Portuguese is officially the national language and it is spoken by 99% of the Brazilian population. However, there is over 210 indigenous languages, European languages and Asian languages that are spoken in Brazil.

Although the German community is smaller than Portuguese, Spanish and Italians immigrants community, German is the second most spoken first language or second mother tongue in the country. This phenomenon happened because according to Census two-thirds of the children of German immigrants spoke German at home. In comparison, half of the children of Italians spoke Portuguese at home. Also, Italian is way closer to Portuguese than German is. Other languages such as Polish and Ukrainian, along with German and Italian, are spoken in rural areas of Southern Brazil, by small communities of descendants of immigrants, who are for the most part bilingual. There are whole regions in southern Brazil where people speak both Portuguese and one or more of these languages.

São Paulo has the biggest Japanese immigration around the world so the Japanese language is fairly common in the immigrant area. A Japanese-language newspaper, the São Paulo Shinbun, has been published in the city of São Paulo since the 40’s. Korean and Chinese languages and dialects can also be found in Paraná, Mato Grosso do Sul and Amazonas.

There is approximately 150 indigenous languages but less than forty thousand people actually speak any of these languages. The main indigenous languages are Guarani (also spoken in Paraguay), Arara, Bororo, Canellla, Kaingang, Terena, Tucano and Nheengatu. Some of the languages are spoken by just a couple of people and to keep it alive and well has been the goal of many projects of Indigenous school education.