3 things foreigners absolutely dislike about Hungarians
We can all agree that Hungarians can be quite challenging from time to time. Sometimes, it is hard to understand someone due to cultural differences. We have compiled a list of things that foreigners hate the most about people from Hungary. However, these stereotypes do not apply to everyone. Thus, they should not be taken too seriously.
What do foreigners think about Hungarians?
As Promotions notes, there is a myriad of stereotypes surrounding the Hungarian nation. Some of them are good, while others are based on rather negative experiences. The perception of Hungarians in the eyes of foreigners has certainly been a long-standing concern for many. It is almost impossible to judge ourselves from our points of view.
However, the experiences of tourist guides and foreigners paint a pretty clear picture of Hungarians. Most foreigners dislike the following things about Hungarians the most: lack of foreign language skills, excessive sincerity and pessimism. Let’s take them one by one!
Lack of foreign language skills
Some people think that Hungarians are not rude, but the lack of a common communication channel leaves the “being rude” impression on other people. Dívány writes about a case in which a foreign couple wanted to buy some things in a supermarket in the centre of Budapest, but their mission failed at the checkout. They could not speak any language that the cashier would understand. Unfortunately, foreigners still won’t understand the Hungarian words when they are spoken louder and more articulately. The tourists, aware of their situation, sadly waddled away and the cashier just said out loud:
We are Hungarians, we should speak Hungarian, isn’t that right?
However, we should also note that nowadays more and more people (especially the younger generations) in Hungary speak English and other languages. In bigger towns, you should be able to get by without a problem, not to mention Budapest. In addition, it would be nonsense to expect tourists to learn the language even if they are visiting the country for a couple of days.
Excessive sincerity
Honesty is a virtue. It fuels friendships and relationships, as they are based on trust. However, sometimes sincerity can be too much. Some foreigners have noted that people in Hungary are overly honest, which can be quite hurtful sometimes. Even when you ask a Hungarian “How are you?”, they usually start telling you the truth instead of saying “I’m doing well, thank you”, they might start talking about their workplace issues or health problems.
Pessimism
Naturally, it is a highly generalised idea that all Hungarians are pessimistic, as attitudes can vary widely among individuals. However, like any nation, Hungary has its own cultural, historical, and social factors that may influence the general outlook of some of its people. One potential factor contributing to a perception of pessimism could be the country’s history. Hungary has faced various challenges throughout its history, including foreign occupation, wars, economic struggles, and political upheavals. These experiences can shape the collective psyche of a nation and may influence attitudes toward the future.
Positive traits
To end the article on a positive note, we should not forget about the more pleasant traits either. Many foreigners have noted that Hungarians are punctual. However, this might be quite relative as well. In addition, others have also observed that most Hungarians are very polite. Most people in Hungary are also great hosts, cooking dinner and offering pálinka to their guests, and doing everything they can to make them feel at home, in general.
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Those tourists should never go to Newfoundland Canada, where people have their extremly unique language that I often tease them about by asking “when are U going to learn to speak Canadian?” Nor to Nunavut where despite BILLIONS on education they can’t speak their own Inuktitut nor English nor French, our official languages here. Then there are Ontario folks & going westwards by provinces who can’t speak 5 words of French despite many driving thru Quebec repeatedly. Those tourists would have probelms there too I suppose. Lots of Magyar did speak Slovak, Russian, Romanian and some form of the English languages. But tourists must also make an effort to get help from other persons if the one they first encounter can’t help. Basically not all of us are multilingual to suite every other person.
For myselft, timeliness is the greates show of respect for others AFTER honesty. So don’t ask ? that U don’t want answer to. Most people have no time for useless chatter.
Just like French people, the Hungarians expect some language limitations in communicating with rigid english speaking people. It’s just the reverse when you try to speak Hungarian to the hotdog seller on the side of the street in London, or anywhere outside Hungary. Traditionally, there is a perception that Germen, French will get you through the fresh food marked, unless you unleash your imperative English, acompanied by the regular invectives to the low grade person that does not spek English. At worst, you still can use the Google translator for some basic Hungarian words, unless you feel not prepared to descend to their level…
On communication, it’s not just language which is only 30-40% of effective communication, but the lack of other key communication including facial expressions e.g. smiling, and body language e.g. pointing or explaining with hands.
As in the novel The Ugly American, tourists expect locals to respond in their repective language. What arrogance.
When in Rome, do as the Romans do.
100% sure the people from united states hate that the hungarian doesn’t speaks in English. What about people from the states they speaks in other languages???
In the US there are other languages brought by illegals who create their own communities and so even on buses or streets those languages are represented. But do the ‘native’ American’s speak those other languages so that they can communicate w. the foreigners who do all of their childcare, swimming pool and yard maintanance etc? No they don’t make effort. Infact there are UT clips of American University students being asked basic questions in English about thier own country…like who is Vice President or what State is in the furthest North East corner of the US & they don’t have a clue. Dont know the words to their anthum. Don’t know what a woman is in relation to what a man is….They may be very bright in some areas but do prefer if everyone dances to their tune wherever they go. Just the same way that they like to refer to everyone who comes to their country as immigrants but when they live in other places refer to themeslves as expats. I always correct them to the same level they put people like myself. Partly cus they used to be 1 of the big 3 powers. Not anymore.
It is not arrogance.
it’s not about language. Hungarians are rude even when talking in Hungarian. For example, I was selling something in FB market and a Hungarian woman started to complain about a picture in the ad. She started to argue out of nothing. I had to block her. In customer service, Hungarians are famous for being the worst and it has nothing to do with language. I see that even in this article, the Hungarian girl writing it, doesn’t want to recognize the rudeness and lack of empathy of Hungarian workers. She prefer to blame the “language barrier” hahaha
Hungarians are so lazy and they don’t want to work but want to take a lot of money.
They are inefficient to cooperate the business.
Actual criminal process to Mrs. Salis as an antifa is making in Italy the image of Hungary as a fascist country defending nazis. This will damage italian-hungarian relashonships and we shall disregard H. as a friendly country for us.
Hungarians known as friendly and helpful as long as the person/s who are asking for help knows how to behave. We, Hungarians do not tolerate unnecessary rudeness or arrogance. If you go abroad, regardless where you are going, prepare yourself, and learn at least the minimum. If you say hi or please in hungarian, it will set an atmosphere that could only get better if you don’t brake the first rule, which I aready told you about. See above. We will do our best to help you with whatever you want.
We aren’t the only nation where speaking fluent English isn’t a problem.
Excessive honesty. Yes we will answer your questions. So don’t ask if you don’t care. And don’t forget, you are in Hungary. It’s our home, our culture and traditions, our rules. It’s like, visiting someone in their house and wanting to change the rules there. Now, you wouldn’t want to do that, would you?
About the pessimism. I can not really say anything about that. Yes, we are pessimistic.
But that’s just the way it is.
I don’t know about you folks, but if I go on a holiday, I want to enjoy myself and not looking for troubles. I’m trying to follow the rules and respect my hosts.
I saw some rude comments in here. To those people I can only advice to keep away from us.
there are enough idiots in our lives that we have to deal with on a daily basis already.
(Just to confirm the excessive honesty topic)
I have had to work with many Hungarians throughout my life and I can’t really say that I would trust them. Most that I knew would just run their mouths about people or complain for no reason. If I had to work with someone from Hungary I could expect them to do nothing while expecting to still be paid and I had issues for a while where they would try to swindle people, then lie or make excuses about it when we had them on camera doing it. They can be very disrespectful out of nowhere and no it’s not a language issue. When you learn the language and you listen to them speak you figure out how xenophobic and racist they are very very quickly. Going to Budapest was a huge mistake to say the least. You couple these tendencies with the need to argue and their pessimistic behavior and it doesn’t leave a lot to like I feel. If you really want to toss them, learn the language, go and dine for a bit, and listen to them insult you before responding to them. When they figure out you can understand them they straighten out FAST. They are only honest when they’re aware that you’re aware.