[Liz Vos]

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

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[Anne Littlewood]

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..

[Patricia Soltesz]

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.

[Raymond Sosnowski]

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.)

[Sonya Weaver]

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.

[Marianna]

Hi!

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

[Vickie Tschantz]

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.

[Veroniva Horvath]

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.

[Lajos Kriso]

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

[Ildikó Oravecz]

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.

[Lajos Kriso]

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!

[Author]

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