The job market for Portuguese language graduates in China is saturated, the representative of the Portuguese Institute of the Orient (IPOR) in Beijing told Lusa on Friday, warning of an “abrupt readjustment” by language departments.
“There is an oversupply, according to the data we’ve received or heard, sometimes unofficially,” revealed Luís Pestana, who has lived in China for 10 years, citing high youth unemployment rates in the country, which “particularly” affect foreign language students.
“It’s a widespread issue,” said Pestana, recalling that when he started working in China, his “students found jobs even before finishing their degrees,” but that opportunities are now “scarce.”
The oldest Portuguese language degree in the People’s Republic of China was created in 1961, at the Beijing Foreign Studies University (‘Beiwai’). For almost twenty years, it was the only such course in the country, with only one more emerging in Shanghai by the end of the 1990s.
However, Portuguese language education in mainland China has grown rapidly over the last 25 years, driven by increasing trade between China and Portuguese-speaking countries—which in 2024 alone amounted to over 225 billion USD (nearly 208 billion EUR)—creating a growing need to train Chinese professionals to work with CPLP countries.
Today, excluding Macau and Hong Kong, there are over 40 Chinese universities offering degrees in Portuguese, and around 20 others that offer Portuguese as an elective subject, according to data provided by IPOR to Lusa. In total, more than 4,300 students are learning Portuguese in mainland China.
Pointing to the Chinese government’s strategic focus on more technical fields, including law, economics, and engineering—at a time when China faces a rivalry with the United States over future tech dominance—Luís Pestana predicted an “abrupt readjustment” on the supply side of language education.
“Some departments are likely to close, because they’ve simply ceased to be necessary or strategically important, while others will enter a process of adaptation and redirect their courses toward different areas,” he predicted.
For recent Portuguese language graduates heading to Beijing or Shanghai—the country’s two main metropolises and among the most expensive cities in the world—the starting salary ranges between 7,000 and 8,000 yuan (900 to 1,000 euros).
A Chinese-Portuguese simultaneous interpreter may earn up to 10,000 yuan (1,300 euros) per day, usually accompanying business delegations or official visits, but this is an occasional task performed only by the most experienced professionals.
In Angola or Mozambique, an interpreter and translator working at one of the hundreds of Chinese companies involved in infrastructure, energy, or mining projects used to earn between 200,000 and 400,000 yuan annually (25,000 to 50,000 euros), according to Lusa estimates based on Chinese job postings.
“These kinds of opportunities are no longer the same and have become fewer,” said the IPOR representative, adding that many Portuguese language students end up pursuing careers “completely unrelated” to their field of study.
Luís Pestana also highlighted the “very deep” impact that the development of artificial intelligence systems is having on the language services market.
“For texts with more practical, technical purposes, the reality is that so many translators are no longer needed,” he noted.
“And that’s also important because it heavily influences young people’s choices: they end up questioning the added value of learning a language if DeepSeek or ChatGPT can deliver a perfect translation,” he explained.
Source: Lusa
