intangible value, if you like, a value that cannot be measured directly, which is the influencing factor, which North Americans call “soft power”, “he stressed.
Defender of concerted policies by Portuguese-speaking countries for the defense and promotion of the Portuguese language, Luís Reto praised the Brazilian President, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who said he wanted during his term to ensure that Portuguese is an official language at the UN, where there are six languages official and Portuguese would be seventh.
“If we were to analyze these six official languages by four indicators, which is the number of speakers, the number of countries that include the official language, the number of continents where the language is located and the number of international organizations that have the language of translation, of work or official language, we, in these six, are better classified than many of them”, he highlighted.
“In other words, it’s not because of the language that we’re not there. It’s because of the work we haven’t done that we’re not there”, he lamented.
Making the Portuguese language one of the official languages of the UN should cost around 80 million euros per year, because it is necessary to pay the entire structure for translation interpreters.
“That’s a strategy that countries have to adopt. There needs to be diplomatic consultation to establish a list of priorities. Investment is needed. But this is just to say that there is no assumed language policy. In other words, our language is much more important than the importance we give it”, he lamented again.
