A new bill in Tallahassee would let state university students take intermediate and advanced Portuguese and Mandarin courses for free.
Florida State University sophomore Jonathan Louine has never been to Brazil but he speaks the national language, Portuguese.
Louine said he took the language in high school but the courses weren't that popular.
"It was kind of placed on me, because French and Spanish, those are the ones that had already filled up, so I had to take Portuguese, and it wasn't a bad class at all," said Louine.
With overseas companies looking to expand internationally, Florida could potentially attract more business if more graduates were bilingual.
Students enrolled in Japanese, Spanish or French might not be happy about the bill, but in a global economy, all languages may not be created equal.
One of Governor Rick Scott’s top priorities is making sure students can get jobs after they graduate.
"Are we giving them incentives to go spend four years and borrow a lot of money for jobs that aren't there?" said Scott. "And why shouldn't we be the Silicon Valley, rather than where Silicon Valley is right now?"
Tuition-free classes in Mandarin and Portuguese would be one very big incentive, enough to convince Louine to continue his studies.
"I mean, college isn't really inexpensive for any college student," said Louine.
Lawmakers say it potentially could give Florida’s economy a critical boost.
Under the bill, students would still have to pay regular tuition to take introductory courses in Mandarin and Portuguese but, if they get at least a 'B', every other course in those languages would be free.