When you visit any web site, it may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. This information might be about you, your preferences, your device or used to make the site work as you expect it to. The information does not usually identify you directly, but it can give you a more personalized web experience. You can choose not to allow some types of cookies. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings. However, you should know that blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience on the site and the services we are able to offer.
Strictly Necessary Cookies
Always Active
These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site may not work then.
Cookies used
ContactCenterWorld.com
Performance Cookies
Active
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources, so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies, we will not know when you have visited our site.
Cookies used
Google Analytics
Functional Cookies
Active
These cookies allow the provision of enhance functionality and personalization, such as videos and live chats. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services we have added to our pages. If you do not allow these cookies, then some or all of these functionalities may not function properly.
Cookies used
Twitter
Facebook
LinkedIn
Targeting Cookies
Active
These cookies are set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant ads on other sites. They work by uniquely identifying your browser and device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will not experience our targeted advertising across different websites.
Cookies used
LinkedIn
This site uses cookies and other tracking technologies to assist with navigation and your ability to provide feedback, analyse your use of our products and services, assist with our promotional and marketing efforts, and provide content from third parties
One of the most widely held misconceptions about languages is that Spanish and Portuguese are almost the same. In fact, even after coming from the same descent of Latin they are very much different. The words you use in Spain are guaranteed to get you funny looks if you try using those in Portugal. If Cristiano Ronaldo understood Portuguese by the time he grew up, why is talking in English to Lionel Messi who knows Spanish perfectly? You can very well accrue that to the confusion that might be created if they both start speaking in their own language to each other.
Both languages vary with geographical locations. European Portuguese is much different than Brazilian Portuguese, which in turn varies in the Portuguese spoken in Mozambique and Angola. Much like that, Spanish is spoken differently in Castilian, Andalusian, Murcian, Galician, Mexican, Columbian, Peruvian, Bolivian, and Caribbean among many others. Though Portuguese and Spanish have a lot of common words and terminologies, it is used in different ways and isn’t easy for one native speaker to understand the other one without being aware of it.
“You speak Spanish, please talk to this guy from Portugal.”
Sponsor message - content continues below this message
2021 '16th annual' Global Contact Center World Awards CLOSING SOON!
Enter your Center, Strategy, Technology Innovation, People and more into the ONLY TRULY GLOBAL awards program - regarded by many as being like the Olympics for the Contact Center World! Join the best from over 50 nations and compete for the most prestigious awards out there! Join the FREE Webinar
That is a request that one of our Spanish call center agents received from a client visiting our multilingual call center facility, which did push the agent into an awkward situation.
It isn’t as simple as it is made out to be.
Spanish and Portuguese are Romance languages having their roots in ancient Latin. It cannot be properly stated when the languages developed and parted ways from each other. Though they both originated in the Iberian Peninsula and the same classical language of Latin, they both differ from each other to an extreme now.
The prominent difference between both these languages isn’t in the written form of usage but in the way it is pronounced. Even with stark differences, the vocabulary is almost 90% like each other. Mind you, even with the words being the same; you cannot be sure that they mean the same too in each language. Even the pronouns differ and so does the grammar.
Quick Facts About Both The Languages
While Spanish is the second-most common native language spoken worldwide, Portuguese comes at seventh in that list. Also, Spanish is spoken across different continents and in varying dialects. Much like that, Portuguese is spoken across different continents and with different dialects
Both languages are the official ones in more than ten countries, at least.
Both languages became spread out with European colonialism reaching the world over.
Spain and Portugal were both once a part of the Roman empire whose spoken language was Latin. It is here that they both share the origin of their language history.
Spanish has the same vowel sounds as in English i.e. ‘a,e, I,o,u’ while Portuguese has 9 vowel sounds.
Portuguese has 19 consonants while Spanish has 22 consonants.
Portuñol or Portunhol is a mixture of Portuguese and Spanish, which originated along the border with constant connection and trade.
Spanish And Portuguese: Mirror Images Or Poles Apart?
Much like languages branching out from the same classical language, Spanish and Portuguese have widely different dialects and phonetics. If you want to learn both, you will have to spend time learning each of them individually as learning one doesn’t mean learning the other. A Spanish speaker who goes to Portugal won’t be able to make the population understand what he/she is trying to say half the time. Try calling up a Portuguese call center and asking for what you want in Spanish; you are both likely to pull your hair out trying to understand each other. Though still, experts argue that a Portuguese speaker can understand more than half of what a native Spaniard is speaking; but basic words are pronounced and written differently in both languages making it a classic case of lost in translation.
Another problem is that both languages have their own set of idioms and cussing words, as every language should have their own unique set. That might be one of the reasons both the languages are highly intelligible to both the speakers, for they seem polished when written down. But everyday language is bound to get harder if you start speaking in your own Spanish dialect to someone whose native language is European Portuguese.
False cognates
Let us now have a look at false cognates and how everyday words can be misinterpreted in another language:
Barata- What means ‘cockroach’ in Portuguese translates to ‘cheap’ in Spanish. Don’t try to find cheap places to stay in Portugal if your native language is Spanish.
Ligar- In Portuguese, it means ‘join’ or ‘call’ but in Spanish, the word translates to ‘flirt’. It can get pretty awkward soon enough for a Portuguese in Spain
Botequim and Botiquin- Though, both words spell differently; they do sound the same. The first one means ‘bar’ in Portuguese and the second one means ‘first aid box’ in Spanish. How about a Spanish call center agent receiving a request from a Portuguese tourist asking them to locate a bar for him?
Esquisito and Exquisito- The first one means ‘strange’ and ‘odd’ in Portuguese while the other means ‘excellent’ and ‘delicious’ in Spanish. Imagine a Spaniard trying to give compliments to a restaurant owner in Portugal.
Apelido and Apellido- What means ‘nickname’ in Portuguese translates to ‘surname’ in Spanish. What should be ‘Garcia’ could easily be ‘amorcito’.
Borrar- While it means ‘stain’ or ‘soil’ in Portuguese depending upon the dialect and usage. The same word means ‘remove’ in Spanish. For someone whose native language is English, this is irony at a linguistic level.
Mala- While it means ‘suitcase’ in Portuguese, the word has an extremely different meaning in Spanish i.e. ‘bad’. If you thought learning one language will make you understand the other completely, think again.
Final Word
You should be wary of the confusion, which might arise with using similar-sounding words. Especially when you are learning languages originating from the same classical one.
There are lots of similarities between the two languages and learning one will surely prepare you for the other one. Still, don’t try to delve into another while still learning the first one; it will only lead to confusion for you. Remember each language is spoken in a varying dialect across different countries; figure out which one you would want to learn first.
At LiveSalesman, our Spanish Call Center and Portuguese call center services are delivered by natives who understand this difference and have an intimate knowledge of the dialects spoken in different parts of the world. Our objective is not to only provide support in the local language but to provide it with local cultural flavor. Talk to us today to learn more.
Dialfire Dialfire offers you a complete call center solution that is simple and intuitive to use and adapts to your needs. It's completely cloud-based, saving you the hassle of setting up a phone system and installing software. In addition to predictive dialing and call blending of inbound calls, you can create personalized campaigns through an intuitive and easy-to-use interface. Features include automated workflows and full control over the agent screen.
Cloudonix’s smart voice calls enable frictionless experiences that drive better customer care and faster sales by merging voice and data into a complete service context. Cloudonix add Cloud capabilities to your existing on premise Call Center enabling your agents to work from anywhere in the world. Security, Privacy and more – rapidly deployed and cost effective without replacing your existing systems or retraining your team.
PBX On The Cloud We provide complete Cloud-based PBX/Phone Systems, including predictive and progressive dialers, phone lines in more than 75 countries and low cost international rates. We specialize in the US and Latin American market.
Layer One Technologies provides information and communication technology (ICT) services to businesses in the greater Charlotte area. Whatever your cabling needs, we have you covered.
VOIP services Stay in contact quickly and easily with your international offices through Megacall.
Megacall will fulfill all your telecommunication requirements and on top of that go the extra mile and surprise you with new possibilities for your business, speed to action your requests and keeping within your budget.
📞 Virtual Switchboard 🔌 SIP trunk 🔢 Virtual number 📠 Call Center Solutions
SNAPsolution Our SNAPsolution – UC and Collaboration tools – can be quickly deployed so you can realize your ROI just as quick. netsapiens offers a comprehensive suite of unified communications (UC) & Contact Center (CC) feature-sets to service providers. Custom-built to provide our partners with unprecedented levels of flexibility, customization, and ease of use.
netsapiens allows you to control your margins in order to improve your ROI. As a provider of a facilities-based solution, you are able to personally choose your origination, termination, hardware costs, etc. to fit your budget. We also allow you to strategically price your product for a maximum return on your investment by charging on a conc... (read more)Our SNAPsolution – UC and Collaboration tools – can be quickly deployed so you can realize your ROI just as quick. netsapiens offers a comprehensive suite of unified communications (UC) & Contact Center (CC) feature-sets to service providers. Custom-built to provide our partners with unprecedented levels of flexibility, customization, and ease of use.
netsapiens allows you to control your margins in order to improve your ROI. As a provider of a facilities-based solution, you are able to personally choose your origination, termination, hardware costs, etc. to fit your budget. We also allow you to strategically price your product for a maximum return on your investment by charging on a concurrent call basis instead of charging per-seat or per-feature. SNAPsolution, SNAPvantage, and SNAPanalytics give you all the tools to start off strong in the VoIP industry while giving you room to grow efficiently within your means.
Why Sessions, Not Seats? The era of the mobile workforce is upon us. In fact, Google recently put out an estimate that 80% of the global workforce is now performing deskless work every day! Unfortunately, when it comes to providing Unified Communications (UC) features to these deskless employees, many systems operators, carriers and service providers are stuck investing in their platforms on a per-seat basis. That limits them to chasing only about 20% of the workforce - those with actual seats and desks.
Why not expand your addressable market and open your business model to chase up to 5 times as many clients as you are today? If a majority of the workforce today doesn’t have a desk, does it make sense to purchase the UC solutions you want to sell by the seat? We don’t think so. That’s why we’ve created this report titled Sessions, Not Seats. In it, we’ll show you why finding a UC platform, like our SNAPsolution, that charges for sessions instead of seats is the way to go.
CenterWare Build a strong business presence and improve customer relationships!
Offer custom-tailored solutions throughout your sales cycles and customer interactions and assess service levels and control corporate goal achievement through reports and statistics.
Obtain detailed reports based on relevant activity in your contact center, access our quality module to assess calls and performance, apply surveys, develop scripts, record conversations, and more!
Long Distance and Toll Free Specialists for Contact Centers Televergence is a facilities based US Nationwide High volume/High Capacity Inbound and Outbound VoIP Carrier for Contact Centers. We specialize in termination (outbound) and origination (toll free and local DID) for the contact center. We have a technical staff that is up to date on the majority of platforms in use today, including asterisk and Vicci dial, as well as many of the currently in use software platforms. Contact Centers generally see cost reduction and containment when using Televergence as their contact center telecom carrier. Televergence is the only active US VoIP carrier certified by the Women's Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC), which enables our services to qualify for meeting corporations Supplier Diversity Needs.