06.05.2026
May 5 marks World Portuguese Language Day, established by UNESCO in 2020. More than 265 million people speak the Portuguese language across five continents – from Europe to South America, from Africa to Asia. This makes it the sixth most widely spoken language and the second most spoken among the Romance languages.
At the Russian State University for the Humanities (RSUH), Portuguese is taught to philology students, future translators, and students of the Institute of International Relations. RSUH is proud of its Portuguese teachers, remarkable philologists and polyglots: Flavia Stucci, Oksana Samoylenko, and Mikhail Kabitsky. Anyone interested is welcome to come to the Brazilian Center and speak Portuguese with the center's director, Lyudmila Baturina. Portuguese is the official language in Portugal, Brazil, Mozambique, Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, São Tomé and Príncipe, as well as East Timor and Macau. Like other languages, Portuguese is not only a means of communication but also a cultural link between the peoples who speak it. The International Russian-Brazilian Center couldn't ignore this day and held a series of meetings with undergraduate and graduate students studying Portuguese to discuss the language, its history, its presence in Russian, and, conversely, Russian words in Portuguese. Particularly engaging was an interactive exercise that explored the language through the culture of the country, where students attempted to understand the meaning of phraseological units and find their Russian equivalents. During their internship in June, some of the students will be attending the International Russian-Brazilian Center for an internship. A program has already been prepared for them in three areas: academic (lectures on the history, culture, and economy of Brazil), research (continuation of projects begun in 2024 and 2025), and organizational (preparation and organization of the famous Brazilian festival at the Russian State University for the Humanities). World Portuguese Language Day reminds us of the importance of preserving linguistic diversity and how one language can unite millions of people around the world.
