First of all it's easy to be impressed with Hungary and Hungarians.
Hungary has very high culture and common Hungarians also do in general. They seem to be educated in classical and bit old fashioned way with educational system relying on old Austro-Hungarian school traditions which is positive from many aspects (this legacy is also in my country). People have generally very high knowledge of things like politics, European affairs, history or the arts and literature. This is both feature of central and eastern Europeans.
This type of system produces intellectual types with lot of general knowledge and high manners and culture but lack of business or specialised skills.
Entire central Europe was like that, countries that fell under communism like Hungary preserved it better than countries like Germany, where cultural level of young people is often very sub par and dissapointing (americanisation of education)
In comparison I found Hungarians on average significantly more cultured, similary like Czechs, Poles, Austrians, even Russians.
Level of manners and culture is higher than in any country south or east from Hungary, significantly so. I heard some people found Hungarians rude but my experiences are polar opposite. From border police to everyday people. This impressed me quite a lot.
Now I must mention milleu in which I circled was that of mostly middle class, white collar, patriotic provincial Hungarians. So my experiences are largerly based on them, even though I did meet smaller number of proper Budapesters, immigrants to the west and working/low class Hungarians too. As well as member of MTA from Buda hills.
Hungarians are fircerly patriotic and very keen to present their country and culture in a positive manner to foreigners. I very much appreciate that.
They do have obvious superiority complex,even though most are far to polite to say it, and they are quite self-absorbed people in general. Language may be reason for that.
Most Magyars I know are generally very proud and concerned about their own culture with relatively low interest in other cultures with exception of those of NW Europe like British and German.
Men are handsome, quite macho (but in classic central European,not Balkan/East Euro sense), and they behave very well towards women. For example some very old fashioned things I encountered from young Magyar men (like hand kissing), which you won't see in Croatia. They seem quite passive types who like to be left alone. Even from low class men I met (one served jail time for example), I encountered nothing but general old fashioned respect for women and family. This is something for me very positive, because in SE Europe men can be very brutal and abusive towards women and it's not a feminist propaganda but reality.
What I did notice too are some things that are hard to encounter at home - MotorBike neo nazi like Gangs of white Hungarian men, with leather Jackets, nationalist tatoos and huge muscles. They are quite intimidating but they didn't seem violent at all, most I saw camping or having a barbeque around Balaton minding their own business. But this extreme nationalist element is easy to spot. In other countries they exist too, but more in the shadows. In Hungary, they aren't hiding.
Women are very clean, organised and keep house and family in order. Hungarian women are lovely, very good combination of western career orientation, free spirit and eastern traditionalism. In Croatia there is a stereotype Hungarian women are "easy" and sexually liberated, but some of most truly conservative women I met were Hungarian. There is huge difference between "decadent" and cosmopolitan Budapester type and provincial girls, but you can find second type in Budapest too.
Women were more complex than men in my observation, I met two types: already mentioned traditional and very soft spoken type,and second type, not necessary liberal: biker and fitness types of girls with tattoos, fit bodies, driving Motorbikes and being very modern with partners of similar profile (or single party type of girl), listening hard core music. And among these types I met more nationalists than in first group. In general I'd say women are bosses, but only because men don't bother with that.
Ordinary Hungarians left me orderly and dutiful impression. There is respect for laws and personal obligations. I remember a teacher from Vojvodina told me Hungarian students would rarely forget their homework in comparison with south Slavic students.
On the other hand they are pretty modest and freedom loving in comparison with my people, Croats. Average Magyar dress more modestly and drives a lower profile car than average Croat (I am not discussing millionares from Buda hills!), people are quite happy with having normal house, normal car and normal earnings. And maybe due to language isolation or simply strong national culture and State tradition they feel much more confident in themselves than SE Europeans do in general.
SE Europeans can be loud and fiercerly nationalistic but being loud is often cover up for insecurities due to very troubled past and gloomy present of said lands, which left consequences on collective consciousness.
Hungrians do bear mark of Trianon but on the other hand they still see themselves as a great nation. So I'd say average Hungarian will compare his country with Austria and Germany and perhaps be unsatisfied because they lag behind economically,but they certanly won't gloat of the fact they do better than southern or eastern neighbours.
From my experience Hungarians don't try to impress foreigners, with some excepection of NW Europeans who they do respect a lot, they are pretty satisfied with their identity and culture and don't concern themselves with opinions of other foreign people, except they do as I said, try to present their country and culture in best manner.
Also I noticed in comparison with my country, anti-semitism is real and deeply ingrained in provincial Hungarians society, for reasons that can't be ignored and are justified from historical perspective.
Lastly, Budapest is brilliant, world class and exciting metropolis that can beat any European city in architecture, culture, nightlife, and general vibe. You can even earn there very well, not like in London, but good enough.
In comparison with New York or London or Berlin it's not same level economically for sure, but in everything else it can compete and outshine these cities.
I saw standard huge city stuff in Budapest I did not in Zagreb - true business people in finest suits, speaking several languages and having international careers, also white trash type of locals (not Gypsies) who dress like bums, wear flip flops in the Metro and don't give a damn about anything. True corporate class and true working class. Both are quite elusive to my whereabouts in Croatia, although second group is easier to catch.But in Budapest is suprisingly big presence of them.
Love Hungary/HUngarians.
If my report is silly or just completely out of reality for you as Hungarian reading this, just keep in mind it's a view of foreigner and as I said, Hungarian society is so complex there are many different interpretations of it and this is just a bit of that.
Magyarország
Originally Posted by Kökény
Thank you for giving such a detailed answer.
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