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I'd agree with that assessment. The two are pretty interchangeable, but if you want to get really pedantic, I think technically glissando refers to a slide between pitches where you can clearly hear all the intervening pitches (like you'd get on a piano, but you could do it vocally, or on a slide trombone too, if you wanted that effect). Portamento refers to a slide where it's all one fluid mush between notes, no discrete steps are identifiable along the way. An effect you can't get on a piano, but you can get on something fretted like a guitar by bending a string. And can easily get vocally, or by sliding your finger along the fingerboard of a violin in a smooth, continuous manner. (I think). When someone doesn't like your use of vocal portamento, they tend to refer to it as "scooping." No scooping! (Sounds tacky and melodramatic if overdone, and may just be terribly inappropriate to the style of music you're performing. For choral singers it means you sound out of tune with your neighbor for a split second if you are scooping and they aren't, so it's generally only something soloists can play with.) Hope that helps!

Yeah, they are pretty similar. I always think of glissando as something between a wide range of notes. Portamento is the small slide one might apply between notes in a similar range....most of the time it's use is up to the performer, but sometimes it's written out. I've seen music where the composer just writes "portamento" at a specific passage, and I've seen scores where portamento slides are written out (mostly in string parts) . I also apply portamento (not every note though) to a passage marked "expressivo" (or a variation of it). Not an expert on erhu (i think its an erhu), but I think portamento is applied.