So I'm watching Criminal Minds right? Then episode 13 of s4 comes on. And I have so many problems with that episode since I'm Romanian myself.
First, Romany, Romanians and Gypsies are three different things even tho we live in the same country.
Romanians are the actual inhabitants of Romania and we are of Latin origin, even if we've mixed with Slavics along the way bc we were occupied. We have our own culture, traditions and language.
Romany, "rromi" in Romanian, are their own people, with their own culture, language and clothing. They're of darker skin. They typically stick to their own, conservative groups. There are few actual Romany left.
Gypsies, "țigani", are derived from the Romany, but do not share their culture or language, although they look and dress like them. Theyre uncultured, uneducated, and their wives are typically underage. You know what I'm talking about, the ancient times type of living where women exist only to cook, clean and make kids the moment theyre able to.
Now, the "glass brings good fortune" thing is pretty much genuine bullshit. It does not. It brings bad luck like everything else.
And if Kathy was kidnapped and forced into this family that "manipulates romany culture" (its basically making shit up at that point. The kids are marries young but in their own community, and its not before they turn ten. Its usually around 15 years old, younger for girls.), then she wouldnt have been renamed "Silvia", which is a name of hungarian origin.
Next point of contension is even though we know english and are in an english country, we dont speak english with each other. I know this because my family and I have been in different countries where english was needed but still talked in Romanian to each other, in public or not.
No mom Ive ever seen calls their kid "puiule". Yes, thats endearment, but moms usually have their own nicknames for their kids. Same goes for grandmas.
And the part where she said "Dont tell them about your brothers"/"Nu le spune despre frații tăi" is deadass just google translated. No one speaks like that in Romania, except maybe teachers. And I understand she's not actually romanian, but if they were truly derived from us, the descendant wouldnt be teaching them text-book romanian. Its more likely the kidnapped girls learn the more casual romanian, the one the kidnapper wouldve used. The more casual version would be "Nu le zi despre frații tăi" or "Nu le zi de fratu-to" which basically mean the same thing except they get less and less formal and "nu zi" ("don't tell") is gramatically incorrect, the way it is when people talk casually (the correct form would be "nu zice")
And again, they cant tell between Gypsies, Romany and Romanians. Romany have their own language, separate from Romanian, while Gypsies speak a very wrong Romanian ("Română de baltă"/ "Pond romanian" is the way I like to call it, which means *bad*)
And the way they make their living stealing and calling them romanian at the same time basically implies that we do nothing but steal and cant be hardworking or have an honest life, which antagonizes us and prones us to more racism than we already face. Its the Gypsies that make a living stealing, and yes, some romanians do too, but not everyone, which you cant tell from the media coverage.
So yeah, this whole episode was a bit offending. Call me a snowflake or whatever, but I figured they'd do at least a bit of research. I had high hopes for this show. Sure, I can forgive the parts that only a Romanian would know, but if they were able to make the difference between Romanian/Romany/Gypsy and portrayed us as anything but thieves and stuff that wouldve been very appreciated.