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Can I give a slightly more broader/off-topic answer?

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, ...)

by t-------------- on Sat Jun 19th, 2010 at 07:25:50 PM EST
[ Parent ]
the Anglo-common Computer Science - though informatics is definitely an Anglo thingy

I believe "computer science" is more American English, "informatics" is common elsewhere (and in non-English languages, it's not just French).

*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.

by DoDo on Sun Jun 20th, 2010 at 06:45:54 AM EST
[ Parent ]
My intention is not to nitpick, just trying to be rigorous and informative.

Here (UK), Computer Science is the norm. For instance in my school (Liverpool Uni) the department and the degree are both called computer science.

The most symbolic thing I know of, the Alan Turing statue in Manchester has a plaque that reads:

ALAN MATHISON TURING
1912-1954
FATHER OF COMPUTER SCIENCE,
MATHEMATICIAN, LOGICIAN, WARTIME CODEBREAKER, VICTIM OF PREJUDICE

by t-------------- on Sun Jun 20th, 2010 at 08:26:42 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Interesting. "Informatics" is definitely still in use at some places, so maybe this was another Americanism winning over in Britain. At any rate, it's "Informatik" in German, "informatica" in Dutch, "scienze dell'informazione" in Italian, "informatika" in Hungarian, "informatiky" in Slovakian. But the Russian version at least seems to be a literal translation of "computer science".

*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.
by DoDo on Sun Jun 20th, 2010 at 12:58:34 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Well, I speak against my argument. My area of work is bioinformatics.
by t-------------- on Sun Jun 20th, 2010 at 03:42:42 PM EST
[ Parent ]
And we'd like to know more about that, please ;-)

You can't be me, I'm taken
by Sven Triloqvist on Sun Jun 20th, 2010 at 03:57:36 PM EST
[ Parent ]

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