What do you think about Hungarians?

[Guapo]

A wonderful, proud people!

I am proud of Zoltán Dani. Dani lives in Serbia and enjoys his bakery business. I have great respect for Dani`s loyalty to people with whom he shares his everyday life.

Zoltán Dani is a former colonel of the Yugoslav Army and former commander of the 3rd battery of the 250th Missile Brigade, which shot down an F-117 Nighthawk near the village of Buđanovci on March 27, 1999, during the Kosovo War. The hit was achieved with modified SA-3 Goa missiles.

Dani claimed that his battery also shot down an F-16[1] which according to NATO was lost due to "mechanical failure".

Since retiring from military service, Dani has been working as a baker in his native village Skorenovac. He is an ethnic Hungarian.

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOCHjOxR2SQ[/YOUTUBE]

[Svipdag]

Alas,

My collection is in chaos. It was put into storage while the inside of my house was being painted. Some of it has never been unpacked and none of the rest is properly arranged. In short, I don't know where anything is.

[Arrow Cross]

And there is something about the Hungarian tendency to be depressed for life that didn't appeal to me. Hungarians usually have a pessimistic outlook on life, and this was one of the major reasons why I could not fit in there.

That actually has some truth in it, but participating in so many conflicts through history - due to our location - and losing so many of them certainly had something to do with it. All that sorrow, both national and personal, and especially in the XXth Century, has imprinted itself on the national spirit, and pushed the outlook of the common man more and more pessimistic and cynical.

...Which may also be reflected in our ways of humour.

[Horka Ozul]

That actually has some truth in it, but participating in so many conflicts through history - due to our location - and losing so many of them certainly had something to do with it. All that sorrow, both national and personal, and especially in the XXth Century, has imprinted itself on the national spirit, and pushed the outlook of the common man more and more pessimistic and cynical.

...Which may also be reflected in our ways of humour.

Let's not exaggerate, we haven't lost more battles and wars than other European countries, still we had way more victories than defeats.

[Arrow Cross]

Let's not exaggerate, we haven't lost more battles and wars than other European countries, still we had way more victories than defeats.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungari...lution_of_1848
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_I
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungari...lution_of_1956

Too much of a good thing in a too short time, wouldn't you agree? What we won and didn't win many centuries ago is of little relevance on the topic.

[Loki]

I have this book, a tongue-in-cheek account of Hungarians. Even though it is humorous and exaggerated, there is a little truth in it:

http://www.ovalbooks.com/xeno/Hungarians.html

The Xenophobe's Guide to the Hungarians

by Miklós Vámos and Mátyás Sárközi

A guide to understanding the Hungarians that explores their underlying character traits and idiosyncracies.

Extracts from the book:


Two plus two equals five

Although they hate to criticise themselves, Hungarians are well aware of their faults, one of which is that they never see eye to eye: if there are four Hungarians in a room, they will belong to five different political parties.

Gloom and doom

With Hungarians, pessimism is a state of mind. They are happy to cultivate this gloomy view: as they put it, 'An optimist is a person who is poorly informed'. Hungarians are realists: in their folk-tales they live happily 'until they die', not happily 'ever after'.

Divorce Hungarian style

Statistics show that Hungarians divorce more than they marry. On an average day, 300 Hungarians marry, and, at the same time, 100 divorce (hopefully not from the 300 who marry). Zsa Zsa Gabor accounts for at least eight. She was once asked whether she was a good housekeeper. 'Yes, dahling,' she said, 'Very good. Every time I divorce I keep the house.'

Talent will out

Hungarian emigrants are very proud of their small native land and of what they themselves have achieved. There was a period in Hollywood when a sign on film studio doors read: 'It's not enough to be Hungarian, you also have to have some talent.'

[Majar]

I like Hungarians a lot. :nod

You can't get a good feeling of the people and culture if you stay in the capital and only surf the tourist traps. The Hungarian countryside is beautiful and the people there are much nicer than in Budapest.

[Horka Ozul]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungari...lution_of_1848
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_I
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungari...lution_of_1956

Too much of a good thing in a too short time, wouldn't you agree? What we won and didn't win many centuries ago is of little relevance on the topic.

We lost in the final, but we won many battles in these wars, and always morally we won: in 1849 our independence fight was the longest and harshest in all Europe, finally our upper classes got in contact with our lower classes, which was essential for the strengthening of our nation; in WWI we managed to keep the lands of today's Hungary, even if we were attacked from all directions almost, and only because of our strong will and courage there exists a Hungary today, don't forget that both Romania, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia wanted to share among themselves all the millenarian Hungary; in WWII we kept our primal promise intact, to be allies of Germany until the end, thus not acting cowardly as other Axis allies did, by turning on the Allied side when the war wasn't going as to the plans of the Third Reich; in 1956 we were the first country that upraised against the communist bastards, giving a beautiful example to the world of sacrifice for freedom and for the independence of the mother land. Contrary to you I don't see decisive tragedies in these events, only the path of suffering which our nation has to bare until justice will be served to it (to romanticize a little, Divine justice will be served to Hungary ).

[Arrow Cross]

That's a very admirable way of perceiving the past, but you see, it's always easier to moan about our plagues and misfortunes than to look into the future with productive hope and optimism.

[Hrolf Kraki]

I find them to be a very fascinating people. This also holds true with their language. Uralic languages interest me since they don't have the same language roots as we (Indo-Europeans). I'd like to read more about the Huns and the history of the Hungarian people. Can anyone suggest any good books on the topic? The only Hungarian I know in real life is one of my German professors and he's a really nice guy.