Before anything else, the taxi driver who assumes you’re Gipsy might be the one whom you tell you’re from Romania and you’re living in Portugal (or any other European country). It happens. It happened to me, and not once. After he heard me talking on the phone with my father, the conversation unfolded more or less like this:

him: Where are you from?

me: Romania.

him: but you’re too white.

end of story. Obviously it was by far the end of the story, as I suddenly left my imagination continue the scene in the Tarantino style. I felt a nod in my throat, took a deep breath and:

me: I’m sorry you have such a delusive idea about Romanians in general. (pissed off tone)

him: well here in Portugal, the Romanians that I’ve met are gipsies.

me: Glad I can be the first to break the records! (groans)

We continued talking about language similarities and how many things Romanians and Portuguese have in common, such as

RO — Cu carne de vaca nu se moare de foame || PT — Con carne de vaca não se more de fome

This just brought me to thinking that so far the easiest way I could make a first connection with someone of different nationality, and break the cultural stereotype, is by talking about the similarities in language, especially if there are people from latin speaking countries. For instance, the other day, on my way down in the elevator, I saw my neighbour waiting and I immediately made a last minute stop (I made a stop literally, because in Portugal they still have those old elevators). The neighbour is Italian. It was a 7-floor elevator conversation. He instantly asked me ( in Portuguese):

– You’re not Portuguese either?

– I’m Romanian.

Then I hear the usual long-lost: “Aaaah!”, so I go on asking him:

– Actually, did you know Romanian and Italian languages are quite similar?

– Really?

– Ce faci? || Che fai?; Bona sera || Buna seara; Bine || Bene

– I didn’t know that! So you speak Italian!

– Nope, but I understand quite some.

Meanwhile, we arrived downstairs and we moved on with our lives. I was satisfied with my elevator pitch just like I was satisfied with my “taxi pitch” the other day. A little bit of humour and knowledge can break a lot of social barriers, that’s right.