A Typical Hungarian:
It’s always very difficult to determine what typical characteristics can define a persons nationality and subsequently associate these characteristics with this persons country. It is for that reason that I shall rather than try to describe the typical hungarian describe a number of moments of interaction i have had with hungaians since coming to Budapest. Fom Old people to students and from homeless people to the employed. The first person I wish to describe is Dani a young Hungarian who I met playing frisbee.
Dani cycles everywhere and doesn’t drive, he also plays Ultimate frisbee in his free time. He is when you first meet him very friendly and approachable and not at all stand offish. He talks with enthuisiasm about sport and his friends who are working abroad. He is also very helpful and willing to go out of his way to keep promises. My personal experience of this was when he managed to find me a bicycle frame perfect for my size and perfect to be converted into a fixed gear bicycle. Finding this sort of frame and in good condition is no easy task and without his help I wouldn’t have been able to. So what I could derive from meeting with dani is that his typical characteristics is that of friendly and helpful. The next person I want to talk about is a particular waiter in a particular restaurant on a particular street near the university.
This waiter from when we arrived at the restaurant had rushed us and his mannerisms were very unwelcoming. He tuted when we told him we weren’t ready to order and when one of our party was hesitant when ordering he actually walked away only to come back two minutes later, he did this not in a professional hospitable way rather a rude way. Throughout the dinner he came taking plates when some people were finished rather than when all of us had finished, as is the correct etiquette. To Summarise he was unhelpful, rude and probably the worst waiter I have ever encountered. We didn’t even get a chance to not tip him as service was automatically included in the bill. I’d like to say that it was a once off experience but unfortunately the majority of waiters I have delt with in the past 7 weeks have been unhelpful and rude, not all but the majority. I hope that this is just a city thing and isn’t countywide. I have mentioned this to Hungarians and it seems that generally waiters are rude to everyone, foreigners and hungarians alike. This is odd as it’s an industry where they depend on their tips and therefore should pride themselves on being hospitable. Again I must state that this is the majority of waiters and not all.
The next group of people I wish to discuss is people who run Bicycle shops. This is quite a funny one as there are a large number of similarities between the majority of bicycle shop owners in both Hungary and Ireland. I have visited quite a number of bicycle shops in both countries and the majority of the owners of these shops are very like the waiters I have mentioned above but it is always possible to find one or two places that have extremely friendly service and go out of their way to help you and encourage the sport telling you good routes to take and tips about laws and what your rights might and might not be. So I was quite surprised to find such similarities between the shops in Ireland and Hunagry.
I must actually correct myself at this stage because I must state that since being in Hungary I haven’t properly travelled about the countyside so when I say the average Hungarian I mean the average person from Budapest. There is a huge difference between people from rural societies and cities. Generally people from the countryside are initially more friendly and eager to interact with strangers in comparison to people from cities. So in summary I can try and list off some statements or views from people I know hungarians and foreigners. My friend Ian who has lived here for two years said that they love to wear suits(the men) and will take any opportunity to whip out the suit as I experienced the other night when I attended a play. I turned up in jeans, runners and a t shirt and I thought that I actually might be turned away as most of the crowd had totally “outdressed me”. My history teacher(a hungarian) told me that generally hungarians don’t like to protest let alone riot which made the riots recently quit and oddity apparently. Hungarians also seem to have similar politicians to Ireland that being that they all lie or hid the truth. An American friend of mine also stated that people in budapest don’t know “how to walk” and I have to agree. There is no order on the cities pavements and people can be quite oblivious to others around them, not moving to make room or just giving the impression of rudeness. While attending an Amnesty International meeting last week I also found out that Hungarians have a problem with rascism which can be seen with the segregation of roma children in school both indirect segregation and direct. Also discussed at the meeting was the problem of domestic abuse and apparently 1 Hungarian woman dies a week as a result of domestic violence the highest rate per capita in Europe.
So the average hungarian has their good and bad traits but that is just like any other nationality. So I hope that through this short essay I have hit upon some of both the negative and positive aspects of the character of the “average hungarian”. I also hope I haven’t been too judgemental and have been fair?
Peter Eric Wahlrab
