06 April 2012

BEIRUT: Only a few months after its official opening, the Brazil-Lebanon Cultural Center in Ashrafieh has seen a rush of Lebanese students eager to learn Portuguese and explore cultural and familial ties to the country.

“We currently have about 118 students and could not fit more,” the center’s director, Rose Marie Romariz Maasri, told The Daily Star, adding that they had not expected so much immediate interest in the center and were already looking for ways to expand their course offerings and activities.

The center, which was inaugurated during the visit of Brazil’s Vice President Michel Temer in November last year, is an official arm of the Brazilian Embassy and reflects ongoing efforts by Brazil to strengthen ties with Lebanon. Brazil also delivered a high-tech frigate and 200 naval personnel to serve in the UNIFIL Maritime Task Force during Temer’s official visit.

“Lebanon is very important to Brazil. We have a lot of cultural ties, family ties. We have about 10 million Lebanese in Brazil spread all over the country,” Maasri said, explaining why Brazil decided to open its first cultural center in all of Asia and the Middle East in Lebanon.

“Here in Lebanon we have about 5,000 Brazilians and this is the largest number in all of the Arab countries. This is why Lebanon was chosen. I think this is a very important and significant gesture by the Brazilian government.”

Located in a restored, 19th century building, the center is one of 21 Brazilian cultural centers worldwide. The primary purpose of the center is to provide Portuguese language courses but Maasri, who is married to a Lebanese with three Brazilian-Lebanese daughters, also hopes to begin a variety of cultural programing.

Already, the center offers a weekly screening of films from Brazil and other Portuguese-speaking countries, a library, karaoke nights, a children’s class and cafe stocked with Brazilian specialties such as Pao de Queijo (Brazilian cheesy bread), empanadas (pastries stuffed with a variety of meats, cheese and vegetables) and caipirinhas (the classic Brazilian cocktail).

“We want to do much more. We have a complete kitchen so we want to have Brazilian cooking classes. A lot of people are asking for classes on Capoeira, Samba and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu,” Maasri added.

Maasri and the Portuguese instructors at the center all expressed shock at the popularity of classes so far.

“It’s growing all the time,” said Renata Vieira, who has taught Portuguese as a second language for more than 20 years. “We’re going to start publicity but until now it’s been all word of mouth. We have a list of people who couldn’t start yet because we don’t have space.”

The cultural center has yet to launch any promotional campaign – events and classes are simply announced on the center’s Facebook page.

The fourth semester of Portuguese classes is set to begin on April 10 and will offer three classes of level one, three of level two, two classes of level three and, for the first time, one session for level four. The courses will eventually reach up to level 10 with each level consisting of 40 hours of class time over two-and-a-half months at a cost of $180 per semester.

Vieira believes that one reason the classes have proven so popular is that the embassy offers a special scholarship for Lebanese to study in Brazil. The scholarship applies specifically to Lebanese who do not have Brazilian nationality or a parent from the country, but applicants must obtain certification in Portuguese and pass a proficiency test.

“This is the only center in all of the Middle East that can issue this certificate,” Vieira explained.

She estimated that about half of her students have a family link to Brazil, but some just come out of a love and affinity for learning languages, in her mind, a typically Lebanese trait.

“I went to Brazil last summer and I loved it – I loved the culture, the food, the people, the mentality, everything. So I decided to learn the language,” said one student, Aline Topalian, 32, who works as an office manager at a cosmetics company.

Other students are preparing for work abroad or to visit family.

“My dad is Brazilian and I don’t know Portuguese. You feel like you have a second home and it’s a shame that you can’t speak the language,” 21-year-old graphic designer Yara Kalyoussef told The Daily Star.

“It’s my second country, I’m a citizen and I want to learn Portuguese so I can communicate more,” said 17-year-old student Adriano Mortada. He also added that many of his classmates were interested in Portuguese for business connections or because they planned to work in other Portuguese speaking countries, such as Angola.

Maasri welcomes anyone with an interest in the language, whether specific to Brazil or other countries. “We had a company come with about 11 students who they wanted to send to work in Angola. So it’s not only Brazil, there are eight countries with Portuguese as an official language and Brazil is the only country that has an embassy here.”

The challenge for the center is to meet the welcome, but unexpected, level of demand. Maasri said future plans involve hiring more teachers, launching samba and capoeira classes and expanding Portuguese and cultural courses to other areas of Lebanon, especially the Bekaa Valley, where the highest concentration of Brazilian-Lebanese live.

According to Maasri, the “center is a wonderful opportunity in a subtle way to bring Lebanon and Brazil closer and closer together,” especially as Brazil assumes a larger role on the global stage.

“As Brazil grows and becomes more and more important as a country, the Portuguese language is becoming very important for people to learn – to do business, to travel to Brazil. So I think we are going to have many more centers,” she said.

The Brazil-Lebanon Cultural Center is located on Mar Mitr Street in Ashrafieh. For more information on courses and programming, visit http://www.facebook.com/BrasiLiban

Copyright The Daily Star 2012.