just because i'm portuguese, it doesnt mean i'm able to speak it.
my parents are from madeira and the azores, and the main language there is portuguese, so because my parents are from there, i see myself as both portuguese and australian (i was born and raised in australia). yet, people always assume im able to speak portuguese just because technically that's my background. yet, because i was born and raised in australia, i've more adapted the australian language, and cant really speak portuguese. i can understand some of it, just the pronounciation really gets me.
oh yeah. and just because i don't look portuguese, it doesnt mean i'm not.
technically, i've adapted to the portuguese lifestyle and way of life, and i follow the traditional portuguese way of life. whenever people ask me what nationality i am, i say im portuguese and they are shocked about it. they say i either look greek, lebanese, or french. not only that, but i don't have a portuguese surname. it's more french. my ancestors were from france, which is how i picked up my surname.
and just because my parents arent actually from portugal, it doesnt mean im not portuguese. madeira and the azores are part of portugal.
a similar one to this that the people from the mainland (eg, lisboa, portugal's capital) think that just because my family aren't from the mainland, we arent portuguese. however, just because we arent from the mainland, it doesnt mean we're not portuguese. i mean, we all speak the same language