Is it true that some Portuguese don't like Brazilians?

Question

I recently had some in-depth chats with a Brazilian girl I met on the net, we chatted a lot about Brazilian culture, economy, and international status, and so forth. But when I kinda linked Brazil to Portugal, her immediate reaction was, "Oh, I don't think Portuguese people like us, they actually quite look down on us..." then I kinda felt sorry for bringing that topic up..So I am wondering if it's true that Portuguese, I mean some of them, have really bad opinion on Brazilians? Or things are not as what my Brazilian friend said?

Answer 1

We can't generalise stuff like that. But yes, there are some portuguese people who look down on brazilians because "Portugal is 1st world while Brazil is 3rd world", "brazilians are dumb" (literacy and education levels in Brazil are low) and "brazilian women are easy".

On the other hand, many brazilians look down on portuguese people too. The most common type of joke in Brazil is about a dumb portuguese. Most of the portuguese who emmigrated to Brazil until the mid 1900s came from villages and were simple uneducated people, so for some brazilians "portuguese people are dumb", "portuguese women have moustaches", etc. They also look down on the portuguese because Brazil is much more famous internationally - it is one of the world's most famous touristic destinations, they have the samba, the bossa nova, etc. - while Portugal is not famous at all.

And then there's the accent and the small differences between european portuguese and brazilian portuguese. There are always some a**holes who think "we speak the correct language, they can't speak portuguese properly" - on both sides.

Stupid stereotypes exist on both sides of the ocean, and I can assure you the portuguese who don't like brazilians and vice-versa can be pretty unpleasant and verbally aggressive. Being born in Brazil to a brazilian mother and a portuguese father and living in Portugal since I was a little kid, dealing with this kind of things has been really complicated for me, as I had to "defend" both sides at the same time. I got pretty angry at these people when I was a teenager. Until I just decided to start ignoring them, because their ideas are based on ignorance, so they don't deserve a minute of my time. The brazilian girl you know should do the same. Because most portuguese do respect brazilians, as most brazilians respect the portuguese too. When they meet they always get along well. Especially when they meet in a foreign country, like among a group of exchange students of different nationalities, portuguese and brazilians end up forming a group, almost as if they were from the same country.

Your brazilian friend must have had a bad experience (or several), but she can't assume all portuguese people are like that, or she will be stereotyping as well. She should ignore those people and be open to meeting nice portuguese people - they are out there :o)

Answer 2

Make sure you study European pronunciation before you go. If a Portuguese native hears that "gghheeee" sound, they will tell you to stop speaking Portuguese and switch to English. The difference is greater than American English and Scottish spoken with an almost unintelligible dialect. I worked with such a person and no one knew what he was talking about. He definitely didn’t speak “Sean Connery” Scottish. It makes me laugh that most Americans of Portuguese descent are descended from immigrants from the Acores, Madera, or Continental Portugal but 99% of all Portuguese language learning material is Brazilian. I even read one guy complain about a course because it was European. Also I've heard Brazilian instructors say things like "Why would you ever want to go to Portugal anyway". Duh! Perhaps because it is the land of my Grandparents! Sorry for ranting but we need more European instruction in the United States. A little more balance would be nice.

Answer 3

but Talking about colonial cultures:

The British colonized North America, and some of them don't like americans.

The Spanish conquered almost all of latin-América (from Arizona and Texas all the way down to Argentina -with the exception of Brazil, of course- ) and a lot if them DON'T like latin-americans!

same thing with portuguese.


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Answer 4

Well, yes probably, and there are probably some brazills who dont like Portugese, and som Finns that dont like Chinese... and so on.... People are people.

Answer 5

yes that is true of all people