Demand for Portuguese-speaking professionals remains high in China

China continues to experience a strong demand for professionals who speak Portuguese, two of the co-authors of an academic work told Lusa about Chinese Portuguese-speaking students, which will be presented on Friday.

The professor at the University of Lisbon says that Chinese students have “very assiduous contact” with Portuguese speakers, namely through “professional experiences that many begin to have at an earlier age”.

There are Chinese students who decided to learn Portuguese after entering the Portuguese language market. work, because “they want to progress in professional terms”, says Madalena Teixeira.

“There is an expectation of having an even better paid job or even becoming civil servants” , underlines the professor at the University of Aveiro.

There is in China “this demand and this job market” for people who know Chinese and Portuguese, confirms Catarina Gaspar.

Even the younger students “already have job prospects, supporting companies in the context of economic and political relations between China and the different Portuguese-speaking countries” , explains the researcher.

Another characteristic of Chinese students is “the experience of at least one year in Portugal, Brazil, or in another Portuguese-speaking country”, adds Catarina Gaspar.

The opportunity for “linguistic immersion” in Portuguese facilitates learning, but the covid-19 pandemic has made international mobility more difficult, admits Madalena Teixeira.

Catarina Gaspar believes, however, that it is possible to overcome this difficulty using technology, not only in the classroom, but also to “follow radio or television programs ‘online ‘, or speak assiduously with friends in Portuguese”.

The book, which is also authored by Maria José Grosso and Zhang Jing, professors at the University of Ma cau, is presented by the University and the Centro Científico e Cultural de Macau, based in Lisbon.

In June, China carried out the first accreditation tests for Chinese translators and interpreters -Portuguese and Portuguese-Chinese. Only those who pass these tests can work in the Foreign Language Publications Administration in China.

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