RAVE is the name of a company - Rede ferroviária de Alta VElocidade - or in english High Speed Railroad Network. This is the company that will build and manage the rail lines (not the trains I think). The term TGV is used to specify the train class itself, paying homage to its country of origin; most folk are likelly unaware of its meaning.

Alta Velocide (portuguese for High Speed) is sometimes used in the media by the folk that now, but the really popular term is TGV. In Portugal there is a tendency not to translate these technical terms. Also the portuguese term for train, combóio, has a rather folkish flavour to it, since its original meaning was a group of beasts of burden. It doesn't marry very well with the futuristic high-tech image of the TGV :)

luis_de_sousa@mastodon.social

Until 10/15 years ago Portuguese cultural influences were mainly French. French was also the main foreign language (strangely enough there are more Portuguese speakers in the world than French).

You still can find that in many many ways, say my case: My undergrad is called Engenharia Informática (note the import from the French informatique and not the Anglo-common Computer Science - though informatics is definitely an Anglo thingy). All my degree was imported from France and it definitely had a French flavour (longer, more broad, more theoretically stronger than Anglo versions).

You still note strong undertones of French and German culture in Portuguese culture: more hermetic and more pedantic than Anglo culture. And before somebody says that I am stereotyping go the the Heidegger wiki page and search for a Bertrand Russell quote or find (youtube, maybe?) a famous debate between Chomsky and Foucault where Chomsky alludes precisely to this.

Of course, currently American and British influences are gaining ground.

And, of course, the interactions with Brasil and not be be discounted (import of Republic, legal systems, culture, ...)