For Rio, get your Portuguese ready

Most Brazilians speak no other language but their own, yet another hurdle for the Olympics

If English is the language of world commerce, Brazil hasn't gotten the memo - only a small fraction of its 200 million people have a basic proficiency. Fluency is also rare for other languages such as German, French and even Spanish, despite Brazil being bordered by seven Spanish-speaking countries.

Many of the hundreds of thousands of tourists expected to descend on Rio de Janeiro for the Olympics in a few weeks could frequently find themselves in a linguistic muddle.

Vanderclei Silva Santos, who sells caipirinha, Brazil's national cocktail, says he struggles to communicate with foreign tourists who stop at his stand on Copacabana Beach, so he uses his fingers and toes to write prices and shapes in the sand.

Most of the time it works, but trying and funny moments are common, like the time a woman made chomping gestures to ask where she might find fresh corn on the cob, or the time a man seemed to be urgently asking to use a "banho" but really was trying to figure out where to shower.

"Communicating is tough. We move our hips, we smile, which tourists like. We find a way," said Santos, a 39-year-old who hopes to one day take a basic English course, something that until recent years generally was available only for wealthy Brazilians and is still not widely offered.

English courses

Attempting over the last year to bridge the language gap for the Summer Games, Rio de Janeiro state, the Olympic Committee and several companies have offered in-person and online English courses to several thousand service industry workers, Olympic volunteers and police - those most likely to come in contact with tourists.

"Do you know the meaning of 'I'm going to kick your butt?'" teacher Rafael Vianna asked this week to a dozen tourist police in an advanced course aimed at preparing them to help English speakers sort through any issues that come up, from harassment to robbery. "It's often used in sports and can be interpreted in different ways depending on the context."

On the blackboard, Vianna wrote and defined some words that tourists in distress may use, such as "mace, malice, mayhem and nuisance."

Vinicius Lummertz, the president of Embratur, a government agency that promotes Brazil overseas, said Rio will be ready. And he argues that any linguistic struggles will be part of the experience.

"A lack of English is a problem, but trying to communicate with Brazilians who only speak Portuguese becomes a flavor," Lummertz said. "Do you want a world that is exactly the same everywhere?"

Latin America's biggest country is roughly the size of the continental United States, which has tended to insulate its people. And vast inequalities permeate every walk of life, including education, and most Brazilians have never had a chance to study other languages.

Virginia Garcia, former head of the British Council in Brazil, said research by the council a few years ago found that only 5 percent of Brazilians spoke English at a proficient level.

Garcia said English instruction in public schools is limited, although several big events hosted by Brazil in recent years, including the World Cup, have slowly pushed the country to expand language teaching.