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Why is the Portuguese icon not Portugal's flag?

Why is the Portuguese icon not Portugal's flag? I understand that Brazil speaks Portuguese, but there are also are plenty of other countries that speak the other languages offered and their flags aren't used. My next thought was that maybe it was based on population speaking it in that country. However, if that is the case, why isn't the Spanish icon Mexico's flag?

Is it just that Brazil's flag is more widely familiar? Or is the Portuguese offered specifically a Brazilian dialect?

December 6, 2012



I am rather 'miffed' - as seeing the word PORTUGUESE I really never looked at the flag and actually thought for once I was going to be able to learn European Portuguese ..... until I got to the 'leite' word ! Never mind the signed agreements in 1990, Portuguese people in Portugal have not changed their language - I live here and never hear Brazilian Portuguese unless it's a Brazilian national speaking ! I despair of ever finding a learning programme to just help me along when all I can seem to find is Brazilian Portuguese! Please Duolingo - Let's have the European version TOO !!!!


Duolingo teaches Brazilian Portuguese rather than European Portuguese.


The different between the Portuguese spoken in Brazil or the Portuguese spoken in other parts of the world are mostly cultural related and not language related. With the new language agreement of 1990 signed by all of the portuguese speaking countries (except East Timor which at the time was under Indonesian occupation) the orthography was unified and the few and minor existent language differences resolved.

I personally do not agree with the option of using the Brazilian flag... but probably what duolingo authors are trying to say is that they teach portuguese using the brazilian culture. However this gives lots of confusion and raises many questions to the learners.
