
Donald asks…
Is it possible to live a Portuguese-only life in the Chinese special administrative region of Macau?
A friend of mine from Brazil will be living in Macau for at least one year for a temporary job posting. Portuguese is his first language and he speaks not a word of Chinese.
Macau was formerly a colony of Portugal that was returned to China in 1999. Portuguese is retained in the territory as one of its co-official languages. However, the Cantonese dialect of Chinese is the major native language of Macau and only a small portion of the population uses Portuguese on a regular basis.
Still, is Portuguese prevalent enough in Macau where you could survive using just that language? Are all government services still offered in Portuguese? Are media and cultural resources still widely available in the language? Do enough everyday people in Macau have at least some basic knowledge of the language so that you can undertake all your day-to-day tasks (i.e. shopping, getting around, paying utility bills, etc.) in Portuguese?

Players Club Tours answers:
They speak Portuguese, in some areas,
Althought the majority of the Macanese people speak Cantonoese, they know at least the basics of Portuguese (or an hybrid version of it, Creole) if they are native to the island.
Yes, your friend will be able to live in Macau as if he was living in Portugal.
Macanese culture was influenced by the Portuguese themselves. Just look at it’s architecture, gastronomy, etc.
Here’s an interesting documentary:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrCGxSYgyxE


















