9.9.09

Őrült ez az Angol? (Are these English people mad?)


This was the question posed in the title to an article written in a Hungarian newspaper in 1989. The ‘angol’ in question was me – or more accurately, all four of us, including Paul, and our young children, Hannah and John.
Though I cannot now recall the precise details surrounding the writing of the piece, it must have been connected with our then seemingly irrational decision to settle permanently in Hungary.
The Hungarian journalist cast serious doubt on our sanity in taking this step – something not voiced by our English family and friends. Our optimism in a future life in Budapest was countered by the characteristic pessimism of the Hungarians we told.
The adage goes: What’s the difference between an optimist and a pessimist? Answer – the pessimist has more information! (Did Hungarians come up with this clever definition?!) This would explain their take on our decision. The question in the article should probably have been asked in 1982 when we initially set off in our VW Beetle for Communist Budapest, where at the time only about 10 British people were living!

Anyway, a couple of decades and a few tens-of-thousands of expats later, we’re still here, and this blog gives me a chance to write about a life in Budapest that’s a bit more up-to-date than what is described in my two books. In 1989 we asked Caroline (a close English friend who came here in the 60s) whether she thought our children might become schizophrenic, living two lives which were culturally so very different. Without any hesitation she replied, “No. But you might.”

As I daily walk the streets of a city I’ve known and loved since the 80s, I realise that the changes that Budapest has undergone - as well as the effect these changes have had on its inhabitants - have certainly made me ambivalent.
Would I want to turn the clock back? Not really. Do I like the changes I see?

Follow this blog and I’ll try to explain………

1 comment:

  1. Yours is still the only objective (foreign) view of what it is like living and working in Hungary.The sad thing is that so little has changed in the way people here behave.We have malls and Internet and can travel freely,but all this is out of the reach of the average citizen.The worst of everything has arrived from the West,but very little of what is good,like being efficient and adopting a street or dog or child or library.

    And the linguistic isolation of the language makes it almost impossible to teach English here (successfully).Maybe you can support me in eliminating the use of the word "néger" from the Hungarian language.It makes them sound so racist and stupid and has become for me the big debate with almost all my groups.I do it so people stop criticising them,but they ALL (even the "intellectuals") see it as an attack on their sacred language.I used to try to teach absolutes by saying that "You must never speak in absolutes",but have given up because so often either they don't get it or they say that not ALL Hungarian are racists.This may be true,but I don't see it that way on Hungarian TV or online where these comments are made even by well-meaning people.

    I went to look at a flat near Garay and was amazed at the new shopping center.Was the old one really that bad ?

    Laszlo

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