The person I'd like to describe is my aunt Malika, my father's sister, who lives in Tashkent, in Uzbekistan. She's a retired journalist, and she's famous in our family for saying exactly what she thinks.
I've known her all my life, but I got to know her better when I lived with her for a year while I was doing my master's degree. Living with her was like having a very honest radio switched on all day.
The best example happened at a large family dinner a couple of years ago. My cousin announced that he was leaving university to start an online business selling phone accessories. Everyone smiled and congratulated him, because that's what you do at family dinners. My aunt put down her fork and said, "That's not a plan, that's a hobby. What will you do if it fails?" There was a long silence. But then she asked him proper questions about costs, suppliers and competition, and by the end of the evening he'd agreed to finish his final year first while testing the business part-time. He later told me she was the only person who'd taken him seriously.
How do I feel about people like her? I admire them, but they can be difficult to be around. In my culture, we often avoid saying things directly to protect people's feelings, so her style can feel rude at first. But I've learned that people who speak their mind are often the ones who care most, because they're willing to risk your anger to help you. The important thing, I think, is how you say it. My aunt is blunt, but she always follows a criticism with a useful question, and that makes all the difference.