The Portuguese people

The first thing to note about the Portuguese people is their generally very good grasp of the spoken English language. This is a fantastic investment on their part and has its origins centuries ago in the treaties of friendship between Portugal and England which Portugal welcomed to counter-balance the influence of neighbouring Spain. Any foreigner with good English (as their first or second language) finds it very easy to get things done in Portugal.

Portuguese versus Spanish

Comparing the Spanish and Portuguese people is fairly pointless. People who do that typically compare the Portuguese to the southern (Andalucian) Spanish which is highly selective. Spain is a much bigger and more culturally diverse country than Portugal. You might say that the Spanish have a superiority complex (Spain thinks it is more important than it actually is) whereas Portugal has an inferiority complex (Portugal has a lot more going for it than it realises so never reaches full potential). But beyond that Spain and Portugal are like cousins that do not really get along that well. It does not really help understand the Portuguese people in any way to compare them to the Spanish people.

Portuguese national character

The Portuguese people are full of contradictions and really not easy to understand. They can be extraordinarily kind and hospitable. Not often given to open anger, but they lack middle ground so go very quickly from positive to negative at a personal level, completely missing honest open discussions that would clear the air and resolve differences or at least leave both sides simply agreeing to disagree without rancour. Perhaps they avoid what they think is confrontational language and behaviour – not wanting to give or take offence. But that comes at a cost – too often things become a zero-sum game of 'who is right' rather than a positive-sum game of 'what is right'.

The Portuguese are bedevilled by a sense of real and perceived national humiliation and decline. This is mostly true. Portugal reached great heights 200-300 years ago and now really has no international influence beyond being a small part of the EU. Not blessed with anything important in economic terms, Portugal must sell its natural gifts (the weather, the country, the work-hungry people) to advance further. There is always ambivalence towards visiting foreigners. Gratitude for the income and investment they bring, but deep underlying sensitivity about equality and respect at a personal level. A complaint even if positive, polite and well-intentioned will too often be met in Portugal by stubborn defensive counter-argument where a simple 'I hear you – sorry about that' would de-escalate the situation fast.

They are the most terrible gossips – and in a nasty way. Full of little put-downs and asides that demean other people. In a way, quite two-faced. Well suited by national character to back-stabbing organisations and bureaucracies, so do well in large international organisations. Superficially neutral and full of reasonable compromise, but a true friend to no-one but themselves. A sly people in many ways.

Portugal is a weak democracy in fundamental ways. The country misses basic rights in a social sense not a legal sense. So for example things like respect for data privacy are very poor. In many ways Portuguese social attitudes just feel 15-20 years behind where they should be, regardless of what EU-standard national laws say. Top-level Portuguese management is clearly too often authoritarian, but this is probably a throwback to the fact that those managers were still youngsters at the time of the 1974 revolution. Subsequent generations of Portuguese managers currently in their 30s and 40s are much more assured, international and progressive but it will take time for them to get the top jobs where they can make a real difference.

On a one-to-one basis if a Portuguese person likes you and trusts you then it is easy to have a really good personal relationship with them. But there are always lines you do not see where the relationship can suddenly deteriorate for reasons you simply do not understand. Relax – you are not the problem. You have stumbled upon aspects of the Portuguese national character that you can not do much about. Just ignore the disruption, keep smiling, be polite and wait. You will probably be forgiven as easily as you unwittingly gave offence. You really only need to know two words of the Portuguese language – desculpa and obrigado. Use both frequently.