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  • August 20, 2025 at 9:24 pm #2932
    Liz Vos
    Keymaster

      Who was speaking Hungarian? Did you end up learning some, too?

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    • August 29, 2025 at 9:02 am #3631
      Anne Littlewood
      Participant

        No – but I do recognise the language when I hear people speaking it around me. It’s quite distinctive.

        I have tried to learn some, but only on Duolingo. I suspect it will take more than that to become fluent..

        August 26, 2025 at 3:50 pm #3282
        Patricia Soltesz
        Participant

          All 4 of my grandparents and my parents spoke Hungarian.They did not teach it to me.I was told when they went to school in Detroit they had a hard time learning English. When they did not want us to hear what they were talking about they spoke Hungarian. We took Hungarian in a summer class in the basement hall of the Hungarian Reformed church in a large group of many aged chilren. So not much was learned. One of my Grandmothers never learned English so I could not communicate well with her.

          August 26, 2025 at 11:03 am #3263
          Raymond Sosnowski
          Participant

            My mother spoke it with her parents! My Brothers & I were politely excluded – just learn English was the understood message. After the death of her parents, my mother had rare opportunities to speak Hungarian, and she eventually lost that ability even though it was essentially her 1st language. While growing up one brother learned some from the Hungarian butcher next door (shop on 1st floor & residence on the 2nd floor; a lot of that was the more ‘colorful’ expressions.)

            August 24, 2025 at 6:33 pm #3081
            Sonya Weaver
            Participant

              I did grow up learning Hungarian in our home. My parents taught me and I spoke it my whole life until about 20 years ago when I had no one to speak it with. So I recently am re-learning the language with the courses that are offered in Hungarian Living! It’s great because it’s a beginners course to refresh my memory and learn the actual grammar of the language.

              August 24, 2025 at 6:06 pm #3079
              Marianna
              Participant

                Hi!

                Yes, my mother spoke it with her mother, father, and brother; however, did not teach my sister and I.

                August 24, 2025 at 11:14 am #3069
                Vickie Tschantz
                Participant

                  Yes! My Grandmother spoke Hungarian to her 5 children which included my Mom. Grandmother spoke broken English but as a kid I picked up only a few words.

                  August 24, 2025 at 10:56 am #3067
                  Veroniva Horvath
                  Participant

                    Yes, we lived with our maternal grandparents. They were trying to learn English, but we picked up a few words here and there. We usually learned the most when they did not want us to know what they were talking about. But, we did not find out until years later that Hungarian has 7 dialects! There was a Hungarian Bishop that visited St. Margaret of Hungary Church. We sat with a great lady of the parish, Clara Sonokey. She asked us to help make Fank. She only understood the first few sentences. She spoke Hungarian her entire life.

                    August 21, 2025 at 2:52 pm #2968
                    Lajos Kriso
                    Participant

                      But the vocabulary of a child is better than no vocabulary! I wish that I still had mine.

                      August 21, 2025 at 12:33 pm #2956
                      Ildikó Oravecz
                      Participant

                        Yes, I grew up hearing Hungarian at home! My father spoke only Hungarian, so my brothers and I were raised bilingual. Once we started school, English began to take over, and when I moved to Hungary in ’98 I quickly realized my vocabulary was that of a child! It took time—and a lot of learning—to build it up again.

                        August 21, 2025 at 11:17 am #2948
                        Lajos Kriso
                        Participant

                          Magyarul was spoken at home until I was 5. Then I “forgot” it all in 6 months because I learned angolul in front of the TV because I started school. But the ear and the tongue do not forget. The sound of magyarul is melodic and like poetry when I hear it spoken!

                          We have magyarora every week but progress is sometimes slow. When Pope Francis visited Hungary, he said that Hungarian is the language of heaven because it takes an eternity to learn!

                          Without the language there will be no more Hungary!

                          God Bless Hungary!

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