Portugese mentality

[Jana]

Could Portugese explain us are these any specific historical or other reasons that shaped quite famous Portugese mentality, so atypical compared to rest of southern Europe.
More introverted, calm, soft-spoken compared to fiery and extraverted southern Euros who talk a lot, and talk loudly.

I found this stereotype very accurate in limited few real experiences with Portugese people, and heard the same from friends who visited Portugal.
Portugese TA members fit this description rather well.

Even their music (Fado) is very melancholic and ''sad''. What are reasons for this, relative geographic isolation from other Europeans, still strong Catholic faith in Portugese, or something else?

Discuss

[gixajo]

Maybe is related with some British influence in the forms.

Sorry, I am not Portuguese.

[AlfonsoVIII]

I have met several Portuguese, one of them is a very good friend of mine, and I have to say that their mentality and character is not very different from that of the Spanish.

Northern Portuguese are less talkative than southern Portuguese, who like to talk and socialize a lot. That is the only difference between Portuguese, otherwise they all have the same way of being general. They are an intermediate point between northern Atlantic Europe and southern Europe.

I love that they are very nice people and good friends.

[Brás Garcia de Mascarenhas]

I don't know if this makes sense to others but we are a country that loves being sad and melancholic. Joyful sadness if you may say.

Historically that might have been ingrained in our cultural upbringing due to centuries of fierce Catholicism. Portugal has always been a very Catholic nation, even by modern standards (I had to attend religious classes since the kindergarten until I reached adulthood). The life of Christ was humble, melancholic and painful. Sorrow and grief: the path of Jesus is attached in the collective subconscious of our society as a role-model way of living. Do not be too unnecessarily effusive, do not be superficial or try to get yourself attention, be respectful towards the others and serene.

Being a significantly smaller country probably played a role as well on how people behave because people in here tend to care about what others will say or comment about them or their family if they misbehave, particularly in smaller circles. In large urban areas this doesn't happen as much but bare in mind that at least 75% of the people that live here in larger cities migrated not that long ago from smaller villages of the interior of the country (myself and my family included), so this mentality is still present.

Another significant aspect is related to the Age of Discovery. A portion of our population was either sailors or navigators that had to leave the country for long stretches of time, sometimes never returning home. This led to a feeling that we describe as saudade and doesn't really have a translation in other languages. It is an emotion that can be felt for a country, a person or a point in time. Oxford Dictionaries defines saudade as a longing or nostalgia, but it is much more than just that. The majority of Fado singers lyricism is about this emotion and feeling of saudade.

Anyway, sadness is not that bad, one can only know what happiness feels like if you know how sadness feels like. Both feelings go hand-in-hand.

[gixajo]

A saudade.

[Jana]

I don't know if this makes sense to others but we are a country that loves being sad and melancholic. Joyful sadness if you may say.

Historically that might have been ingrained in our cultural upbringing due to centuries of fierce Catholicism. Portugal has always been a very Catholic nation, even by modern standards (I had to attend religious classes since the kindergarten until I reached adulthood). The life of Christ was humble, melancholic and painful. Sorrow and grief: the path of Jesus is attached in the collective subconscious of our society as a role-model way of living. Do not be too unnecessarily effusive, do not be superficial or try to get yourself attention, be respectful towards the others and serene.

Being a significantly smaller country probably played a role as well on how people behave because people in here tend to care about what others will say or comment about them or their family if they misbehave, particularly in smaller circles. In large urban areas this doesn't happen as much but bare in mind that at least 75% of the people that live here in larger cities migrated not that long ago from smaller villages of the interior of the country (myself and my family included), so this mentality is still present.

Another significant aspect is related to the Age of Discovery. A portion of our population was either sailors or navigators that had to leave the country for long stretches of time, sometimes never returning home. This led to a feeling that we describe as saudade and doesn't really have a translation in other languages. It is an emotion that can be felt for a country, a person or a point in time. Oxford Dictionaries defines saudade as a longing or nostalgia, but it is much more than just that. The majority of Fado singers lyricism is about this emotion and feeling of saudade.

Anyway, sadness is not that bad, one can only know what happiness feels like if you know how sadness feels like. Both feelings go hand-in-hand.

Thank you very much for wonderful description
Many people appreciate a lot this aspect of Portugese ''soul''

Your music is wonderful. And I'm glad to sense Catholicism has something to do with it, because even today Portugal remain most Catholic nation in western Europe.

Greets

[Defcon2]

Could Portugese explain us are these any specific historical or other reasons that shaped quite famous Portugese mentality, so atypical compared to rest of southern Europe.
More introverted, calm, soft-spoken compared to fiery and extraverted southern Euros who talk a lot, and talk loudly.

I found this stereotype very accurate in limited few real experiences with Portugese people, and heard the same from friends who visited Portugal.
Portugese TA members fit this description rather well.

Even their music (Fado) is very melancholic and ''sad''. What are reasons for this, relative geographic isolation from other Europeans, still strong Catholic faith in Portugese, or something else?

Discuss

I find it funny that stereotype of southern euros as fiery, extroverts and speak out loud.

It is a stereotype that is usually accepted in my country and serves to insult compatriots and make this type of conduct ugly by relating it to the "paletos" (lol) or uneducated and illiterate people.

You already know a word in Spanish.

In Croatia you can call him "Paleto" when a person seems illiterate, uneducated and from a farming town