Aditi in Hungary

Roger Hicks · 04-11-2009

Our 'adopted daughter' Aditi is looking for a job teaching English in Hungary in July/August. She is the daughter of one of my oldest friends, and is very much like a daughter to Frances and me. Yesterday (Friday) and tomorrow (Sunday) she was/will be with me in the hospital visiting Frances (see 'Frances Update'). Today (Easter Saturday) she spent the afternoon on line looking for a TEFL/TESL/TESOL job. She fancies Hungary (of which Frances and I have spoken highly).

For those not in the know, TEFL = Teaching English as a Foreign Language, TESL = Teaching English as a Second Language, TESOL = Teaching English to Speakers of Other Langiuages.

Aditi is not very old (just short of 19) but she's a qualified TESL teacher (TEFL International certificate) and she's looking for both a job and accommodation (not necessarily linked, but she'd need both in e.g. Budapest). She's trilingual (English/French/ German -- she took her Baccalaureat and Abitur simultaneously, with English as a mother tongue) and her Russian isn't bad.

Anyone in Hungary? Or any other suggestions on a good place to go?

Tashi delek,

Roger

F456 · 06-19-2009

Hello Roger,

I wish I could help with suggestions for a TEFL/TESL placement in Hungary. All I can do is say how I envy Aditi the chance to work there. i think Hungary is a lovely country and to a linguist with some Romance, Teutonic, and Slavonic languages the opportunity to add a Finno-Ugric string to the bow will be tantalizing. I'm sure Aditi will have no trouble getting to grips with the intricacies of the Hungarian language. Plus points include: entirely predictable stress and pronunciation patterns, a complete lack of grammatical gender (to the extent that the pronoun for 'he' and 'she' is the same), and an interesting system of vowel harmony. Interesting points are that scarcely a single otherwise international word, such as 'police', 'restaurant', 'university', carries over into Hungarian. Amusing points are things like the word 'hallo' used to mean goodbye as well as hallo (probably because their traditional greetings can be used that way too).

Good luck in finding Aditi a post there!

Minden jót!
Tom

Roger Hicks · 06-21-2009

Dear Tom,

Thanks for the input! As it ended up, (a) we've just come back from Hungary (a week at the spas...) and (b) she's teaching English in England next month, which is pretty silly. She'll be about 90 km from where she was born, 300 km from her home in Bretagne and 600 km from her second home with us.

She learned a surprising amount of Hungarian in a week but not enough. We have to go back...

Tashi delek,

R.

Dave Wilkinson · 06-21-2009

[quote=Roger Hicks;1078879 she's teaching English in England next month, which is pretty silly.R.[/quote] Not so silly really, Roger - when out and about in shops, supermarkets etc., not much English is heard these days! - it's mainly Polish and eastern european languages around here!
Cheers, Dave.