A Brief introduction

Languages of Brazil

The official language of Brazil is Portuguese, which is spoken by the overwhelming majority of the population (more than 99%). Minority languages include indigenous languages, and languages of more recent European and Asian immigrants. Approximately 210 languages are spoken or signed by the population, of which 80 are indigenous to the area.
Language is one of the strongest elements of Brazil's national unity. Portuguese is spoken by nearly 99.9 percent of the population. The only exceptions are some members of Amerindian groups and pockets of immigrants, who have not yet learned Portuguese. There is about as much difference between the Portuguese spoken in Brazil and that spoken in Portugal as between the English spoken in the United States and that spoken in the United Kingdom. Within Brazil, there are no dialects of Portuguese, but only moderate regional variation in accent, vocabulary, and use of personal nouns, pronouns, and verb conjugations. Variations tend to diminish as a result of mass media, especially national television networks that are viewed by the majority of Brazilians.
The written language, which is uniform all over Brazil, follows national rules of spelling and accentuation that are revised from time to time for simplification. They are slightly different from the rules followed in Portugal. Written Brazilian Portuguese differs significantly from the spoken language and is used correctly by only a small, educated minority of the population. The rules of grammar are complex and allow more flexibility than English or Spanish. Many foreigners who speak Portuguese fluently have difficulty writing it properly. Because of Brazil's size, self-sufficiency, and relative isolation, foreign languages are not widely spoken. English and Spanish are often studied in school and increasingly in private courses.

Bilingualism

More people are realizing in Brazil that a person can master and carry more than one language throughout their lives, In other words, integration into mainstream society does not mean that one has to become monolingual. More and more the reasoning is that if languages are a human capital of great value to some, perhaps they should be considered valuable to one all
Spanish is understood to various degrees by most Brazilians, due to the similarities of the languages. In some parts of Brazil, close to the border of Brazil with Spanish-speaking countries, Brazilians use a mixture of Spanish and Portuguese that is sometimes known as Portuñol to communicate with their neighbors on the other side of the border.
In São Paulo, the German-Brazilian newspaper Brasil-Post has been published for over fifty years. There are many other media organizations throughout the land specializing either in church issues, music, language, etc.
The Italian online newspaper La Rena offers of Talian lessons.
There are many other non-Portuguese publications, bilingual web sites, radio and television programs throughout the country. For example, TV Galega from Blumenau shows German-language programming on their channel on a weekly basis.
The English-language daily Brazil Herald is directed mostly to tourists, foreign executives and expatriates.

Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_Brazil