Szendrődi-Kovács Vivien

P9F3W0
BBLAN09000

HOW DO PEOPLE OF HUNGARY VIEW AMERICANS

Hungarians tend to state that American culture and history could never be compared to
Hungary’s 1000 years old past. While it might be true that Hungary looks back on so much
long time in History than the United States, we simply cannot ignore the fact that the US has
been through so much changes in its 400 years than no other country in history ever before.
Yet, many Hungarians consider their country way better, simply because of history. But
numbers prove us wrong, America had been able achieve more in four hundred years then
Hungary could ever. Obviously, the size of the land is one great advantage, not to mention the
fact that it was populated in the late 17th century, so the whole country had been able to
develop with novel technology, while Hungary – and most of Europe – had to throw out the
old systems before upgrading.
America's history is not something to be looked down on, starting from the Boston Tea Party
up to today, regarding the fight on terrorism, and not excluding the great line of presidents
who helped the country reach its current state. Speaking of presidents, we might not mistake
to say that the U.S. has always been the leader in democracy. When in Hungary dynasties had
been fighting for the crown, America has already elected two presidents in a democratic way.
Generally speaking, although America had some advantages from the start, it is for the people
to thank that it is the way it is nowadays. Americans have, and always had a great deal of
patriotic feeling inside them. Ever since the war in Iraq, every person displays their nationalist
feelings by putting flags on everything, but this kind of nationalism had always been present:
every legal office, courtroom, school had a flag even in the sixties; soldiers had always been
buried with a flag on their coffin; and this nationalism helped the USA grow to the size it has
achieved.
And while America is such a proud nation, it is kind of sad to state that Hungary had never
been. The political opposition has always been strong in this small country, not to mention the
social differences between its capital, Budapest, and other cities. Although Hungary is much
smaller and should be much more homogeneous, generally speaking, the biggest difference is
the lack of patriarchy. Referring back to the question in the title, there is one word that
expresses the feeling Hungarians feel regarding Americans; a feeling held by many small
nations around the world towards them: envy.
These countries simply envy their money, their success, and the fact that young Americans
have so much more free time that they are able to make up new gender-neutral names for jobs
and work on gender equality, and for that, Americans are made fun of all around the world.
Every nation knows and acknowledges one-or-two stereotypes regarding Americans – most of
which is untrue -, but these stereotypes allow them to make fun of Americans, because they
are obese, because they can afford to go everywhere by cars, because they do not have such a
long line of history.
This is why it is important to educate people about this rich and multi-layered culture; to
make them see that there is so much more below the surface.