To start with I must explain how this essay was born. I met Wendy and Art Kohn at the university last year and we became friends. We talked a lot about Hungary, Pécs, the university, teaching, young Hungarians compared to young people at the United States, etc. These discussions took place in various places, from lectures to pubs, they were completely rambling, entangled and free. That why its rather difficult to gather and put in to order all the information they gave me. These are impressions, emotions of a young American couple who suddenly dropped into Hungarian life, without knowing the language, the culture, the people. Of course they had an vague image of Hungary, like most Americans have of Eastern Europe and Russia. A large plain covered with snow, grey buildings in the distance, people wrapped up in black coats walking slowly with lowered heads. It turned out not to be so dark as they thought it would be. In fact Hungary, for Americans can be quite amusing.
Their biggest problem was language. As Hungarian is so difficult and so different from other languages they speak, Wendy and Art had to make a decision: either to spend a lot of time learning Hungarian or spending this valuable time working, teaching, visiting the country. They knew that they would never use it elsewhere and that they wouldn't be able to reach a high level in such a short time. So the decision was made and as in the case of all important decisions there are gains and losses. One of the losses was in teaching: students don't always understand when the teacher thinks they do. The other loss was in everyday communication. I don't think we realize how much our difficult language separates us from the whole world, digging a great spilt between us and foreigners. (Another reason to learn languages!) Wendy and Art sometimes had difficulties in asking or explaining something. This causes a feeling of homesickness and isolation which can be increased by bad telephone lines. We Hungarians know that its only a question of getting used to it...
Besides having problems with telephones, there is only one thing Wendy and Art dislike: the small personal space around them. People here seem to move closer to each other than in the States. There is an imaginary circle around our head and if this personal sphere is violated we gradually become aggressive. Probably the radius of this circle varies from culture to culture.
They arrived with the Fulbright program. Art had an introductory course in psychology last semester and he is teaching the same course at the moment. Wendy is a veterinarian but she teaches too, she has a course on animals, biology, Africa... Both of them are satisfied with their students and enjoy working with them.
Art was told that the Hungarian word for student means listener too, (hallgató), and that he should be prepared for a passive audience. He remembers his first session in Hungary: he was a bit worried, but in an hours time he got the students involved and they were asking questions. He was very happy to reach his goal. According to him students feel that they don't have the right to think individually. He is fighting against this feeling and trying to make students excited about science in the US and here as well. But while in the US it is like paddling on a lake, here he feels paddling upstream. Although it is slower a few examples show that his methods work: a student standing up during the lecture and going to the blackboard to explain his ideas broke barricades between the teacher and the students.
We also compared the number of courses and it was interesting to see that they were very surprised when I told them that with my two majors I have fifteen courses a week. An average American student has five different courses and has 3 5 lessons of each per week.
Their remarks on Hungarian professors were rather critical. They said they didn't see hard work going on at the departments: the professors pop in for an hour and then leave. In America, a teacher would be embarrassed to do bad work. Not here. Art and Wendy wonder if this "work moral" as a vestige of the communist regime.
Students seem to be more innocent in Hungary. Art was speaking to a Hungarian teacher who mentioned "gun problems" at school. Art was surprised to hear that the situation is so serious here as well. He spoke about his experiences and it turned out that it was a misunderstanding: the teacher was referring to chewing gum problems.
Art also found a tearoom party very innocent at the dormitory. He said it would be impossible to imagine American students listening to music, while eating bread and butter and drinking tea. Although it would be also unimaginable to see naked women on a public channel in the US, while all of our Hungarian series have such scenes in them. Isn't that contradictory to the image of we have of the wild and free United States?!
While speaking with students Art had the impression that the community is very good here. Students help, stand by, and like each other. There is more cooperation among them than among students in the US. One reason can be the high percent of girls at the university. It s rather a female characteristic to stick together. In the US 55% of the students are boys.
When talking about Hungarian and American people they mentioned that we do smile less than they do and we love to complain. So they too have experienced the famous Hungarian pessimism. This pessimism culminates on the bus during the peak traffic. But students and young people are ready to laugh and play, in fact they take themselves less seriously than Americans.
Wendy and Art have still 2-3 months in this amusing-pessimistic country to gain impressions, experiences and souvenirs. The most direct and spontaneous opinion they gave on Hungarian people was when they said: "we will come back to see our friends".
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