Leituras | Sobre a língua portuguesa em Timor (e não só)

An elementary school in Manatuto, East Timor, is among just a few in the country to formally make the community's indigenous tongue the main language of instruction in early grades

Brendan Brady

"(...)The reality of Portuguese's limited reach in the country is most conspicuous in schools. After independence, many teachers scrambled to learn Portuguese so they could follow the rules, though Tetum and other indigenous languages are often used de facto. "Almost all of the teachers here have a problem with the Portuguese language, [but] Portuguese is what's mandated," says the principal of Colegio San Miguel, a primary school in Dili. Joao Marsao, who at 58 is older than most of his fellow teachers and learned Portuguese when the European country still ruled, says many of his colleagues approach him with basic questions about how to talk with their students in Portuguese. (See "World Bank to East Timor: We Messed Up.")(...)"

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2103483,00.html#ixzz1igL5AC00