Why is Italian more popular than Portuguese?

[Cainntear]

In the area where I live, there are lots and lots of Italian-Americans. Most of them seem to know little more than kitchen vocabulary and swear words, but Italian has the second-largest enrollment at the university after Spanish.

Which is a bit silly, given that most of their ancestors probably never spoke Italian anyway. New York is full of people studying Italian, going up to Nonna to proudly show off what they've learned, only to be hit with "what the hell are you talking about" in Sicilian. The majority of Italian-Americans are Sicilians, but even if Ohio has a population mostly from another region, the generation that emigrated were probably before widespread mandatory schooling so would only have had the local language.

[Systematiker]

In the area where I live, there are lots and lots of Italian-Americans. Most of them seem to know little more than kitchen vocabulary and swear words, but Italian has the second-largest enrollment at the university after Spanish.

Which is a bit silly, given that most of their ancestors probably never spoke Italian anyway. New York is full of people studying Italian, going up to Nonna to proudly show off what they've learned, only to be hit with "what the hell are you talking about" in Sicilian. The majority of Italian-Americans are Sicilians, but even if Ohio has a population mostly from another region, the generation that emigrated were probably before widespread mandatory schooling so would only have had the local language.

Yeah, but Italian-American groups are big on scholarships, so there's a lot of identity-forming that happens in the context of "Italian" and not specifically "Sicilian". That's a major factor for college enrollments for that set - if you're getting things paid for by being "Italian-American", you feel like you ought to at least learn it, and you've got to take a language anyway...

[Tillumadoguenirurm]

Portuguese has a Russian sound, but if you can listen through that then you can see the similarity with Spanish.

That too. I was was having dinner with someone a couple of weeks ago and there was a group of chatty people at the table next to ours. My friend was convinced they were speaking "some kind of Russian", but it was actually, tadda!, Portuguese. That also reminds me of the first time I think I heard Portuguese, although it's years ago and I wasn't that interested in languages. I was watching this movie and couldn't figure out where it was from. The scenery was Spanish like, but the language didn't match, I decided that it had to be from some south-eastern European place that I didn't know about. I got a surprise when I checked, you don't expect Portuguese to sound they way it does.

I had a short moment of interest in Portuguese a while ago, and I kept reading that people found it strange sounding, unplaceable, eastern European, that they didn't like it because of those things, besides, "no one speaks it anyway". The same things are never said about Italian, I doubt anyone would mistake Italian for being "some kind of eastern European".

[heatherbergman]

Well, Portuguese is really important in 1 Continent, South America. Italian is important in another Continent, Europe. Here there is not difference

Besides, Italy is more important economically than Brazil and Portugal together. If the situation changes and Brazil is more important than Italy in the future, Portuguese will be more studied.

Anyway, there are a lot of languages more studied: English, Spanish, French, German and Chinese.

Italian and Portuguese fight for the 6th place.

[tastyonions]

I had a short moment of interest in Portuguese a while ago, and I kept reading that people found it strange sounding, unplaceable, eastern European, that they didn't like it because of those things, besides, "no one speaks it anyway".

Those reasons are exactly why I find it awesome.

I have a Portuguese Assimil lying around here. Some day...

[YtownPolyglot]

In the area where I live, there are lots and lots of Italian-Americans. Most of them seem to know little more than kitchen vocabulary and swear words, but Italian has the second-largest enrollment at the university after Spanish.

Which is a bit silly, given that most of their ancestors probably never spoke Italian anyway. New York is full of people studying Italian, going up to Nonna to proudly show off what they've learned, only to be hit with "what the hell are you talking about" in Sicilian. The majority of Italian-Americans are Sicilians, but even if Ohio has a population mostly from another region, the generation that emigrated were probably before widespread mandatory schooling so would only have had the local language.

I can't speak for the entire state of Ohio, but the area where I live has lots of people from Abruzzi, plenty from other southern provinces, but not quite so many Sicilians as seem to be in and around New York.

[William Camden]

I have occasionally heard people speaking Romance-sounding languages that I can't place. Sometimes it might have been Portuguese, sometimes Romanian, but perhaps even Catalan or a non-standard Italian dialect.

[reineke]

Apparently Italian is now the fourth most studied language in the world. Up yours, corporate world! Chinese was calculated as being the third most studied language. I suppose you can sacrifice only so much... I am curious about how they came up with the numbers..

English news

Love, food and music: Why Italian is now the world's fourth most studied language

"Italian is growing in popularity as a foreign language around the world - but why the appeal? We asked our readers, whose reasons for learning the language ranged from family old and new to an appreciation of the food and culture - as well as some more unexpected factors.
Italian has leapt to fourth place in terms of the most-studied languages worldwide. The number of foreigners studying it has risen to 2,233,373 in the 2015/16 academic year - up from 1,700,000 the previous year.

The figures, released by the General Assembly of the Italian Language in the World, revealed student numbers saw a particular increase in France and Germany but also further afield, in Australia and the USA.

Italian follows English, Spanish and Mandarin Chinese in the rankings of most popular languages among students. But while the top three can boast hundreds of millions of speakers and have clear CV-boosting potential, the appeal of Italian is somewhat less obvious...

For one thing, the boom in language-learning apps, such as DuoLingo and Memrise, has given a welcome boost to more niche languages, allowing students to work on languages which may not be offered by schools in their area.

This is crucial because in the UK, for example, where language learning as a whole is on the decline, Italian courses are often only available at private schools, and although a growing number of universities offer ab initio courses for students with no prior knowledge, these kinds of degrees are demanding.

But besides the fact that it's now simply easier to learn Italian, the language seems to have a unique appeal, attracting learners who see it as more than a way to improve their employment prospects...

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.theloc ... nguage/amp

Ma mi state prendendo in giro? Italians surprised.

Italian news:

http://www.aldogiannuli.it/italiano-quarta-lingua/

http://www.agi.it/cultura/2016/10/18/ne ... a-1174983/

http://www.corriere.it/scuola/14_giugno ... 4f63.shtml

[Tomás]

When I think of Italian culture, I can think of many examples: art, history, food, inventions...When I try to think of culture related to Portuguese, I can't think of many examples.

You don't like music?

[Xenops]

When I think of Italian culture, I can think of many examples: art, history, food, inventions...When I try to think of culture related to Portuguese, I can't think of many examples.

You don't like music?

I'm afraid I don't know what you refer to. I can think of one thing that is written in Portuguese: The Alchemist book, that I've been meaning to read.