My informant’s family is Bulgarian and she was telling me about when she went to Turkey, “Dude, when I was in Istanbul everyone in my family would ask how it was…then they would ask if it was true that all the people there are gypsies” She laughs loudly. I respond, “That sounds like Madame Collet (a french teacher in our high school) talking about you in class.What exactly happened with that?” She yells, “I know! I can’t believe she said that! What an ass. She called me a gypsy in front of the entire class, like what the fuck! And I was like, I’m not a gypsy. She said, ‘you’re Bulgarian all Bulgarians are gypsies’ (She quoted in a fake French accent). Girl, I was bout to lose it! I just gave her a look and was like that…is…not…true…that made me so mad, it was embarrassing. How you gonna call someone a gypsy like that?!”

There is a very great stigma towards gypsies in European cultures, so both these stories would be considered rude or embarrassing towards the cultures they are accusing of consisting entirely of gypsies. This is probably the result of conflict within the different cultures that leads them to accusing each other of being something that is considered a social stigma. Bulgarians and Turks have a history full of conflict, where they often hold each other in a negative light. My informant also went on to say that based on some of her experiences, she doesn’t think that French people like Bulgarians very much.