March 8, 2011: Ladies' Day

March 8, 2011: Fortunately David called me two nights ago to inform me about a very important Hungarian (and European) holiday that took place today, Ladies' Day. In preparation for this day, he suggested that we honor the ladies with whom we work by bringing each of them a gift -- in my case, he suggested that I buy each lady in our office a flower. So, last night I bought three tulips to give each of the three ladies who sits in our office. Then I placed a tulip on each of our colleague's desk this morning. I could see during the day that each lady in the school accumulated a number of gifts, mostly flowers and candies. Flower vendors were also on the streets in abundance selling flowers, so I could see that it is a widespread tradition not to be forgotten. Each of the ladies was delighted with her gift and as is common, I received a "puszi" (light kiss on each cheek) from each of the recipients. I was told that there is no counterpart holiday for men. Rats!

My day of teaching ended and in the afternoon I met with some businessmen whom a colleague asked me to teach conversational English to. These men work in a software firm that recently won a contract with an American firm headquartered in Cleveland (of all places since that's where I received my bachelor's degree). Although these men could speak fairly fluent English, they needed to practice speaking to a native American since they will eventually have to teleconference and later go to the US on business. The English that they speak is for the most part grammatically correct and their vocabulary is adequate to get along on their own. They just need practice speaking since they claim that I was the first American they had communicated with. They told me that they had first learned English when they were freshmen in college ten to fifteen years ago. I was quite impressed with their abilities, and am confident that they will succeed when they finally do meet their American customers. We'll see. At any rate, it certainly is a relief to teach students whom I don't constantly have to tell to be quiet and stop hitting each other!