How would you describe the mentality/culture of your ethnicity and influences?

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Originally Posted by Draug

Coffee doesn't have that same tradition here, it's mainly just something people consume at work to keep alert. Tea, however is pretty popular. Much so because England has been a strong cultural influence on Our country. And they like their tea, too. Long Island is a wonderful drink, but a risky one. Especially when I was younger and less disciplined. It is widely known here to be the drink that can tip people over the edge when drinking.

I forgot to add that it's quite hard to make new friends among Norwegians. There have been complaints of this for years, both among people settling here and international students. Many Norwegians forge friendships when growing up during school years and stick to those. Not all, not all but most are very secluded and may have a mentality that they don't need new friends. Most get exhausted much faster when socializing than Southerners, and have a profound need for solitary time.

Sounds that hospitality and covering the expenses. Not that different there. Children's parties the host pays. Seems like You guys are pretty straight-forward about most things, which is good. I've heard how in other cultures it becomes like an act where You insist on paying the host refuses, but You have to insist. And all sort of etiquette.

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I can understand the Norwegian point on friendship and I know some people who are kinda like that here, too. However, most people keep building friendly relationships in their 20s, many continue to do so in their 30s and some really charismatic ones even after that. Personally speaking, I built a very large part of my friendships in my 20s but I still communicate with some people from high or secondary school. I have friends I've been knowing for 21 years so far.

Basically everything is true and so do I see it the way like Universe has described Hungarians/Hungary. I kind of see it as a mix between the Western and Eastern world.

Some personal things:
-for my parents family is everything and it's the first before everything else
-football and/or politics is a very common discussion topic between people (which I think it's the best not to bring up, especially politics)
-don't expect the average person on the street to be very politically correct or sensitive to you
-many people can be cold or hard-headed but if you prove your trustworthiness and you are honest then you can talk about and do with them literally everything (not to be misunderstood here!) ;)

- Philosopher Emil Cioran said, "History is an explanation but not en excuse". There is a tendency to blame our misfortune on exterior factors or historical events (barbarian invasions, the Phanariote rule, the Communism, etc.)

- "Romania is a beautiful country, too bad is inhabited": Romanians complain a lot about other Romanians but when faced with the need to change themselves they prefer to remain passive. To quote Cioran again: "Nu este popor care să-şi priceapă mai bine insuficienţele şi care să simtă o mai rară voluptate de a şi le mărturisi la fiecare ocazie. Este o auto-denigrare colectivă". / "There is no other nation who can better understand its own shortcomings and who feels a rare pleasure in confessing them on every occasion. It's a collective self-denigration."
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/xq90/924/KCPr8a.jpg

- Don't take rules all that seriously (the traffic reflects it).

- "Merge și așa" or "If it works, it's good enough" mentality.

- Public space is nobody's space. Not a lot of importance is given to how streets or buildings look like. People can throw trash randomly, park their cars wherever they like, historical buildings can crumble into dust, etc.

-Clothes don't make the man, but in Romania they kinda do.

- The attitude towards foreigners is generally friendly and Romanians take pride in their hospitality. I've experienced this first hand; living in a foreign country for a few months made me realize we are more open and helpful to foreigners than others.

- I believe the people in here are pretty tolerant (sure, is debatable) but this is my subjective impression.

BEHAVIOUR / TEMPERAMENT: Of steady disposition, friendly, courageous, obedient, intelligent, full of dignity and self-confidence. Fierce in guarding property entrusted to him, cannot be bribed and is suspicious of strangers. Devoted to his master and very calm in his presence. Very affectionate towards persons living in his immediate vicinity. Learns quickly and keeps this in his memory for a long time, gladly performs tasks assigned to him. He is easy to train.

-Croatian Shepherd dog

Me, me, I like hamburgers

I would say We are hard-working, socially conservative, We like alcohol, specially beer and rum and very religious. We have very good food. And obviously there are regional differences.
The bad things may be that there is still visible racism. Although by no means as much as in the world's poorest countries.
Living abroad also helps me to distinguish and recognize our mentality and things that characterize us.

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Originally Posted by Stearsolina

BEHAVIOUR / TEMPERAMENT: Of steady disposition, friendly, courageous, obedient, intelligent, full of dignity and self-confidence. Fierce in guarding property entrusted to him, cannot be bribed and is suspicious of strangers. Devoted to his master and very calm in his presence. Very affectionate towards persons living in his immediate vicinity. Learns quickly and keeps this in his memory for a long time, gladly performs tasks assigned to him. He is easy to train.

-Croatian Shepherd dog

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Admirable qualities, in particular for a woman to be obedient and follow her husband by not challenging the natural order passed down by thousands of years of evolution. Knowing Your place in life is a great blessing.

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Originally Posted by pompandy

I would say We are hard-working, socially conservative, We like alcohol, specially beer and rum and very religious. We have very good food. And obviously there are regional differences.
The bad things may be that there is still visible racism. Although by no means as much as in the world's poorest countries.
Living abroad also helps me to distinguish and recognize our mentality and things that characterize us.

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Very fine qualities overall. Though, I wish You could elaborate further on the characteristics of Your peoples mentality and what You think distinguish them. Especially as You live abroad and notice it more. Discrimination is found in every country on earth, though it does vary in how visible it is. Some places it's more out in the open whereas in other places it's more subtle.

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Originally Posted by Draug

Very fine qualities overall. Though, I wish You could elaborate further on the characteristics of Your peoples mentality and what You think distinguish them. Especially as You live abroad and notice it more. Discrimination is found in every country on earth, though it does vary in how visible it is. Some places it's more out in the open whereas in other places it's more subtle.

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Well I would say that most people give more that their best effort to have a better life. For example Kids in some areas of the country wake up at 4 AM to walk almost 4 hours to the school going through very narrow cliffs where if you fall they never find you. Some Parents or Old Workers have the same history.
I would also say (people where I live have told me what nationality I am because of this) that people are calm, at least when we are sober. Lel.
It is obvious that you will see if you compare us with other ethnic groups, Caribbeans.
We would also say that we are ingenious, although unfortunately not in my case.
There are regional differences, for example in La Selva the people are very happy and the women are hot.
Visit Norway is my dream, it must be the best country in the World.

Pragmatic,direct, industrious, conscientious,knowledgeable,miserly, down to earth and straightforward (blunt can be seen as rude by other cultures). We can be seen as rigid by outsiders but as rigid as the Germans.