BA Portuguese

More than 230 million people speak Portuguese, making it the sixth most widely spoken language in the world. It is the third most spoken language in the Western Hemisphere (after English and Spanish) and the most spoken language in the Southern Hemisphere. An estimated 1.3 million Portuguese-speakers live in the United States, and Brazil where Portuguese is the official language has the fifth largest economy in the world.As a result, a major in Portuguese can help students find careers in many settings, such as international business, government, travel, or communications fields in which knowledge of a foreign language and of foreign cultures may be essential.