"Eastern Europe" - why we hate the term

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But nonconformist's "polish" rap was good.

Maybe he could teach them something, and then show them how to change a lightbulb with only one person... or make ice! ;)
 
Your eastern european as far as i'm concerned.
The term Central Europe wont catch on, a divide is always a two way split.
If I had my way I'd stop people including manchester in Northern England when it is quite clearly in the Midlands, but that isnt very likely.
So tough luck dickhead it aint gonna happen.
 
Mirc said:
That is simply false for Romania. Romania has Hungarian, German and very very very very small Turkish and Jewish minorities. Almost no Slavic minority at all.
Click to expand...
I didn't mean to offend anyone, I simply thought there was a decent sized Slavic minority in Romania. Both sets of Bulgars did march right through your country after all. Surprised more of them didn't settle. For that matter, I'm a little surprised there are so few Hungarians too. I thought there'd be quite a few of them in Transylvania.
 
Sharwood said:
I didn't mean to offend anyone, I simply thought there was a decent sized Slavic minority in Romania. Both sets of Bulgars did march right through your country after all. Surprised more of them didn't settle. For that matter, I'm a little surprised there are so few Hungarians too. I thought there'd be quite a few of them in Transylvania.
Click to expand...

Don't worry, I was just trying to seem very sure of what I was saying (which I was), I wasn't offended in the slightest. If I was, I would probably end up killing myself every day considering how much BS I hear. ;) That's nothing, just a common misconception.

Anyway, the Bulgars were Turkic, not Slavic. You probably mean the Bulgarians, which indeed were Slavic and with whom indeed the areas of modern Romania did unify (no, contrary to popular belief they were not conquered but willfully created a commonwealth) to form the second Bulgarian Empire. However, very little intermixing happened. Quite the opposite, there used to be hundreds of thousands of "southern Romanians" in Bulgaria, Serbia, Macedonia, Greece, from which only about 550,000 still exist today (and are only an official minority in the FYROM).

We also had Goths dominating the Carpathian basin for well over a hundred years, yet there is no Goth-related people left in Romania, and the German minorities are Saxons and Schwabians who came eastwards, not descendents of the Goths. General rule: in the Balkans, it is completely random what population dominates what and which one of them actually assimilates the others and stuck to become the main culture today.
 
emu said:
Your eastern european as far as i'm concerned.
The term Central Europe wont catch on, a divide is always a two way split.
If I had my way I'd stop people including manchester in Northern England when it is quite clearly in the Midlands, but that isnt very likely.
So tough luck dickhead it aint gonna happen.
Click to expand...

Polish Church
F1010023.jpg

German Church
notredam.jpg

Russian Church
Spoiler :

P7060057.JPG


So is Germany Eastern European to?
 
Mirc said:
Don't worry, I was just trying to seem very sure of what I was saying (which I was), I wasn't offended in the slightest. If I was, I would probably end up killing myself every day considering how much BS I hear. ;) That's nothing, just a common misconception.

Anyway, the Bulgars were Turkic, not Slavic. You probably mean the Bulgarians, which indeed were Slavic and with whom indeed the areas of modern Romania did unify (no, contrary to popular belief they were not conquered but willfully created a commonwealth) to form the second Bulgarian Empire. However, very little intermixing happened. Quite the opposite, there used to be hundreds of thousands of "southern Romanians" in Bulgaria, Serbia, Macedonia, Greece, from which only about 550,000 still exist today (and are only an official minority in the FYROM).

We also had Goths dominating the Carpathian basin for well over a hundred years, yet there is no Goth-related people left in Romania, and the German minorities are Saxons and Schwabians who came eastwards, not descendents of the Goths. General rule: in the Balkans, it is completely random what population dominates what and which one of them actually assimilates the others and stuck to become the main culture today.
Click to expand...
Yes, I meant the Bulgarians. Although I thought the Bulgars WERE the Bulgarians. Stupid American encyclopedia. should have known it was no good when the entry for the Syracuse in America was longer than the realSyracuse in Sicily. As for the Goths, the Germanic peoples didn't really survive anywhere. They seemed to live in elite little minorities, and when they were overthrown they simply disappeared. No Vandals in Africa, no Visigoths in Spain, a very few Lombards in Italy, etc.. The only place they seemed to take root was France, and they were working for the Romans there before they took over.
 
Mirc said:
And to all those who think you can somehow tell the difference between the culture and style of countries that are considered WRONGLY Eastern and those considered central, just take a look for yourself:
...
Click to expand...

So middle europeans, or whatever they are, like buildings with pointy things on top better that buildings with bulbous things on top. We got the idea.


Hey, that's it. Let's call them "middle europeans".
 
I suppose you'd prefer the term 'former communists' then?

Or 'current communists'?
 
innonimatu said:
So middle europeans, or whatever they are, like buildings with pointy things on top better that buildings with bulbous things on top. We got the idea.


Hey, that's it. Let's call them "middle europeans".
Click to expand...

Or even "Middle Earth"? What about people who like flat roofs on top? "Flat-Earthers"?:crazyeye:
 
innonimatu said:
So middle europeans, or whatever they are, like buildings with pointy things on top better that buildings with bulbous things on top. We got the idea.


Hey, that's it. Let's call them "middle europeans".
Click to expand...

If I just went ahead and posted that out of the blue, your post might have actually made sense. Otherwise, keep in mind I said that only because some people here seem to believe that everything east of Germany is somehow equal to either Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, or them all, and that could not be more false.
 
innonimatu said:
So middle europeans, or whatever they are, like buildings with pointy things on top better that buildings with bulbous things on top. We got the idea.


Hey, that's it. Let's call them "middle europeans".
Click to expand...

now you get it! :rolleyes:

Also religion makes a big difference between central and eastern europeans to.

Central Europeans were converted by Rome, Eastern Europeans were converted by Central Europeans, Greeks and Byzantines.
 
Well, for what it's worth, I've always called that portion of Europe Central Europe, purely on geographic grounds. Looking at a map ought to be enough to settle the matter.
 
Hmmm.

In my opinion, the term "Eastern Europe" would be removed from nations as they joined the European Union, and became more blatantly 'westernized'. Now, this is not to say that they aren't modernized, etc, etc already, but until the common North American or 'Western' European sees this status appointed by a higher authority (read: EU membership), the term will stick.

I also think the term originated more due to the fact that Russia (The 'East') has traditionally had more influence over certain areas of "Eastern" Europe, such as Poland, the Baltic States, The Ukraine, and the Balkans, than "Western" Europe (read: France, UK, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Germany-ish).
 
This tipped me over to Winner's side of the argument:

Elponitnatsnoc said:
When I think of Europe, I group the countries into:

British Isles: UK, Republic of Ireland
Click to expand...

That term is a leftover of a previous empire which isn't liked by many Irish.

From now on at work I will refer to the Czech, Slovak, Hungary and Austria team as Central Europe.

The Romania team (me) I think falls into Southern Europe - It has a Latin language and likes pointless bureaucracy.
 
Winner:

I'd like to point out that I meant I could identify the general area. My knowledge of differences between certain countries is not good. The furthest I have travelled East is Austria. Also, as we have established, your definition of central europe is different to mine. However, here I go:

1. You didn't img tag it
2. Poland
3. Poland
4. Germany
5. Czech Republic
6. Poland
7. Hungary
8. Germany
9. Slovenia
10. Germany
11. Germany
12. Germany
13. Austria

From looking at those pictures though, they are all typically Eastern European to me, even the ones from Germany, which has some Eastern European influences.
 
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