Writer Joaquim Peito, who gives Portuguese lessons in the Gottingen University, states that most German students who are learning Portuguese have a ‘low knowledge of the country and the history of the country.’

Peito wrote six Portuguese textbooks for German students and he estimates that 80 percent of the students that apply to study the language [ at Gottingen University] do not receive enough information before starting the course.

Mr Peito has said that ‘schools are teaching very few subjects linked to the history of Portugal,’ this statement was made by the writer when he was interviewed by the agency Lusa. ‘There is a lot of ignorance!’

Even though he makes these allegations, Joaquim Peito believes that Portugal is now much better known that it was a few years ago, giving attribution to tourism, football and how the country presents itself abroad.

‘We are a little known about. A few years ago, German citizens believed that Portugal was a province in Spain. But we are known now, people talk about us, there is more to read about the country especially in the press. I have past articles and all that they mentioned was scandals, catastrophes or they would just focus on the touristic regions of the country. They would focus on these points but too little on the Portuguese history.’

The Portuguese writer completed his studies in Historical and Germanic Sciences at Gottingen University after he had concluded his bachelor’s degree in History at Faculdade de Letras da Universidade do Porto. He moved to Germany after meeting a woman that would become his wife on a vacation in the Algarve, he has been living in the country for almost two decades.

When recalling the first few years in the country he says, ‘I had a few difficulties and problems in the beginning, but I end up adapting and learning German (…) I tell my students [ of the Portuguese and Brazilian studies] that in one semester you can learn Portuguese but to learn German you need your whole life.’

‘The University of Gottingen is the only university here in the Baixo Saxe [ Niedersachsen] that offers Portuguese studies’ he says explaining that there has been an ‘increase in the number of students.’

‘Since our university has a master’s course, there are some students that learned how to speak Portuguese in other institutions in Germany, but they came all the way here to progress in their studies,’ said Joaquim Peito, adding that there are multiple reasons why students choose to do this.

‘There is everything, some students have spent some time in Brazil doing volunteering work, others in other countries where the first language is Portuguese, some have family who speak the language, but we also have some Portuguese students that were born in Germany.’

‘In recent years there has been an increase of the numbers of people that want to lean Portuguese and therefore more and more intuitions in Germany are opting for the language. Even though Portuguese language as a subject has been relatively new. Nowadays there are a lot of programmes that are similar in terms of content, structure and organization,’ said Mr Peito.

One of his textbooks contains ‘seven chapters dedicated to the Portuguese language, the Portuguese society, how to be young in Portugal, how to communicate, among others with several short texts.’

‘It is a manual that did not exist in Germany.’ He claims.

‘When I had the idea of doing it, there was a limited number of books. Lately German publications have an open market for the Portuguese language.’ He concludes.