Rosetta Stone Stones Hungarian

We had lunch yesterday with a group of Fulbrighter who are leaving. It is always a somber time for us to lose our 'friends' of one or two semesters. 

We were discussing Hungarian and each of our failed attempts at learning it. One of the women in attendance was saying her friend works for Rosetta Stone. They have been working on a Hungarian version for 3 years without success, so are thinking of giving it up. 

Later this afternoon, a former Fulbrighter and continual friend from ten years back, Jennifer just happened to send me this link to The Onion titled "First Disk Of Rosetta Stone Hungarian Just Urges Listeners To Rethink This Whole Thing". Click here to read the story.

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No Awards for Freedom of Speech

It seems there is no free speech in a democracy without a price tag attached. Hungarian author Akos Kertesz, who was awarded an “honor” by the city of Budapest in 2002, is being threatened to have it stripped from him for speaking out in an American Hungarian newspaper. Even the President of Hungary is looking into having honors revoked from those who say nasty things about their Magyar fellows. The charge to charge the man with libel was led by a leader of the Fidesz-Christian Democratic party. There is something hypocritical both of those terms “Christian” and “Democratic” as played out in this progression of events.

What Kertesz penned was “Hungarians are genetically subservient … They do not feel the slightest remorse for the gravest of historical crimes, they shift their responsibility to others and always put the blame on others … They are unable or unwilling to learn … they envy and, if possible, kill those who succeed in life through work, learning and innovation.”

Kertesz’s made a couple of mistakes here. 

First of all, he must have forgotten that Hungarians have long memories. Dare I say the T word?  

The second mistake he made was submitting his thoughts to an American Hungarian newspaper, the American Nepszava. Had he had his wits about him, he would have published in in an English newspaper. After all, the 2010 Eurostat report shows that 74.8% of Hungarians are monolingual, making Hungary the most monolingual country in the European Union. He would only have had a 25.2% chance of anyone being able to read it. Must have been a slip in critical thinking.



Some Americans learned our lessons during the Bush years. If you want to speak out, stay out of the country while you do it. 

Akos Kertesz should not to be confused with Imre Kertesz, the author of Fateless.

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My Cup Runneth Over

Tuesday, I had a heartwarming experience that really bowled me over. As much as I wanted to share the moment, I selfishly wanted to keep it as mine alone for a short while to savor. One of my former students, Adam Meszaros (accents deleted on purpose), back from the days of having students for four semesters, more intensely than now, invited me for a coffee. In addition, to being his instructor, I was his MA thesis adviser. Adam aced his defense and final exams in both American Studies and Teacher Training. He thanked me a million times, which was more humbling than one would expect.


At the end of our coffee, Adam presented me with tokens of his gratitude. The first was a copy of the book called Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, a title I have had on my Wish List for quite some time. It was a thrill to finally get a copy, but more than that was the fact that Adam took the time to know what books I wanted and hunt it down. His note inside "Thought the title of this book expresses the most important fact I learned from you: the "power of thinking". How I kept from bursting into a waterfall of tears at that moment, I will never be able to capture the 'thought'. As a second gift, Adam made something for me, which will be an office decoration and inspiration. 

I  need to walk you through the graphic, which he created and had laminated, to fully comprehend and appreciate the effort he went through. 
1). Quercus borealis maximus is the Latin name for the Red Oak tree. Not only did I NOT know that, but I also did not know it was the New Jersey State tree, where I was born. The Liberty Bell refers to my years of living in Philadelphia and the Rockies for my time in California.
2.) Hungarian flag colors and my venturing here.
3.) 18 Wattles really threw me. 18 is our building number. Akacfa means Acacia tree. Wattle is a type of Acacia tree. 
4.) BudaBaB our b and b's name is referenced here. In Hungarian bab is bean. Many Hungarians question why we call it BudaBaB when we are on the Pest side.
5.) I am notorious for using a rubber stamp with my initials on 3x5 file cards or participation sheets when they actively speak in class. This was my way of encouraging their language skills.
The Skinner quote on the bottom is one of my favorites.


Shockingly, I managed to hold myself together when Adam was honoring me with these gifts, but later I spoke to Ron in the States. More typical of me, I lost it and could not speak for a few minutes, being choked with emotions. Thank you Adam!

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Fulbright Evaluations

For a number of years now, the Hungarian Fulbright Commission has asked me to be an evaluator for applications for those Hungarian hopefuls who wish to go to the US to study, lecture or research.


Each application is reviewed and scrutinized by one American and one Hungarian reviewer whenever possible. Generally, in the past, the request comes in at the very end of the spring semester, one of the worst possible times to fit in yet another activity, but I have never said no. Not only do I enjoy it, they pay me besides.


This year, it seemed that they had forgotten me, at least until a couple of days ago when I received the call to action. They had 8 proposals that needed to be examined. All were in the field of literature, not my area, per se, but I am able to muddle through with some Internet research where needed to fill in my information deficits. 


Basically, I examined two categories: Lecturer/Research all those from here with a doctorate already and those who are applying for student status. Ninety percent of the time, I can say that the Lecturer/Research proposals leave me feeling like a total underachiever, waste of professional life slug. The list of publications, conference lectures and other professional activities makes my head spin. My only consolation is that they have access to the foundation research, which is in Hungarian. I don't have access to databases in English.


Then again, I do justify my sloth with the fact that I try to put the majority of my energy into the classroom and working one on one with students. This leaves less time and much less energy to pursue tracking down professional resources as the foundation for further research followed by writing and publishing. That is my justification and I am sticking to it. 


For those outside or within the US, I highly recommend you check out the Fulbright Commission Scholarship program, but clicking here. To learn more of its history, you can check out this article.

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Life Has Been a Bit Hectic

Life has been a bit hectic lately with our B and B guests. May has been exceptionally busy with guests leaving from and going into the same room on the same day. I am not complaining since all of them have been outstanding human beings that have enriched our lives in some way regardless of how long or short their visit has been. This is one joy of running a B and B. The other side of the coin is that I have not had time for things that I wanted to do, like write, label my photos, visit museums, and so on.

The other interruption thus far is the administration of State exams. This is the equivalent to the Masters Thesis defense in the States. This would not be such a problem if it were organized, but I have learned that is not a concept here. I was told to arrive at 9:00 sharp. At 9:15, I was the only faculty member ready to start. We started at 9:30. One faculty member read and graded a thesis, but refused to be the examiner since she was not an authority on American culture, so it was deferred to me, who had not read the thesis. There were only two exams today, but on the 14th of June, there are eight. Ugh!

As I left the campus, I had to stop at the Fulbright office to drop off a package for an American professor that was leaving something for them. A half hour later, I get a call from them asking me if I would consider being a reviewer for the Hungarians who have applied to go the States. I said I would; however, we are leaving on Saturday for Germany. They need them done by next Thursday, the day we return. Being soft, I offered to go in on Friday and read as many as I could then. On my way to a different bus than I usually take, I passed by this building, which has intrigued me. It is the home of an old, dead Hungarian painter that has been neglected for too long. It is a shame and a waste.

Before going home, I stopped at the used English book store to pick up some books that arrived and had to go by Keleti train station. I love the building and had my camera with me.

Tomorrow is the day we go to Immigration for what should be the last time, getting our five year Residency. I have a student lined up to go with us to the local office to get our photo I.D. card giving us almost all of the rights of a Hungarian citizen.

We will be going to Dresden and Berlin, so you can read about them here.

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The Last of the Whine

The Last of the Whine

One of the California wine growers has or had the slogan “No wine before its time”. One nice thing about ex-pat living is that you are not infiltrated with advertising slogans to the point of mental numbness. But, I digress from the point of this note. If you have read past posts, you will know I have WHINED heartily about the Visa process here, the aggravation, the expense, and so on. This is the last of the whine. We found out last night that our 5 year Residency Permits were approved and we can pick them up on May 31st. So as of now, there should be no more whining about this topic.

With this we are fully legal Hungarian residents for a period of 5 years without jumping through any further hoops, diving through any barrels, not having to play nice with Immigration officers or shell out to overpriced agencies. We will have the same rights as Hungarians do, but since we don’t speak the language, we probably will not know all of them. Up until now, we have been legal with one year renewable Visas, but we had to have Work Permits in addition. Good-bye Work Permits.

At the end of the 5 years, we have two options. We can renew the Permit for another 5 years with a simple one page application or we can apply for Hungarian citizenship. The second option is not feasible for us since we would have to take an exam in Hungarian (ain’t going to happen folks), plus we would have to relinquish our U.S. citizenship and Social Security. I still have fantasies that there will be Social Security when I am retirement age. If not, I better get more serious about my writing and start to pump out something publishable.

For those of you who are not familiar with Hungarian, there are 44 letters in the alphabet. It is part of the Finno-Ugric, which comprises Finnish, Estonian, and Hungarian; however, Hungarian is off on a branch of its own. It is one of the languages which is agglutinative, which means word meanings are modified by adding different and multiple endings or suffixes to the words, rather than using prefixes. It is not easy to learn and not easy for native speakers to understand when foreigners try speaking it.

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A Helping Hand

A Helping Hand

I was walking home today and happened to notice this little old lady who must have been ten years older than God, come out of a convenience store and start to enter the apartment building next door. As I started to pass by, she stopped me. She was dressed appropriately for the weather, but her clothes were worn and stained. She was short enough for me to tower over her, but since she needed some assistance, I could not pass her by.

She immediately started a spiel in Hungarian, but before I could tell her I did not speak Hungarian, she had thrust something into my hand. It was her little one and a half shot of palinka, the Hungarian brandy. Then it dawned on me, she could not open the twist off top. As I unscrewed it for her, she continued with her monologue and showed me her swollen arthritic hand. She thanked me profusely as I walked away. Thank you is in my vocabulary in a number of languages.

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Hungarian Immigration Nightmares Again

Ron received an e-mail almost in the evening from the agency who charges us dearly for assisting us with our permits. Of course, it arrives on a Friday evening and states that since our 5 yr. permits are not ready, he has to reapply for an annual one. He has this shopping list of things that he needs to gather for his appointment on Tuesday, the 18th. Of course, some of these things need to be collected from agencies that are closed Good Friday and Easter Monday. One of the new requirements has to be counter-signed by our Hungarian attorney who is out of town for the holiday.

I have never seen him get as mad as he was at the rep at the agency, today. I am not quite sure why we pay so much money to them when we do all of the running around getting the forms and things that we need. Now Tuesday morning, he will be running to two agencies to get the last pieces of paper before going to his appointment at 2:00 PM. He told one of my students, "At the moment, I hate Hungary." I am sure the US makes it just as difficult to others too. It is always a chilling eye opener when we have to go through it.

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