August 26, 2010: Orientation

August 26, 2010: I have been in orientation for three days now. It has been great to meet the other participants of CETP. Altogether there are around 40 of us. Most teachers will be teaching elementary school students, and most participants will be teaching in smaller cities/villages than Budapest. Orientation began with a wonderful dinner at a restaurant on the Danube (see previous posting from August 23rd for details). The schedule for orientation has generally followed discussion of Hungarian history, social issues, Hungarian customs, and hints on how to relate to Hungarians/students/schools. After these presentations, the group broke into three subgroups. My group consists of high school teachers. This group first meets with Maria Santha, a local university professor who teaches us methodology, providing us with several tips and activities we can use when we teach in Hungarian English classes.  She has provided us with excellent ideas on what we can do for our lessons. After this session, we have a Hungarian language lesson. I am dumbfounded at how complex the Hungarian language is with its difficult grammar. After Hungarian language class, we have another lecture about Hungarian culture, etc. The speakers at these provide their opinions about why the Hungarian people are as they are. The bottom line of these speakers is that most Hungarians are extremely pessimistic stemming from their austere history. As an example, we were told about a 93 year old person who has been subjected to many takeovers of their country. First they would have experienced WW2, then the Russian takeover, then freedom in 1989. As an example of how things change so quickly we were told that in the course of one year, Hungarians have had their tax laws changed 18 times (yes, 18 times in one year)! These obviously are circumstances beyond anyone's control so the typical Hungarian has had to become very adaptable over the years. Therefore, one of my challenges this coming year is to try to help my students develop self esteem since most Hungarian students are rarely told they have done anything well and that things will be constant in their lives -- they are only told publicly when they have screwed up. Another thing that I can help them do is to become more assertive, since as past history has shown, those who speak up are usually the first ones who are brought down; Hungarians tend to just cope rather than strive to establish and reach goals.

As I may have said in past postings, Hungarian language stems from Finland and Turkey. Another factor that influences Hungarian culture is the migration to Hungary from peoples of the east which occurred in 896 a.d. There is some debate as to whether Huns were involved in the invasion of Hungary during this time.

Hungary's population is about 10,000,000 people. There are an additional 3,000,000 people who live in adjoining countries surrounding Hungary. This is because in 1920, the Treaty of Trianon was signed whereby 2/3 of the country was ceded over to its neighboring countries and all the people on these lands were ceded along with the land (Imagine living in your country, Hungary, only to be told one day that the land you're living on has been given to a different country and that you are no longer a citizen of Hungary!)  Another 1,000,000 Hungarians live in the United States and there are 1,000,000 in other countries around the world. Recently it has become possible for people in the US and other countries of the world (other than the 3 million who live in countries adjoining Hungary) to obtain dual citizenship.


Hungary is not yet at the point of being able to join the Euro Zone due to the fact that the deficit of the country must be less than 3% (Hungary's is currently 3.5%) and the national debt must less than 60% (Hungary's is more), so Hungary is still in the Forint Zone (The forint is the currency of Hungary). As for more on economics, it is extremely difficult for Hungarians to be granted loans which accounts for more Hungarians not being able to leave their parents to live on their own. 


Although the retirement age in Hungary used to be 55, it is now 62. There are 3 million pensioners in the country. As for the workforce, of the 10 million people, there are only 3.6 million legal workers. Therefore the amount collected in taxes is supported only by these 3.6 million people, making the taxes extremely high for those able to work.


Enough on history and sociology. When we are not in classes, a number of us have gone downtown to eat. Having lived for a week in the area where there seems to be a lot of great restaurants, I have led the others to interesting restaurants to eat at, places that I thought would be fun but would not go to alone since it's no fun eating alone in a nice restaurant.

Dinner at La Cucina in Vaci utca

Dinner at Cellar Restaurant in Vaci utca

Dinner near Octagon off Andrassy Ut

On my walking to/from these restaurants, I took other interesting pictures.

Manhole cover in Vaci utca

Saint Stephen's Basilica at sunset

Segway riders at St. Stephen's Basilica

Following are pictures taken from a window on the floor of the building where my orientation is taking place.

View from dorm of orientation (Buda)

View from dorm for orientation (Buda)

I'll conclude by giving some more random observations:

• Hungarian toilets are tankless. There's a valve that allows a strong stream of water to enter the toilet. The user releases water into the toilet as long as necessary.
• Hungarian door keys open/close doors by putting the key in and turning it 360 degrees. This seems excessively long to do.
• Hungarian traffic lights differ from ours: when the light is red, the car must stop (obviously). But just before the traffic light turns green, the yellow light appears concurrently with the red light, almost as if to let the driver rev the engines before taking off with the green light.