I’m curious if anyone has read modern fiction books that were set in Hungary. I recently read The Idiot by Elif Batuman and I really loved it. This is partially because the author is excellent and created an extremely relatable character for me, and also partially because a large section of the book is set in the Hungarian countryside! In…

Read more

I’m catching up on these posts, Heather, so I know I’m late but I love your language tidbits! This reminds me of one of the words I learned the first time I visited Hungary: darab. I saw its abbreviation everywhere in the grocery story but it took me some time to finally learn that it meant pieces/units!

This week I realized something for the first time: the word “Kész” means “ready”, but it also means “done”. I can see where those concepts are kind of the same, but they also seem like opposites. I’m not sure if I’m just misunderstanding something, or if it’s a difference between English and Hungarian. (Would “Kész lenni kész vagyok” mean…

Read more

The word “pár”, which means “pair”, is interesting to me. On the one hand it’s straightforward, but it seems to often (usually?) be used as a prefix: pármacska means a pair of cats, for example. I suppose we could do the same in English – saying “a cat-pair” instead of “a pair of cats” (which is almost a possessive structure), but I think it’s…

Read more

I loved both the presentations by Krisztian & Zsofia. I am (finally!) able to start pursuing my Hungarian citizenship, and found the information in both of their presenations wonderful. Thank you so much.

This isn’t profound, but I think it’s interesting that most Hungarian nouns become plural by adding “k” (with a leading vowel if needed). It’s interesting to me because it’s similar to how “s” is often added in English (and maybe Romance languages? I’m not sure of that) and “r” is added in some Germanic languages. So many languages are…

Read more

That’s interesting – you can say it as someone is going to work or staying at work.

Awesome! So it has the kívánok “I wish you…” part implied. Thank you for clarifying that!

Yes!

As you leave a business or as your spouse leaves home in the morning, you say “Jó munkát!” as in “Have a great day at work!”

One thing I find interesting (that’s kind of related to the Jó munkát from the previous discussion) is that Jó reggelt means “Good morning”, but only early in the morning – I envision it like the early hours after you get up but before you head out or the main part of your day starts, at which point you’d switch to Jó napot (literally “Good…

Read more

Oh, I think that has something to do with noun versus verb! I hadn’t thought about that. It looks like dolgozik means to work on something, while munka means job, which is where the phrase Jó munkát must come from (Good job! or maybe “I wish you a good job”?). It looks like there used to be a verb like munk but it came through Slavic…

Read more

If you see online resources to research villages in Slovakia that had Hungarian village names before please share the link. Hopefully, if not already accessible in English, it can be converted with Google Chrome?

We went in February this year (thanks for taking me!!) and it was sooooo good to get back there. It had been ???? 4 years or so gap for me and after going almost every year for 5 years that was tough. It was fun to be there again in the winter (my first trip to Hungary was also in February with Liz’s mom and our daughter Lauren.) but the…

Read more

I think if I had to pick one dish I would have to pick székélygulyás. That stuff is the bomb for me! So many amazing flavors and I love it with a piece of crusty bread!

Rakott Krumpli, even though it is a very basic dish….just is good! And Liz makes it very well!!! Add a bit of hot gyulai in for a zip.

I agree!

Also, let me throw this out there. My buddy often leaves a business and says, “Jó munkát!” And I guess I need the literal meaning of that. I did ask her a few years ago but now I forgot her answer. @fancykarolina Can you remind me of your explanation about this, please? Thank you!

I was thinking it would be fun to share interesting things about Hungarian, and I can only do little bits at a time, so I thought I might start a weekly post where people could share what they notice!

Here’s something I realized surprisingly recently: in Hungarian there is more than one word for “work”: Dolgozik. means “She is working.”…

Read more

Hi there!

As a part of the Tool Kit we are gathering recipes. A favorite Hungarian recipe of yours from your family and a story connected to it. Maybe it’s who the recipe is from or a story about the time you tried to help and made a mistake or maybe it has something to do with someone getting chased out of the kitchen with a wooden…

Read more

Hey Everyone!

I know the free part of the Expo is over but if you have decided you do want the whole “kit and caboodle” or, now that you have a taste of what it is all about you know of someone you would like to gift it to, there is a way to do it!
You can click the link here. It is an adapted main page. If you have the Tool Kit you can still log…

Read more

Wonderful! I am so glad that more pieces of your family puzzle are coming together! And I can’t wait to see your blue dye curtains! 😀

Yay! My mom did, too!

The speakers provided a lot of information. The coal mining /Himlerville was very interesting. Even though my relatives were from the coal mining area in Cambria county Pennsylvania. My husband’s relatives were also in the coal mines about 50 miles away. I learned earlier that most families also had connections to at least one…

Read more

Michelle, It was common that people did not speak of the events as the memories were “too much” for survivors, liberators and even for those who were indirectly involved. It took my father 50 years before he could talk and write about it. Good luck with your research. I hope you can preserve as much as possible for future generations.

I am sure that I had family perish in the Holocaust. I do not know of them because my grandparents immigrated to the US in the early 1900’s. My father did not speak of any relatives at all as the memories “were too much”. Any information that I have on his family , I found in bits and pieces . I am doing genealogy on his family now. …

Read more

I have recently made the following Hungarian embroidery, I am looking for a place to purchase the patterns already put on the fabric and also the special threads.

I grew up in the Cleveland Hungarian Community called Buckeye.

I made this recently and would love to find a place to order Hungarian patterns already put on fabric.