You Know You're Hungarian...
1. When you use sour cream more than ketchup.
2. When your parents come to visit for 3 weeks and you all stay in a one bedroom apartment.
3. When feeding your guests is your main priority even if they claim they're not hungry and in which case you get slightly offended/upset that they don't want your hospitality.
4. When someone says that Hungarian "is like Russian and all those other Slavic languages," and then you have to go into great detail about the origins of Hungarian with a scolding history lesson.
5. When Paprika is just as important as salt & pepper on the table & in food.
6. When you know what Unicum is and prefer it over Jagermeister.
7. When it's shocking for you to realize that TV channels of foreign countries don't broadcast full live coverage of kayak-canoe and water polo world championships in prime time.
8. When you tell someone that you are Hungarian, they ask "Are you hungry?" Then you congratulate them on being the millionth person to say that to you.
9. When you've heard, "If you're hungry, why not go to Turkey?" at least once in your life.
10. When you have a relative who's named Attila. Or Jozsef. Or Janos. Or Laszlo.
11. When half of your mothers friends husbands have the name Jozsef.
12. When you know that the "goulash" you see in many restaurants has in actuality little/nothing to do with the gulyas leves we really eat.
13. When meeting another Hungarian in a country outside of Hungary is amazing.
14. When you know the meaning of "kurva" even if you don't know any other Hungarian word.
15. When you love Turó Rudi but cant really explain to foreigners what the hell that is until they try it.
16. When your foreign friends ask you if you still believe that Santa Claus brings the presents on the night between December 24th-25th... then you answer somehow confused that Santa Claus brings the presents on the 6th of December and it is actually Little Jesus who brings the presents on Christmas, but the presents are already there on the 24th at 6PM.
17. When a pancake is extremely flat in your country and you roll it up instead of folding it.
18. When you know the phrase "three is the Hungarian truth".
19. When you do not speak with your mouth full.
20. When guys keep telling you that Hungarian girls are the cutest and prettiest and hope that you just believe it and they get laid.
21. When they wanna show off by saying that they know your capital: Bucharest and no, they are not joking!
22. When you go into a Chinese restaurant and order your Sechuan chicken with French fries, cucumber salad and ask for a few slices of bread as well.
23. When you have a funny accent in every other language you speak.
24. When you love Mákos Guba and you can't explain what MÁK is, neither GUBA to anyone.. and if you finally can, everyone will think you're some kind of weirdo for eating that.
25. When catching a bus an old lady with lots of heavy bags runs by you and reaches the bus first, then sits down panting and complaining how old she is and how the stuff is heavy and young people are not well educated, etc.
26. When you start counting on your hand with one being the thumb.
27. When you can swear for 5 minutes straight, with one breath, not using the same word, ever.
28. When you know what 'lángos' is.
29. When you can show off your engagement ring, worn on the opposite hand.
30. When you know why the bells of every church ring every day at noon.
31. When you have difficulty pronouncing words started with "W" in English, but you're capable of creating long and meaningful sentences using only "E" vowels in you mother tongue.
32. When you would rather stand up in a tram/trolley when there are plenty of seats available.
33. When you have more excuses for the controllers than you have tickets.
34. When the train hasn't even left the station, but you are already eating your home made sandwiches (usually with half a paprika or tomato in it). And most likely include Wienerschnitzel.
35. When you call a 79 km long lake (the Balaton) the Hungarian Sea. And you are able to swim across it!
36. When you can eat ANYTHING deep fried (with breadcrumbs on it) and can make spirits (pálinka) of (almost) EVERYTHING, including paprika of course!
37. When you NEVER leave home with wet hair because you can get a cold and you ALWAYS bring your hair dryer when going abroad, and are astonished when people do not have one in their own homes!
38. When you sit always on the same place and chair, even when the (class)room is empty and "your" place is in the end of the room.
39. When zou cant tzpe on and English kezboard because y ans z are mixed up.
40. When you know the difference between s and sz. and also u and ü.
41. When you know what a pogácsa/dobos torta/kürtös kalács/főzelék/túrógombóc is, and love most of them.
42. When you understand cynicism and sarcasm; you sometimes go cynical/sarcastic yourself.
43. When you kind of dislike Turkish/Albanian people even tough you have never seen one in your life - you have the strange idea that they must all be related to jumurdzsák and his evil lot.
44. When you are more creative in cheating then any other nationality.
45. When Winnie the Pooh and The Flintstones is actually much funnier translated into your language than the original.
46. When you go abroad and joke with the people there as at home and they just don't understand but get possibly hurt by your funny remarks.
47. When you are snobby and think that anyone who has not read Dostoyewski and Bulgakow is not an intelligent human being.
48. When your language has two words for love.
49. When you deeply believe that Budapest (or your hometown) is the most beautiful city in the whole wide word and -just to make sure- you swear for that before going up to the Eiffel tower.
50. When you know that "a copper angel whistling on a willow tree" is actually a swear-expression!
51. When you have Szaloncukor! On a Christmas tree! :D
52. When you have a nameday and no one foreign understands what that is good for.
53. When instead of a good fruit salad, you'd rather make Pálinka out of your fruits, (and you swear on its healing power - of course).
54. When you use fruit to make soup.
55. When you greet everyone with a kiss on the cheeks! - Even a guy to another guy.
56. When you know that all geniuses and celebrities have some relation with Hungarians. Or they just simply are Hungarians.
57. When you put ketchup on your pizza.
58. When you collect and take home spoons, glasses, blankets, magazines etc. from the airplane.
59. When you can pronounce long words easily like: megszentségtelenitéshetetlenségeskedéseitekért" and you even know it has a meaning.
60. When you smuggle in drinks and food in your bag when you go to the cinema, just to save money.
61. When you know that all parts of a pig are edible, and it takes only half a day, some friends from the countryside and 2L palinka to prove it.
62. When you put on makeup and fancy clothes even when going to the grocery store.
63. When you have guests, you make at least 2 kinds of soup (sweet and salty), 4 different main courses, and at least 2 kinds of cakes, even though you know it's way too much.
64. When you know what is the difference between "puszi" and "csók"!
65. When you think it's perfectly reasonable to take small kids ( < 1 year) for a walk when the outside temperature is below zero, because they need some fresh air.
66. When you know what a Hungarian orange is. It's slightly yellower, it's slightly sharper, but our own.
67. When you tell to every single person that the Rubik's cube was invented in Hungary.
68. When for every meaning there are about 5 words.
69. When any foreigner's passing mention of Transylvania will set off a twenty-minute rant about the Treaty of Trianon.
70. When you have ever poured yourself a nice glass of milk - from a plastic bag.
71. When you start singing one of the saddest songs at midnight on New Years Eve when everybody else is happy as can be.
72. When it surprises you again and again, how much more impressive and chiseled are the Hungarian translations of most non-Hungarian poems, than the original ones.
73. When you say 'Jó étvágyat' before you start a meal and "Egészségedre" if somebody is sneezing or for drinking.
74. When you steal sugar packets from different coffee places.
75. When you know what tejbegriz is, and love it!
76. When you tell everyone that Lugosi Béla is from Hungary, more so, the real Dracula himself was Hungarian, and anyway, Hollywood majority was created by Hungarians.
77. When the telephone rings in your house, everybody yells "telefon!!!" as if people needed to be told that the phone was ringing, and needed to be picked up.
78. When your dog is a guard dog, not a pet.
79. When you know your language has the best and most clever jokes!
80. When your parents could tell if you were lying as a kid by feeling how 'soft' the tip of your nose was.
81. When you can make astonishingly delicious dishes without spending more than 3 euros (krumplistészta, káposztástészta, túróstészta).
82. When you swear that garlic and tea with honey can cure sicknesses in less than a day.
83. When all the neighbors in your apartment complex want peace and quiet as if they were living in a "kertes ház". You tell them to go move out of the city into a "családi ház".
84. If you've never been to a school in America, you are scared shit of it, because all you ever see about it on the news are school shootings.
85. When you've experienced the worst customer service ever known to mankind.
86. When you've ridden the BKV for free, either not gotten caught, or been able to talk your way out of a fine.
87. When you love to swim and swim in one of Budapest's outdoor pools at least 2 times a week.
88. When you can hum or whistle the Malév signal, even if you fly "fapados".
89. WHEN YOU KNOW THAT HUNGARY'S POLITICIANS ARE OUT FOR THEMSELVES, LINING THEIR POCKETS, AND FUCKING UP THE COUNTRY.
90. When you were a child you had to eat carrots all the time... and when you asked the question: Why? your parents answer is: "Hogy jobban fütyülj"!
91. When you are a shitty tipper.
92. When there's a Petőfi, a Széchenyi, and a Kossuth street even in the most behind-the-world kind of settlement. And you can get ANYWHERE in Hungary just by consistently following the Kossuth street through all towns you go.
93. When you laugh at Americans who think paying $3.00/gallon for gas is a lot.
94. When you tip your doctor.
95. When at least one member of your family had or still has a wartburg/lada/trabant and is proud of it!
96. When if you had a same size older cousin or sibling, then you pretty much inherited his/her clothes and school stuff, including a map with Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia on it - where you used to spend some of your holidays with the family, anyway.
97. If you are not a native Hungarian, and other Hungarians can tell, and when you go visit Hungary/Budapest you feel like person a non grata when you're there 'cause a lot of people will assume things about you and think you're super rich and automatically be jealous of you, and then go out of their way to try to make you unhappy.
98. When you know that beside the unquestioned Finno-Ugric relations with the Finnish, we have the Polish-Hungarian brotherhood as well.
99. When you are having a hard time explaining to any foreigner that actually, your family name is the first in your name, and it is not your given one.
100. When everyone having ever lived in Hungary has at least one acquaintance of each of the following surname groups: Kis(s), Nagy, Varga, Kovács and maybe even Béres and Balogh.
101. When you've traveled to/vacationed in/visited at least 10 countries in your life.
102. When you don't use measuring cups when cooking.
103. When you are standing next to the two largest suitcases at the airport.
104. When you have rugs covering every inch of your house.
105. When you live abroad and you could kill to eat proper Hungarian food!!
106. When your neighbor sun tans topless.
107. When people question you for eating a sandwich for breakfast.
108. When mixing red wine and coke is a delicious combination and you can't believe that foreigners think its weird.
109. When every 2nd person you know is either a Gábor, a Feri, Csaba, György, Balázs, Éva, Bea, Ezster, etc.
110. When - even if you have a cold - your grandmother tells you to gargle with salt water!
111. When you have ever had a Romanian say something bad about Hungarians.
112. When you can think of at least 5 different varieties of pörkölt and couldn't imagine your life without rakott káposzta or somlói galuska.
113. When you know that CS, DZ, DZS, GY, LY, NY, etc. are all ONE LETTER, and when telling it to your foreign friends, they all think it's weird.
114. When you say 'Szia' or 'Hello' instead of 'Viszlát' to your friends when you say good-bye to them, and your foreign friends think it's weird as well.
115. When you think that a glass of 'pálinka' or 'forralt bor' is better than medicine.
116. When you know what 'kakaós csiga' is.
117. When you have a bumper sticker on your car or map in your home of "Nagy Magyarország".
118. When you smuggle salami back from Hungary.
119. When you can (actually) pronounce Gy, as in HOGY VAGY - and not say hogi-vagi.
120. When you think that's weird that Americans don't have gates around their homes.
121. When having a barbecue means roasting lard on a stick and dripping the grease on bread.
122. When friends/family celebrate your birthday by pulling your ears.
123. When there is thermal water or a spa in your hometown or very close to your hometown.
124. When you have a good time with your friends by singing songs containing the words temetõ, keresztfa, sírhely, meghalt.
125. When you think zsíros kenyér and pálinka is a balanced meal as long as you also have onions.
126. When you know you can easily find a shop open in the middle of the night to buy alcohol and you will not be asked for ID.
127. When you know which nation has the most Nobel prize winners related to its population.
128. When you know what tepertős pogácsa is.
129. When you have to stand out to the rain to grow tall.
130. When rántotta is an egg food and not hitched by something.
131. When people from all over the world keep on asking you if you understand anything from Finnish language.
132. When you can talk about the most intimate things with complete strangers on the bus, waiting for the doctor, etc., but you are avoiding discussing your financial state even with your closest relatives.
133. When you know that the front passenger seat in a car is called "anyós-űlés"... and then proceed with a few mother in law jokes to top it off!
134. When you can't make do with normal sized pillows, they have to be huge or minute.
135. When there are more books in your apartment than in a foreign friend's entire neighborhood.
136. When you speak to foreign people in Hungarian, but slower and louder than normal to make them your language understandable!
137. When you eat bread with just about everything, even with potatoes.
138. When you never eat your steak if it's not very well done - like roasted dark.
139. When you are a citizen of the only country that has a crown with a tilted cross on the top.
140. When most of your childhood games revolved around 'bújocska', 'fogócska', and 'snúr' preferably with fillér-s (the old Hungarian 'cents').
141. When you live abroad and wonder around in a bookstore, you very frequently end up in the travel section, longingly staring at the photos of the unbelievably gorgeous Budapest (or which ever city you are from).
142. When your mom chases you with a wooden spoon and your dad says "Vigyaz, mert mindjárt össze akad a bajuszunk.." even when you're clearly a girl.
143. When you are eating something that looks like a plate full of puke, you call it "Lecsó". But it tastes amazing!
144. When you speak a language that no one can understand in a whole world... only Hungarians.
145. When your grandma gives yous "madártej" for dessert.
146. When you can't simply say "fine, thanks" when someone asks "how are you?" but you rather go into details of your life.
147. When you think that huzat equals certain death because again, this was handed down to you by your omnipotent and all-knowing mother.
148. When you say "kurva" to describe something amazing!
149. When your foreign friends have a hard time understanding that your friends in Slovakia and Transylvania are Hungarians by birth but not Hungarian citizens.
150. When you blame everything on the communists, when you have to pay to use the bathroom in public places and eat túrosgomboc, túros palacsinta and everything else with túro and your American friends come over for dinner and they won't touch anything because they think desserts with cottage cheese are gross.
151. When you don't waste food... you save the leftovers for the next day.
152. When you can't be overjoyed enough with the phenomenon that other people can't understand a single word in your language.
153. When you can't leave the house without your pockets full of zsebkendõ.
154. When you know that Karinthy was as great a humorist/satirist as Mark Twain.
155. When you go to visit Hungary, and no matter how many times you tell people you're from CANADA, they still think you're American.
156. When you know the ghost man who hangs around Jókai tér but you have never bought a flower from him.
157. When you rub a bronze horses balls for good luck.
158. When you have hopped around on one leg and slapped your thighs randomly to demonstrate how your people dance.
159. When you have wondered why the main airport is called Ferihegy, when there's not a mountain in sight.
160. When in Paris, in front of the fanciest club, you are drinking a 4 euro wine, and press the tap inside the bottle with your house keys, and you get everything wet, and you have to pour out some of the wine to be able to drink it (so the tap floating inside the bottle doesn't block the way of the wine).
161. When you consider poets historical figures on par in significance with kings and presidents.
162. When you can recite at least ten poems from memory.
163. When you have to explain the difference between the Hungarian flag, and the Italian one.
164. When your childhood fairytales didn't end as "they lived happily ever after" but "they lived happily until death".
165. When your fellow citizens feel to bitch about you or your actions just for the sake of it.
Now let's
see which fit me so far...:
1, 2, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10 (my cousin, another
cousin's husband/ my father and brother/ no one/ two more cousins),
12-21, 23-26, 28-30, 31 (not from head anymore), 37 (only the first
part), 38, 39 (on hungarian kezboard),
40-42, 44-46, 48, 50-52, 54-56, (58 - my mom used to), 59-61, 63 (Xmas
anyone?), 64 (in English both means kiss), 65, 67-75 (FARINA!!! ^.^),
76-79, 81, 86-90("So that you can whistle better.", 93, 99-101, 103-107,
112-114, 116, 119-124 (those words are in order: cemetery, grave
marker, grave, dead), 127-133(I skip the jokes), 134, 135(you should see
what we had in NYC), 137, 138(medium-well now), 139-148, 151, 152, 159,
161, 162 (used to be for sure... now... oy), 163(every time I do a
self-intro in school), aaaand 164.
WOW! (O.O) (^_^)v
Also, most of what I
skipped was because it had to do with alcohol, which I don't drink, but
I do know plenty of people who those are true for.
