About the field:
Studying another culture can be a complicated undertaking, but many people start with the language and literature of that culture. If you can speak a language, you can communicate with others who speak that language and thus learn far more than a book or a lecture can ever tell you. Similarly, learning the literature of another culture enables you to hear the stories of that people in their own words. Language studies can cover anything from basic vocabulary to advanced linguistics , while literature can touch on the range of issues facing a particular society. Portuguese is a valuable choice of languages to study because over 210 million people, including 1.3 million people in the U.S, speak it. It is the seventh most widely spoken language in the world. Because it is less often studied than many of the other widely spoken languages, fluent Portuguese is an extremely marketable skill. For those interested in studying other languages and cultures, there are a variety of other related fields including: African Studies , Asian Studies , French Studies , German Studies , Italian Studies , Middle Eastern Studies , Russian and Slavic Studies , and Spanish Studies . Portuguese studies may also encompass a range of other issues related to Portuguese culture including: history , politics , philosophy , art , and religion .