Hungarian Society on the Train

Hungarian Society on the Train

It is easy to realise that the society on the train gives a reliable picture of the whole Hungarian society, due to the fact that people from different social statuses travel to work or to school by train. The fact is that many choose this means of transport because of the huge difference between petrol and ticket prices. This immediately makes some sense of Hungarianness obvious: saving money whenever and wherever is possible. This time, however, I would like to shed light on the differences and similarities of Hungarian society through examining the behaviour of people on the train.

First of all, it is important to make a difference between people in order to create a complex image of the whole. There are several aspects based on which distinctions can be made, such as age, gender, wealth, or religion. Furthermore, it is possible to combine these aspects in a way: now I am going to explain my observations based on occupation and gender. In the first place, students will go be considered. The following group will be workers (any workers), but it is important to handle them differently based on their gender. Last but not least, I will present the behaviour of pensioners.

The members of the first group, students, can be divided into two sub-groups: high school and university students. High school students are more crucial in a sense. In general, they are loud but it is not problematic until their fellow-travellers get a detailed and long description about love affairs or the drunkenness at Friday-night parties. To tell the truth, nobody cares what happened to them in those bashes. Moreover, it is really annoying when you are trying to relax in the morning while travelling but these highly philosophical conversations do not let you. As for the other group, the university students, they rather stay invisible while reading or studying on the train, as well. It is really easy to recognize them from their using laptops and messing with tons of papers.

In the second place the labourers ought to be mentioned, distinguished by gender. Interestingly, male workers do not care about what part of the day it is, they are happy if they can drink a can of beer while discussing the problems of the government with their colleagues. Hungarians, in my opinion try to make the best of the opportunities given to give utterance to their grievances, “caused” by politicians or other leaders. If you travel in the same carriage with these people, your mind can be opened and you may also take a liking for eating “szotyi” (sunflower seed) with them. Women, usually being tired and carrying a minimum of three bags, travel to or from work singly. If not alone, they are chatting with friends trying to solve the big problems of life (man issues, children, housework), though bereft of all hope. Despondency as a determinant force is reflected on their faces and in the conversations, which is the morale of Hungarian people, as well. However, I do not like generalising, but this feeling is widespread in our nation.

Finally, there are the pensioners who in a great number grab the opportunity of travelling by train. It is interesting to see that they are never ever alone because the journey would be so boring for them in that way. Pensioners who seat themselves in a carriage in small groups never suffer from a lack of topics. Naturally, they discuss their health issues in public without any embarrassment. It seems like they are proud of these problems and not afraid of giving voice to it. If they are not complaining about “the youth of these days”, filling in crosswords and reading some romantic books is satisfactory for them.

As we have seen, there is always somebody who expresses a kind of discontentment in public, blaming others, like a “real” Hungarian has to do. In my opinion, the common feature of these people is this: the constant searching for issues that can be criticised, and of course, the idea of “I know it better than anybody else”. People are not shy to open themselves before strangers, or they just think that nobody hears them on the train. But they are wrong…