Pluralidades em Português Brasileiro

This course is an oddity in this genre (i.e., those offered in a language other than English) in that it is neither a language course for beginners, nor a course designed for native speakers (e.g., in this case, Brazilian Portuguese). It is appropriate for intermediate to early advanced students of Portuguse. It is one of the first courses to be offered starting this fall on a continual basis by UNICAMP (an internationally ranked institution, 2nd only to University of Sao Paulo in Brazil).

The purported theme is to raise awareness of socio-cultural plurality that exists in Brazil; however, it is definitely not a systematic nor exhaustive treatment of the subject. It does offer an insight into the cultural diversity of Brazil, as experienced by the lens of personal identity among the various socio-ethnic persons in Brazil (e.g., “japa”, Brazilians of Japanese descent). The videos and reading materials are quite interesting, and offers a fascinating insight into some historical as well as current aspects of Brazilian social life.

The primary lecturer speaks in a clear, standard accent that is often contrasted by the various participants in the course. While brief, the grammar sections of the course covers the 3 important tenses of 1) simple past 2) imperfect and 3) future subjunctive. There is an excellent translation of the video transcripts into French by Ms. Anne-Katherine Dehier (Coursera GTC translator); however, reading materials and assessment questions are in Portuguese (since GTC mechanism doesn’t allow translation of these from the GTC platform). Also, there is no English translation.

As a first attempt, the instructors for this course did a great job. I hope this is the first course in a series that would treat the topic of cultural and language diversity in Brazilian Portuguese.