National pride
June 20, 2008
A few days ago Tárki, a polling company, together with Image Factory, a firm offering “political and business solutions,” looked into the question of national pride and the nation’s self image.
Three years ago 40% of all Hungarians were proud of being Hungarian. Today, only 32%.
This question of national pride has always puzzled me. Where we are born and what language we learn as infants is really happenstance. Something over which we have no control. Why anyone should feel pride because of it is beyond me. Especially if we try to flesh out the basis of this pride. Read more »
How to be conversationally fluent in a new language in one year
June 16, 2008
If you learn language as a hobby instead of a job, if you do it to build relationships instead of studying the language, and if you use curiosity as your greatest learning tool you can learn language even part time with great efficiency. You will be surprised at how you can insert language learning into your daily life without having to make it a time consuming, draining experience keeping the mind at its highest learning curve! Read more »
Hungary: Talented Nation, Unfortunate Decisions
June 10, 2008
“Life is a series of choices, we try to teach our students how to think, how to decide. They will not learn this by accident…” Read more »
You Know You’re a Hungarian…
June 8, 2008
47. When you are snobby and think that anyone who has not read Dostoyewski and Bulgakow is not an intelligent human being.
48. When your language has two words for love.
49. When you deeply believe that Budapest (or your hometown) is the most beautiful city in the whole wide word and - just to make sure - you swear for that before climbing the Eiffel tower.
You Know You’re a Hungarian…
June 6, 2008
44. When your mama starts making apple strudel (or any other type of cakes or cookies) at 9:54pm on a weeknight because there is nothing decent on TV and she is bored.
45. When Winnie the Pooh and The Flintstones is actually much funnier translated into your language than the original.
46. When you go abroad and joke with the people there as at home and they just don’t understand but get possibly offended by your funny remarks.
You Know You’re a Hungarian…
June 4, 2008
41. When you know what a pogácsa / a dobos torta / a kürtős kalács / a főzelék / a túrógombóc is, and love most of them.
42. When you understand cynism and sarcasm, and you are cynical / sarcastic yourself.
43. When you eat pizza with a fork and knife.
Budapest Cafe Culture
June 4, 2008
By 1880, Budapest alone had over 600 cafes, more cafes than any other European country with the exception of Paris. Budapest café culture has been alive and thriving to this day. Restaurants are places where you must wear a suit and tie, live up to class expectations or God-forbid, run in for a Big Mac (shudder). Read more »
A Treatise on the Hungarian Cheek Kiss
June 4, 2008
Foremost, let us establish the fact that this is not written from a Hungarian point of view. No doubt, as small children, Hungarians are taught this overly familiar type of greeting and see nothing wrong with placing their lips on the cheeks of the most far-flung acquaintances. Read more »
Budapest in 1908
June 3, 2008
“Can these things be.
And overcome us like a summer’s cloud,
Without our special wonder?”
- Shakespeare: Machbeth, Act 3, Scene 4
W. B. Forster Bovill: Hungary and the Hungarians, 1908 - CHAPTER VII
BUDAPEST AS IT IS
Art in Budapest a Century Ago
June 3, 2008
“Tis the privilege of Art
Thus to play its cheerful part,
Man in Earth to acclimate.
And bend the exile to his fate.”
- Emerson
W. B. Forster Bovill: Hungary and the Hungarians, 1908 - CHAPTER VI
BUDAPEST & ART
To Budapest I came with a mind eager to receive its myriad impressions. Budapest has never really disappointed me. It is of towns, towny. Many things I have grown to dislike, but others to love more. When I first arrived it struck me as better than I expected - and I had expected much. Now that I know the byways, and can unattended find my way through its less frequented avenues of communication, it seems to need a less oratorical municipal council. Despite this national weakness, the city is justly styled Budapest the Beautiful. It is the capital, and forces are continually emanating from it, which are but dimly realised in the districts I have already described. Here is much of the history, and all the machinery of the nation.
Hungarian Puszta - 100 years ago
June 3, 2008
“Down there on the ocean expanse of the lowlands
I am at home, that is my world;
my soul is like an eagle freed from prison,
when I behold the limitless expanse of level country.”
- Petőfi
W. B. Forster Bovill: Hungary and the Hungarians, 1908 - CHAPTER V
ON THE GREAT PLANE
Hortobágy and the Puszta
The poet was right. How well he expressed in a single sentence all that I put into the last chapter! Petőfi sang as a Magyar feels. The puszta was his rightful home, for there beats the great heart of the race. When first I visited Hortobágy it was but to stand amazed. Just imagine the impression created by a consciousness of being on a vast plain 300 square miles in area, the characteristics of which are immensity and the cattle from a thousand hills. Its very treelessness strikes a silent note of appeal. You yearn for a something you are accustomed to, then when it is not forthcoming settle down cheerfully to the absences of the grassy plain, its quaint huts like oases, and those picturesque acacia groves.
You Know You’re a Hungarian…
June 2, 2008
38. When all your curtains and tablecloths are lace that your mom or grandma bought from the Piac.
39. When in the West they refer to you as a gypsy (roma or cigány) descendant and you take great insult to this say “Don’t ever call me that again!”
40. When you know the difference between s and sz. and also u and ü.
You Know You’re a Hungarian…
May 31, 2008
35. When as a kid you told your grandma you were hungry and she spread lard on a piece of bread with sliced radishes and sprinkled it with salt and paprika.
36. When you can eat ANYTHING deep fried (with breadcrumbs on it) and can make spirits (pálinka) of (almost) EVERYTHING, including paprika of course!
37. When you NEVER leave home with wet hair because you can get a cold and you ALWAYS bring your hair dryer when going abroad, and you’re astonished when some people do not have one in their own homes!
You Know You’re a Hungarian…
May 28, 2008
32. When you would rather ride standing up in a tram when there are plenty of seats available.
33. When the train hasn’t even left the station, but you are already eating your home made sandwiches (usually with half a paprika or tomato in it).
34. When you call a 79 km long lake (the Balaton) the Hungarian Sea. And you are able to swim across it!
Where the Magyar Reigns
May 27, 2008
“The shades of night have fallen o’er the low plains.”
- Poushkin
W. B. Forster Bovill: Hungary and the Hungarians, 1908 - CHAPTER IV
WHERE THE MAGYAR REIGNS (Kassa - Tokaj - Debrecen)
The traveller from Berlin to Budapest cannot avoid Kassa (Kosice). It was night when I entered Kassa (Kosice), and political demonstrations rendered an otherwise uncommonly quiet town unusually turbulent. There was little to be seen at such an hour, but I realised the “stone age” was not over, and sought the comparative peace of a barber’s shop. Hungarian barbers are good, and in the country places inexpensive. Both are a consolation to the man with a strenuous beard and a meagre purse. This, of course, is true of England - in a few places.
The Carpathians and its Peoples in 1908
May 27, 2008
“I would not give up the mists that spiritualize our mountains for all the blue skies of Italy.”
- Wordsworth
W. B. Forster Bovill: Hungary and the Hungarians, 1908 - CHAPTER III
THE CARPATHIANS AND ITS PEOPLES
If you want to see Hungary and the Hungarians, begin where I did, away in the Carpathians. Come over from Berlin to Oderberg, thence to Tátra Lomnitz, where the very best hotel in Hungary may be found. How well I remember my first sight of those dim grey heights known as the High Tátra!
Modern Hungary 100 Years Ago
May 27, 2008
“I called the New World into existence to redress the balance of the Old.”
- Canning
W. B. Forster Bovill: Hungary and the Hungarians, 1908 - CHAPTER II
MODERN HUNGARY
MODERN Hungary practically begins with the emergence of the nation from the torpor consequent upon the cruelties, which followed Világos. For ten years a kind of passive resistance was practised which in a quiet way frustrated all schemes for the centralisation and Germanisation of Hungary. The first sign of repentance or recognition of value was shown at the close of the war with Italy, which ended so disastrously. In 1860 it was impossible to collect the taxes. The Hungarians are adept at passive resistance. Everybody was seized with an inability to pay their taxes. Neither was it any good seizing goods and submitting them to public auction, for the Austrian official could never find a purchaser.
The Glowing Past
May 26, 2008
. . . Let us sit upon the ground
And tell sad stories of the death of kings:
How some have been deposed; some slain in war;
Some haunted by the ghosts they have deposed;
Some poison’d by their wives; some sleeping kill’d.
- William Shakespeare, Richard II.
W. B. Forster Bovill: Hungary and the Hungarians, 1908 - CHAPTER I
THE GLOWING PAST
“The time has come, the Walrus said,
To talk of many things:
Of shoes - and ships - and sealing wax -
Of cabbages - and kings.” -Lewis Carroll
The Magyar enjoys retrospect. The songs of today are unsung; the books of today remain unread; the men of today, save in the arena of politics, are unknown.
Introduction to Hungary and the Hungarians
May 26, 2008
“The use of traveling is to regulate imagination by reality, and
instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are.”
- Dr. Johnson
To start out for a long holiday in a country and then to settle down there is sufficient proof of the enchanting qualities of scene and character resident therein. To see the initial sights as one of an organised crowd is one thing, and to revisit and re-see them alone, amid the blessed silence of one’s own irresistible self, is quite another thing.
You Know You’re a Hungarian…
May 22, 2008
28. When you know what ‘lángos’ is.
29. When your engagement ring is worn on the opposite hand.
30. When you have difficulty pronouncing words started with “W” in English, but you’re capable of creating long and meaningful sentences using only “E” vowels in you mother tongue.
Yo Know You’re a Hungarian…
May 15, 2008
25. When catching a bus, an old lady with lots of heavy bags runs by you and reaches the bus first, then sits down panting and complaining how old she is and how the stuff is heavy and young people are not well educated, etc.
26. When you start counting on your hand, with one being the thumb.
27. When the church bells ring at 12 noon you proudly tell your friends that the bells toll for the Hungarians all around the world at 12 noon by the order of the Pope for when the Hungarians defeated the Turks and saved Rome.
You Know You’re a Hungarian…
May 11, 2008
22. When in a Chinese restaurant you order Sechuan chicken with French fries, cucumber salad, and ask for a few slices of bread as well.
23. When at all major family events you cook a massive feast in a bogrács, and then bake the potatoes on the parázs, just because this is how your ancestors did it, even though ovens have been invented since then.
24. When you love mákos guba and you can’t explain what mák is, neither guba to anyone.. and if you finally can, everyone will think you’re a weirdo for eating that.
You Know You’re a Hungarian…
May 6, 2008
19. When you do not speak with your mouth full.
20. When you have company over, and saying ‘good-bye’ takes an hour itself. You hug and say goodbye in the living room, move the doorway, talk for another 15 minutes, hug and say goodbye again. Then you go outside the door, talk for another 10 minutes, hug and say goodbye, move towards the car, hug and say goodbye, company gets in the car, you talk for another 10 minutes, then everybody gets out of the car again, hugs and says goodbye.. then finally they leave.
21. When guys wanna show off by saying that they know your capital: Bucharest… and no, they are not joking!
You Know You’re a Hungarian…
May 1, 2008
16. When your non-Hungarian friends ask you if you still believe that Santa Claus brings the presents on the night between December 24th-25th… then you answer somehow confused that Santa Claus brings the presents on the 6th of December and it is actually a little angel who brings the presents on Christmas, but the presents are already there on the 24th at 5pm.
17. When a pancake is extremely thin in your country, and you call it palacsinta, and you roll it up instead of folding it.
18. When you are familiar the phrase “three is the Hungarian truth”.
Legal - Illegal
April 30, 2008
We should never forget that everything Adolf Hitler did in Germany was “legal” and everything the Hungarian freedom fighters did in Hungary was “illegal“.
- Martin Luther King, Jr., “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” Why We Can’t Wait, 1963
legal, illegal, civil disobedience, Hungarian revolution 1956
Incomes in Hungary
April 27, 2008
The minimum payable wage in Hungary is 65,500 Ft (€ 258) per month. In fact you have to do a lot of math to make it last until the end of the month. Read more »
Hungarians Unaware of Retirement Risks
April 26, 2008
Nearly two-thirds of Hungarian workers stop working before the official retirement age, 80% of them voluntarily, a GFK survey commissioned by French insurance group AXA found. Hungary came second in both these categories among the 26 countries surveyed. Read more »
You Know You’re a Hungarian…
April 25, 2008
13. When meeting another Hungarian in a country outside of Hungary is amazing.
14. You know you’re Hungarian when you eat everything off your plate (if you’re female) and your non-Hungarian guy friends look at you as if you are a weirdo, or a cousin of Xena: Warrior Princess or Attila the Hun, ready to do battle. You think, “I’m not letting my tasty food go to waste, especially if I’m paying for it,” or “I love to eat and I’m not afraid of food.”
15. When you love Turó Rudi but cant really explain to foreigners what the heck that is until they try it.
You Know You’re a Hungarian…
April 19, 2008
10. When you have a relative who’s name is Attila. Or József. Or János. Or László.
11. When half of your mother’s friends’ husbands’ are called József.
12. When you know that the “goulash” you see in many restaurants has in actuality nothing to do with the gulyás leves you really eat.
Restaurant Etiquette
April 17, 2008
Budapest etiquette when out at a restaurant with your Hungarian companion or companions.
Hungary, in the heart of Central Europe, retains numerous traditions and cultural expectations based on gender that may be different from our own. For the newcomer, as well as for many long-time expatriates in Budapest, these subtle expectations can be hard to spot, Read more »
A Foreigner’s Journey into the Hungarian Soul
April 17, 2008
As I’ve traveled some of the world, having been to 33 countries and living on five continents no other people has fascinated me as much as the Hungarians. What is the difference?
Why do Hungarians hold more fascination for this author than some of the world’s classic western peoples such as the English, Germans, or the French? Read more »
Quality of a Leader
April 16, 2008
Where will the Hungarian soul take the nation from this point forward?
Hungarians have used their freedom to change governments well. In the second half of the 20th century Hungarians had very few opportunities to change governments. Since the change from the long time communist government Read more »
Are Hungarians Antisemitic?
April 15, 2008
One of the things I discovered without looking for it was that in conversation about money, many Hungarians would complain about Jews. My first question was “why?”
This led me to do some research on the history of the relationship between Hungarians and Jews. Read more »
What About the Police?
April 15, 2008
After driving more than 100,000 kilometers in Hungary I have been stopped many times by the police and have my own stories to tell. I will say openly and publicly that I have yet to meet a policeman that is like the ones they talk about in the jokes. But I have found something very interesting. The Hungarian policeman may often be a human more than an official. Read more »
What Makes Hungarians Laugh? Policemen Jokes in Hungary
April 15, 2008
When one looks into the soul of a nation it is not only important to look at what makes them sad, but also at what makes them laugh. One of the first signs that one is becoming fluent in a language is when one can hear and understand a joke in the new language and know why it is funny. Read more »
Gymnastics of the Brain: Hungarian Language
April 15, 2008
There is one thing to the foreigners about the Hungarians that is more complicated than the Rubik’s cube. If in some way foreigners find the Hungarian people a complicated race, even more so the Hungarian language causes both their brains and tongues to do Olympic level gymnastics. Read more »
Hungarians Don’t Keep in Line
April 15, 2008
Western Europeans, especially British and Germans, complained that Hungarians don’t seem to know how to form a line. People are always crashing in front of the line without looking the people they cut off in the eye.”
They also complain that on the escalators, especially in the underground, Read more »
Pessimistic Hungarians?
April 15, 2008
One tendency that Latin Americans, and those from the United States almost unanimously mentioned is that Hungarians tend to be very pessimistic.
Students noted that Hungarian literature has a fascination for tragedy and unhappy endings Read more »
Helping the Troubled, Resenting the Lucky
April 15, 2008
The fairness ethic helps to understand another aspect of Hungarians, that they can also be a very merciful people. This is quite unlike Americans and Western Europeans who more quickly take the side of the winner, the successful person. Read more »
Payback Ethic
April 15, 2008
One Hungarian value that this author and many foreigners noticed was something called the payback ethic. Throughout the world people will treat others in return the way they are treated, but Hungarians seem to take this farther than others. One person said, “It is hard to do a favor for Hungarians Read more »
“Women Scandalously Dressed”
April 15, 2008
Two missionaries felt that Hungarians have a spiritual crisis in sentimental relationships. Overplayed sexual overtones Read more »
Friendship with Hungarians
April 15, 2008
How do foreigners view Hungarians with regard to relationships?
One foreigner said, “I tried to make deep friendships with Hungarians that speak English but it seemed I could only go so far. The Hungarians I tried to befriend were extremely polite and kind but it seemed hard to get to level of opening the soul. Read more »
Business People About Hungarians
April 15, 2008
One European businessman said, “Hungarians are wonderful people socially, but you better be careful when you do business with them. They do not have the same kind of ethics as in the West. Culturally and socially they are western, but in the way they do business they are more Eastern than Western. Read more »
Tourists About Hungarians
April 15, 2008
What do the tourists say?
Those who have been pickpocketed or robbed say though Budapest may be beautiful, they will never come back. That is understandable. Otherwise, the comments are wonderfully positive.
Most tourists said that people were as friendly as possible when they could not communicate in each others’ languages. Read more »
Hungarian Doctors and the Medical System
April 15, 2008
In the medical profession, most of the comments about the doctors were positive.
Unfortunately, the comments about the facilities they work in were less than positive. One American doctor said, “Hungarian doctors try whatever it takes to make a patient well, whether it would be dietary change, a lifestyle change or whatever would improve Read more »
Education in Hungary
April 15, 2008
With regards to education, several teachers from Western Europe and America noted that Hungarians are voracious readers and know so many facts about the world. Read more »
Behavior in the Workplace: How Hungarians Work
April 15, 2008
Regarding behavior in the workplace foreigners made observations about how Hungarians work.
The bridges that span the Danube in Budapest are beautiful and show not only wonderful engineering but also beautiful creativity. One cannot help but notice the delicate femininity of the Erzsébet Bridge constructed in honor of the beautiful empress. Read more »
Obsession with the Past, Racism, Violence
April 15, 2008
A British diplomat brought out the Hungarian historical memory saying, “Why are they so obsessed with themselves and their sad history? They keep talking about Trianon as if it was yesterday, he said.” Read more »
Hungarian Men
April 15, 2008
What about Hungarian men? An Australian woman made this comment, many other foreign women have said the same:
“When they are courting you, they are incredible. They focus on you like you are the only other person on the planet and that is the way they would love for it to be. But they are so jealous it is like an incurable disease. If I say hello to another man who may be an acquaintance they start asking questions and give him dirty looks. They want you to cut off all of your male friendships with people they don’t know and go insane if you spend time with any other man.”
Hungarian culture, Hungarian men, courting, jealousy
Hungarian Women
April 15, 2008
One answer that was positive from all foreigners, men and women alike was regarding Hungarian women. One beautiful American woman, who has traveled the world said, “I’ve never seen so many beautiful and stylish women anywhere! Men from every inhabited continent have expressed the same view. Read more »
What do Foreigners Think About the Hungarians?
April 15, 2008
This author has thought long and hard about this question. One of the questions Hungarians ask me most is, “Szerinted milyennek a magyarok?” In your opinion, what are the Hungarians like? Read more »
Sadness, Depression and Suicide
April 15, 2008
One observation many foreigners make about the Hungarian character is that to be
Hungarian also means to have an intimate though unpleasant relationship with sadness. Together with sadness, Hungarians show that they know what it means to experience loss. I was surprised at the reply when I told one of my Hungarian friends about a difficult problem I was going through- “That is good, you also need to know how to be a loser.” Read more »
What Does it Mean to be Hungarian?
April 15, 2008
Because I could never feel inside of myself, what it means to be Hungarian, I have asked hundreds of Hungarians, in the East, West, North, and South, of the Country, “What does it mean to be Hungarian?” Read more »
Does God Play Games with Us?
April 15, 2008
The Austrian Army officers clinked their glasses of beer as they drank to celebrate the execution of the Hungarian patriots who fought for freedom. It is no wonder that Hungarians do not clink their beer glasses when they toast each other’s health! Read more »
Where was God, When My Child Died?
April 15, 2008
“He punished us for our sins, past and future.” - this is a quote from the Hungarian National Anthem written in the 19th century. Hungarians hold on to this particular theology to this day.
I hadn’t seen one of my Hungarian friends for a while and as we met I asked, “How are you?” Americans treat this question as a greeting, and regardless of how they are doing, usually answer, “Fine.” Read more »
Popular Theology: Common Beliefs About God in Hungary
April 15, 2008
The most famous Hungarian theological statement is the National Hymn- “God bless the Hungarian.” Theology simply means, “Ideas regarding God.” And this work contains lots of theology, which is recited by many Hungarians more times than they say the Lord’s prayer. Read more »
Love of Dogs
April 15, 2008
I noticed how much Hungarians love animals- especially dogs. I saw a dog happily wandering the street, exploring everything. Hungarians would look down on the animal and smile a peaceful smile of approval at him. Read more »
Public Behavior, Courtesy
April 15, 2008
The Hungarians are a very courteous and polite people. This is very pleasant and also reminds me of my own Latin heritage, where courtesy, and how one treats others in public is very important.
Hungarians use two words which do not directly translate into English for how one treats other people; Read more »
Personal Appearance in Hungary
April 15, 2008
I noticed how personal appearance is important to people in Hungarian cities. Hungarians tend to be very good dressers. Especially among the older generation one is expected to dress appropriately for going out in public. Even among the young, fashionable dress is very important. Read more »
Paprika for Flavor
April 15, 2008
I discovered something that was one of my firs