what_about_ro

Czech woman, 25

2010-11-21T08:25:00.000-08:00

Age: 25
Sex: F
Nationality: cz
Education: almost bachelor:) officially finished only high ed.
Occupation: "student"

What did you think about Romania and Romanians before your first contacts with this country or its inhabitants?
Well, I had impression about Romania and Romanians as my friends told me about those, i mean friends who visited Romania
Briefly, beautiful country, very kind and friendly people...and i thought it is post communist country as ours but that our country is a bit further in way of economy.
frankly, there were also voices, who were telling me not very nice things about Romania and that all Romanians are gypsies and blabla, but i didn't care about that, cause those were all people who had never been to Romania

Did this image change after getting to know a Romanian or after visiting the country? How?
It changed only in a way that i haven't only heard about it but i could have felt it:) I mean about those good references from former visitors.
i fall in love with Romania, Romanians and Romanian language

Describe in a few words your best encounter with a Romanian.
well, hard to say, there were more of them
I guess the best one was with you:) clever, smart, open minded, crazy, creative, speaking Slavic languages, friendly, just wow!!!! well, and there were more nice people of course
For example Petre, we met during festival, young student of philosophy, working as IT programer:)

Describe in a few words your worst encounter with a Romanian.
well, not sure if i should write it but ok.. it was with fucking stupid taxi driver who run over two dogs, on purpose.

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanians in general?
life
laugh
culture
friends
warmth
effort
good lovers :)
annoying sellers :)

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanian women?
pretty
wow, it really depends, they are just women i guess:)

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanian men?
confident
good lovers
and again, it depends...
in general they are more mature that czech men

What is the age you associate Romania with?
29...after lots of shit, mature young lady who never lost her energy and beauty, but during her teenage age she went trough so many stuff- it would give for many many lifes...so kind of old, but still young and no mature enough to go on and on :)

What is the drink you associate Romania with?
palinca si bere

What are the brands you associate Romania with?
dacia
timisorana

Name 3 prominent Romanians
nestor ratesh- i dont know how much is he treated as a prominent person in Romania, but i met him during a conference in radio free europe, courageous guy
Laszlo Tokes - well, he was actually hungarian, wasnt he?
Ceausescu
Basescu
Dan Duta - director of ICR in prague:)

What time of the day you associate Romania with?
morning

Name the country you associate Romania with?
Romania, cannot associate with any

What is the main difference between Romania and your country?
czech rep. doesnt have a sea:)

Italian female, 22

2009-04-28T03:45:00.000-07:00

Age: 22
Sex: F
Nationality: ITALIAN
Education: DEGREE IN PEDAGOGY
Occupation: STUDENT AND EVS VOLUNTEER IN BUCURESTI

What did you think about Romania and Romanians before your first contacts with this country or its inhabitants?
I WAS CONFUSED BECAUSE OF ITALIAN’S MEDIA AND THEIR OPINIONS AND IMAGINES ABOUT ROMANIAN PEOPLE.
BUT I WAS SURE THAT THIS IMAGINES WAS WRONG, AND I THOUGHT THAT AS IN EVERY COUNTRY THERE ARE THE “GOODS” AND THE “BADS” ONES.

Did this image change after getting to know a Romanian or after visiting the country? How?
YES, I UNDERSTOOD THAT MY DOUBTS ABOUT ITALIAN INFORMATIONS WERE RIGHTS!! THE ROMANIAN YUNGSTERS WHO I’VE MET ARE OPENED PEOPLE, FRIENDLY, HONESTS..ALSO ROMA PEOPLE ARE QUITE, THEY NEVER DISTURBED ME UNTIL NOW..

Describe in a few words your best encounter with a Romanian.
I HAVE TWO HAPPY EXPERIENCE OF HITCHHIKING IN DOBROGEA:
THE FIRST WHIT A LOVELY GYPSY FAMILY THAT HELP ME TO FIND THE PLACE THAT I NEEDED, THE SECOND ONE WITH A MAN, WHO ALSO PAYED FOR MY HOTEL’S ROOM....I’VE NEVER MET A MAN SO GENEROUS, AN ANGEL.

Describe in a few words your worst encounter with a Romanian.
IN TRAIN DURING THE NIGHT WITH A MAN..REALLY ANNOYING.

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanians in general?
IMMIGRANTS
WORKERS
ROMA PEOPLE
CRIMINALITY

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanian women?
COLF
SUBJECTION
OPEN
FRIENDLY

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanian men?
HARDWORKERS
PROUD
CRIMINALITY (I’M CONSCIOUS TO BE VICTIM OF ITALIAN INFORMATION)

8. What is the age you associate Romania with?

1989 THE REVOUTION.....................

What is the drink you associate Romania with?
NU STIU, WINE BUT ALSO BEER, TIMISOREANA FOR SURE

What are the brands you associate Romania with?
TIMISOREANA.....................
URSUS.....................
DACIA.....................

Name 3 prominent Romanians
EMINESCU
CEAUCESCU
MIHAILEANU

What time of the day you associate Romania with?
FIRST AND LAST METRO (5 a.m and 11.30 pm)

Name the country you associate Romania with?
ITALY

What is the main difference between Romania and your country?
I’M CURIOS TO UNDERSTAND IT! FOR SURE ABOUT POLITIC ASPECT WORSE THAN BERLUSCONI IT’S IMPOSSIBLE TO HAVE..I WILL SEE DURING THIS MONTHS

Polish female, 25

2009-04-26T08:11:00.000-07:00

Age: 25
Sex: F
Nationality: polish
Education: master degree in progress
Occupation: volunteer for Cultural Association for Theatre and Origami in Romania

What did you think about Romania and Romanians before your first contacts with this country or its inhabitants?
My ideas about Romania, how it’s there, how people are, how they live were very blured. Mostly because of lack of competent knowledge. So basicly my thinking about this country and people was a result from what other people were telling me about and also what stereotypes say. Stereotypes: “ Romanian are gypsies / you need to be very carfelul it is dangeorus there / don’t go out alone” etc. People who were in Romania: “the country is beautiful / you have to visit Transylvania / Romanian are amazingly good in languages” etc. Even that I tried to “fight” with those stereotypes and trying to explain that Romanian are not gypsies and the country cannot be so much different than Poland, there is always smth that stays in your mind.

Did this image change after getting to know a Romanian or after visiting the country? How?
It has change a bit. Mostly about gypsies – I don’t see as many as I expected to see. I was also surprised about how opened people are, oppened for foreigners and how welcoming they are.
A! the big surprise was that abortion is legal!

Describe in a few words your best encounter with a Romanian.
Romanian girl taking me around Bucharest and showing places and events I would not be able to discover on my own as a foreigner!
Taxi drivers who don’t mind you want to smoke in a car and want to entertain you by plaing “manele” (?) 

Describe in a few words your worst encounter with a Romanian.
Taxi driver killing a dog for purpose!

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanians in general?
ambitious
creative
laungage skills
pride and attachment to their own country

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanian women?
firm
egzotic
self-confident
opened

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanian men?
Hmmm, difficult to say, difficult to be objective when you are a woman. It seems like they’r the same everywhere. Ok, maybe Romanian men are more straightforward and self-confident than polish.

What is the age you associate Romania with?
Not sure if I understood… If it is about a year, then 2007; if it is about age, then Middle Ages and communism.

What is the drink you associate Romania with?
Timisoreana si ursus

What are the brands you associate Romania with?
Hmmmm, nu stiu…. Maybe Timisoreana and Ursus again... If I can call it “brand”

Name 3 prominent Romanians
Emil Cioran
Mircea Eliade
Nicolae Ceausescu

What time of the day you associate Romania with?
5 o’clock in the morning, the time when metro start’s working again

Name the country you associate Romania with?
Romania

What is the main difference between Romania and your country?
Sometimes I have an impresion that polish people have a “polish complex”; Romanian people don’t.

Italian female, 27

2008-11-24T03:36:00.000-08:00

Age: 27
Sex: FEMALE
Nationality: ITALIAN
Education: UNIVERSITY DEGREE
Occupation: NATIONAL MUSEUM of CONTEMPORARY ART in BUCHAREST

What did you think about Romania and Romanians before your first contacts with this country or its inhabitants?
The problem, in my case, is that I had absolutely no idea in my mind about Romania. This is the sad reality. In Italy is very difficult to find someone, who can say the difference between Budapest and Bucharest. I “studied” in the six months before coming here a little bit about this country and I was a little bit afraid about Bucharest because of the bad news I heard from the people around me (like for example, problems with the police, bad conditions of the apartments…).

Did this image change after getting to know a Romanian or after visiting the country? How?
Yes, of course! Till now I didn't have any kind of problems! Maybe Bucharest is not a beautiful city; but it has nothing to do with the problems of living here.

Describe in a few words your best encounter with a Romanian.
It was in Iaşi, one month ago. I was there for working and I met a family in a cluster. The mother, Mrs. Dana, was so happy to know that someone was in Romania with a fellowship from EU (like me) and wanted to remain here! She proposed to me to stay in her apartment for some days. When I said, that it was impossible for me, she gave me her mobile-phone number and let me promise to come back to Iaşi to see the clusters in Moldavia with herself and her family. It was a discussion of about 20 minutes, but was an incredible experience…

Describe in a few words your worst encounter with a Romanian.
Till now, when a very young girl tried to steal from my pocket in the bus in Bucharest and when a taxi driver wanted from me an exorbitant amount of money for two kilometers and for me was very difficult to answer in Romanian.

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanians in general?
Happiness
Creativity
Will of doing
Submissiveness

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanian women?
Austerity
Wife
Mother
Female

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanian men?
Dictator
Kind
Helper
Honest

What is the age you associate Romania with?
1400, the age of Dracula!

What is the drink you associate Romania with?
Ţuică

What are the brands you associate Romania with?
only Skoda

Name 3 prominent Romanians
George Enescu
Constantin Brâncuşi
Nicolae Ceauşescu

What time of the day you associate Romania with?
Night

Name the country you associate Romania with?
Poland

What is the main difference between Romania and your country?
I think the multiculturalism, that is here.

Spanish male, 25

2007-06-12T14:45:00.000-07:00

Age: 25
Sex: Male
Nationality: Spanish
Education: Diploma in law studies
Occupation: Student

What did you think about Romania and Romanians before your first contacts with this country or its inhabitants?
In Spain the Romanian community is the third bigger of foreigners after Colombian and Morocco. Even if the great majority of the Romanians are already involve in the normal life there are some communities under the normal living standards (begging at metro stations…..). For this reason the image that people have about Romania and Romanians is quite biased. And I have to admit that even trying to be open minded some of those thoughts were in my mind at the moment I was coming.

Did this image change after getting to know a Romanian or after visiting the country? How?
It did. At the beginning my feeling was somehow of disappointment. Arrive to Bucharest was like arriving to any other European capital and I was expecting something different. I noticed some different things of course but mostly everything was as at home. Neither the people gave me a different impression. At this point I have to admit that I did not travel so much in the countryside and here in Bucharest my life is in the central area.
With time I discovered a deeper face of the city and the people, different way of living and of understanding life, business and everything. Shopping at Obor, at some flea markets at Pantalimon or Militari, there is where I found the Romania I was expecting.
The only thing I missed is the political behavior of the normal people. I was sure that after the communism people were involved. Instead I found out that no so many people care about what was going on with Basescu, with the ministry of Justice or with whatever other political stuffs. At a political scientist this is hard to see and to admit. Also at the social demands most of the Romanian population has not interest, they do not fight for the normal and basic rights and usually they have a very poor opinion of their country and the people. Most of the people I met dream with Europe and they do not consider Romania as a potential country. Most of them seem disappointed and already bored of empty promises, they do not trust in the political elites and they just accept what the system offer them without expecting great things.

Describe in a few words your best encounter with a Romanian.
The woman of a little shop close to the place I live. I think she is the only one who heard my poor Romanian language and everyday she tries to have a longer conversation, she never agrees to sell me two packets of cigarettes, and always put some more telemea than I asked. I know I will remember and miss her.

Describe in a few words your worst encounter with a Romanian.
One night at Lipscani area. I was walking holding the hand of other guy and some young guys came to us more to scare than to have a real fight. It was nothing important but for me is unbelievable that in a capital city as Bucharest is people is still not ready to understand some basic rules of civism.

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanians in general?
- Easy going
- Conservative
- Daring

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanian women?
- Submissive
- Accepting to be a sex-toy, very conceited
- Good-looking

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanian men?
- Rough, rude
- Soccer
- Ursus

What is the age you associate Romania with?
According to my parents´ opinion, which I share, Romania is very similar to Spain 30 years ago.

What is the drink you associate Romania with?
Bere, this is a personal problem, I will answer the same in any other country.

What are the brands you associate Romania with?
Ursus
Dacia
Fornetti
Xerox

Name 3 prominent Romanians
Basescu
Nadia Comaneci
Gheorghe Hagi

What time of the day you associate Romania with?
The late afternoon

Name the country you associate Romania with?
???

What is the main difference between Romania and your country?
Also very personal but for me the night life, even if it is quite ok is very limited in the kind of clubs, music and people.

American male, 49

2007-05-27T06:59:00.000-07:00

Age: 49
Sex: M
Nationality: American
Education: Masters/ Communication
Occupation: Communication Planning

What did you think about Romania and Romanians before your first contacts with this country or its inhabitants?
I thought of Romania as one of the smaller satellite countries behind the Soviet Iron Curtain. I imagined it as a rural, mountainous country with many villages. I assumed it was very ‘slavic’ and somehow a bridge between countries like Yugoslavia, Hungary and the Soviet Union.
But, I would not be able to discern the difference between Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary for example.
In terms of the capital, I similarly had little impression of Bucharest (I’m one of those hopelessly guilty of previously saying Budapest/ Bucharest).
I knew of Ceausescu’s atrocities but did not know of him by name.
And in the late 90s I became aware of all the stories in the European and American press about children in orphanages after the revolution.
On a more positive note, I knew of Romania’s showing at the Olympics, particularly the now-famous women’s gymnastics team.

Did this image change after getting to know a Romanian or after visiting the country? How?
Very much so…5 trips in 2 months have really opened my mind, particularly to city life. One weekend in the country to see villages as well as a smaller town like Pitesti was a gift—especially to be able and go spend time in a real village. (don’t have a lot of those near New York City)
I feel remiss for not having known how similar the Romanian language and other Latin derived languages are.
I now sense the ‘new energy’ of seeing how quickly life is changing for Romanians (especially from a marketing perspective-- new stores, new brands, and new choices.)
I also am understanding more the impact of 1989: life before it, as well as the death and destruction that occurred during the revolution (a far cry from the Czech ‘velvet revolution’.) To also finally grasp that the revolution was not distant history…that it is a living, personal memory for many, is something I can never fully comprehend.
And I do sense the frustration of daily life—life seems still really hard in Bucharest--the traffic, the hassles, and a government still going through transitions. Romanians will overcome all this, but it is still a time it seems of overwhelming pressure and frustration.

Describe in a few words your best encounter with a Romanian.
I have had many, in my workings with my local colleagues and their warmth once we got to know each other a little better. I have also sensed that warmth in daily dealings with people I don’t know, but who have helped me…at the airport, at the hotel, in a store.
The best?....my colleague sharing his holiday weekend and having me meet his wife’s 75year old grandmother on her small village farm.

Describe in a few words your worst encounter with a Romanian.
I honestly haven’t any --nothing that I can say is ‘bad’. (I’ve had more hassles in my home city of New York, or more rude dealings in cities like Amsterdam, Paris or Geneva!)

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanians in general?
• “A light under a bushel’—people’s inherent passion/ warmth finally surfacing
• Opinionated-- Sharing opinions seem a national pastime!
• Still some lingering darkness and frustration…still much to overcome.

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanian women?
• A bit shy first, around foreigners, then warming up
• Passionate
• Hard working in the many roles she plays in life

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanian men?
Younger/ professional men: (<45)
• Well read, highly optimistic, inquisitive, motivated, hard working
Older/ more blue-collar men (+45)
• Struggling between the old world and the new world

What is the age you associate Romania with?
• Two ages at once….28 and 75

What is the drink you associate Romania with?
Some of the fruit liquors I experienced in the country

What are the brands you associate Romania with?
Tarom Airlines
Dero

Name 3 prominent Romanians
• Ceausescu
• Nadia Comedic
• Ion Ionescu (sp?)

What time of the day you associate Romania with?
Another duality…the possibility of a spring’s mid morning 10am), and the waning light of autumns late afternoon (430pm)

Name the country you associate Romania with?
My visits to China keep coming to mind….mainly the rural villages nearby the secondary cities like a Guangzhou….like two centuries living right next to each other at the same time.

What is the main difference between Romania and your country?
Americans seemed to have forgotten what the purpose of our revolution was (1776) …for independence, a better life, for escape from dictatorial power. ….Romanians on the other hand, haven’t yet forgotten the purpose of their revolution.

bulgarian male, 33

2007-01-28T07:54:00.000-08:00

Age: 33
Sex: male
Nationality: Bulgarian
Education: Higher Education
Occupation: Administration worker

What did you think about Romania and Romanians before your first contacts with this country or its inhabitants?
I was very curious because I had heard all sorts of stories, mostly unpleasant but as I’m not naturally prejudiced I wanted to have my own opinion of the country and its people.

Did this image change after getting to know a Romanian or after visiting the country? How?
In a way, it did. I was amazed by the architecture of Bucharest. It’s called Le Petit Paris for a reason. I also found its people to be warm-hearted and very friendly. On the other hand, there are certain places that should be avoided there at all cost as they are very dangerous indeed. I was able to get a very real sense of this danger on the way back as well. I think that half of the customs officers were corrupt to the bone and totally inhuman. I do hope that this has changed after January 2007.

Describe in a few words your best encounter with a Romanian.
I met a boy on the Metro who was most helpful providing very precise information on how to get around the city.

Describe in a few words your worst encounter with a Romanian.
No doubt that was on the train on the way back when personally I was not mistreated but I witnessed a horrific racketeering applied to a Romanian girl who refused to bribe the Customs officers and as a result was taken off the train.

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanians in general?
warm-hearted
wild.....
dangerous....
friendly.......

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanian women?
very beautiful.....
artistic............
wild...............
seductive...................

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanian men?
wild............
friendly..................
dangerous..................

What is the age you associate Romania with?
the 80s of the 20th century

What is the drink you associate Romania with?
I can’t answer this question...................

What are the brands you associate Romania with?
Dacia..................

Name 3 prominent Romanians
Chaushesku..................
I’m aware there are many others but can’t name them off the top of my head...

What time of the day you associate Romania with?
3 pm..................

Name the country you associate Romania with?
I can’t answer this question ..................

What is the main difference between Romania and your country?
We are much more peaceful than the Romanians. We don’t have their wild side, which I think is to be regretted. I’d like to be a little wilder. Another difference is their perception of themselves as a great nation while we are facing a situation where more and more people are leaving the country and apart from being geographically small, the population of Bulgaria has greatly decreased over the last years. Right now we are barely one-third of the population of Romania.

Polish female, 26

2006-11-21T14:05:00.000-08:00

Age: 26
Sex: F
Nationality: Polish
Education: University degree
Occupation: Sociologist

What did you think about Romania and Romanians before your first contacts with this country or its inhabitants?
It is a poor country with many gypsies. I thought that Romanians are similar to Italians – the way they express themselves, for example talk loudly.

Did this image change after getting to know a Romanian or after visiting the country? How?
Romanians seems to be more similar to central Europeans than I thought.

Describe in a few words your best encounter with a Romanian.
They are friendly, many people speak English

Describe in a few words your worst encounter with a Romanian.
Don’t have

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanians in general?
Gypsies, hospitable

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanian women?
Dress well, talking a lot, smoking cigarettes

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanian men?
Polite, smoking cigarettes

What is the age you associate Romania with?
20 - 25 – I saw many students and young people here

What is the drink you associate Romania with?
Wine

What are the brands you associate Romania with?
Don’t know

Name 3 prominent Romanians
I can only think about football player Mutu, Cauesescu (don’t know how to spell the name of the former dictator)

What time of the day you associate Romania with?
noon

Name the country you associate Romania with?
Italy

What is the main difference between Romania and your country?
Romania is traditionally orthodoxy, Poland is Roman Catholic. Romania seems to be poorer country and much more people publicly smoke cigarettes here.

Bulgarian female, 27

2006-11-21T13:51:00.000-08:00

Age: 27
Sex: F
Nationality: Bulgarian
Education: University (Master’s)
Occupation: Marketing manager

What did you think about Romania and Romanians before your first contacts with this country or its inhabitants?
Neighbors in spirit, merry and talkative.

Did this image change after getting to know a Romanian or after visiting the country? How?
Yes. First visit was during the last of communist years and it was of poor kids begging on our bus windows, while we traveled through.

Describe in a few words your best encounter with a Romanian.
In a student event, I was a roommate with a Romanian student of dentistry, and she taught me the correct way to brush my teeth 

Describe in a few words your worst encounter with a Romanian.
The kids begging on my bus window back in 1987 or somewhere thereabouts.

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanians in general?
.”mamaliga”
“chanta”
“che fache”

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanian women?
Talkative
Ambitious

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanian men?
Ambitious
I like they can learn Italian very very quickly 

What is the age you associate Romania with?
20....................

What is the drink you associate Romania with?
N/A

What are the brands you associate Romania with?
N/A

Name 3 prominent Romanians
Chaushesku.
Basesku.
Queeen Maria of Romania (who lived in Dobrich, a town in Bulgaria)

What time of the day you associate Romania with?
can’t say

Name the country you associate Romania with?
France

What is the main difference between Romania and your country?
Language origin – ours is Slavic and Romanian is latin.

Swiss man, 33

2006-11-21T13:46:00.000-08:00

Age: 33
Sex: m
Nationality: Swiss
Education: University
Occupation: Scientific Assistant

What did you think about Romania and Romanians before your first contacts with this country or its inhabitants?
People said that Romania had become a very poor country under the regency of Ceausescu. I thought that it’s a nice country because of the nature (Danube and Black Sea) and language (I visited a language course before travelling to Romania). The image of the country was generally negatif, but that’s what made me curious.

Did this image change after getting to know a Romanian or after visiting the country? How?
The image didn’t change: The nature was wonderful, the cities were not that nice, and people were indeen quite poor (compared to Switzerland). Maybe there was a change of the image of the Romanian character: I thought that they are more “eastern” (slavic, like russian), whilst in reality I found people with “southern” temperament (like italians; emotional).

Describe in a few words your best encounter with a Romanian.
In 1994 I travelled first time to Romania, alone. I visited a pen pal at Piatra Neamt. I’ll never forget the hospitality of the family from my pen pal.

Describe in a few words your worst encounter with a Romanian.
There were some bad encounters with Romanian officials. E.g. in 1997, when I wanted to transport my bike by train from Cluj to Budapest: At the frontier, the train official wanted to throw my bicycle out of the train…

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanians in general?
Friendly, big hospitality
A lot of culture and traditions
Great Musicians; nice folk music
Emotional
Progressiv (economically)
Bad organisers
Bad environmental protectors

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanian women?
Open, friendly, nice, trustworthily
A bit more traditional / less emancipated than western women
Lots of Gipsy women

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanian men?
Open, friendly, but not always trustworthily
More emotional, but also more aggressiv and more “Machos” than Swiss men
Lots of “loud” men (loud speaking, loud singing a.s.o.)

What is the age you associate Romania with?
Young age (at cities), old age (on the country)

What is the drink you associate Romania with?
Tuica, but also Coca Cola

What are the brands you associate Romania with?
No idea (perhaps CFR, Caile Ferate Romine?)

Name 3 prominent Romanians
Ceausescu
Andrii Popa
Nadia Comaneci

What time of the day you associate Romania with?
Evening (singing at the bonfire at Retezat…)

Name the country you associate Romania with?
Italy (similar language and mentality) and Bulgaria (neighbourhood on Balcan)

What is the main difference between Romania and your country?
In Switzerland there is more internationality, more diversity of different people; people don’t show emotions and are silent. In Romania there is more unity, and people show more emotions

Portuguese male, 26

2006-11-21T13:43:00.000-08:00

Age: 26
Sex: m
Nationality: pt
Education: degree
Occupation: architecture

What did you think about Romania and Romanians before your first contacts with this country or its inhabitants?
big empire on decay
poor but yet strong minded people, genuine and peacefull

Did this image change after getting to know a Romanian or after visiting the country? How?
yes
ppression never works good, specially after a long period.
he sudden exposure to occidental capitalist culture in its basic mediatic expression, along with a self pity personality, managed to make Romania (specially Bucharest and other major cities) a not so pleasured or civilized place to be, even though friendly.
in order to grow one must treasure what are their basis, as a start point, Romania felt like wanting to start from 0.
narrow minded people, loads!

Describe in a few words your best encounter with a Romanian.
landscape
friendship
love

Describe in a few words your worst encounter with a Romanian.
aggressive
nonsense
third world going down behaviour

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanians in general?
narrow minded
safety
friendly
dirty

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanian women?
narrow minded
blondes (even if fake)
sex
love (for valisia)

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanian men?
narrow minded
frustrated
friendly
quiet

What is the age you associate Romania with?
18-50

What is the drink you associate Romania with?
suc au portocale roso (probably is not written like this)

What are the brands you associate Romania with?
macdonalds
mtv
tuborg
DACIA!

Name 3 prominent Romanians
ceausescu
Mircea Eliade

What time of the day you associate Romania with?
late afternoon

Name the country you associate Romania with?
bulgaria

What is the main difference between Romania and your country?
peace of mind

Polish female, 28

2006-11-21T13:38:00.000-08:00

Age: 28
Sex: F
Nationality: Polish
Education: Higher in economics
Occupation: Marketing spec.

What did you think about Romania and Romanians before your first contacts with this country or its inhabitants?
Great nature, gorgeous mountains, poor inhabitants, many Gypsies

Did this image change after getting to know a Romanian or after visiting the country? How?
Never been to the country, thou I would like to; my picture of the country didn’t change much after meeting the people

Describe in a few words your best encounter with a Romanian.
I have met 2 Romanians during internship in Germany, they were nice and very ambitious

Describe in a few words your worst encounter with a Romanian.
Probably Gypsies begging on the streets, but nothing précised

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanians in general?
Poor peasants
Gypsies
German minority
Ambitious youngsters

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanian women?
?????

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanian men?
?????

What is the age you associate Romania with?
Middle age

What is the drink you associate Romania with?
Goat milk

What are the brands you associate Romania with?
Dacia
Aro

Name 3 prominent Romanians
Dracula
Chauchesku

What time of the day you associate Romania with?
dawn

Name the country you associate Romania with?
Albania
What is the main difference between Romania and your country?
We don’t have so beautiful mountains but I think Poland is more developed

American male, 32

2006-11-21T13:33:00.000-08:00

Age: 32
Sex: Male
Nationality: American/USA
Education: What do you mean? University. Philosophy.
Occupation: Entreprenuer.

What did you think about Romania and Romanians before your first contacts with this country or its inhabitants?
I perceived Romania as an exotically normal place. By that, I mean to acknowledge that most Americans have little direct understanding of what Romania is like and therefore it seems a distant, fuzzy, romanticly exotic locale. However, I was quite sure that Romania would turn out to be rather normal, on the whole, given that the culture is essentially European and the people are educated.
I did hear a lot of opinion saying Romania was economically destitute and the people untrustworthy (thieves, scams).

Did this image change after getting to know a Romanian or after visiting the country? How?
No. Romania is exactly the exotically normal place I imagined. It is much different than American culture on many levels and yet somehow familiar in a pan-European sense. There is life, business, entertainment, internet, and much more all in recognizable, accessible formats. People here are fairly well educated, compared to the much of the world. Particularly young people.
Yes! I don't see any economic depression here. Quite the opposite, I see nothing but emerging opportunities and an exciting economic future for strong growth. I would say that the overwhelming majority of people are quite trustworthy. That being said, there should be a 'public campaign' to remind the tourist industry (hotels, taxis, restaurants, bars, whatever) that Romania does NOT need to cheat tourists out of extra money... and that simply doing a good job with a smile will bring Romania a great reputation. (The kind of attitude which assumes "hey, that American won't even notice an extra 5 RON missing" is precisely what brings Romania an international perception of scams. A "public awareness" campaign could reduce that significantly by simply reminding Romanians to be honest and proud of their nation, just like 99.9% ALREADY ARE. Peer pressure, you see.)

Describe in a few words your best encounter with a Romanian.
A bit risque, don't you think?

Describe in a few words your worst encounter with a Romanian.
Taxi drivers who try to cheat you, restaurant staff who ignore customers, and any "service employee" with such bad attitudes about doing their job, which is still quite common throughout all of Romania.

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanians in general?
Strong history. Adaptive culture. Quick thinkers. Polite hospitality.
Politically lost/philosophically uneducated. Blind to current opportunities.

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanian women?
Kind, capable, smart, and fun. But that merely reflects the Romanian women who impress/interest me. There is a substantial portion of Romanian women who do not fit this vague description... and in varying directions. (If you were expecting answers about beauty or sex, you were mistaken.)

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanian men?
Bravado. Cynicism. Smart! Eager to learn from/work with Americans (in a constructive manner).

What is the age you associate Romania with?
What? (That makes no sense.)

What is the drink you associate Romania with?
Palinca. NOROC!

What are the brands you associate Romania with?
Mmm... mostly foreign brands, very few local.
Dacia (which is Renault), Carrefour, Tuborg, Santal, LUK Oil. But also Petrom, CFR, and Blue Viking (of course!).

Name 3 prominent Romanians
Stefan cel Mare
Mihai Eminescu
Traian Basescu

What time of the day you associate Romania with?
Huh? (That makes no sense.)

Name the country you associate Romania with?
Uh... Romania. (That makes no sense.)

What is the main difference between Romania and your country?
In the past, I would have said "a strong political philosophy" but America is losing it's compass. Perhaps, Romania is just finding hers. So... I would say, business savvy. Romania needs to learn. Fast.

Spaniard male, 27

2006-11-20T02:39:00.000-08:00

Age: 27
Sex: Male
Nationality: Spaniard
Education: MSc
Occupation: Country Manager Real State Company

What did you think on Romania and Romanians before your first contacts with this country or its inhabitants?
The only thing I knew was that the capital was Bucharest, there was Transilvania and the Carpats, the Danube delta and the biggest population of Gypsies in Europe. An ex-communist country going through political and economical renovation with the eyes set on EU accession. About the Romanians, only the bad things they broadcast in the media when talking about problems caused by illegal immigrants.

Did this image change after getting to know a Romanian or after visiting the country? How?
Yes it did, especially regarding the Romanians and their way of thinking. I found out that Romania is a country with a very important historical heritage and a huge human potential only stopped by the economical situation

Describe in a few words your best encounter with a Romanian.
The first person I met in Romania. He teach me a lot of things about Romanians and most importantly, he teached me how to understand them.

Describe in a few words your worst encounter with a Romanian.
Almost everyday, you find people fucked up with their personal situation with a very pessimistic way of thinking. I feel sorry about this people.

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanians in general?
Village
Ceaucescu
Hospitality
Pessimism

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanian women?
Make up
Long legs
Red
Boots

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanian men?
Macho
Beardy
Steaua
Mici

What is the age you associate Romania with?
30

What is the drink you associate Romania with?
Ciuca

What are the brands you associate Romania with?
Dacia
Ursus

Name 3 proeminant RomaniansEmil Cioran
Mihai Eminescu
Luca Carajiale

What time of the day you associate Romania with
Sunset

Name the country you associate Romania with
Bulgaria

What is the main differnce betweend Romania and your country
Wealth

American female, 32

2006-09-12T11:52:00.000-07:00

Age: 32
Sex: Female
Nationality: United States
Education: Some College - Accounting
Occupation: Accounting/Finance

What did you think about Romania and Romanians before your first contacts with this country or its inhabitants?
I never really gave it much thought. I guess my idea of it was very early European homesteadish with farms and castles.

Did this image change after getting to know a Romanian or after visiting the country? How?
Some. I still believe I was correct in my guess that there is a very traditional way of living and beautiful scenery. I was very surprised to find the level of technology and how many students are fluent in other languages.

Describe in a few words your best encounter with a Romanian.
Introduced through a mutual friend and she turned out to be a great companion. One of the most trustworthy people I have ever met.

Describe in a few words your worst encounter with a Romanian.
I don’t have one

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanians in general?
Good sense of humor.
Very traditional beliefs.
Pleasant mannerism.
Demanding lifestyle.

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanian women?
Beautiful.
Proud.
Extreme.

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanian men?
Sometimes not equal towards women.
Jealous.
Like to drink alcohol.

What is the age you associate Romania with?
Young adults to middle age

What is the drink you associate Romania with?
Beer
Coca Cola

What are the brands you associate Romania with?
?

Name 3 prominent Romanians
Sergui Celibidanche
George Enescu
Vlad Tepes

What time of the day you associate Romania with?
Late Evening

Name the country you associate Romania with?
Romania

What is the main difference between Romania and your country?
Commerce and Americans are more wasteful.

British male, 48

2006-09-10T06:13:00.000-07:00

Age: 48
Sex: M
Nationality: British
Education: to degree level
Occupation: Communications planner

What did you think about Romania and Romanians before your first contacts with this country or its inhabitants?
I really didn’t have any idea. This part of Europe has been a blank to me. I had visited Yugoslavia years ago before the 92-95 war and then Croatia, Slovakia, Hungary and Slovenia in 2004-5 and as a child had travelled back from the Far East through Russia and Poland. But Romania was a blank apart from a lot of what can only be described as anti Communist propaganda about religious persecution in Romania during the Cold War period.

Did this image change after getting to know a Romanian or after visiting the country? How?
Its difficult because my perception is that Romania is a rural country but I spent a whole week in Bucharest! So I haven’t really seen Romania yet. I see it as a really interesting place because it is in transition. I have travelled in many countries. Romania I really find intriguing. It’s almost as if Romanians are still working out who they are as a nation. It’s a conscious choice – an internal negotiation. This isn’t common. For most nations who you are is fixed. And you get on with it.

Describe in a few words your best encounter with a Romanian..
I have to give you an amalgamation of several meetings with several individuals. I think what impressed me was how resourceful these individuals were – usually very driven, immensely hard working and determined to find their way around whatever obstacles were in their path.

Describe in a few words your worst encounter with a Romanian.
I haven’t had a bad encounter with a Romanian. But I suppose the most difficult encounters came about when I encountered bureaucracy. Better take a Romanian with you to negotiate with a bureaucrat than take anybody else to negotiate with a Romanian bureaucrat!

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanians in general?
Creative, gregarious, a little anxious/paranoid on occasion,

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanian women?
Spontaneous, passionate, open, I think I expected there to be a ‘type’ – like the French, or Spanish – so I was quite surprised at how diverse Romanian women were. Having said that the British are very diverse – I don’t think you can tell from appearances what is the British characteristic so perhaps it is the same.

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanian men?
Spontaneous, passionate, open! There’s a lot of machismo with the guys but this is something I would encounter with any nation within striking distance of the Mediterranean. Its only us strange northern Europeans – who are rude enough to notice it. Our women won’t let us get away with it!

What is the age you associate Romania with?
Aged mid 20s before my visit I would have said mid 60s

What is the drink you associate Romania with?
Plum brandy – nobody drank it while I was there. I bought some to take home. Let’s just say it’s an acquired taste!

What are the brands you associate Romania with?
Malev????? Can’t think of any others.

Name 3 prominent Romanians
Ceaucescu (sorry!)
Dracula (really sorry!)
Ilie Nastase oh and Georges Zamfir

What time of the day you associate Romania with?
Evening time when the cafes come to life!

Name the country you associate Romania with?
Bulgaria. For better or worse the two countries are going to be associated. Find what makes you different from Bulgarians and put a lot of emphasis on that. That’s the brand task in a nutshell!

What is the main difference between Romania and your country?
The UK has been industrialised and urban oriented for so long that we have an entirely different relationship with the countryside. We are a suburban nation looking to the cities for work and the countryside for leisure. When we want a holiday we leave the country entirely and go somewhere hot or very empty!

Turkish female, 27

2006-07-18T08:08:00.000-07:00

Age: 27
Sex: Female
Nationality: Turkish
Education: MA (Language and Culture), BA (Film and TV)
Occupation: Librarian, translator

What did you think about Romania and Romanians before your first contacts with this country or its inhabitants?
I knew that they were not rich. I thought that they knew how to have fun due to the gypsy image.

Did this image change after getting to know a Romanian or after visiting the country? How?
Well, I’ve learnt that they don’t like the gypsy image. From the two Romanians I met, I know that they are well educated. They still know how to have fun, and they are sincere people.

Describe in a few words your best encounter with a Romanian.
I had two Romanian friends in Sweden, and they were the ones with whom it was possible to talk friendly.

Describe in a few words your worst encounter with a Romanian.
To be honest, I don’t remember any. And if there is, it is not because of the nationality of that person probably.

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanians in general?
honest
talkative
sincere
not egoist

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanian women?
strong
independent
beautiful
well educated

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanian men?
Well educated
Less dominant than women
Kind

What is the age you associate Romania with?
30-40

What is the drink you associate Romania with?
Palinka?

What are the brands you associate Romania with?
none

Name 3 prominent Romanians
Vlad Tepes
Ceausescu

What time of the day you associate Romania with?
afternoon

Name the country you associate Romania with?
Italy

What is the main difference between Romania and your country?
We are a bit more conservative I guess. More crowded and a bit less poor than Romania. This makes us more eclectic. But Romania seems to me more homogenous. I’ve never been there though.

Azerbaijani male, 24

2006-07-18T07:19:00.000-07:00

Age: 24
Sex: Male
Nationality: Azerbaijani
Education: PhD Student
Occupation: Research Student

What did you think about Romania and Romanians before your first contacts with this country or its inhabitants?
I thought that they are normal people from ex-Soviet block, who like to drink. Since we may have some ties with the same background, I thought that these people can understand us better. I also assumed that they speak Russian. J

Did this image change after getting to know a Romanian or after visiting the country? How?
Yeah, everything has changed immediately. I got to know some guys who hate Russians. None of them spoke Russian. And all Romanians whom I got to know are brilliant people.

Describe in a few words your best encounter with a Romanian.
My best encounter with a Romanian was during my studies. I met two Romanian girls who were very intelligent. We made several good researches. These people are really hard working and know what to do. Moreover, I observed that they know when to do the right things.

Describe in a few words your worst encounter with a Romanian.
I have not experienced any.

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanians in general?
Friends
Fun
Drink
Nice people

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanian women?
The same as previous since I do not have any prejudice and I believe only to what I have seen.

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanian men?
Sportive
Loving fun
Creative
Always have some wine J

What is the age you associate Romania with?
20-35

What is the drink you associate Romania with?
Actually I am not drinking but, Romanians offered me some wine several times.

What are the brands you associate Romania with?
Really tough question. Maybe Dracula.

Name 3 prominent Romanians
I only heard about Chausescu. (I am even not sure how to spell it.)

What time of the day you associate Romania with?
J It is really funny since once I shared my room with a Romanian guy, and that means all day.

Name the country you associate Romania with?
Moldova

What is the main difference between Romania and your country?
Religion, natural resources, culture.

Swedish male, 30

2006-07-14T00:07:00.000-07:00

Age: 30 Sex: Sex: Male
Nationality: Swedish
Education: Master of Business Administration
Occupation: Consultant

What did you think about Romania and Romanians before your first contacts with this country or its inhabitants?
Did not know much about it. I knew that Sweden had a little bit better football team.

Did this image change after getting to know a Romanian or after visiting the country? How?
Very much. I had an extremely positive experience, both with the country and its inhabitants.

Describe in a few words your best encounter with a Romanian.
Love at first sight!

Describe in a few words your worst encounter with a Romanian.
Not very positive, they searched my bag at customs.

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanians in general?
Friendly
Humorous
Beautiful
Poor footballers

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanian women?
Beautiful
Nice
My fiancée
Well educated

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanian men?
Kiss other men (as a greeting)
Polite
Not as equal towards women as Swedes

What is the age you associate Romania with?
Today?...............

What is the drink you associate Romania with?
Tuica si Silva Neagra

What are the brands you associate Romania with?
Silva
Dacia
Transilvania

Name 3 prominent Romanians
Dracula
Hagi
Ilie Nastase

What time of the day you associate Romania with?
All around the clock.

Name the country you associate Romania with?
No other country is like Romania! : )

What is the main difference between Romania and your country?
People are friendlier and more open in Romania. More rubbish on the streets in Romania.

German male, 26

2006-07-06T04:08:00.000-07:00

Age:26
Sex:male
Nationality: german
Education: high school
Occupation: event-technician

What did you think about Romania and Romanians before your first contacts with this country or its inhabitants?
poor, eastern corrupt country

Did this image change after getting to know a Romanian or after visiting the country? How?
yes, a little ;) very friendly and nice people, a beautiful country.

Describe in a few words your best encounter with a Romanian.
an old guy at the market, who sold beatiful old trash (broken toys and stuff)
we talked, and understood each other, even we didn´t speak the same language.

Describe in a few words your worst encounter with a Romanian.
the hotel waiters broke in my room, stole money, and still tried to sell me a hooker!

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanians in general?
humanly
poor
happy
gipsy

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanian women?
beautiful
sexy
spirited
black hair

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanian men?
friendly
spirited
not as sexy as the women
gipsy

What is the age you associate Romania with?
1999

What is the drink you associate Romania with?
palinka

What are the brands you associate Romania with?
tarom
dacia
dacia

Name 3 prominent Romanians
caucescu
brancusi
tom wilson

What time of the day you associate Romania with?
morning

Name the country you associate Romania with?
brasil

What is the main difference between Romania and your country?
romania is hungry, germany is fed up

Polish female, 28

2006-07-06T03:57:00.000-07:00

Age: 28
Sex: female
Nationality: Polish
Education: university
Occupation: NGO staff

What did you think about Romania and Romanians before your first contacts with this country or its inhabitants?
My first encounter with Romania was at the age of 13. I didn’t know anything, just that it is a communist country, like Poland, and rather poor.

Did this image change after getting to know a Romanian or after visiting the country? How?
The first visit to Romania in August 1989 left a very bad impression – the country seemed to be very poor, people were aggressive, they tried to cheat whenever possible, and there were very many beggars and begging children at the streets – it was unbelievable for a Pole at that time. The second time I was in Romania in winter 2003/2004, and the impression was completely different – there was everything that one needs in the shops, fantastic food, friendly people, speaking English, great music, wonderful nature.

Describe in a few words your best encounter with a Romanian.
During studies at CEU all Romanians that I met there (around 15 people) were nice, friendly, hard-working, intelligent and had a sense humour, which is very similar to the Polish one. I am still in close contact to one person from that time.

Describe in a few words your worst encounter with a Romanian.
No particular one. Beggars on the streets – in early 90’s they all had labels saying “I am very poor, I come from Romania”.

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanians in general?
Talented
Hard-working
Friendly
Underestimated

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanian women?
Normal
Pretty
Traditional

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanian men?
Handsome
Traditional
Intelligent

What is the age you associate Romania with?
45

What is the drink you associate Romania with?
Wine, beer, tuica

What are the brands you associate Romania with?
Fanta – elderflower taste
Murfatlar, Cotnari
Zdob si Zdub, Manele

Name 3 prominent Romanians
Ion Iliescu
Traian Basescu
Nicolae Paulescu

What time of the day you associate Romania with?
Noon

Name the country you associate Romania with?
Hungary

What is the main difference between Romania and your country?
Romanians are more realistic, more diligent and more secular, they have more common sense. I think Romania will develop faster than Poland very soon.

Bulgarian male, 33

2006-07-06T03:51:00.000-07:00

Age: 33
Sex: M
Nationality: Bulgarian
Education: University, MA
Occupation: Official at the MFA

What did you think about Romania and Romanians before your first contacts with this country or its inhabitants?
Initially, in the 80-es I had a bad opinion, I had this image of Ceausescu’s Romania of isolation, darkness, crazy and megalomaniac ambitions of the dictator, an absurd difference between rich and poor. Later – a steady, although slow, recovery, miner strikes and the miners’ attacks in Bucharest against pro-democracy movement. In the 90-es, we in Bulgaria had two grave economic crises, even a period of hunger (1990-91). After 2000 – growing curiosity as to how is this country, which is geographically and historically so closely related to my country, faring and how do people live there. After getting to know some Romanians my opinion about them and the country changed positively, I saw them as open, merry and talented people.

Did this image change after getting to know a Romanian or after visiting the country? How?
I visited Romania for the first time in May 2005 and was astounded by its beauty. I have no time to describe here my impressions of Bucharest (those Romanians who complain about Bucharest should come and see Sofia!). I also saw the Carpathians, Sighisoara and Brasov and liked everything very very very much. Well, not everything is perfect in Romania, just as in Bulgaria, but my general impression was very positive. Since May I have become a volunteer advertiser of Romania’s tourismJ. Something else – people there had a very good attitude towards me as a Bulgarian, which is not the case, lets say, in Greece or in Serbia. This made me feel almost like homeJ.

Describe in a few words your best encounter with a Romanian.
All my encounters with Romanians showed that we have a perfect mutual understanding despite the slight linguistic barrier, our mentality and cultural traditions are almost identical.

Describe in a few words your worst encounter with a Romanian.
I am not a complaining person and always try to understand people instead of judging them. I was surprised by the politeness and cordiality of all who I spoke to in Romania, despite their general opinion of themselves (the same thing in Bulgaria – low self-esteem and bad opinion about compatriots), even the Gypsies in Bucharest helped me find the way to Gara de NordJ!

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanians in general?
Folk musicJ
Bucharest
Martzishor (the same custom we have in Bulgaria)
The suprising amount of common words both of Slavic origin in Romanian and of Romanian origin in Bulgarian, as well as those of Greek, Turkish and French origin (will try to guess the Romanian way of spelling them): cozonac, hrana, hrean, morcov, tzelina, smantana, loboda, zahar, cartof, castravetz, lebede, vinovat, gisca, livada, gradina, peshtera, kopele [copil], masa, firculitza, linguritza, carnace [something made of meat], lipsa, ostrov, otrava, rana, ghishe, chibrit, mersi (instead of ‘thank you’ in our languageJ), cadife(a), shose(a), perdele, tocilar, cocosh, caciula, pantofi, zmeu, calabalic, etc, etc

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanian women?
slim..............
beautiful.........
energetic.........
perilous..[joking]

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanian men?
I don’t knowJ
Men are men

What is the age you associate Romania with?
27

What is the drink you associate Romania with?
Tzuica!

What are the brands you associate Romania with?
Dacia
Electroputere Craiova
Petrorom J

Name 3 prominent Romanians
Mihai Eminescu
George Enescu
Alexandru Cuza

What time of the day you associate Romania with?
11 a.m.

Name the country you associate Romania with?
Bulgaria

What is the main difference between Romania and your country?
The language

Serbian male, 30

2006-07-02T05:30:00.000-07:00

Age: 30
Sex: male
Nationality: serbian
Education:
Occupation:

What did you think about Romania and Romanians before your first contacts with this country or its inhabitants?
poor relaxed late with trends

Did this image change after getting to know a Romanian or after visiting the country? How?
less poor but still poor, relaxed, late with trends

Describe in a few words your best encounter with a Romanian.
Almost everybody I met was nice and relaxed, nothing negative, I come from a SEE culture as well so I can deal with aggressive hosting behavior (like when my mom pushes the guest to eat the cakes even if he is diabetic), I know how to deal with it

Describe in a few words your worst encounter with a Romanian.
One guy that was trying to sell women in a café in bran, that was quite horrible, what made it more horrible is that no one really understood that this is bad, everybody I asked about it thought its funny - even people that had teenage daughters - Romanians I guess mostly think white slavery is funny - also a lot of smoking and bad food but this comes under late with trends

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanians in general?
no highway
pretty girls
great nature for running
extreme hospitality

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanian women?
cheating my girlfriend
nice relaxed
need to smoke less
need to eat better food

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanian men?
too relaxed
need to smoke less

What is the age you associate Romania with?
25-30

What is the drink you associate Romania with?
Ursus beer, I don’t drink beer but I like the name and the bear logo

What are the brands you associate Romania with?
OMV - I only stop at OMV gas stations

Name 3 prominent Romanians
have no idea

What time of the day you associate Romania with?
afternoon

Name the country you associate Romania with?
Italy

What is the main difference between Romania and your country?
Romania is more relaxed and less poor

American female, 33

2006-07-02T03:20:00.000-07:00

Age: 33
Sex: F
Nationality: USA
Education: PhD
Occupation: Researcher

What did you think about Romania and Romanians before your first contacts with this country or its inhabitants?
I think of Central Europe and Gypsies

Did this image change after getting to know a Romanian or after visiting the country? How?
Yes, I see it as more European.

Describe in a few words your best encounter with a Romanian.
Very polite and intelligent woman, hard working with a good sense of humour.

Describe in a few words your worst encounter with a Romanian.
On the street a begger boy pinched my hand when I did not give him money.

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanians in general?
Laughing, relaxing, eating nice food, smoking

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanian women?
Very fashionable, smokers

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanian men?
Polite, smoking

What is the age you associate Romania?
Young professional (age 20-35)

What is the drink you associate Romania with?
Wine

What are the brands you associate Romania with?
None

Name 3 prominent Romanians
Cescesku

What time of the day you associate Romania with?
afternoon

Name the country you associate Romania with?
Bulgaria

What is the main difference between Romania and your country?
Job / career opportunities

Slovenian male, 38

2006-07-02T03:16:00.000-07:00

Age: 38
Sex: male
Nationality: slovenian
Education: philosophy
Occupation: book editor

What did you think about Romania and Romanians before your first contacts with this country or its inhabitants?
Hm, Causescu, poverty, that Romanian language is similar to Italian...

Did this image change after getting to know a Romanian or after visiting the country? How?
First impresion was Bucharest, beautiful City in central European style. People are nice and friendly.

Describe in a few words your best encounter with a Romanian.
Hm, maybe this is not the right pace, to write about that.

Describe in a few words your worst encounter with a Romanian.
They throw us out from klub, because Mitja was sleeping there:)

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanians in general?
Cioran
Causescu
Roman country soraunded by slavic countries

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanian women?
Beautiful
Nice
Inteligent
Open

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanian men?
Nice
Inteligent
ingenious (Ion Flora)

What is the age you associate Romania with?
.....................?

What is the drink you associate Romania with?
.....................?

What are the brands you associate Romania with?
.....................?

Name 3 prominent Romanians
Cioran
Causescu
Flora

What time of the day you associate Romania with?
Night

Name the country you associate Romania with?
Italy

What is the main difference between Romania and your country?
Romania is much bigger:)

Belgian male, 62

2006-07-02T03:08:00.000-07:00

Age: 62
Sex: male
Nationality: Belgian
Education: university degree in “Geography – Anthropology – Archaeology” + a degree in “Science of Education” (History, French, English).
Occupation: teacher of Geography in a Gymnasium, preparing for the Baccalaureat.

What did you think about Romania and Romanians before your first contacts with this country or its inhabitants?
A country that has always been between two worlds, the Occidental and the Oriental ones, because of its geographical situation. The historical past of the two parts of the country also explains all the differences between the various mentalities of its populations. The period of the communistic phase even more reinforced the difficulties of expression because of the totalitarian aspect of governance.

Did this image change after getting to know a Romanian or after visiting the country? How?
Not really. I have found the concretization of my different mental perceptions (historical and geographical theoretic ones). But I have discovered a far more open minded and extraverted population than generally expected, people having a great human aspect and constantly developing it. The Ceausescu period of course reinforced the underground solidarity between specific nets of connected people.

Describe in a few words your best encounter with a Romanian.
It is extremely difficult to make a selection of the different encounters, because all of them are very specific ones. But there are two different aspects I would like to put in the light.
- The first one goes back to my first years coming into Romania (1990) and refers to the thirst of contacts with the Occidental people that Romanians expressed at every occasion. When a real sense/sensation of comprehensiveness was expressed between us – which has nothing to do with any sort of compassion! –, as well as a deep understanding of their past and present situation, we could assist to the development of a profound confidence between us. Those relations have sometimes developed into a deep, strong and close friendship with some specific people.
- The second best encounter situation I have known is a more recent one. It goes back to the last three or four years, and refers to the youth of the country. Before, there was a deep feeling of despair in the mind of most of them. They were very pessimistic about the situation of their country and a great many of them saw no other future than outside Romania. I have got the impression that kind of reaction is becoming to change among them, and I have had the pleasure to meet a group of young adults (25-30 years old), professionally engaged, that have decided to do something for their country, not going outside but staying inside, struggling with the present difficulties of life. They have created a non profit association to be free from the political and administrative situations of the every day life (that everybody has known...). Their deal is to give a hand to the social, educative and cultural life for the youth of the marginalized rural regions they live in. And they have put it into practice for more than three years now!

Describe in a few words your worst encounter with a Romanian.
Not difficult to find and it is from the very beginning up to now! Nearly all the contacts with the Officials of the commune I am in relation with (as representative of a NGO association). The lack of confidence, the untruth and the lies of the Mayor and his staff (he was re-elected twice by the population), misappropriation of funds of our partner NGO association, discredit spread abroad about some specific persons working in a social way in the village, systematic corruption… I am not the only one to have experienced those bad contacts with that kind of Officials, but it is very hard to suffer and to accept, when I see the negative consequences on his own population who dare not react.
By the way, the same kind of situation encountered by the young adults I was just speaking about is the actual reason why they have decided to create their non profit organization, not to be confronted to the administrative and political Officials any more!

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanians in general?
- social difficulties
- administrative corruption
- desire of economic Western integration
- false perception of the same
- danger of progressive lack of their human and social aperture and solidarity
- courage

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanian women?
- second class population perceived and/or considered
- courage and constant work
- false attraction of the Western world
- danger of sexual exploitation
- liberty of the young women in town

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanian men?
- corruption
- egocentric perception of life and individualistic way of life
- difficulties of economic adaptation and professional conversion
- great gap between the adults and the young men

What is the age you associate Romania with?
The age of the youth, hope for the future

What is the drink you associate Romania with?
“Ţuică” of course! How could it be otherwise, even if it is not the most important drink in the country.

What are the brands you associate Romania with?
- general corruption of the Official sector
- egocentrism of a great part of the population
- politician way of considering the Sate affairs
- nationalism based on voluntarily false spread ideas

Name 3 prominent Romanians
- Mihai Eminescu
- Lucian Blaga
- Mircea Eliade

What time of the day you associate Romania with??
?? No specific day. Is there one?

Name the country you associate Romania with?
Bulgaria or/and Moldova (but not for the same reasons…)

What is the main difference between Romania and your country?
There are so many! But the main one is probably the richness of personal relations and friendly contacts Romanians can have between each others, the joy of life (despite the factual reality of economic life…) and the second degree they can consider everything, finding so signs for a better future. Here, in Switzerland (I live in this country even though I am a Belgian citizen), people are so narrow minded, egoistic (non only egocentric!), not willing changing anything to their planned time-table; they are self-sufficient and, very often, conceited persons. The main difference lies in the mental perception of things and persons.

slovak male, 31

2006-07-02T03:01:00.000-07:00

Age: 31
Sex: m
Nationality: Slovak
Education: university
Occupation: economist

What did you think about Romania and Romanians before your first contacts with this country or its inhabitants?
Romania – poor country, poorest of the European Soviet bloc, Ceasescu etc., lots of gypsies live there

Did this image change after getting to know a Romanian or after visiting the country? How?
as usual, you get to see more dimensions, excessive poverty surely exist, and so do gypsies but when I think of Romania I see a huge pool of very talented and skilled, multilingual young people (women in particular), and for being such a relatively large country, I think Romania has a big future in Eastern Europe.

Describe in a few words your best encounter with a Romanian.
dating a Romanian girl. Smart, creative, witty. Far from exception among Romanian girls.

Describe in a few words your worst encounter with a Romanian.
TV shots of Romanian revolution, Ceausescu’s death...not pretty stuff for Xmas :)

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanians in general?
Poverty
Educated
Latin nation (speaking, looking)

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanian women?
Pretty (dark eyes, straight long hair)
Educated
Motivated

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanian men?
Smart

What is the age you associate Romania with?
90s

What is the drink you associate Romania with?
slivovits

What are the brands you associate Romania with?
.....?................
.....................
.....................

Name 3 prominent Romanians
M.Iliade
N.Ceausescu
Nastase

What time of the day you associate Romania with?
dusk

Name the country you associate Romania with?
Bulgaria

What is the main difference between Romania and your country?
one hour more?

French male, 22

2006-07-02T02:48:00.000-07:00

Age: 22
Sex: male
Nationality: french
Education: Bac+2
Occupation: work on internet

What did you think about Romania and Romanians before your first contacts with this country or its inhabitants?
>> very bad point of view, the image of romania is very bad in france, specialy cause of the Gypsy, who are the first contacts for French people.

Did this image change after getting to know a Romanian or after visiting the country? How?
>> yes a lot, i'm here since almost two years and i like living here. the image that i had before (a poor country dangerous and underdeveloped ) was far far away from the reallity, now it's more a dynamic country who want enter in europe

Describe in a few words your best encounter with a Romanian.
i can't describe for a encounter, but in general i like meet people open minded and dynamic who don't remain to say "Romania is romania nobody can change that"

Describe in a few words your worst encounter with a Romanian.
the inverse of question 3 + swindler

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanians in general?
young
dynamic
contrasted

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanian women?
vulgar (not all, but girls in chic place with rich men)
naive
pretty
italian's mama

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanian men?
few :
- sympathique, open minded
for the rest :
- peasant
- lisen Manele
- taxi drivers :p

What is the age you associate Romania with?
20 - 30 years -- young country

What is the drink you associate Romania with?
tzuica

What are the brands you associate Romania with?
Connex
Kenvelo
Fulga (milk)

Name 3 prominent Romanians
Traian Basescu
Blondy (very very vulgar and disgusting :( )
Ionesco

What time of the day you associate Romania with?
night

Name the country you associate Romania with?
europe, i mean it's not a country but still

What is the main difference between Romania and your country?
economic's growth, here in romania people are quiet in the street, and the difference between poor and rich (but now it's less visible)

Polish female, 27

2006-07-02T02:29:00.000-07:00

Age: 27
Sex: F
Nationality: polish
Education: M.A.in ethnology
Occupation: unemployed

What did you think about Romania and Romanians before your first contacts with this country or its inhabitants?
I don't think I had any specific image of romania when i first visited the country. i can't remember now. perhaps I didn't kow what to expect but i guess without my friends i would have felt lost and scared because the prevailent view of romania is that it is dangrous and the people are so poor that they can get agressive to get some money from foreigners

Did this image change after getting to know a Romanian or after visiting the country? How?
the image not only changes after the first visit in romania but it is also different each time i'm there. and it also depents on the parts of romania - the transylwania is very different from moldova, etc. for me romania now is in some parts more modern that poland and some things are even more expensive than in poland. romania is changing at exteremely quick pace

Describe in a few words your best encounter with a Romanian.
it is kind of hard to decide which of the many times that i met nice, friendly, very open and helpful romanian to choose. i like the different faces of romania - the old grandmas from the villages dressed in the old fashoned clothing and the educated and english speaking intelectucals from bukarest, the festival crowds from sibiu and delta dubai and the shepards from the mouintains.

Describe in a few words your worst encounter with a Romanian.
the worst encounter with a romanian was when me and my friend were hitch - hiking and the guys that gave us a lift were trying something on us. all this happened during the night and they were driving around what seemed to me for ages. this scared me a lot but fortunately didn't put me off from hitch-hiking

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanians in general?
Friendly
Helpful
easy going

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanian women?
big eyes
shoping bags
children

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanian men?
blue eyes and dark curly hair
strong

What is the age you associate Romania with?
30

What is the drink you associate Romania with?
Cujka

What are the brands you associate Romania with?
karpati
dacia
romoil

Name 3 prominent Romanians
mircea eliade
emil cioran
gabriel liiceanu

What time of the day you associate Romania with?
the dusk

Name the country you associate Romania with?
france or italy

What is the main difference between Romania and your country?
romanian countryside is not more rural and beautiful than in poland

French male, 32

2006-07-02T02:22:00.000-07:00

Age: 32
Sex: male
Nationality: french
Education: bac+1
Occupation: multimedia trainer

What did you think about Romania and Romanians before your first contacts with this country or its inhabitants?
It seemed to be an oppressed but nice people, nice place, old culture, unusual to the ones here in france.

Did this image change after getting to know a Romanian or after visiting the country? How?
I should say : not so much in fact.

Describe in a few words your best encounter with a Romanian.
That one who invited me to stay at her house for a whole month though she didn't even know me before ! She left her room for our comfort and introduced us in her everyday life with lots of care and enthusiasm.

Describe in a few words your worst encounter with a Romanian.
30 minutes before we go back to france, a pretty young girl with horrible teeth and kind of a broken mind tried to offer special physical treatment to me in trade for about nothing. It was very pitiful..

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanians in general?
True people
Willing people
Happy people
Funny people
Generous people
Conscious people
Curious people
Strong people

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanian women?
Pretty women
Some are Fashion victims
Intelligent women
Open minded but wary women

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanian men?
Funny guys
Some are Fashion victims
Little jealousy

What is the age you associate Romania with?
28

What is the drink you associate Romania with?
Ursus bier

What are the brands you associate Romania with?
Ursus
Dacia

Name 3 prominent Romanian
Nicolae Ceaucescu
Eugène Ionesco
Alexander Balanescu

What time of the day you associate Romania with?
Early morning

Name the country you associate Romania with?
Moldavia

What is the main difference between Romania and your country?
Years in Capitalism

German male, 27

2006-07-02T02:17:00.000-07:00

Age: 27
Sex: male
Nationality: german
Education: sec.school
Occupation: student

What did you think about Romania and Romanians before your first contacts with this country or its inhabitants?
- nothing specific
- besides that rather bad images based on little news (somewhere in ´the East´, poor country, Ceaucescu and violence)

Did this image change after getting to know a Romanian or after visiting the country? How?
- it got rather focused on today´s problems

Describe in a few words your best encounter with a Romanian.
- meeting a student from Cravoia, who I was taking care of during 3 months at my former university (in Halle)

Describe in a few words your worst encounter with a Romanian.
- no bad experiences

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanians in general?
- friendly
- poor

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanian women?
- black hair
- bad teeth

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanian men?
- no personal experience
- rather ´balkanian´

What is the age you associate Romania with?
50 years

What is the drink you associate Romania with?
no idea

What are the brands you associate Romania with?
- Dacia

Name 3 prominent Romanians
- Iliescu
- Antonescu
- Ceaucescu

What time of the day you associate Romania with?
2 pm (what kind of question is this?)

Name the country you associate Romania with?
Bulgaria

What is the main difference between Romania and your country?
- probably economical differences (including caring more about the environment in Germany)

Albanian male, 28

2006-07-01T17:04:00.000-07:00

Age: 28
Sex: Male
Nationality: Albanian
Education: Graduate Student
Occupation: Academician

What did you think about Romania and Romanians before your first contacts with this country or its inhabitants?
I don’t remember any significant impressions. Communist country, big country, poor country, general things like that. I knew of a friend who went to study medicine through an inter-government scholarship but do not recollect any contact with any of its inhabitants. A century ago Bucharest had been an important center of Albanian intellectual émigré’s, I knew that but I am not sure what this meant in terms of Romania rather than in terms of Albanians somewhere.

Did this image change after getting to know a Romanian or after visiting the country? How?
I met Romanians significantly at CEU in Warsaw. My impression of the country and its people evolved significantly though I must note two things right away. First, I met Romanians within a particular cluster of people such as the 2001-2002 Warsaw CEU bunch, which must have structured my impressions about this particular group. Second, reflecting my own upbringing, my impressions rarely focus on nationality as such, although of course people of different geographies do come across as different.
During that year I ended up perceiving the country as very close to my own in culture. I always felt at home and ended up socializing almost exclusively with Romanians.

Describe in a few words your best encounter with a Romanian.
I had two very close people who were Romanians, one of whom was my girlfriend for a period of close to a year. I guess those friendships constitute my best encounters.

Describe in a few words your worst encounter with a Romanian.
I don’t remember any bad encounters unless I consider minute things anyone of them did on any particular day. Again, given the environment, it would be a stretch for me to cast them as Romanian, when it comes to nationality I would not make any significant difference between, say, a Romanian or Bulgarian or Macedonian although I do not know as many people from those countries.

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanians in general?
Warm
Personable
Smart
Vivacious

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanian women?
Warm
Personable
Full of love
Vivacious
Energetic

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanian men?
I haven’t really met many.

What is the age you associate Romania with?
My own.

What is the drink you associate Romania with?
Beer. (I do know of cujka. Still…)

What are the brands you associate Romania with?
Leather shoes. Not much actually.

Name 3 prominent Romanians
Ceausescu

What time of the day you associate Romania with?
Day

Name the country you associate Romania with?
Any of the ones I mentioned previously, but I do have a specifically warm feeling about something humble about Romanians. Everyone is ambitious all the time but claims to high culture, which get on my nerves, are least present in Romanians, from all people of the region that I have met.

What is the main difference between Romania and your country?
Nothing comes to my mind right away. Perhaps my country is way more self-flattering, but I am not sure.

Belgian female, 24

2006-07-01T16:55:00.000-07:00

Age: 24
Sex: Female
Nationality: Belgian
Education: IHECS in Brussels - Degree in Communication and advertising
Occupation: Marketing Assistant in an advertising agency in Luxembourg

What did you think about Romania and Romanians before your first contacts with this country or its inhabitants?
A few words were coming to my mind: poverty, communism, Ceausescu and Dracula… I did not know anything else about Romania.

Did this image change after getting to know a Romanian or after visiting the country? How?
Fortunately, this image has changed! First by meeting 2 fantastic and completely crazy Romanians in Erasmus in Brussels, and then by going 2 weeks for a trip around Romania.

Describe in a few words your best encounter with a Romanian.
First the meeting of A and D, Erasmus-girls in Brussels: we had so much fun! Open-minded, joyful, intelligent, surprising and funny: this is how I can describe them two!

Second : the meeting of all our hosts in Romania. We really felt like in our family. Warm, pleasant, willing to tell us their stories around a glass (and one more, and one more…) of Tuica and make us discover the best things.

Describe in a few words your worst encounter with a Romanian.
The Romanian dogs in Bucarest ...

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanians in general?
simplicity
generosity
warm

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanian women?
fashion
sophisticated
friendly

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanian men?
?

What is the age you associate Romania with?
25-30 years old

What is the drink you associate Romania with?
Tuica !!!

What are the brands you associate Romania with?
No idea…

Name 3 prominent Romanians
Ceausescu
Basescu
Alina&Despina

What time of the day you associate Romania with?
Midnight…to go out!

Name the country you associate Romania with?
Bulgaria

What is the main difference between Romania and your country?
?

Polish male, 28

2006-07-01T16:49:00.000-07:00

Age: 28
Sex: Male
Nationality: Polish
Education: Sociologist
Occupation: Phd student / Independent media processor

What did you think about Romania and Romanians before your first contacts with this country or its inhabitants?
Before meeting any Romanians whatsoever I did not think much about Romania. Romania made me think of Caucescu, miners form Timisoara, footage of terribly treated children in an orphanage, wild dogs in Bucarest (helped by some American actress), all this and a couple stereotypes too, with Dracula and Gypsies being the prominent ones.

Did this image change after getting to know a Romanian or after visiting the country? How?
This image of mine has naturally changed after visiting Romania and meeting some Romanians as cliches got replaced by reality. Most important was my visit to Bucarest which turned out to be a city of great contrasts, in which kids sniffing glue in open view at the main railway station (no wild dogs though!) coexist with fancy bars that I visited (and I am sure there were more fancy ones!), places that felt much more cosmopolitan than my own city.

Describe in a few words your best encounter with a Romanian.
My best encounter with a Romanian was my friendship with a young Romanian. In particular I have enjoyed one certain visit to her Warsaw flat during which we discussed the subject of a novel she was writing.

Describe in a few words your worst encounter with a Romanian.
Seeing children sniffing glue in Bucarest was a miserable sight. But it was no direct encounter. I must admit I haven't had bad encounters with Romanians, save for a short unpleasant situation where I was verbally abused by a young Romanian in Warsaw – but this was due to his intoxication with alcohol, rather than his Romanian character.

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanians in general?
strong
wine
elegant
Eastern European

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanian women?
crazy
strong
elegant
Eastern European

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanian men?
strong
alcohol
wild
Eastern European

What is the age you associate Romania with?
44

What is the drink you associate Romania with?
alcohol, in particular beer

What are the brands you associate Romania with?
.....................

Name 3 prominent Romanians
Caucescu
Ionesco
Iliade

What time of the day you associate Romania with?
sunset

Name the country you associate Romania with?
France

What is the main difference between Romania and your country?
Romanians live further south on the globe which gives them a more energetic, lively, happy, wild or crazy mood and way of being.

american male, 29

2006-07-01T16:17:00.000-07:00

Age:29
Sex:m
Nationality:united states
Education:college graduate (bachelor’s)
Occupation:firefighter

What did you think on Romania and Romanians before your first contacts with this country or its inhabitants?
Originally, I thought it was a mythical place; perpetually dark and full of vampires. Then, I thought it was a central city (Bucharest), run by the mafia, surrounded by mountains and peasants. My last opinion, before entering the country, was formed by the Bulgarians I had met just prior: Romania was a place to be avoided, full of evil Gypsies and killers. Any intelligent opinion I had about the country came from Balkan Ghosts, a book by Robert D. Kaplan.

Did this image change after getting to know a Romanian or after visiting the country? How?
Of course. I discovered, as in my country, the true mafia were the politicians, and the average Romanian was an honest, hard-working person. And I found I rather liked gypsies. The idea of one big metropolis, surrounded by villages and peasants, was disproved by the cosmopolitanism of the Transylvanian cities.

Describe in a few word your best encounter with a Romanian.
Easy: getting drunk and chopping wood with locals from Surdesti, in Maramures. Not a very intellectual encounter, but the most fun one.

Describe in a few word your worst encounter with a Romanian.
No one specific encounter, but the thing that angers me: the intransparency of the government and politics, which trickles down to a personal level like this: you need to grease palms( i.e. the patronage system, i.e. bribery) to get things done.

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanians in general?
Brutally honest. Best dark senses of humor this side of Ireland. Self-deprecating. Beautiful.

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanian women?
Lithe. Lovely. Intense.

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanian men?
Direct. Open. Sure of themselves.

What is the age you associate Romania with?
A middle-aged man who just took a youth elixir.

What is the drink you associate Romania with?
Tuica, of course.

What are the brands you associate Romania with?
Dacia.

Name 3 proeminant Romanians
Grigorescu, Stephan cel Mare, Ceausescu.

What time of the day you associate Romania
With Sunset.

Name the country you associate Romania
With Austria and Russia, equally.

What is the main differnce betweend Romania and your country
The peasant culture still exists here. Ours has gone, unfortunately.