Sziasztok from Hungary!
I arrived two days ago in Budapest after a long flight and a lost bag, but that was recovered and I am mostly recovered from jet lag (I just ignore it) and I'm here in Hungary, finally! I'm sitting here on a nice cool summer morning eating a peach from the peach tree outside and just enjoying the Hungarian morning.
So, now on to my first topic about Hungary, the language. Many people have asked and ask me if I am going to learn Hungarian. When I say yes, this usually leads to some kind of surprised exclamation, like "isn't that language really difficult?" or "will you be able to do that?" or "wow, you're brave!" I can't say whether I'm brave or not, but I can say that reading and hearing Hungarian, or "magyar" is definitely a new experience. It has little relation to many languages around it and it's closest linguistic relative is Finnish or Estonian. That said, I have just memorized a few key phrases, which is not too difficult given my theater background (I got used to memorizing lots of lines) and I have already found them incredibly useful.
I had learned phrases like good morning, and thank you in a podcast (Let's Learn Hungarian!), which have obviously been useful, but when I first met Bea's (she is my Hungarian counterpart working at Wheaton) husband and friends, I wanted a phrase to say "nice to meet you". For some reason I couldn't find this in any of my phrasebooks, so on my way from the airplane to the airport in Budapest I cornered a poor mother-daughter team and asked them how to say this. They offered me a few iterations, but I settled on the easiest one, which sounds like "urvan dek" in English. I thought, hey, that's like "urban deck" so I can remember that! And luckily, I did. I have used it often in the last two days and it has always been a pleasant surprise to everyone I meet. Hungarian has both formal and informal language, and this is a more formal greeting, but I am told it sounds nice to a Hungarian, especially if you are meeting them for the first time. So score one for me!
Well, this is only the first step of course and I'm sure to trip up soon enough, but like any language learning you just have to jump right in. Also listening helps. I learned "yes" that way (it's "igen") after a tour of this house. Also thank you was quite useful ("koszonom" which has two little dots over each "o"). And the most useful and easiest to learn was the word I started with, "szia" (for one person) or "sziasztok" (for many). It's like the Hawaiian "aloha", it's both a way to say "hi!" and "bye!" and it's so easy to remember because it sounds just like "see ya!"
So, that's all for now, szia from Hungary!
