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Lisbon is amazing! I loved my stay there! Of course I had in my head some of portuguese stereotypes as : The portuguese women have mustache, everybody smell like bacalhau, everybody likes Fado, they are explorers and have so much story to tell us… and so on.

My face when I see that people don't know portuguese stereotypes
My face when I see that people don’t know portuguese stereotypes

I can say to you that those stereotypes are false, apart from Fado music…

But I was there with a portuguese friend that I’ve met in Milan. She hosted me and push me to explore Lisboa in a deep way.

Fernando Pessoa's statue
Fernando Pessoa’s statue

 

These are some of Portuguese stereotypes

  • Often confused with Spaniards and thus a lot of the Spanish stereotypes will also be applied to them. Their reaction is almost always one.
  • Portuguese are generally known as explorers, thanks to Vasco da Gama, Henry the Navigator, Bartolomeu Dias, Pedro Alvares Cabral and Fernão de Magalhães, among others.
  • References to their wine (“porto”), Fado music or sardines are also typical, as are their beaches.
  • Portugal suffered under a dictatorship from 1932 to 1974. The conservative regime of Presidents Salazar and Caetano held back many technical and modern innovations that other European countries did adapt. By the time the country became a democracy again it had so many technical stuff to catch up with that for a long time it caused the Portuguese to be viewed as primitive and hopelessly stuck in dated traditions.
  • Brazilian people seem to think that the Portuguese are dumb.
  • Portuguese women have mustache
  • More rarely, Portuguese people are considered more taciturn and fatalistic than other southern European populations, probably because of Fado music (fado means “fate”), mentioned above.
  • People from Alentejo (one of the most rural and underdeveloped regions in the country) live life at a snail’s pace, are lazy and mostly old. They’re probably communists too.
  • A Venezuelan stereotypical depiction of Portuguese people is that they are all industrious people who run small businesses, usually Mom & Dad stores and bakeries, and every food store in the country is managed by them (in real life, most of the food distribution chain is indeed managed by people of Portuguese descent).
  • Fado music is their invention, and it is a delicate and rich music. Cristina Branco is absolutely beautiful and marvelous with her Fado singing and expression. She’s a beautiful and elegant Portuguese woman too, which is a typical thing. Women are particularly elegant there.
  • Apart from Fado music, the Portuguese are not the best singers around. They’re quite good at poetry, though (shown in an Astérix book, where a Lusitanian slave is asked to sing, to which he replies that he can’t sing, but he can recite poetry.
Portuguese Stereotypes
Portuguese Stereotypes

Jokes about Portuguese Stereotypes

Jokes about Portuguese Stereotypes
Jokes about Portuguese Stereotypes
Jokes about Portuguese Stereotypes
Jokes about Portuguese Stereotypes
Jokes about Portuguese Stereotypes
Jokes about Portuguese Stereotypes
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Have you ever asked yourself what the world think about you just because you were born in a certain nation? Of course that there are a variety of common national stereotypes about the inhabitants of various nations, held by inhabitants of other nations. Such stereotypes are usually prejudicial and often ill-informed, and often overlap with ethnic or racial stereotypes. However, some stereotypes may be positive. Well, this blog stereotypes the nations, stereotypes the WORLD is the WORD!

50 COMMENTS

      • What Letíca means is that “Bartolomeo Diaz” is spanish language.
        Bartolomeu Dias is portuguese, yes… but he wrote the spanish name!

        And yes, first stereotype is correct: “Often confused with Spaniards and thus a lot of the Spanish stereotypes will also be applied to them. Their reaction is almost always one.” 😉

      • I know he is, i’m just correcting the spelling of his name. It’s Bartolomeu Dias and not Bartolomeo Diaz. I am portuguese, you misunderstood me.

    • I am having hard time for the local workers to respect their work schedule and keep their promises. Almost everyone seems to say things that never materialise. P.S.: The steps in the above photo could be made into extended terrace to make more space for the cafe.

      • Or maybe the waiter can go around the tables and hand the food over the pole fance but you dont want costumers falling down? Make sense like that. Or they had people falling and instead of renovating moving the stairs they just blocked it.

  1. Wtf … My man … Wt do u know about portugal … U fuckin piece of shit … Go fuck ur women stinky pussy !!

    • Don’t pay attention to “João Perreira”, he is just being a stupid nationalist with no sense of humor.

      I am portuguese and proud of it, and agree with most (if not all!) the stereotypes.

      Just keep in mind that these are just stereotypes, some of them pretty far from the truth!

      Portuguese women are beautiful and DO NOT have moustache… most of them, anyway… 😉

      • Alexandre,
        I was born in Los Angeles, California, which is were my father lived when he got his citizenship in America, so I am half Portuguese and the stereotypes aren’t true. However, my dad did keep sardines around, but I did NOT eat them. I live in Alabama now and my father passed 2 years ago. It broke me to pieces because he was my biggest supporter. He literally died the day before I graduated with a Bachelor’s in Psychology and didn’t get to see me start working on my Masters in Addiction Counseling. One thing I know for sure about the culture is that we are some proud people and no one can tell us other wise. And for those talking about the Portuguese women, I don’t think I look too bad.

    • Es todo quimado atao nao sabes ler? Se nao percebes ingles nao le, Olha o titulo diz steriotipos steriotipos nao sao factos ou realidade,”a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing.” Mas sim um idea que e vistamente posuida e fixa e simplificada de mais de uma pessoa ou coisa. Nao te ofondas de que as pessoas tenham um idea negativa de um povo pois se calhar queres culpablisar alguem de um acto que tambem come te. Vei mostra a arrogancia e ignorancia do ze povinho outro steriotipo que nao ta ai ou o xico espertismo. Ou is carapaus de corrida.

  2. Dear Letícia Marta. Bartolomeo dias is Portuguese!
    http://www.biography.com/people/bartolomeu-dias-9273850#synopsis

  3. Alex Gomes Pereira não percebeste de todo o que eu quis dizer. Eu, obviamente, sei que o Bartolomeu Dias é português. O que eu quis dizer foi que o autor deste artigo escreveu o seu nome MAL. Escreveu Bartolomeo Diaz, e está errado, pois isso seria a forma espanhola de escrever o nome.

  4. Pois Diaz não é a forma portuguesa de escrever esse apelido e sim Dias. Assim como Bartolomeu é a forma portuguesa e não Bartolomeo.

  5. Obrigado pela observação Letícia 🙂 Troquei também todos os outros nomes portugueses que foram traduzidos, como por exemplo o nome do "Ferdinand Magellan" por "Fernão de Magalhães" , afinal, eles que aprendam a dizer nossos nomes portugueses :p

  6. I never heard anything so ridiculous ! First off, the author of this piece of trash has got to be some ignorant, right-wing , Tea-Party A-hole and Republican pea-brain that thinks when he goes abroad to a foreign country….everyone must speak perfect English, or they are dumb ! What a moron ! First off, English is not the only language in the world….and you are in their country ! This is same mentality that thinks gay people are "gay" just to irritate and annoy them and the people of the world must live by their rules. A total mindless (and dangerous) dreg ! Portugal is a beautiful country, full of old world charm and rich history ! I am not Portuguese, and can recognize this. The people are warm and friendly and have a rich navigational history and legacy that spanned the globe. The former Portuguese empire and navy was very formidable….they settled Brazil in South America in the early 1500's and were also in Africa in Angloa and Mozambique and in Goa in Portuguese India. Do some research idiot….you make yourself look venom-filled, dumb and clueless when you make such blatantly hate-filled and incorrect statements !

    • Just like yourself nice one for feeding into the stereotype of being ignorant and racist as you assuming he’s American stereotype amazing mate I swear to God, perdes te um momento epico na tua vida insignificante de tar calado.

    • We globalised slavery one of our great navigators burn down a ship full with muslim people going to Mecca, our police its racist the system its racist everyone moans they got no money every rockin Rio fills up football fills up. My nikes buy whole your clothes that’s school kids mentality you not baptized you son of the devil. People get out of they way to rob you or push drugs, no fear from local police neather, they got knife and gun culture too, theres a mini version of that Austrian that had kid with his daughter, but this one had baby with his daughter and granddaughter, pedophilia ring, when you mention you went that college they will abuse you, grammar and accent freaks, the teacher says speak Portuguese not “Pretogues” Negageses, where you are your skin colour if you not white or you are white and act black you bulicao white outside black inside oh boy and the racist jokes that say black people are dumb,Man no country history or present it’s perfect. Just because I didn’t do it and I only benefited from it dont make me bias. Oh they only existed as a nation because religious wars had the templars would be no Portugal no colonia powers if that meant world peace I rather never existed.

      • Forgot Porto people say from Braga down its Marrocos. All asian brown skin are all in same boat with their own N word but it with a M I dont really know what means all I know it’s like N word.

  7. Hi everyone.

    I am a son of Portuguese parents, but very, very proud of my heritage.

    Last year I finally took a holiday in Portugal. It was a homecoming. As the plane was landing I felt so proud. Walking through the streets in Lisbon I felt like I was home, like that was where I truly belonged – my soul was in total peace. I honestly believe in cellular memory. The mind, body and soul somehow knows, remembers, your place of origin.

    I felt so proud to be among ‘my people’, my ethnic roots. It almost felt like everything there was familiar to me – the experience did not feel new or strange to me. I was home.

    Anyway, I was more than impressed as I visited different places in Portugal. The beautiful architecture blew me away! And of course the people were incredibly friendly and helpful. The Portuguese people were very hospitable and polite was evident everywhere I went. So this particular positive Portuguese stereotype is 100% true. The food, music, architecture are simply amazing! I cried when I heard some fado songs, that’s how enchanting that music is. Basically, there were good vibes everywhere.

    A lot of people have no idea about the very rich Portuguese history. Often as I was walking along a sidewalk I would think about how the Portuguese explorers braved the menacing seas and ended up mapping the world – or at least a very large part of it. And as a result of those explorations the Portuguese language is the 5th or 6th most spoken language in the world today, spoken by 260 million people, on 5 continents. I am proud of the fact that I have a strong command of the Portuguese language – it made me feel that much more at home while in Portugal. I loved speaking with as many of the locals as I could.

    For me, visiting Portugal was, in many ways, a spiritual experience. It changed me somehow, and it is as though I feel a lot more at peace with myself. This experience allowed me to connect with my soul in ways that would have never been possible anywhere else but in Portugal.

    • Yes the worst blind it’s those whom wish to not see. Your expectations were meet all this experience you had was individual experience not the whole I have grown up in Portugal I’m Afro Portuguese actually Afro European as I got more than Portuguese blood. All you experienced was recreated from your parents look how people still do the same things even tho they miles away. Go to the wrong part of the country and the experience will be different

  8. Hello,

    I am Portuguese and very, very proud of my heritage.

    Hi Jorge, I strongly agree with how you feel. Are you from Toronto?

    When I arrive in Portugal, Lisbon or the Islands, I too feel like I’m home, this is me, this is where I belong and I feel happiness and sadness too… having missed being part of this amazing place.

  9. Ok,
    I am Portuguese, girl, blonde, small, and skinny.
    I don’t like Fado, i dont like sardines, i dont like footbal (i dont care about Ronaldo, Eusebio or whatever, that means nothing), i am quiet, nice to people and very much on my own.
    I hate heat, loudness, crowded places, gossip. I dont like shopping (only like to buy local handicraft) I think is more important to preserve pine and olive trees against the eucaliptus invasive plague, to fight corruption and unemployement, than to brag about the Discoveries. They were technically important, but thats it. They are past, they are gone. Lets look forward.
    My favourite sport is hiking, skiing, mountaineering and similar.
    I don’t like summer, dont like to go to the beach on summer, i dont like esplanadas.
    I like forests, countryside, calm, interested in european and other traditions. I like to read, practice sports, i like classical music and some alternative experimental music.
    I feel very active and energic in cold or even snowy places. I feel bothered and tired in hot environments. I think Lisbon and Porto suburbs lack space and nature to enjoy. My goal is to improve my skills and knowledge and achieve a good balance between work and leisure, culture and enjoying the green outdoors. somehow i am not very “typical” so to say, and usually people tell me i am weird. Just because i dont fit the “stereotype”….

  10. Portuguese wine and Porto wine are different things.
    Porto wine, commonly known as Port, is a specific drink, a fortified wine, whilst Portuguese wine is self-explanatory: wine made in Portugal.

  11. From what i have observes over a 50 year lifespan is that the Portugee are the BIGGEST anti-Spanish racists on the planet! Heck, they are the BIGGEST racists i have ever seen actually, and very Ignorant too; it’s as if they specialize in that for some reason like an artist specializes in brush strokes jajajaja.

    They have Z-E-R-0 European and World Cups that makes them cry every night before they go to bed, they are EXTREMELY jealous of Spain and they WISH they never had ever gotten into bed with the British!! Ohhh did i mention that Spain has WON 3 European Cups (2 back-to-back) and 1 World Cup jejejeje….Portuputas? A Whopping Z-E-R-0 Cups…ohhh i said that already…….

    Portugal = Garbage man 🙂

    • You are a poor example of a Spaniard. Whenever I go to Spain people treat me as they do anyone else. I guess we just have to put up with you morons who exist in both sides of the border.

    • Yes because one must love does that are racist towards nearly everyone the ones that used us to go to war with the UK that made them lose territory because well spain didn’t give two shits but only about containing Netherlands. Lol even in old history they say Spaniards are easily offended and arrogant.

  12. WOW! Man!!! tell ya!!!! Since the 1970’s i knew that the Pportugee were VERY strange people but they have proven over the decades t be the BIGGEST anti-Spanish, anti-Brazilian, Anti-Angola (black) and anti everything else RACISTS on the planet! Shheeesss!!!! READ THIS: http://portugalisaracistcountry.blogspot.ca/

    *The Sopas dos Pobres are flooded with more than 1/2 of the Portugee population getting at least 1 free meal a day to fill their bellies…that’s pretty bad

  13. Some historical explanation:
    DISCURSO DE ANTERO DE QUENTAL. http://www.arqnet.pt/portal/discursos/maio01.html

    Portuguese Born Raised, studied and served in the military. 45 years old.
    Proud to be who I am and made of myself and not taking credit from others past history or other people actions and deeds otherwise, com as botas do meu pai também eu sou um homem.

    Traveled all over the country. Currently living outside the country.

    Only people that have NOT traveled around the country and lived over the country will say these these stereotypes are not true. I grew up with all of them around.

    Outside Portugal I have unfortunately met even worse than this stereotype from Portuguese.
    Sadly I have been discriminated by my own people who are even worse than this stereotype.
    I have left jobs to avoid rudeness, ignorance and discrimination from my own culture.

    Currently I teach health and safety today to adults to help them and prepare them to ingress in the work place.

    I have worked for free to help them, to translate for them when I am not even legally allowed to do it or paid for it. Work overtime for free to help them understand the programs and what I get from them is bad attitude because their aversion to the books and learning. Many want me to lie in government paperwork just to achieve their certifications. Paperwork that goes signed with my name to prove their qualifications.

    I volunteered to teach in Portuguese and not even legally allowed and given the bad treatment I got, I quit it and informed my superiors that not even for 5 times more the money I would do it again.

    Recently in a full English class someone that fit the stereotype was not able to achieve the results because in 20 or more years on Canada/Toronto, never cared about learning the language.

    I was not able to give him the certificate. A complaint was sent to the office saying that I discriminate Portuguese because I speak Portuguese and should have help him in Portuguese. (i cannot do it legally)
    Now they want to force me to speak how they want regardless of what they understand in class.

    Today I am informing my superiors of less and less availability to teach due to be a target of these stereotypes.

    It’s been 18 years dealing with Portuguese outside Portugal and they are even worse than the ones in Portugal.
    I got nothing but harassment and discrimination from most in the construction industry.

    For reasons that I don’t know, all this seems to be worse from people from the Azores Islands, followed by some north Portugal regions. Central and south Portugal seems less or almost none.

    As for skilled workers that most have the reputation to be, you are invited to go to training classes and courses of their own trades and judge for yourselves. (There are studies about these topics)

    Ridiculous are comments of people that get a sample of a culture when things look great and think that the whole place is what they just saw of best and decide to put lipstick on a pig.
    I have seen many sardinhas, chouriço, vinho aguardente all around and this is just about the work place.

    When I arrived to Toronto the first sample of Portuguese culture I had, shocked me as in one for the most active and well know streets loaded of Portuguese I could smell wine on the street 50 meters away from the bar. (Being myself from a small village with 600 people, I was flabbergasted since I never saw that in my village).

    However the new generation is escaping a bit to this REAL stereotype.

    If none of this makes sense to the reader, then get it from DISCURSO DE ANTERO DE QUENTAL. http://www.arqnet.pt/portal/discursos/maio01.html

  14. I can understand, from a relative point of view, a German or a Japanese calling a Portuguese “dumb”. But coming from a Brazilian I just find that outrageously hilarious!

  15. Let me post links to two articles, which describe the Porftuguese really well:

    1. http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20161118-the-european-country-that-loves-being-sad

    2. https://www.algarveprimeiro.com/d/as-pessoas-tristes-sao-as-mais-egoistas/14017-45

  16. most of these comments have made me realize that my people are horribly uneducated and racist. african, brazilian, etc. people who were originally colonized by the portugese and now looked down upon by some, Im sorry for others ignorance and please keep pointing out racism when you experience it (thank you). also ronaldo is a rapist, he’s paid women off to keep quiet and that’s the man we’ve used as a figurehead for our nationality. it’s sick.

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