There are lots of things I like about the Hungarian people, but in this article I want to write about three qualities I really like about the people. They might not be true for all Hungarians, but in general these seems to be true in most homes and families I have been around.

Hungarian families visibly care for one another

We live in a world where we are taught to become individualists and to fix everything ourselves. We are to move out from home early and take care of our own matters. This is positive in many ways, but I really do love the way many Hungarian families take care of one another, carry the burdens of other family members and they are «in it together.» This can also be seen clearly in the fact that the families often finance the studies of the children, which is different from many other nations where the children take big loans to survive their time of studies.

Hungary is a nation of gentlemen

Feminism is not standing very strong in Hungary. I am totally pro women in high positions and want them to earn just as much or maybe even more than the male members of society do. However I also like what seems to be an old-fashioned way of thinking that still exists in Hungary. For some people what I write here might seem to be natural, but for others this sound old-fashioned. Let me give some examples…

When you enter the metro a Hungarian (gentleman) will normally let women and children enter before himself. If he is sitting and a pregnant, an older lady or an injured person enters the metro they will jump up to give away their seat. If nobody stands up by themselves, the Hungarian gentleman actually tells the people sitting to get up and give away their seat to the person in need.

I met a beautiful Hungarian lady when I moved to Hungary. As I met her it took her a while to get used to my total lack of gentleman manners. I was totally used to women taking care of themselves. When we went out together I went out the door first and she came after. A Hungarian gentleman would of course keep the door, but I was in total lack of such training. I expected her to keep the door for herself and she expected me to keep the door open. Ouch!

Hungarians sympathize with others

We are often out flying with our family and we have often used RyanAir. The airline is not known for their good service, but we still have good experiences flying with them. Earlier low cost airlines let families travelling with small children board the planes first. Then came priority boarding and now you had to pay for the right to board the flight before everyone else. We have not yet ordered the right for priority boarding, but always at Budapest Airport the crew standing by the line have seen us arrive with a small child and they let us come through like priority anyway. This has also been true at many other airports around in Europe (Dublin and Brussels), but last year we experienced someone keeping the priority boarding rule 100% in Norway. We were sent to the very back of the line with our little child. Since the flight was to be packed it meant that we could not even be sure that we got to sit together as a family. Then something happened!

Another Hungarian family we had never seen before had ordered priority boarding and stood in the front of the line. They noticed us being sent to the back and immediately the father of the family said that he would grab some seats for us. We entered the flight as some of the last people and as soon as we got in we recognized the Hungarian father who had saved up three seats for us so that we could all sit together. Thanks again!

You might say that we did not deserve to sit next to one another as we did not pay for it. Still I so much like the fact that the Hungarians sympathize with others and do their uttermost to help people they believe could need an extra hand.

Do you agree?

Maybe you totally agree with me reading this, or maybe you disagree? Maybe you have some other areas in which you admire and love the way the Hungarians think, live or behave. I would love to have you write a comment and share your thoughts on the matter!