Portugal and the Portuguese ...

In this month edition of the magazine Activa, I read a very interesting article about the Portuguese people. The article was written by Catarina Fonseca.

I found it so fun and interesting that I decided to present some ideas.
Free translation

We,Portuguese, are:


fanatic for football

bad at deciding one’s priorities in life- We have a jeep, but we may not have a tooth, because we don’t feel like spending money at the dentist. We have a smartphone, but our dinners are just bread with butter. We spend our holidays at Varadero, but our house mortgage is at risk.

conciliators- There is always a solution for anything. If someone has a car accident, people say : “It could be worse. He/she could have died”. If someone dies, people say: “It was better this way than sit all life on a wheelchair.”

always late- In every classroom or in every workplace there is always someone whose alarm clock failed to ring. Many think: “Why arriving on time?” Then we’ll have to wait for the others. No one likes waiting, we become restless and start thinking about life…

modest- We are incapable of accepting a true appraisal. If someone tells us: “What a nice skirt!” we immediately reply “ I bought it on the sales or “ It’s so old.”

adventurous- Since the moment we set foot on a caravel during the time of the Great discoveries, we feel unable to stop. There is a Portuguese in every corner of the world, no matter how far, hidden or dangerous it is. In fact, the more dangerous the place, the more adrenaline we feel…

sensitive- We always have a tear in the corner of the eye. There is a (bad) poet in every Portuguese. We may have several defects but we have a heart of gold. In fact, we love misfortunes. We are so soppy. We adore love poems (that others write, because we are too macho)

envious- The moment we see someone getting successful and rich, we try to pull him/ her down. If a woman has success, she has reached it horizontally … If a man earns much money, he has licked his employer’s boots. Politicians are all corrupt; laywers are all thieves… Footballers are the ones who may earn more in a second sleeping than we all life working, because they are our reason to be living; besides they are respected abroad.

pessimist- There are no greater supporters of Murphy’s law. Everything that may go wrong, will surely go wrong…

able to find a solution for everything- there is nothing that will not function again if a Portuguese is there. The true Portuguese is the one that had dismantled four laptops, five mobiles and fourteen radios to see what they had inside (when he was only four years old).

insecure- We are afraid of trying, because we are afraid of what people may say about us. We always think that the others will say something negative. Improbably, someone will say: “It was so good you did it, I’m so glad”. No. They will, surely, criticize us. This creates in us a fear that paralyses us. It makes us prudent. Society becomes a litlle bit paranoic. People are too conscious about themselves …

patriotic- We can’t stand hearing someone saying bad things about us. The only people who can criticize us are we, the Portuguese. Obviously.

dangerous at the steer wheel- More than dangerous, we are a totally mortal people: more people die in Portuguese roads than in the battles of Afonso Henriques (The first King of Portugal).

solitary- Catastrophes are our speciality. No one raises funds as quickly as us. We truly like helping. We are good at crisis. We are bad at routines. It’s the destiny of heroes…

addicted – To café (if we don’t drink one in the morning we get furious and start seeing aliens everywhere and start to listening to voices in the elevator; to mobile phones (we have at least four); to food, hmmmmmm!

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