Macao Polytechnic Institute (MPI) said on Sunday it has opened a website for teaching Portuguese free of charge.

MPI issued a written announcement saying the website uses the written word, sound and moving pictures to teach the language for use in various circumstances, all in the context of the culture of lusophone countries.

MPI says the website is intended to help its students and Macao people in general become more proficient in Portuguese, and so make them more employable.

The website will contribute to making Macao a place that turns out people bilingual in Chinese and Portuguese, and so help the city perform its function as point of contact between China and the Portuguese-speaking world, the MPI announcement says.