PREJUDICES AND JUDGEMENTS ABOUT ROMANIA (part 2)

By Alessia Calderalo García- "My name is Alessia Calderalo García and I am from Madrid; I studied Journalism and now I am completing my studies with a Master degree in Social Communication. I have decided to study in Romania because I wanted to explore new places and new cultures, so I took the list of places where I could go on Erasmus and chose the furthest and most exotic place..”

…This kind of negative image people have about Romania has been reinforced by the image the mass media give of the country, as the only news abroad are the ones that talk about Romani people and the expulsions that are taking place at the moment in France. 

It is not surprising to hear Romanian people who are tired of feeling ignored  by the international community, as probably the first thing they will hear when saying where they come from is “But.. you don’t look Romanian?!”. And this is my question: How does a Romanian look like? Well, the answer is certainly not like the mass media and the society in general wants us to believe...

I have to say that not only the foreigner is guilty of creating this image of the country, as I have noticed in the short year I’ve lived there, that Romanians also think poorly about their country, and above all, their identity as a nation. First things you’ll hear when arriving in Romania will be: “WHY Romania?!”, and the answer to this is often “...why not?”… Then, they’ll reply to that innocent question with all kind of negative opinions about their country.

They don’t take into account the nice people who always try to learn about their culture, even using words of their own language. Nor do they think about the majestic towns and castles, all the landscapes around Romania. And, above all, they don’t believe us the foreigners who come to study in Romania, when explaining to them how beautiful this place is, even if things are hard and the job opportunities are not at their best at the moment.

Prejudices seem to be natural, as they are common in every culture, country and age, so maybe it is indeed impossible to fight against them, because we will always feel the need to stand out from the croud by making it clear how superior we are compared to our neighbours, or even better said, how superior we feel in our own inferiority…