Juliet Dutra:

As a half american and Brazilian i have to say because in all of the schools there is english classes like you have to get a good grade to pass

Vasco da Gama 0:

Originally Answered: Why does everyone speak English in Portugal? Why not Portuguese or Spanish?

We do speak Portuguese. As we are an educated country many people speak English and French. But pur daily base is Portuguese. I think that you have never been to Portugal

Tiago Carvalho:

Originally Answered: Why does everyone speak English in Portugal? Why not Portuguese or Spanish?

The portuguese speak portuguese. but we do it with each other. By I understand where you』re coming from. It』s, but we do it because Portugal is packed with foreigners to we are forced to speak english with everyone else, due to tourism.

And because this country offers more conditions to foreigners than our own people, we are forced to leave our country and our homes to live somewhere else, cause we can』t afford to pay rent or buy houses anymore. This is why we speak more english than portuguese. Because we have to, not because we want to.

Laura Almeida:

Originally Answered: Why does everyone speak English in Portugal? Why not Portuguese or Spanish?

In Portugal, people speak Portuguese! Spanish is the official language of Spain.

It's true that a high percentage of Portuguese people can speak English, since they start learning it at 6 at school.

David Domingues:

According to Wikipedia, the EF English Proficiency Index (EF EPI) attempts to rank countries by the average level of English language skills amongst those adults who took the EF test.

This index rates Portugal in position number 12 with a very high proficiency band, whereas Spain rates in position 35 with moderate proficiency.

This only is an index among many others.

Andre Louchet:

Originally Answered: Why does everyone speak English in Portugal? Why not Portuguese or Spanish?

Where your information comes from? In Portugal everybody speaks portuguese. Some people can speak french (the old generation), many youngs can speak english more or less fluently as everybody does in the world. Some people can speak spanish, and in any case a spanish speaker is more or less understood by Portugueses people. But english is not the common language, of course !

Jo Canfield:

It hasn't been important for Spanish people to speak English.

If it had been, they would have.

Remember that Spanish is the second most widely spoken first language in the world, after Chinese.

And in the western hemisphere, Spanish is the most widely spoken second language.

So, before computers, globalization, and the relatively recent influx of tourists from northern Europe, there was really no reason for Spaniards to learn English.

Furthermore, before Franco died — less than fifty years ago — Spain was nearly cut off from the rest of Europe.

Paulo Rosa:

when I traveled to Portugal and Spain on vacation, I noticed that everywhere I went to in Portugal, people would talk to me in English first, not sure why, I am 15/16 Portuguese and I think I look Portuguese, but something about me give it away that I am foreign and I guess they tend to talk to foreigners in English.

In Spain it didn't matter if I approached someone in English, Portuguese or Portunhol (português espanhol haha), they would always answer in Spanish, they were not necessarily rude, but I believe they felt more conformable in their own skin.

Gledson Bernardelli Pereira:

Originally Answered: Why do most Brazilians speak English and not Spanish?

First of all, no! Most Brazilians do not speak English. I wish we all did, though. (That's my job—teaching English to Brazilians). According to the British Council, only 5% of Brazilians speak English, and only 1% are actually fluent in the language. Our language in Brazil is Portuguese, and even though almost all of our neighboring countries speak Spanish, we don't. That's because Portuguese works just fine for us.

John Plaut:

Originally Answered: Why do most Brazilians speak English and not Spanish?

Because, almost all Brazilians speak portugnol, a mixture of Spanish and Portuguese, like Mexicans speak spanglish. There is no need to study Spanish.

And it is not true that most Brazilians speak English, not even in Rio or São Paulo. In fact only 99% speak Portuguese and only 5% speak English. Just 2% are fluent speakers.