November 15, 2010: Another Teachers' Meeting

November 15, 2010: Today Fekete Kati called for a teachers' meeting during our lunch break, 12:10 - 12:30. There were three items on the agenda: nomination of teacher representatives for some sort of board. This part of the meeting was conducted in Hungarian and I could see that it seemed to be very political meaning only people who were well established and knew people in high places had a chance of getting nominated. (This fact was confirmed later by a colleague.) Second on the agenda was the announcement of Joe Beerer's speech this Thursday. There appears to be great excitement about his visit. Because of the demand, we have scheduled for him to give the same talk twice. There will be about 240 students present at his talk all together (That's because the largest room will hold only 120 people.) Third on the agenda was the upcoming English examinations being given in December. The exam consists of several parts, written and oral. I see that my name is written in for assisting with the oral exams. The students will be asked about certain topics and they will have to talk fluently about these topics.

Later I had the chance to talk with a colleague about Hungarian politics. As you know, Hungary was (is?) on the brink of bankruptcy and at the recent elections, the Fidesz party won over 60% of the votes. Although recent sentiment was that the party had so far accomplished nothing, it appears that they recently mandated that to help the country with their potential insolvency, that the private pensions that all teachers have been required to contribute to would be confiscated by the government until next November at least. It wasn't clear whether this was a percentage of their pension or the whole thing, but of course the teachers aren't too happy realizing that their hard earned pensions may have been taken from them. Just another example of how the Hungarian people are constantly being taken advantage of and have no recourse as to what to do in response. No wonder that so many Hungarians would love to emigrate to other countries!