Abstract
Portuguese is taught as a major at six Japanese universities. Factors such as the lack of instructors make it difficult to treat European and Brazilian varieties of Portuguese equally. Nevertheless, both social changes and students’ diverse interests show that these two varieties should be treated as distinct subjects with the same importance. In addition, the distinction between written and spoken languages in Brazilian Portuguese is also important. Many characteristics of spoken language violate rules of normative grammar and for that reason sometimes they are not taught. This paper discusses the importance of awareness about the varieties in Portuguese language education.
