Latijns-Amerikastudies (Spaans/Portugees)
This multidisciplinary minor within the department of Latin American Studies offers the opportunity to combine language acquisition courses in Spanish or Portuguese with modules in the history, literature, culture and cinema of Spanish America and Brazil. Students can choose to follow the Spanish or Portuguese/Brazilian studies track.
Spanish
Spanish America is an emerging sub-continent of 19 countries and over 500 million people. Each country has its particular history and cultural traditions, and it is a very important economic player in the world. Moreover, Spanish is spoken in other continents and has a very important presence in vast regions of the world. For example in the Philippines, where almost 1 million people still speak Spanish, and in the USA, where Spanish is the second language after English, and almost 55 million people have Spanish as their mother tongue.
Portuguese
Brazil is the largest Portuguese-speaking country in the world, with a vibrant and diverse culture, member of the BRICS and, with over 200 million people, is an emerging player on the world stage.
Portuguese is the world’s sixth most widely spoken language, shared by around 260 million people across four continents, in the countries of Brazil, Portugal, Angola, Mozambique, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, São Tomé and Príncipe, East Timor, being also spoken in Macau (China) and Goa (India). Thus, learning Portuguese at Leiden not only introduces students to the vibrant culture, society and history of Brazil, but opens the possibility of communicating in a global language, a valuable asset in today’s competitive world.