I have a mate called Ewald, he is born in Latvia, in the capital Riga. He's been living here in Belgium for 10 years now. I have known him ever since and saw his evolution from a person who faced huge difficulties to express himself in Dutch to a person who knows how to speak fluently Dutch. He obtained a degree at Hogeschool Gent as Office Manager (Management Assistant).
I met him today at a pub in Ghent and we had a chat about Latvia (I thought that could be interesting because I have to write a blog, so...). Latvians are first of all calm and reserved but friendly people once they let you in their personal group of friends (he as well). He speaks both Russian and Latvian (although his Latvian is detoriariting because his mother is an ethnic Russian and there are hardly any Latvians in Belgium). Woman enjoy, like in our society, equal rights. So Latvia is really a masculin society.
Some Latvians are more nationalistic than we Belgians (almost everyone is more nationalistic than we are, for making things easy I will ignore the flemish-nationalist movement). Ethnic awareness is important for them. Because of the Soviet Occupatian of the Baltic States Russians are not seen as equals and are sometimes discriminated against after the fall of the communist regimes, than is still a problem in Latvia.
What is also something positive about Latvians, is that a friend really is a friend they don't make friends easy but will try to defend them if necessary, he says. This making Latvia also a bit of a particularist society, if a friend breaks a rule you will try to help him.
He is also quite ambitious and want to get a job quite quickly, more than we do. This is because he wants to make something of it and doesn't want to face poverty anymore like he and his mother did in Latvia ( 100 a month is not what you call luxury). But to adapt yourself to another society is not that easy, it asks perseverance and patience. Not everyone is able to do that very easy, a friend of his is now in jail because of criminal activities he warned him several times but it didn't work out.
