How do foreigners see Hungarians? – Hungary through memes
Have you ever wondered how Hungarians appear from the viewpoint of a foreigner? Well, thanks to the Internet and people with experience visiting or living in Hungary and making funny videos on TikTok, you can now find out.
Hungarian language
Hungarian is one of the hardest languages to learn in the entire world. It is very unique and for foreigners, it has many quirks and peculiarities, which are difficult to understand. From double-glyph letters to two or even three consonant letters to a plethora of vowels with accents and the flexibility of word order, not to mention the oddity of prefixes and suffixes make this language pretty hard to learn, especially for English natives.
Plenty of people have tried to learn Hungarian and reported that it was quite a journey. In the following videos, you can see the valiant efforts of English natives trying to speak the language:
Read alsoHow much do you know about Hungarian? – Quiz
The wonders of Hungarian tongue-twisters
How it would sound if Hungarians spoke English the way they speak Hungarian
Dating Hungarians as a foreigner
When you move abroad and surround yourself with people of different nationalities, you will soon start to realise that each nation has its own characteristics. Now, these characteristics can be felt even more when you happen to date someone from a different cultural background.
We have previously posted some articles on the things to look out for when dating Hungarian WOMEN and MEN. Check them out if you are interested.
There are also some tricky things when it comes to Hungarian names. By Hungarian law, a name has to be on the list of qualified names suitable for registration. In case it is not, there are still some loopholes. If a child has foreign ancestors, for example, and it can be proven that the name is suitable for registration in the respective foreign country, then the parents need to get a document that proves that in order to name their child. This might be the reason many foreigners say that Hungarians often have the same names.
Read alsoMulticultural love stories about dating a Hungarian
Partying in Hungary
Hungarians do not typically hold huge house parties you see in movies. It still occurs sometimes, but since many Hungarians live in smaller apartments, especially in cities, they typically go out to bars, pubs or ruin bars.
House parties in Hungary usually involve outdoor activities. Garden parties or holiday house gatherings tend to be common where partying and drinking as well as the obligatory “bográcsozás” take place. If you ever visit rural Hungary or get invited to the house of an older Hungarian man (bácsi), it is guaranteed that you will be offered a shot of pálinka.
It is not just the stereotypes or the memes, they really do offer you to drink pálinka on every possible occasion, whether it is to cure an illness, throw a party, refill your empty glass, relieve heartburn from the previous round of pálinka, you name it.
Food
Gastronomy is a huge part of Hungarian culture and the everyday life of Hungarians. We often think about the next meal throughout the day and we do love our dishes. Paprika and sour cream go with almost anything.
It is seriously cringey to watch someone eat kakaóscsiga (similar to a cinnamon roll but with cocoa) the way like in the clip above. Hungarians typically untwirl the roll and leave the middle, which has the most filling, to the end.
It might come across as strange or unusual for foreigners, but Hungarian cuisine does include a few types of sweet pasta dishes, such as vargabéles (seen in the video), túrós csusza (pasta with cottage cheese/milk curd and powdered sugar, the sweet variant of another pasta dish that comes with bacon) or darás tészta (pasta with semolina, usually served with marmalade/jam), to mention a few.
Poppyseed is also a common ingredient in Hungarian desserts and the iconic Christmas staple, bejgli.
Read alsoThe TOP10 weirdest Hungarian dishes that shock foreigners – PHOTOS
Being Hungarian according to foreigners
People often do not realise how different they can appear to a person who comes from another country, and András Lincoln’s videos are good examples to demonstrate that. He is an American guy of Hungarian descent, who makes funny videos comparing customs in Hungary and the USA. In this video, he features some of the things that Americans found “so Hungarian”.
Hungarians may not realise, but people around the world have different handwritings. In the following video, the TikToker shows the difference between the ways Hungarians and Americans write the numbers. In the first two rows, you can see how Hungarians write the numbers. The main differences come with number 7, and number 4, while 9 and 1 are written in only slightly different ways. This video might be useful if you ever ask for the number of a Hungarian.
Hungarians can sleep almost anywhere and under almost any condition. Although this video is in Hungarian, it perfectly depicts how we perceive Americans’ sleeping habits versus Hungarians’.
+1 Bonus
For some reason, at times Apple plays tracks to remind people of their Hungarian descent, this time with Hungarian gypsy music.
Read alsoHow hard it is to live in Hungary as a foreigner — VIDEOS
Source: TikTok.com, Daily News Hungary