After having spent more than five years in Romania, Ingo Tegge decided to collect all the weird, funny, and astonishing facts that he's learned about this country.
One in ten people living in Romania belongs
to a minority. Together with the Banat,
Transylvania is the most diverse region and
the source of the following bon mot about
different mentalities: “To organize a six o'clock
village meeting, tell the Romanians it's at four,
the Hungarians at five, and the Germans
at six – everybody will be there on time.
There's an interesting theory about the origin
of the Romanian term “misto” (a slightly
vulgar variation of “cool”): Some 120 years
ago, Bucharest's bohéme imported the dandy
culture from Vienna and Budapest – and from
then on, all the cool boys dressed with a
walking cane. That's “mit Stock” in German .
which might have been shortened to'
“misto”.
Romanian parents (especially those who
experienced the 1980s) are constantly afraid
that their children might starve. On the phone,
their first question isn't “How are you?”, it's
“Do you still have food?”
.. and they regularly
send supplies – no matter if the children are
already in their 30ies, earn way better than
their parents, or live on a different continent.
Miorita is an influential pastoral ballad about a
shepherd who is warned by a talking sheep
that his two rivals are about to murder him.
Does he run, negotiate, or fight? No, he just
prepares for his death. To most Romanians: a
story about destiny and ancient rites. To others:
a fatal encouragement of inaction … and
possibly of substance abuse (talking sheep?!).
The term “no” – also spelled “mo” – is used all over Transylvania. Pronounced ” no” (as in Nosferatu), it has many meanings and can help you get through discussions with minimal effort. Depending on the pronunciation, mood of the speaker, and general weather conditions, it can mean: yes, no, wow!, really?, so?, what?, calm yourself, let's get started, bye, and more.
Most people living in Romania are convinced
that they get inferior versions of Western
everyday products like chocolate spread, soft
drinks, or detergents. They invest time and
money to import the “real” products from the
West. Sounds like a conspiracy theory – until
you learn that many brands actually do sell
slightly different products in different markets.
View more of this series here.