Gypsies - their behaviour and lifestyle!

Two weeks ago during the classes we were discussing about gypsies and it was interesting to hear other nationalities opinions about gypsies lifestyle! And, in that moment, I realized that they are so different from other society, that I should check  more and look what mother „Google” says about them and their behaviour and I figure it out that It’s interesting enough to share with you! :) 

And what I understood ?

The first, kids only attend public school until age 10 or 11, we already discussed about their view about education system, but still... for me it is more than strange that they believe that it is enough, I think right now it's so much easier to understand why they are not able to integrate in our society, but if they are happy with that... but noo, still too strange for me!

Also I realized that family in gypsies life is very important, they have strong connection, for example, new couples live with the husband’s parents for at least the first year or two or until the first child is born. For Latvia It’s never like that, if we have serious relationships we want to move out from parents place as soon as possible :D And interesting that whenever there’s a major event, such as wedding or funeral, all family members come together and sometimes theres hundreds or even thousands of people. In my country we are trying to make it more private and sometimes we invite just our closest family members and friends and that's totally enough :) I think if there would be thousands of family members then, first of all it’s too expensive and and ,the second, less privacy and I consider it’s impossible to remember all family members anyway, so there is no point to invite all of them :)

Also I found out that gypsies, over the centuries, tended to work at occupations they could perform independently, some of these jobs included metalworking, woodworking, horse trading, many of them were animal trainers and showpeople. And I was shocked to hear that gypsies worldwide are famed for their singing, dancing and musical skills, because in Latvia I thought their biggest business is to steal and trying to sell bad quality things. It’s funny that sometimes they are trying to get money by acting that they have some „magic power” and they can see your fucture, when you will get married, how many kids you will have and bla bla blaa and If you are not interesed to hear your „fucture” and pay for that, then, of course, you will get curse! (because they have this „magic power”)

In general, in my country we don’t have so many gypsies comparing other countries  as Czech Republic or Portugal,  but we like to makejokes about them anyway,  for example, that  „gypsies probably will try to sell you YOUR stolen bike :D (they stole and after that trying to sell you again) And what about other countries? You still have some expressions or phrases? It would be interesting to hear :)

And at the end I want to say that, even if gypsies are soo different from us, with different thoughts and opinions about life, we should respect their decision anyway, because it's their mentality and, as we can see they have very strong culture identity, what is suprising and quite impressive! 

We all have different thoughts when we hear a word "Gypsy" and it would be nice to hear your opinions and/or experience with them, because unfortantelty in that Friday we were just a few people, who exchanged with thoughts, so It would be interesting to hear your stories, because I think in every country gypsies act different :)