language

No. of language exams halved thanks to coronavirus and the abolition of language requirements for receiving diplomas

The coronavirus lockdown this spring took its toll, among many others, on the language assessment institutions. Moreover, as the government abolished the language requirements for receiving diplomas, many opted out of the exams they already paid and applied for.

On the one hand, they experienced many difficulties with switching to online examinations, which they had very little time for and had to pay for the whole new system themselves, Magyar Nemzet reports. They did not have time to properly test the system before actual exams took place.

Several learners requested a refund as they did not want to partake in an online exam due to technical difficulties.

Moreover, one of the government’s first action in the name of financial protection was to issue their diplomas to students who had not received them yet due to the lack of obligatory language requirements. (In several fields of study, students must pass one or sometimes two B2 level foreign language exams in order to receive their degrees.) Therefore,

a lot of people requested a refund simply because they no longer needed to take the exam to receive their diplomas.

Read alsoStudents protest against language exam requirement for higher education entry

There was a significant drop nation-wide.

So far, 56.428 people took a language exam this year. The numbers were twice as much both in 2019 (124.000) and in 2018 (120.000).

42,000 people took an English language exam, while 10,000 people took German language exams this year, which is less than half of last year’s numbers, 94.000 and 22.000, respectively.

One of the most significant language assessment centres in Hungary is ELTE Origó Language Centre, a company of Eötvös Loránd University Budapest (ELTE) with an extensive network of accredited test centres, offering certified examinations in approximately 30 languages at 62 locations all over Hungary. There has been a 30% drop in the no. of examinees by September 2020 compared to September 2019.

ELTE Origó Language Centre suffered a financial loss of 556,300 Euros this year. Unfortunately, this resulted in a 25% collective layoff.

Read alsoHungarian government spent 6 million Euros on language exams

October 10, 2020

WOW! Today is Hindi Day – this is how it will be celebrated in Hungary, VIDEOS

Did you know that Hindi which is the most popular and nationally recognised language of India is very popular in Hungary?

It has its roots in the almost 120 year old Department of Indian Studies, at ELTE University which first started teaching Hindi in 1960s, when Dr. Árpád Debreceni started taking classes in the department. Later Dr. Mária Négyesi, was made in charge to structure the Hindi studies as parallel with Sanskrit studies.

As a pioneer, Dr. Négyesi introduced Hindi through literature, music and films of India. Today Hungarian Hindi & Sanskrit scholars are teaching & researching all over the world. Several Hindi books have been translated into Hungarian from well known writers, playwrights and poets.

Hindi language Hungary India — Prof. Mária Négyesi. Press Release

Prof Imre Bangha’s name comes first who has contributed by translating several poems of Meera Bai and other devotional poets. Another name that comes to the surface is of Judit Bernadett Borbély’s who has translated books under the India Library Project, chief amongst them are the Manu Smriti & the Tamas published in 2019. Young Professor, Péter Sági who spends half his year in India assimilating with the cultures to learn and get enriched in Hindi more, has been diligently translating works of various poets from Sanskrit and Latin into Hindi. His ‘Shabdavali’

a comprehensive Hindi-Hungarian dictionary

is a significant contribution for Hindi studies in Hungary.

Amrita Sher-Gil Cultural Centre, under the Embassy of India has been running a Hindi Course under the leadership of Dr. Mária Négyesi for many decades and churning out Hindi lovers and scholars. Many of them are doing research on Hindi songs and Bollywood.

Bollywood or the Hindi cinema industry churns out nearly 700-1000 films every year.

Another 1000 films are made in other Indian languages. In Hungary the popularity of Hindi has also grown because of Bollywood films.

The first film club was opened in the 1980s by Mónika Horváth at Örökmozgó Cinema which attracted many people to watch the undubbed & unsubtitled Hindi films and

made the language and Indian culture extremely popular in Hungary.

Here the credit of making subtitled Hindi films available in Hungary goes to film maker & Professor of film studies, Györgyi Vajdovich, who first learnt Hindi to translate her favourite Bollywood films for herself and then her students. Today she not only understands Hindi but teaches about Indian films more prolifically.

On the occasion of Hindi Day, the artists and India Lovers are posting their favourite Hindi words on social media and are also reciting poetry, talking about their love for Hindi language and thus paying a tribute to this beautiful, lucid and artistic language.

This is, how you can learn hindi easily

September 14, 2020

Hungarian language lesson: the many ways you can say ‘move’ or ‘go’, Part 2

The poem goes on and recites even more ways the Hungarian language can describe something moving in a direction. Why the Hungarian language has so many variations to describe motion is uncertain, but it is an endless toolbox in the right hands.

Whether you want to enrich your Hungarian vocabulary, impress your Hungarian relatives or friends, or are just simply curious, we hope that you find this useful and hope that we can shed some light on this hidden gem that is the Hungarian language.

You can find Part 1 here, but now we shall continue onwards from ‘L’ all the way to the end:

L

‘lépeget’ [leːpɛgɛt]: to walk with small, frequent steps
‘lépked’ [leːpkɛd]: to stride, or to walk with slow steps
‘lézeng’ [leːzɛng]: similar to ‘kószál’; walks around without purpose or destination; loiter around
‘lohol’ [lɒhɒl]: hurrying somewhere; walking with an effort to get somewhere or catch up to someone, also figuratively; to do everything to get somewhere, to get something or someone
‘lopakodik’ [lɒpɑkɒdik]: stealthy movement as in sneaking in somewhere without noticing
‘lófrál’ [loːfrɑːl]: similar to ‘csavarog’ or ‘kószál’; to walk around doing nothing; to laze
‘lődörög’ [lɜːdərəg]: to walk around the city; very similar to ‘lófrál’; to walk without particular goals in mind, just to be around

M

‘megy’ [mɛgj]: simply means to ‘go’; generally saying that you are going somewhere (travel even), or describe someone walking by

O, Ó, Ö, Ő

‘oson’ [ɒsɒn]: to sneak; to hastily go somewhere without noise or being seen
‘özönlik’ [əzənlik]: also used to describe a flood or mud moving with extreme force; usually referred to a huge crowd going somewhere; walking determinedly
‘ődöng’ [ɜːdəng]: similar to ‘lézeng’; to walk around without any plans, but also implies a blue mood
‘őgyeleg’ [ɜːgjɛlɛg]: similar to ‘kószál’; to walk around and curiously look or peep

P

‘poroszkál’ [pɒroɒskɑːl]: maybe ‘amble’ would be the closest; generally to move around in a jogging or waddling manner with a rhythm, specifically horses (or other similar animals) stepping with their right front and hind legs at the same time and then with the left ones

R

‘robog’ [rɒbɒg]: usually some kind of vehicle (‘robogó’ is a scooter) rapidly moving somewhere while emitting a rhythmic noise; to go somewhere in a hurry
‘rohan’ [rɒhɑn]: to rush or run as fast as one can

S, Sz

‘settenkedik’ [ʃɛttɛnkɛdik]: to sneak or creep; to walk stealthily and noiselessly; sometimes even to follow someone without being noticed
‘slattyog’ [ʃlɑtjɒg]: to ‘saunter’ or walk around looking at things
‘somfordál’ [ʃɒmfɒrdɑːl]: to move in a way to avoid being in the centre of attention, sometimes after being ashamed, or move around in order to ask for something, like a dog after chewing something
‘sompolyog’ [ʃɒmpɒjɒg]: almost entirely the same as ‘somfordál’
‘suhan’ [sʊhɑn]: to run noiselessly and rapidly; almost like flying, gliding, or rather sweeping
‘surran’ [sʊrrɑn]: to sneak in a rapid manner to somewhere; interestingly, the word ‘surranó’, which comes from this word, refers to a type of combat boots
‘sündörög’ [ʃyndərəg]: similar to ‘settenkedik’ but could be used when a child, for example, is being with the parent in the kitchen in order to maybe get some leftovers or food while the parent cooks
‘száguld’ [sɑːgʊld]: ‘fut’ or ‘rohan’; to run with such speed that it is hard to see with one’s naked eye; also used for cars and would be the same as ‘speeding’
‘szalad’ [sɑlɑd]: to run or hurry somewhere, but not with full force like with ‘rohan’; also when kids are running around
‘szedi a lábát’ [sɛdi ɑ lɑːbɑːt]: literally to move one leg after the other but used to describe someone fleeing or hurrying somewhere

T

‘tekereg’ [tɛkɛrɛg]: to be away from work, home, or school and walk around aimlessly; it can be used to describe snakes moving or coiling up
‘ténfereg’ [teːnfɛrɛg]: perfectly describes how drunk people walk; unsure, staggering steps trying to balance; can also mean to be around, but in the way of others, like pets or children in the kitchen, for example
‘tipeg’ [tipɛg]: to walk with small, unsure steps, like small children, but not necessarily toddlers
‘tódul’ [tódʊl]: similar to ‘özönlik’ when some kind of fluid suddenly flows somewhere powerfully, or when a crowd moves in a similar way; could also be used to describe a stampede
‘totyog’ [tɒtjɒg]: to toddle, or walk similar to a penguin
‘törtet’ [tərtɛt]: to move through thickets like a boar, for example, or simply to walk even through barriers; noisy movement; figuratively means to achieve a career goal through any means, but it has a negative connotation in that case

U, Ú, Ü, Ű

‘üget’ [ygɛt]: to trot or lope

V

‘vágtat’ [vɑːgtɑt]: to gallop; can even be used to describe humans who are in a rush or run fast
‘vánszorog’ [vɑːnsɒrɒg]: a slow movement that takes a lot of effort to move one’s body; usually crawling or dragging a limb or body; used to describe very old people’s movements, or even dying animals
‘vonul’ [vɒnʊl]: a crowd, mass, or flock moves in one direction, usually in some order or systematically; to march

That was a total of 74 ways of describing something moving by foot, detailed in two parts of the article. This is not even all, this is just what Gábor Gyimóthy wrote into his poem.

Read also10+ English words that have Hungarian origins

Read alsoEnglish–Hungarian wordplay: Same sound, different form and meaning

Read alsoCan you ‘hit the nail on the head’ in Hungarian? 13 common Hungarian−English idiom pairs

September 7, 2020

WOW! Online platforms for learning Chinese launched

laptop language learning Hungarian difficult

The Center for Language Education and Cooperation under China’s Ministry of Education (MOE) has launched four international online platforms for learning the Chinese language.

Besides the launch which was on Saturday, “Chinese Plus” cloud services, “Chinese Bridge” app and two other platforms were also on the scheduled agenda of the International Forum on Trade in Education Service at the China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS) 2020 that opened Friday.

At present, more than 4,000 universities, over 30,000 primary and secondary schools as well as over 45,000 colleges of Chinese studies in more than 70 countries around the world have offered Chinese courses, according to Liu Jin, director of the Department of International Cooperation and Exchanges with MOE.

A total of 200 million people outside China have learned, and use Chinese,

according to Liu.

“Online platforms can help the development of Chinese education internationally amid the epidemic,” said Zhao Guocheng, deputy head of the Center for Language Education and Cooperation.

A total of 18,000 enterprises and institutions from 148 countries and regions and about 100,000 people have registered for this year’s CIFTIS. Enditem

September 6, 2020

Hungarian language lesson: the many ways you can say ‘move’ or ‘go’; Part 1

You might have already known this, but Hungarian is one of the hardest languages to learn. This is because, unlike English, it is an agglutinative language. This means that complex words are formed by ’glueing’ together morphemes without changing them in spelling or phonetics. However, this might not be the only reason. In Hungarian, you can express the tiniest changes in motion or emotion, and it is a very colourful, figurative language.

In this article, I will try and show how colourful the Hungarian language can be, and while doing so, maybe I can teach you some new Hungarian words. There is a poem by Gábor Gyimóthy called “Nyelvlecke“, which literally means “Language Lesson”. In this Hungarian poem, the writer is pondering how many ways the Hungarian language can express motion (by foot or feet in this case). As I am not a native English speaker, feel free to tell me if there is a proper English equivalent to any of these words. There are 74 words used in the poem, so in this part, I will walk you through them from A-K.

A, Á

‘andalog’ [ɑndɑlɒg]: the closest would be to stroll, but this has an emotional undertone; usually, it is used to describe couples walking while daydreaming
‘átvág’ [ɑːtvɑːg]: it means to take a shortcut, but in other cases, it could also mean to cut material through

B

‘baktat’ [bɑktɑt]: very similar to trudge, it is also onomatopoeic to Hungarians
‘bandukol’ [bɑndukol]: similar to the previous one, the closest translation I could find is to plod or the phrase amble along
‘battyog’[bɑtjɒg]: similar to trudge, maybe a bit more of a tired walk; someone who walks but has no strength in spirit or is sad
‘beront’ [bɛrɒnt]: powerfully entering a room or a house in a hurried or fast fashion, not caring what is going on on the inside
‘beslisszol’ [bɛʃlissɒl]: quite the opposite, to sneak into a house or skulk, but it does not necessarily need to be unseen; it could be used to describe when a cat gets past you and into the house
‘betér’ [bɛteːr]: to turn on a corner and go into another street or alley but mainly used to describe someone going to a pub or restaurant, or a guest who comes by your house
‘biceg’ [bit͡sɛg]: either an animal or a person that walks with a limp, leaning in a direction when taking a step
‘bitangol’ [bitɑngɒl]: an animal to roam or wander away or even end up in a prohibited space (other pasture), villainously walk or even cause damage to things, like raid, although not as forceful
‘bóklászik’ [boːklɑːsik]: to roam or wander, go around aimlessly, sometimes stop to check out things or to graze in case of an animal
‘botladozik’ [bɒtlɑdɒzik]: to stumble while walking, to describe someone clumsy taking a walk
‘botorkál’ [bɒtɒrkɑːl]: similar, but less literal, someone who is not sure in their steps (in the dark or has bad sight), or someone who does not know the direction

C, Cs

‘császkál’ [tʃɑːskɑːl]: usually referred to animals, meaning to creep around, but it is also onomatopoeic
‘csatangol’ [tʃɑtɑngɒl]: almost the same as ‘bitangol’; when an animal escapes and then starts to wander
‘csavarog’ [tʃɑvɑrɒg]: when a child or animal is away from home and goes around aimlessly
‘cselleng’ [tʃɛllɛŋg]: to loiter around or dawdle, to take an aimless stroll just to spend time
‘csörtet’ [tʃərtɛt]: mainly used when an animal, like a boar, runs through the forest and it makes a lot of noise and is a fast, powerful movement

D

‘dülöngél’ [dyləŋgeːl]: it is close to ‘biceg’, but this is more powerful; it is not just a slight limp, it really is an unsteady movement when something goes from side to side while moving forward, maybe close to lurch

E, É

‘elinal’ [ɛlinɑl]: it combines the meanings of bolt, dash, and flee into one, it is when an animal escapes from you running away, but also to get away from danger
‘elkotródik’ [ɛlkɒtroːdik]: it is most often used when an animal is shouted at and runs away; it suggests that someone runs away shamefully or feeling guilty
‘elódalog’ [ɛloːdalɒg]: when an animal or a person wants to get out of a situation or knows that they did something wrong and cautiously goes away
‘elszökell’ [ɛlsəkɛll]: goes away in a leaping motion, most often the movement of deer is described with it as it is a graceful leaping motion
‘elvándorol’ [ɛlvɑːndɒrɒl]: could mean to literally migrate, but usually it is closer to wander away, for example in a huge field (grazing animal); it also suggests that it moved a long distance

F

‘fut’ [fʊt]: this is easy, it means to run

G, Gy

‘gyalogol’ [gjɑlɒgɒl]: to simply walk, but in some cases, it could also mean a stroll

H

‘halad’ [hɑlɑd]: to move or go in a direction
‘hömpölyög’ [həmpəjəg]: a strong, forceful, but not necessarily fast motion of water, but it can also be used to describe a crowd or a herd

J

‘jár’ [jɑːr]: move, walk, or stroll, but it can be used to say that a clock is working (the hands go around)

K

‘kaptat’ [kɑptɑt]: usually animals, like horses or other load-bearing animals, that go up a hill or incline; it suggests that it is hard to do; sometimes it can be used to describe a person trying to get up a mountain, for example
‘kitér’ [kiteːr]: to dodge or get out of the way of something, like a vehicle, for example
‘kóborol’ [koːbɒrɒl]: almost the same as ‘csavarog’ and similar to ‘csatangol’; to go around without a destination and just wander around, also if a dog escapes from home and is out on the streets
‘kocog’ [kɒcɒg]: to run at a steady pace, to jog
‘kódorog’ [koːdɒrɒg]: same as ‘kóborol’
‘koslat’ [kɒslɑt]: to follow someone, usually a man who is desperate due to unrequited love and follows around a woman trying to win her over; more uncommonly also when a male dog pursues a female dog
‘kószál’ [koːsɑːl]: same as ‘kódorog’ and ‘kóborol’
‘kóvályog’ [koːvɑːjɒg]: when someone does not know the way, is lost and walks around trying to find their way
‘kullog’ [kʊllɒg]: a slow, heavy movement, usually lagging behind others or the rest of the herd, also in a despondent, or even in a hunched, bent posture

Read also10+ Hungarian words with no English equivalent

Read alsoCovidinka, Hungarian for covidiot — Here is the dictionary of the COVID-19 pandemic

August 31, 2020

10+ Hungarian words with no English equivalent

Every nation has culture- and language-specific words that do not have a direct translation in other languages, and many of these expressions are part of the daily vernacular. We collected some Hungarian words that do not have exact English equivalents and provided the translation of the overall meaning to bring Hungarian closer to you.

Let us know if you are familiar with the English equivalent of any of the following expressions or you can complement our list with other words.

1. aranyhíd (n.) [ɑrɑɲhiːd] “golden bridge”
meaning: the glistening reflection of the setting sun on the surface of the lake or ocean

2. báty/öcs, nővér/húg (n.) [bɑː/ətʃ, nɜːveːr/huːg]
meaning: older/younger brother, older/younger sister
in Hungarian, we have separate words for older and younger siblings depending on their gender

3. háryjános (n.) [hɑːrijɑːnɒʃ]
meaning: a person boasting with fictional or exaggerated deeds
a common noun derived from the name Háry János, a character in a Hungarian folk opera

4. házisárkány (n.) [hɑːziʃɑːrkɑːɲ] “domestic dragon”
meaning: an ill-tempered, nagging, and constantly dissatisfied housewife
the English word with the closest meaning is probably ‘shrew’

5. káröröm (n.) [kɑːrərəm] “schadenfreude”
meaning: malicious enjoyment derived from observing someone else’s misfortune, usually accompanied by envy

6. nebáncsvirág (n.) [nɛbɑːntʃvirɑːg] “hurt-me-not flower”
meaning: a super-sensitive person, someone who is easily offended

7. világfájdalom (n. with German origin) [vilɑːgfɑːjdɑlɒm] “world pain”
meaning: a peculiar, pessimistic concept of the world, according to which we seek happiness in the world but can never find it; German ‘Weltschmerz’
“It signifies a mood of weariness or sadness about life arising from the acute awareness of evil and suffering.” (Beiser, Frederick C. (2016). Weltschmerz: Pessimism in German Philosophy, 1860-1900)

8. irgum-burgum (interjection) [irgʊm-bʊrgʊm]
meaning: it indicates feigned or playful anger, often addressed to children

9. tutyimutyi (n. and adj.) [tʊtjimʊtji]
meaning: a weak-willed, helpless, or wimpy person, someone with little physical strength

(8. and 9. are playful expressions similar to the English ‘itsy-bitsy’ or ‘lickety-split’)

10. madárlátta (adj.) [madɑːrlɑːtːɑ] “seen by birds”
meaning: originally, it referred to the food a shepherd or farmer brought home when he returned from the field; leftover food

11. kolbászol (slang v.) [kɒlbɑːsɒl] “to sausage around”
meaning: to loiter, walk, or wander aimlessly

12. piszmog (v.) [pismɒg]
meaning: to do something small, meticulous, or tedious that takes a long time but does not have a real purpose

13. szöszmötöl (v.) [səsmətəl]
meaning: to fidget with something, do something slowly and meticulously

the meaning of these expressions (10. and 11.) are quite similar, but in the case of ‘szöszmötöl’, someone is doing something unimportant usually without being aware that it does not have a purpose

Did you know?! – 10 surprising facts about the Hungarian language

Read alsoCovidinka, Hungarian for covidiot — Here is the dictionary of the COVID-19 pandemic

Featured image: bokik.hu

August 29, 2020

English–Hungarian wordplay: Same sound, different form and meaning, Part 2

1,848-meter long Hungarian national flag in Budapest

You seemed to like our previous article about some interesting English and Hungarian word pairs that are pronounced the same or in a similar manner. Despite the coincidental similarity, these expressions do not have a common etymological origin, the same word form, or meaning. Based on your suggestions, we have complemented our list with 32 additional pairs.

bale [beɪl] (ENG) – bél [beːl] (HUN)
meaning1: bowels, intestines
meaning2: kernel (of nuts)

beer [bɪə/bɪr] (ENG) – bír [biːr] (HUN)
meaning: to be able to carry something

bent (past tense of ‘bend’)[sɛnt] (ENG) – bent [bɛnt] (HUN)
meaning: inside, within

cane [keɪn] (ENG) – kén [keːn] (HUN)
meaning: sulphur

case [keɪs] (ENG) − kész [keːs] (HUN)
meaning: complete, ready, finished

cheek [ʧiːk] (ENG) – csík [ʧiːk] (HUN)
meaning: band, stripe

coot [kuːt] (ENG) − kút [kuːt] (HUN)
meaning: well

fail [feɪl] (ENG) – fél [feːl] (HUN)
meaning1: half (of something)
meaning2: to be afraid, to fear something or somebody

fame [feɪm] (ENG) – fém [feːm] (HUN)
meaning: metal

fog [fɒg] (ENG) – fog [fɒg] (HUN)
meaning1: to catch (e.g. fish), grasp, hold
meaning2: shall (auxiliary)
meaning3: tooth

hay [heɪ] (ENG) – héj [heːj] (HUN)
meaning: peel(ings), skin

hate [heɪt] (ENG) – hét [heːt] (HUN)
meaning1: seven
meaning2: week

hit [hɪt] (ENG) – hit [hit] (HUN)
meaning: belief, faith, trust

Kate [Keɪt] (ENG) – két [keːt] (HUN) (modified form of ‘kettő’ [kɛtːøː])
meaning: two

law [lɔː] (ENG) – ló [lɔː] (HUN)
meaning: horse

lent (past tense of ‘lend’)[lɛnt] (ENG) – lent [lɛnt] (HUN)
meaning: below, down

less [lɛs] (ENG) – lesz [lɛs] (HUN)
meaning: will be

mane [meɪn] (ENG) – mén [meːn] (HUN)
meaning: stallion

may [meɪ] (ENG) – mély [meːj] (HUN)
meaning: deep

mint [mɪnt] (ENG) – mint [mint] (HUN)
meaning: as, like

old [əʊld] (ENG) – old [ɒld] (HUN)
meaning1: to dissolve, melt
meaning2: to undo, untie (e.g. a knot)

raise [reɪz] (ENG) – réz [reːz] (HUN)
meaning: brass, copper

rave [reɪv] (ENG) – rév [reːv] (HUN)
meaning: ferry(boat), harbour

Sam [sæm] (ENG) – szem [sɛm] (HUN)
meaning1: eye
meaning2: grain (e.g. of sand)

sent (past tense of ‘send’)[sɛnt] (ENG) – szent [sɛnt] (HUN)
meaning: holy, sacred, saint

sieve [sɪv] (ENG) – szív [siːv] (HUN)
meaning1: heart
meaning2: to breathe in, inhale, suck

sole [səʊl] (ENG) – szól [sɔːl] (HUN)
meaning: to speak, say something

sore [sɔː(r)] (ENG) – szór [sɔːr] (HUN)
meaning: to sprinkle, scatter, spread

tale [teɪl] (ENG) – tél [teːl] (HUN)
meaning: winter

toll [təʊl] (ENG) – tol [tɒl] (HUN)
meaning: to push

tool [tuːl] (ENG) – túl [tuːl] (HUN)
meaning1: beyond, over
meaning2: excessively, too

Why? [waɪ] (ENG) – váj [vɑːj] (HUN)
meaning: to hollow (out), scoop, deepen

budapest tourist tourism panorama unsplash

Read alsoChicken paprikash and easy-going people: a Korean student’s impressions of Hungary

August 15, 2020

Chicken paprikash and easy-going people: a Korean student’s impressions of Hungary

After three years in Hungary and a successfully passed language exam, Han Seunghwa shares her experience with the Hungarian language and her impressions of Hungarian people.

Han Seunghwa arrived in Hungary in 2017 to study International Business Economics at the Budapest Business School with the Stipendium Hungaricum scholarship. This is a popular programme that allows international students to pursue their Bachelor, Master’s, or PhD studies at a higher education institution in Hungary.

Similarly to other exchange students, Han took the opportunity to learn Hungarian after she arrived here, and now, after a successful language exam, The Kim Family has done an interview with her about her background and motivations.

When asked about her choice, Han says that she selected Hungary because her partner is Hungarian, and she finds that “Hungary offers just as many opportunities to foreign students as other European countries”. She started learning Hungarian also because she wanted to be able to communicate with locals. Now she is still a student, but once she gets her degree, she plans to stay and work in Hungary.

Complicated grammar but familiar sounds

Han is a very devoted language learner. Apart from the help she receives from friends and in language classes, she often watches dubbed movies with English or Korean subtitles. She spends around 30 minutes a day practising the language.

Given her goals of staying in Hungary, she decided to take a C1 (advanced level) exam in Hungarian. She already has some experience in exam-taking, as she has successfully completed the B1 (intermediate) level. She says that even if the oral exam took shorter than the written one, she found it way more challenging than the writing part.

To the question of what is the greatest challenge in the Hungarian language, her response is the grammar: it is very complicated, and there are a lot of irregularities.

And what she really likes about the language is how it sounds. Almost every consonant is followed by a vowel, which makes it somewhat similar to Korean.

Her favourite Hungarian proverb is “Ami késik, nem múlik” (all is not lost that is delayed) which, other than following this consonant-vowel pattern, also bears an important message to her, helping her to hold out in times when being hardworking is simply not enough.

Low prices and friendly Hungarians

The most exciting part of learning a foreign language is probably the opportunity to immerse in a new culture. Having lived in several other places such as the USA and China, Han is familiar with the fact that each culture has its own peculiarities.

chicken paprikash -hungarian gastronomy — Chicken paprikash.
Photo: Funzine

She thinks that Hungarians are friendly, well-mannered, and warm-hearted people. She says that people in Hungary are very different from Koreans in that they are quite laid-back and do not rush anything, which is “in a big contrast to a speed-based Korean economy.” Another thing she noticed is that Hungarians really appreciate the time they spend alone and with their friends or family, as opposed to Koreans who are a lot more disciplined in this regard.

Her favourite Hungarian food is chicken paprikash, as it reminds her of flavours from her home. When her parents were visiting her in Budapest, they loved the vast selection of fruits and low prices.

For her favourite memories from Hungary, she mentions the time she was cooking with her friends, and she also really enjoyed her visit to a friend’s apartment at Lake Balaton.

Click here to find out what things Rosamund Pike found so amazing during her stay in Budapest. And if you want to read about what foreigners find strange about Hungary or the Hungarian people, click here.

August 8, 2020

English–Hungarian wordplay: Same sound, different form and meaning

Although the Hungarian language and culture did not have a significant impact on English, there are certain connections between the two languages. Considering the vocabulary, a number of supposed Hungarian loanwords can be identified in English. Idioms, proverbs, and expressions constitute an important part of everyday language use, and they can also show the similarities and differences between the two languages. You can find some Hungarian and English idiom pairs and the comparison of their lexical/syntactic structure HERE.

In this article, we have collected 20 English and Hungarian word pairs that are coincidentally pronounced the same or in a very similar manner. However, these expressions have a different word form and meaning, and they do not have a common etymological origin. We included the meaning(s) of the Hungarian words in each case. Let’s have a look at them.

ape [eɪp] (ENG) − ép [eːp] (HUN)
meaning1: whole, intact, unharmed
meaning2: sound, healthy

are [ɑː(r)] (ENG) – ár [ɑːr] (HUN)
meaning1: price, cost
meaning2: flood, current

cake [keɪk] (ENG) – kék [keːk] (HUN)
meaning: blue

came [keɪm] (ENG) – kém [keːm] (HUN)
meaning: spy

cape [keɪp] (ENG) – kép [keːp] (HUN)
meaning: picture, photo

car [kɑː(r)] (ENG) – kár [kɑːr] (HUN)
meaning1: damage, loss
meaning2: De kár! What a pity!

cheap [ʧiːp] (ENG) – csíp [ʧiːp] (HUN)
meaning1: to pinch
meaning2: to sting, bite

dale [deɪl] (ENG) – dél [deːl] (HUN)
meaning1: noon
meaning2: south

hear or here [hɪə] (US [hɪr]) (ENG) – hír [hiːr] (HUN)
meaning1: news
meaning2: reputation, fame

keen [kiːn] (ENG) – kín [kiːn] (HUN)
meaning: pain, torment

nape [neɪp] (ENG) – nép [neːp] (HUN)
meaning: people

pear [peə] (US [pɛr]) (ENG) – per [pɛr] (HUN)
meaning: lawsuit, legal action

poke [pəʊk] (ENG) – pók [pɔːk] (HUN)
meaning: spider

maze [meɪz] (ENG) – méz [meːz] (HUN)
meaning: honey

my [maɪ] (ENG) – máj [mɑːj] (HUN)
meaning: liver

scene [siːn] (ENG) – szín [siːn] (HUN)
meaning: colour

sheep [ʃiːp] (ENG) – síp [ʃiːp] (HUN)
meaning: whistle

smoking [sməʊkɪŋ] (ENG) – szmoking [smɒkɪng] (HUN)
meaning: dinner jacket

tape [teɪp] (ENG) – tép [teːp] (HUN)
meaning: to tear, rip

whale [weɪl] (ENG) – vél [veːl] (HUN)
meaning: to think, believe, reckon

Read also12 facts about the Hungarian language you did not know about

Featured image: facebook/Énekeld a Himnuszt/

July 27, 2020

Covidinka, Hungarian for covidiot — Here is the dictionary of the COVID-19 pandemic

There is hardly any aspect of life that has not been impacted by COVID-19, and Ágnes Veszelszki’s new dictionary Karanténszótár is proof that the pandemic has also brought hundreds of new words into the Hungarian language.

Language is constantly evolving. This is especially true of words we use to describe the world around us, as it is very likely that we will find ourselves in situations we have never experienced before — which also brings the need to invent new words to describe these new situations.

But no phenomenon before has had such a huge impact on our vocabulary as the current COVID-19 pandemic. And there is no better proof than the fact that a dictionary containing all the COVID-related Hungarian terms has been just published in the country.

According to Qubit.hu, the book Karanténszótár (which translates as quarantine dictionary), edited by Hungarian linguist Ágnes Veszelszki, has a whopping number of 400 entries, describing words that sprang up in the Hungarian language between January and June 2020.

Veszelszki is an associate professor and head of the department of the Institute of Communication and Media Science at the Corvinus University of Budapest. As for the reasons behind this unprecedented increase in vocabulary, she explains that:

“The pandemic, the quarantine and the fact that our lives have remarkably slowed down or come to a complete halt put us in new situations we had absolutely no words for. It is these new extralinguistic phenomena that could explain such an increase in word creation.”

The translation of such a dictionary could be another exciting linguistic challenge, but — luckily for us — several expressions derive from words in the English language. For example, “covidinka” is equivalent to the English phrase covidiot, which is a blend of the words COVID and idiot. (Interestingly but maybe not so relevantly, the former is also very similar to another Hungarian word, kövidinka, which is a type of Hungarian wine grape.) The expression “home ovi” is a blend of the well-known home office and the word ovi, an informal Hungarian word for nursery school.

Many words are similar to English not only in form but also in meaning, as phenomena such as panic buying, toilet paper crime (“vécépapír-bűnözés”), or unqualified people spreading false information on social media (“fotelvirológus”, literally armchair virologist) are not only present in Hungary.

Some other expressions, on the other hand, are more Hungary-specific and reflect, for example, on the official government communication. Most residents in Hungary should be familiar with Pál Győrfi by now, who is the speaker of the Hungarian National Ambulance Service — his “maradj otthon” message (meaning stay at home) has been a constant feature of TV programmes and video sharing platforms in the country. The related COVID adjective, “elgyőrfipalisodott” (literally fallen under the influence of Pál Győrfi) refers to a person in panic who keeps telling other people to stay at home. For further Hungarian expressions that turned up during the current pandemic, click here.

Ágnes Veszelszki’s work is a proper dictionary in which entries are followed by a short definition which, if it contains another COVID-related expression, has a reference to other relevant entries. The Karanténszótár was published by Interkulturális Kutatások Kft in Budapest.

July 25, 2020

Balaton, Fertő, Velence: what are the name origins of Hungary’s largest lakes?

From Celtic tribes to Italian workers, the names of Hungary’s largest lakes reveal centuries of eventful history in the Carpathian Basin.

There are over 3,000 lakes in the territory of Hungary, offering endless recreational opportunities across the country. The names most foreigners are familiar with are Balaton, Lake Velence and Lake Fertő, and although visiting these places is always a good idea, it is also worth digging into their history to learn some interesting facts about their origin, as did Hungarian website Divany.

A heritage of Celts and Slavs

Lake Balaton, arguably one of the most popular tourist attractions in Hungary, is around 10–12 thousand years old, but the name we use today is significantly younger. During the era of the Roman Empire, conquerors used the name Lacus Pelso, which literally means shallow lake, and is a name first used by the Celtic tribes who had settled here before the Romans.

The name was still in use when the Avars settled in the Carpathian Basin in the 6th century. Still, it was also during this period that another name, Blatto came into use: this is how Slavic slaves who arrived with the Avars described the area rich in reeds and swamps.

The original Slavic word Blatto then transformed into various forms such as Blatno, Bolotin, Balotin, Balatin, and finally, Balaton, which was later borrowed by the Hungarians as well.

In fact, the word we use today also appears in the foundation letter of the Tihany Abbey, which is considered one of the first documents that have Hungarian words in it. It was mostly written in Latin but does contain 58 Hungarian words, including the name of “the Hungarian sea” — just to mention a more recent name Hungarians use to talk about the largest lake in their country.

Velence: the Venice of Hungary?

The name of Hungary’s second lake (third largest) is more straightforward: it bears the name of the adjacent settlement, which was an important point of the trade route connecting Buda and the Adriatic sea. But when it comes to the name’s origins, there are still a lot of question marks. According to Divany, one argument comes from the fact that Hungarians use the name Velence not only to refer to this lakeside city but also to Venice, the world-famous city of canals in northern Italy. Hence the name can originate from Italian architects who were working on the buildings of the nearby city of Székesfehérvár.

swan lake velencei — Swan on Lake Velence. Photo: Pear Blossom/Wikimedia Commons

A country of swamps

Fertő tó or Neusiedler See is Hungary’s second-largest lake sitting on the Austrian–Hungarian border. The German name Neusiedler literally means new settlement. At the same time “fertő” is an old Hungarian word used to describe swamps and muddy areas — and therefore was once used to describe Balaton and Lake Velence as well.

July 22, 2020

12 facts about the Hungarian language you did not know about

Those who were born Hungarian might not think about the fact that our mother-tongue has some facts we, Hungarians, might not be familiar with. And for those who hear the language for the first time, these are more interesting than ever.

Read alsoDid you know?! – 10 surprising facts about the Hungarian language

Magyarországom writes about twelve facts not many people are aware of.

#12 One of the hardest languages in the world

Of course, for mother-tongue speakers learning a language is a piece of cake, but for foreigners, it can cause a headache, especially if we are talking about Hungarian.

#11 The number of Hungarian-speakers

Only 13 million people around the world speak Hungarian, in Hungary, 9.7 million (2019).

#10 Our letters cause confusions

For foreign people, letters like ty, cs, dzs are never-seen characters.

#9 Its longest word

Hungarians like to scare people who would like to learn the Hungarian-language. Are you ready?

megszentségteleníthetetlenségeskedéseitekért

And what does it mean? Even we, Hungarians do not know…

#8 There is more

With the Hungarian letters and using the grammatical forms and practices, in theory, we can create words with 100 characters, but these would not make any sense.

#7 Fourteen strange letters

Hungarian-language has fourteen vowels. While the English-language and many other only use a, e, i, o, u, Hungarians also have á, é, ű, ü, ó…

#6 Its origins

According to historical studies, the Hungarian-language comes from Asia, from the Ural mountains. It is part of the Finnugor-family which results in the many similarities between Finnish and Hungarian.

#5 Which comes first and last?

In Hungarian-language, words in one sentence can be organised in many ways. For example, Tegnap elmentem a boltba (I went to the supermarket yesterday) means the same if I say: Elmentem tegnap a boltba, Tegnap a boltba mentem, Boltba mentem tegnap…

tegnap = yesterday / elmentem = I went / a = definite article / boltba = to the supermarket (bolt = supermarket, shop)

#4 Ancient roots in America

Scientists have been working on solving the mystery of the Runic Stone at the Yarmouth County Museum which is a huge stone piece with many languages written on it, and some say, Hungarian is also found on the stone…

#3 It takes care of itself

Languages change all the time as new words and expressions are born, but Hungarian-language still has 68% of its traditional words and expressions.

#2 We have two words for red

Piros and vörös. Vörös is darker, and piros is lighter. But sometimes we just say, yes, that is red and that is all.

#1 What is your name?

Hello, my name is John Smith. Hello, I am Varga Dávid. Call me David. In Hungarian-language the names are in a different order.

Featured image: Youtube

The Hungarian language is thriving and in its prime

The We are Social media agency from London presented its annual study regarding the situation of the media. This report included the global standards and statistics of each countries’ habits of using digital platforms. Képmás reported that it is no surprise that the average time of using smartphones increased (especially using social media platforms), and people are participating in the phenomenon of messaging (sending real-time messages) more often. The most important social media platforms are Facebook and YouTube, and even countries with poor Internet coverage try to keep up with social media.

READ MORE HERE

July 14, 2020

Oxford University Press books come to life with the help of the Hungarian BOOKR Kids

Oxford University Press (OUP), one of the world’s largest textbook publishers, has commissioned the Hungarian startup to redesign and digitalise the publisher’s classic novels and their adapted versions.

BOOKR Kids is the leading digital publishing company of interactive books in Central Europe, offering not only a useful and enjoyable reading tool for kids, but also providing full-service solutions for publishing houses in content digitalisation. Before the agreement, the Hungarian startup negotiated with Oxford’s innovation department for two years. Finally, the teaching methodology, research results and international references of BOOKR Kids convinced the leaders of OUP, Szeretlek Magyarország reported.

BOOKR Kids aims to build a bridge between the world of books and the digital world, with a mission to make literature an integral part of children’s lives.

Last year, the company conducted research involving more than a thousand primary school students. According to the results, students working with BOOKR books performed on average 15−20% better in different reading and comprehension exercises than members of the control group who only read paper-based books.

The research was supported by the Klebelsberg Centre, Eötvös Loránd University and the University of Szeged.

Oxford has commissioned BOOKR Kids to digitalise the Dominoes and Bookworm book series: the Hungarian company illustrates and animates e-books and also develops new, interactive games for the stories so that they can provide a unique reading experience for children.

The English-language digital version of well-known books such as The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Romeo and Juliet, or Around the Earth in Eighty Days will soon be available in the BOOKR Class library.

Book recommendations for when you are social distancing

Read alsoMagda Szabó’s Abigail gets an English translation by Len Rix

June 25, 2020

Is the Hungarian Language a Barrier for App Localization?

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** This article is updated regularly. It was last updated in April 2021 **

Hungarian is widely considered to be one the hardest languages in the world for English-speakers to learn. This is true because of difficult grammar, spelling, and pronunciation. Magyar, as it’s known to locals, has either 18 or 35 distinct cases, depending on how you count your cases. Whatever the case, there are also 14 vowels, twice as many as in English. And there are two forms of verbs, definite and indefinite – definitely confusing!

According to enet, more than half of Hungarians have smartphones, and more than 85% of Hungarian smartphone users use mobile internet, including apps. In addition to the 10 million residents of Hungary, there are estimated to be another 3 to 5 million Hungarian speakers living abroad, half in Romania. That makes Hungarian the 12th most popular spoken language in Europe. However, linguistically, Magyar is something of an island, related to Finnish and Estonian, but outside the linguistic mainstream of the continent.

In working with Hungarian clients and the Hungarian language, Ofer Tirosh, CEO of Tomedes translation services, says “Hungarian is a complex language, which is of interest to me, as a translation services provider. It is its very complexity that brings it to life, with its infinite cases and flexible word choices. Hungarian, or Magyar as the natives call it, often seems like a secretive code to new language learners. Yet, in reality, it’s an expressive language which relies often on metaphor, allowing language to express our incommunicable life in the world.”

2-Way Localization: Hungarians using apps and apps supporting Hungarian

These days the status of a language is not so much determined by the quantity of speakers but also by its use in digital content and in software. While the Hungarian Wikipedia is in the top 20, ahead of far more popular languages like Arabic and Korean. But the difficulties of Magyar, and the relatively small size of the domestic market has induced many software developers to skip it as a language in the localization of their applications.

A survey by Daily News Hungary found the most popular mobile apps to be Jófogás, dubbed the Hungarian eBay, BKK of Budapest’s transit system and its competitor SmartCity, Vonatinfó of the national railway system MÁV, and Bolt, Hungary’s answer to Uber. All these apps are useful, and target the Hungarian marketplace square on.

But the use cases that interest us here involve the interplay of Hungarians and foreigners. Will a visitor to Hungary who does not speak a lick of Magyar be able to get around and get things done with locally made apps? And do foreign app makers support the Hungarian market with localized and translated software products? Does the difficulty of the Hungarian deter foreign developers, and does it make life difficult for local developers to internationalize their products?

Localization and Translation: Understanding the Differences

Before getting into the nitty gritty of localization in the Hungarian context, it’s important to distinguish this process from translation. Translation is a subset of localization, though it may be the most important and time-consuming part. In addition to translating all text, there is a need to convert date and numerical formats as well as change measurement and currency units. More subtly, localization also requires ensuring that cultural differences and preferences are taken into account. Colors, language, and imagery that work well in one country may offend in another.

In practical terms, translation and localization are often used interchangeably. Many translation services will be able to perform localization services, and many localization providers can supply translation. That said, localization is a largely technical process involving specialized software for managing the translation and for integrating the language tables with the other code in the website or app. If translation services are already developing websites and applications, they will be able to handle the coding internally. Often the packages will provide a perfunctory language translation program. However, for more complex apps, they will need to outsource the translation component to a language services provider or, potentially, a freelance translator.

Localization Use Case #1: Hungarian App Developers Making Global Apps and Websites

Hungary has established a positive reputation as a source of capable software developers. The relatively low cost of living has also enabled Hungarian developers to provide cost-effective development services. But a stumbling block to working with coders from Budapest or Debrecen may be the relatively low percentage of speakers of international languages. Only 16% of Hungarians speak English, and less than 12% speak German, despite it being an officially recognized minority language.

According to the Manifest, Hungary has become a hotbed for app development, with Hungarian firms partnering with foreign companies to provide outsourced programming services with a sophisticated European sensibility but at rates competitive with shops out of India or Southeast Asia. To survive, Hungarian devs need to have basic competence in English or German. If so, they can tap into tools which let them localize software with relative ease, through the use of translation services.

Localization Use Case #2: Global App Developers Localizing for Hungary

The global tech firms leading the way in software development are well aware of the difficulties of Magyar. They provide specialized guidelines for overcoming the complexities of Hungarian localization. Microsoft, for example, provides a 10-point style guide for translating software to Hungarian, showing do’s and don’ts. Among its tips:

● Translate sense, not words, so translations are not stiff and unnatural

● Follow the original’s tone and style, using “you” rather than third-person pronouns

● Strike the right level of formality: Hungarian is more formal than English

● Avoid complex compound words, which abound in Hungarian

● Choose friendly Hungarian terms rather than English when possible

When in doubt, Microsoft recommends Helyesírás as the ultimate bible of Hungarian grammar.

Getting Help from Translation Services

If you have the budget, the smart money turns to professional translation services to provide languages services to and from Magyar. Typically, you can find these translation services simply by googling “localization” together with “Hungarian” and one or more foreign languages for which you need to localize. Combined these with the industry in which you operate: software translation, legal translation, medical translation, etc.

Typically translation services will offer you a free price quotation and timetable within 24 hours, or will ask questions to clarify your assignment. Feel free to reach out and talk or video conference with them to ensure there is “chemistry.” Ask about their rates, of course. While for documents, such agencies charge by the word, for software and websites the calculus is more complex. You will typically pay more for agencies than freelance translators, but few freelancers can handle localization or the technical aspects of web site translations.

Be wary of using machine translation. While Google Translate and Microsoft Translator support translating to and from Hungarian, the language can is too nuanced to depend on machine translation. To avoid misunderstanding, and losing users in translation, better to rely on the cunning of human linguists through translation services rather than robotic software algorithms!

June 1, 2020

Four topics to avoid when talking to Hungarians

Every person and every nation has sensitive topics they would rather not talk about. Here are the ones you should not mention to Hungarians.

Trianon

As the 100th anniversary of the Treaty of Trianon approaches, it comes up more and more in conversations. And even a century later, it is still a touchy subject for Hungarians; many are still upset about the territories which were separated from the country, as well as about the people. It may be best not to bring this up in a casual conversation, unless you want to hear about conspiracy theories regarding the treaty, or how the territories should be reattached.

If you want to know more about how Hungarians feel about the Treaty of Trianon on its 100th anniversary, click HERE.

Hungary Trianon map — Wikimedia Commons – HunTomy~huwiki

Budapest vs Bukarest

It is not so hard not to confuse the two. Surely, Slovenians and Slovaks, or Uruguay and Paraguay, are also upset if their countries are confused for one another. But I have seen people confuse Austria and Australia as well.

Are Hungarians Slavs?

Are Hungarians just “hungarianalised” Slavs? There are sayings both in Hungarian and Polish about the Polish-Hungarian friendship. But, in fact, they are referring to their actual friends, the Slovaks, as Hungarian and Polish people could not really communicate due to language barriers. Bottom line is, Hungarians and Slovaks come from two different countries – which happen to be next to each other – and speak two different languages.

Hungry-Hungary puns

I can promise you that all Hungarians have heard a few dozen jokes about having to be hungry if you are from Hungary. They were not funny the first time and they are not funny the 106th time either. Please come up with something else.

May 30, 2020

Special Mini Language Lesson – Coronavirus created more than 200 new Hungarian words

March 15 Hungary National flag hoisted Hungary flag

Karanténkert, koronamém, pánikvásárló, vécépapírkrízis… words we have not used before in the Hungarian language. What do they mean? How did they appear in our and other languages? How long these words live? Questions linguistics research and answer in the last few months since the coronavirus epidemic broke out in the world.

Ágnes Veszelszki is an associate professor at the Corvinus University of Budapest, the head of the Communication and Media Studies Department and also an enthusiastic researcher of languages. In a recent study, she aimed to collect and examine more than two hundred new Hungarian words and expressions, all created by the coronavirus epidemic. These appeared in our language quickly, and many people started to use them in everyday conversations — both oral and written — and everyone understood them immediately.

Read alsoThe Hungarian language is thriving and in its prime

The epidemic created new words and made other already existing ones more frequent in our language, begins Veszelszki on the website E-nyelv.hu. With the help of an online form, the professor created a survey and was able to collect more than two hundred new words and expressions from acquaintances, friends and mostly university students at Corvinus. Veszelszki emphasises that these words appeared in the past five months in the Hungarian language but did not “stay with us” forever. Although they were born quickly, once the epidemic ends, they will disappear in a short time.

Let us see some examples and their explanations!

New words and expressions appeared in different categories. According to the study, the first main category is the coronavirus itself and its features and the reactions.

Covidinka

From the English version of covidiot, the Hungarian form was born from COVID + dinka, without an additional “d” in the word. Dinka is the funny expression of idióta, which means idiot. The person who is covidinka is someone who does not care about the virus and its consequences.

Megkoronázódik

The expression megkoronáz means that someone crowns a man or woman to be a king or queen. From the Hungarian name of the virus (koronavírus) the word megkoronázódik was born. This means that someone gets the disease; someone is crowned with the virus as the word “korona” means crown in Hungarian.

The next category would be the home office and distance learning. Due to the epidemic, universities and some workplaces closed and people were forced to stay at home and to study and work from their rooms for a long time. New words, of course, also appeared to describe this period.

Karanténpedagógia

Quarantine + pedagogy. This means the brand-new area in the field of teaching, where teachers educate children from their own homes.

Koronaválás

Corona + divorce. Many experts estimate that because of self home-quarantine, the number of divorces would increase as the stressful situation leads to arguments and conflicts in many households where married couples live. Koronaválás means couples who divorced because of the coronavirus epidemic.

Karanténszakáll

Quarantine + beard. Beside no shave November, another challenge among men was to grow karanténszakáll, which simply means not to shave for a long time to represent that staying at home feels like being on a deserted island after shipwrecking. Or was it just a new trend? We let you decide.

The third category would be our homes where we spent almost three months and everyday life.

Karanténkonyha

Many people who usually ate out at restaurants and bars were forced to order online or try to cook. The word karanténkonyha (quarantine + kitchen) means not just an ordinary kitchen, but a new place for many who have not cooked before and also restaurants, bars and fast food places.

Karanténrecept

Quarantine + recipe. Those recipes that do not need ingredients from supermarkets because everything is available at our homes.

Karanténkert

Quarantine + garden. Probably the only place many people spent their time to get some fresh air if they have one and do not live in block of flats but family houses.

Vécépapírkrízis

Toilet paper + crisis. The lack of toilet papers at supermarkets was named this way.

Pánikvásárló

Panic + purchaser. Someone who rushes into the store to buy fertiliser, toilet paper, food and everything else necessary for home quarantine, in large quantities.

Let us continue with entertainment and free-time. During self-quarantine, it was essential to keep ourselves entertained to forget about the whole situation. We “met” our friends and relatives online and spent our times together through a screen.

Karanténivászat

Quarantine + drinking. It is organising drinkies online; to sit down in front of your computer with a glass of wine or other types of alcohol and drink together.

Karanténmese

Quarantine + tale. Reading a tale through video calls.

Karanténnapló

Quarantine + diary. Writing down our feelings and thoughts into a diary which is not just an ordinary one because it was written about the epidemic.

Karanténtest

Quarantine + body. This year many say that karanténtest is the new beach body. The body you build up by training and exercises in your own home.

Koronamém

Corona + meme. Like every other major event and moment in life, the coronavirus epidemic could not exist without funny memes to keep us entertained and to make us forget the epidemic. The word koronamém means all the memes related to the coronavirus.

Koronapara

Corona + panic. Para is the short version of pánik which means panic. Someone who has koronapara is really worried about the epidemic and its consequences and remains stressful all the time being unable to spend free-time by having fun and relaxing.

These are just some of many the study mentions, and there is more. Veszelszki closes her study by stating that these new words and expressions will not become the essential parts of the Hungarian language because once the epidemic ends they will only remind us that there was a time when these words were used almost every day.

CLICK HERE for more Mini Language lessons!

Abstracts in English by Ágnes Veszelszki

Featured image: Alpár Kató / Daily News Hungary

May 20, 2020

Can you ‘hit the nail on the head’ in Hungarian? Common Hungarian−English idiom pairs, Part 2

Understanding the lexicon of a language demands knowing both the denotative and the figurative meaning of words and expressions. Proverbs and idiomatic expressions, belonging to the latter category, reflect cultural traditions and national character. They are an essential part of the mastery of any language due to their frequent use, diversity, and national colouring.

We have collected some Hungarian and English idiom pairs to show the similarities and differences between the two languages and to help you enrich your vocabulary.
You can read the first part of the article HERE.

The idioms are grouped according to the same viewpoint. The first group includes idioms that have the same or very similar lexical structure, syntactic structure, and idiomatic meaning. In the second group, some syntactic or lexical connections can be observed between the idioms of the two languages. In the third group, the same idiomatic meaning is expressed with a completely different structure in the two languages.

1.
amelyik kutya ugat, az nem harap [ʌmɛjɪk kʊtjʌ ʊgʌt, ʌz nɛm hʌrʌp] – barking dogs seldom bite
meaning: people who appear threatening rarely do any harm

dióhéjban [dɪɔːheːjbʌn] – in a nutshell
meaning: very briefly, using only a few words

homokba dugja a fejét [hɒmɒkbʌ dʊgjʌ ʌ fɛjeːt] – bury one’s head in the sand
meaning: to ignore or avoid something unpleasant

Read also10+ English words that have Hungarian origins

2.
az utolsó csepp a pohárban [ʌz ʊtɒlsɔː tʃɛp ʌ pɒhɑːrbʌn] − the final/last straw
translation: the last drop in the glass
meaning: the last tolerable thing in a sequence of unpleasant events

behúzza a fülét-farkát [bɛhuːzʌ ʌ fyleːt-fʌrkɑːt] − with (one’s) tail between (one’s) legs
translation: tuck one’s ears and tail
meaning: to display embarrassment, humiliation or shame, especially because one has been defeated

két legyet üt egy csapásra [keːt lɛɟɛt yt ɛɟ tʃʌpɑːʃrʌ] – kill two birds with one stone
translation: strike two flies with one stroke
meaning: to accomplish two different things at the same time or to solve one problem with a single action

minden lében kanál [mɪndɛn leːbɛn kʌnɑːl] − have a finger in every pie
translation: a spoon in each juice
meaning: to be involved in several different activities at the same time, to be a meddler

zöldfülű [zəldfylyː] – green hand/greenhand
translation: green-eared
meaning: novice, inexperienced (in English, this expression is especially used among sailors)

3.
eső után köpönyeg [ɛʃɜː ʊtɑːn kəpəɲɛg] – there is no use crying over spilt milk
translation: cloak (or raincoat) after rain
meaning: it is a waste of time worrying or complaining about something that is done and cannot be changed

köti az ebet a karóhoz [kətɪ ʌz ɛbɛt ʌ kʌrɔːhɒz] – stick to one’s guns
translation: tie the dog to the stake
meaning: when someone refuses to change his or her decision or opinion about something, even though he or she might be wrong

nem most jött le a falvédőről [nɛm mɒst jət lɛ ʌ fʌlveːdɜːrɜːl] – (he or she) was not born yesterday
translation: he or she has not just come off the wall covering/tapestry
meaning: used to indicate that someone is not very naïve; he or she is not foolish enough to believe something that is not true

rámegy inge-gatyája [rɑːmɛɟ ɪngɛ-gʌtjɑːjʌ] − cost an arm and a leg
translation: his or her shirt and pants go on it
meaning: to be extremely expensive

Read alsoCan you ‘hit the nail on the head’ in Hungarian? Common Hungarian−English idiom pairs, Part 2

May 10, 2020

Foreigners try to speak Hungarian on TikTok – VIDEOS

Hungarian is a challenging but not impossible language. The pronunciation, in particular, is a massive challenge for learners, and for some strange reason, the internet (including us) loves hearing non-natives speak Hungarian. YouTube is already full of videos, and the trend is continuing on TikTok.

Hungarian is one of the most difficult languages in the world, even according to the American government’s Foreign Service Insitute (FSI) responsible for the language training of diplomats. It is definitely a unique and complicated language, which causes the most trouble for language learners all over the world.

Read alsoThe best videos about the Hungarian language

Why is the language so difficult?

Hungarian is difficult because it does not have many related languages, unlike Germanic or Latin languages, so the words and the rules will be entirely new for most learners. The difference between subjective and objective conjugation, the unique use of verb prefixes and all those different suffixed forms do not make it any easier either. There are at least 18 cases (like dative, instrumental and terminative), and there is no specific word order. If something stands at the beginning of a sentence, it tends to be emphasised. Furthermore, there are 14 vowels and 30 consonants in the Hungarian language.

Hungarian on TikTok

There are many videos on TikTok of people attempting to learn or just read out loud in foreign languages. For some reason, the internet particularly loves hearing people trying to speak Hungarian on the app.

Here is a collection of some decent attempts.

Jan Samayoa @jansamayoa

She made a video of her trying to pronounce Hungarian words she thinks are impossible to pronounce, including ásványvíz (mineral water), diákigazolvány (student ID), and gyógyszertár (pharmacy).

@jansamayoa
Why Hungary? Why? ??? You playing games Hungary? ##hungarianlanguage ##sodifficult ##foryou ##foryoupage ##cantrelate
♬ original sound – jansamayoa

She even attempted to conquer the longest Hungarian word ever: megszentségteleníthetetlenségeskedéseitekért. Respect.

@jansamayoa
You guys asked for this, now I deliver?? I was practicing all week? ##thelongestword ##hungarianlanguage ##foryoupage ##foyou ##learningfast
♬ original sound – jansamayoa

She summarizes her struggles with the language in a funny clip below:

@jansamayoa
Learning Hungarian ? where my expats at? ##hungarianlanguage ##sodifficult ##comedу ##foryou ##foryoupage ##learnin
♬ original sound – benin.2000

Aleja Tello @alejatello

@aletello.r
Is my pronunciation any good? ? ##hungarian ##hungary ##fyp ##hungarianlanguage ##tiktokhungary ##magyarorszag ##foryou ##expatlife
♬ Hungarian dance nº5 – Paul mauriat

ValeriaB CabinCrew @valeriabragarenco8

@valeriacabinattendant
My development goals in hungarian language after two years of Hungary! ##languagechallenge ##budapest ##tiktokhungary ##girlpower ##love_tik_tok ##fyp
♬ sunet original – valeriabragarenco8

Emily @iamiabdr

@iamiabdr
i asked you to send me texts in hun, which i didnt read before! ##magyarország ##fy ##foryou ##tiktokhungary ##hungarianlanguage ##budapest
♬ original sound – iamiabdr

Argyll C-Rice @argyllcrice

@argyllcrice
?? Hungary I’m sorry. I’m dead tho! ##fyp ##languageoftheweek ##houseoftiktok ##languagelearning ##hungary ##hungarian
♬ original sound – argyllcrice

We at Daily News Hungary think that the girls did a fantastic job speaking Hungarian. Keep the videos coming.

May 6, 2020