About Hungarians
Hungarians about Hungarians
On the basis of the findings of a questionnaire which included almost 2,800 persons from the adult population of Hungarian nationality in eight Central European countries, the makers of the questionnaire concluded that the Central European Hungarians living outside Hungary, mainly in countries with a larger Hungarian population, have a domineering Hungarian identity while a double, or a multiple identity is less typical. This statement concerns only their national identity, and not their loyalty to the state, which they happen to be citizens of. The national identification of Central European Hungarians is basically of a non-ethnic nature: it is not based on the consciousness of a blood-relation, but mainly on cultural factors (mother tongue, arts, traditions, customs etc.) and on emotional elements, i.e. it can be described as an identity of a cultural nation. The national identification is a coherent and not a diffuse phenomenon. Its components (national identification, the vision, the self-image, stereotypes, the perception of history or the religious and cultural identity) are closely linked, influence one another and strengthen the impacts mutually.
A comparison of the identification of the societies in and outside Hungary (in the Carpathian Basin) shows that those living outside its borders have typically a stronger national feeling, more optimistic vision and a more positive self-image, which may be rooted in the self-protecting attitude of minority existence. This self-protective mechanism of the mind is also reflected in the fact that the identification, the self-image and the cultural identity of the minorities living in highly scattered form, parallel with and as a remedy for the assimilation tendencies, tend to get stronger. Among the conditions of minority existence, not only the identification, but the tolerance level in general increases: minorities tend to assess the relation to the neighbouring nations more positively than the mother country does. A related experience shows that deficient (negative or neutral) identification results in a stronger intolerance while the acknowledged identification and its positive nature (if it is not “overheated” emotionally) generally goes hand in hand with tolerance, and is even a precondition of it.
The main feature of identification is that the most learned and the best-educated people have the most conscious and most positive (but not merely emotional) national consciousness, the most optimistic vision, the most realistic and balanced national self-image and historic awareness. The main preservers of the minority consciousness are the minority intellectuals, in spite of the fact that generally they have not graduated in their mother language and worked in a majority language environment.
The mother language is a key element of the identification of the Central European Hungarians, in spite of the fact that generally, only a smaller part of the Hungarians living in minority outside Hungary can live among bilingual conditions with the dominance of the mother language. The way minority Hungarians use their mother language shows, due to the sociological environment, certain signs of degradation: the mother language domineers among the less educated rural population. The language culture of the mother language has an important role: the majority of the readings of Hungarians living in larger groups is in Hungarian and, unlike in the mother country, cultural traditions are important, and the classical Hungarian literature has a substantial share between the readings (especially for the ones living scattered). On the basis of the questionnaire’s experience, more conscious, more positive and more balanced forms of identification accompany the higher level of the culture of reading. Culture, or in concrete terms, the culture of reading is a pillar of identification.
Hungarian stereotypes
The main groups of Hungarian stereotypes can be easily determined. Let’s see first the geographical segmentation of Hungarian stereotypes.
Basically, there are two kinds of according to domicile: the countryside (actually it can be separated into two groups to western and eastern Hungary) and the capital. The people who live in the capitol are very proud that they live in Budapest. This eminence and transcendence feeling can be very abusive toward other Hungarians, and can lead to critical arguments. What is more, the western part of Hungary is getting similar to this behaviour. The reason is that the closeness of the European Union economically and ethically influences the country, especially the western region and the capitol.
Another interesting and also funny thing is that the people in Budapest have a special language “rara avis”, namely they put “a” or “az” (both of them mean like “the” in English) before a person’s first name. It can sound in English like “Did you hear what the John bought?” What is more, when somebody lives for a long time in Budapest, he or she will do the same, moreover the foreigners can learn the language wrongly.
Foreigners about Hungarians
Let’s see Hungarians from another viewpoint. If a foreigner comes to Hungary and wants to learn the language, he or she will shortly read Hungarian literature as well. This person would find that all of Hungarian poems, even the Hungarian anthem is very sad. There is only one reason for this: Hungarian people are “crying-revelling”. That means that they are basically sad people, but they can celebrate. Another meaning can be that Hungarians couldn’t ever be happy for a long time, they always had something wrong in their past.
The people who live in Europe might think the same that was mentioned before about the Hungarian people. Most of them think that Hungarians have heart, when the objectives are gallant, but they can argue on a nightingale.
Another strong feature of Hungarians is that when they had fights in the past, they often won them with honour and boisterous temperament. Rationalism was not a common component.
The Hungarian tourist sightseeings are the best visualizations of Hungarian emprise (derring-do). Just think about the Lashing Rangemen. In Hortobágy Hungarian shepherds have huge dogs (komondor and kuvasz are the two species) that are very dreadful and ferocious. Hortobágy is very important part of the country, because foreigners can see the real Hungarian society. The lonely Csárdas (Inns) on the face of the Puszta; the friendly, hospitable (and greedy) feasters can show the foreigners the Hungarian emprise. But foreigners can only see this feeling, they will never feel it. Hungarian meals can also characterize the society. These meals are full of fat and they are very hot and piquant. The Hungarian temperament is also greasy, sarcastic, wasp-tongued and improper.
Conclusion
“The great Italian-American physicist Enrico Fermi was once asked about what he believed in extraterrestrials (aliens). "Sure I do," he said. "I know a lot of them personally. They're called Hungarians."
What Fermi was saying was not that Hungarians are strange, though they are; what he wanted to say was that Hungarians are too smart to be human. If somebody has studied the history at all, he should know that 20th-century physics and mathematics are pretty much Hungarian conspiracies, not to speak about music and cinema. The currency trader George Soros, perhaps the single most powerful man on the world, is a Hungarian. Ernie Kovacs, the most cerebral and inventive television comedian who ever lived, was a Hungarian. Take the example of Schick razor. Schick was Hungarian. Or another example: ballpoint pen called "biro"? Biro was Hungarian. A Hungarian, John von Neumann, invented game theory and he was the first to apply binary numbers to problems in computing. A question: who manufactures today the “brains” for the computers? The answer is Intel. A Hungarian, Andrew Grove (not a typical Hungarian name), founded the company.
Hungarians are especially ubiquitous in math. Open a college math textbook, and you'll most likely find a smattering of Frenchmen, a rather greater number of Germans, a few Brits and Japanese, and, most of all, Hungarians. Hungarians beyond counting, except by Hungarians, who are better at this sort of thing than we mere mortals. Von Neumann, Bolyai, Kálmán, Pólya, Turán, Szegő,, Erdős, Reisz, Fejér...the torrent of goulash never ends.”
These words are not from the mind the writer, but they are very true. It is a fact that Hungarians are very out-of-the-common, but this behaviour helped them be one of the survivors of the European history. They are not just intelligent, but very energetic, although they also can be very lazy. Just like the famous Hungarian poem hero, Toldi does: we can just lay back under the hot summer sun and relax. But we can also kill a wolf with only one hit….
Bibliography
Internet:
(accessed on 7-01-2003)
(accessed on 7-01-2003)
(accessed on 25-11-2002)
Books:
-
Hunyady Gy.: Sztereotípiák a változó közgondolkodásban; Budapest; Akadémia
-
Hunyadi Gy.: Sztereotípiakutatás- Hagyományok és irányok; Budapest; ELTE Eötvös
-
Poppe, W. H.: National Ethnic Stereotypes in Central and Eastern Europe; publisher: ERCOMER (1998)
-
Hamilton, D. L.: Cognitive Processes in Stereotyping and Inter-group Behaviour; publisher: Erlbaum (1981)
-
Csepeli Gy.: A Magyarok mint mások; Budapest; Akadémia
Word count: 2037 words
Quoted in Hunyadi (1996), page 41.
The nightingale story comes from the great Hungarian poet Arany János. In one of his poems two Hungarian persons are arguing on that for whom is the bird singing for.