Learning Japanese in Portugal

Nowadays (XXI century) - more than ever - we are all aware of the smallness of our world, the same world we once thought immense. That's the impact of the technological evolution: distances that in the past looked insurmountable are today surprisingly short, and the tendency points to a continuous shortening that will culminate in the increasing of the approach of the most distant cultures.

That's probably the reason why we must find curious (and in a certain way odd) the fact that some people and cultures are still deeply far from one another. The strangeness of this idea might be reforced when we start thinking of cultures that remain distant even when the shock between both (at least in theory) does not entail in a tense conflict (as it happens with the Christian and the Muslim worlds) - that's the case of Japan and Portugal. As a Portuguese citizen and an enthusiast of the Japanese culture, I can't avoid stressing how far is still Japan from Portugal; but more important, I can't avoid stressing how bizarre this looks, particularly because History establishes an undeniable connection between both countries.

In light of such fact, it turns crucial asking the following question: why such a distance? In the past, the commercial and cultural exchange strongly influenced Portugal and Japan until today (the Japanese vocabulary, for example, has several vestiges of the Portuguese presence in Japan, and the same happens in the opposite way); our daily life is unthinkable without the Japanese technology, for we life in an Era in which the use of a car or cellphone is almost a strict rule; the Portuguese television transmits Japanese productions since the early 80's; even if we speak of the affection issue, only the lowest minority of Portuguese people would refuse an oportunity to know more about such a rich an acient culture as the Japanese... and nevertheless Japan remains a far-off horizon.

Fortunately the newest generations are apparently starting to reverse this tendency. In fact, the Japanese culture is facing its most notorious period in Portugal: Japanese restaurants (so rare a few years ago) are appearing all over the country; the anime fever (thanks to the Internet) is bigger than ever; the cultural events conecting both countries are proliferating; and finally, the Japanese language is becoming a reality in the Portuguese Universities.

This new enthusiasm is also gaining power on the internet: the youth is more than ever interested in learning Japanese, and any person is now able to learn the language in an absolutely free and eficient way due the appearance of websites particularly inclined to such aim. Aprender Japonês is an example of a website designed by a student and directed to potencial students of the Japanese language. It's one of the (still) few Portuguese websites which offers a free online Japanese course, composed by a group of simple and didactic online lessons and tips that will allow any interested person in giving his first steps and evolving in Japanese without any kind of costs. Only two elements are required: a computer with internet and a bit of effort.

We're finally starting to face the Era that any Portuguese japanophile wished: an Era of strong connections between both countries. There is a lot to do yet, but fortunately we have now reasons to feel optimistic.