I am always a foreigner, but in a very positive way

Hungaro-German language school director and pörkölt-aficionado Tibor Gaál talks about Hungarian women and preciseness in cleaning


I was born in Dresden, a city which -at the time- had belonged to East-Germany.
My mother was a beautiful and young German woman in the late seventies, who desperately wanted to see the world, but most of all, she was determined to “go West,” to Hungary, the “West of the Ostblokk (Eastern Block).” This was how she met my father, a Hungarian guy from southern Hungary.
When I was a kid, my Mother’s dream came true: my family moved to Hungary where I spent most of my childhood. I was raised in a bilingual family and I am fortunate to say that both Hungarian and German are my mother-tongues.
I returned to Hungary about five years ago, after I had attended four years of university in Giessen. Many people ask me why I returned in the first place, given that I would have had so many more opportunities there as a young professional, particularly in the beginning of my career.
I always tell them, it is because both countries are my motherlands, but Hungary is my home. In a way I can really identify with Hungarian poet, Attila József’s words “Neither a God, nor a home do I have” in the sense that I am considered a German in Hungary and a Hungarian in Germany – No matter where I am, I am always a foreigner, but in a very positive way.
My whole world evolves around languages and various nationalities: I am the director of the Danubius Language Institute. Our school offers courses in a wide range of languages like Hungarian, German, English, Italian, Spanish and even Swedish. I have the opportunity to meet and work with people of various nationalities, which gives me great pleasure. My aim, as the director of the school is to establish a friendly and relaxed environment for our students, aside from maintaining top-quality service.
I am very satisfied with the way our business is going. Danubius being one of the most popular language schools provides high quality language teaching, Finding new markets is not easy, yet more and more people sign up for our courses. Due to the fact that the school is situated in the city center, we have many university students attending our courses. The school has many returning students as well, who keep coming back because they are happy with our service, which indicates that we are doing our job well.
The recent Eurobarometer survey about Europeans and languages indeed ranked Hungary rather low regarding Hungarians’ knowledge of foreign languages. However, I think that young Hungarians are motivated to learn languages in many ways: they need language exams to enter universities and to attain degrees and many of them are even planning to work in foreign countries later on.
Yes, the older generation, having grown up in the communist era, does not speak foreign languages, and neither do those who work in the public sector, but this will soon change. Also, I believe that the reason why the majority of tourists get the impression that Hungarians can not speak foreign languages at all is because the places and occasions where they come across Hungarians are typically situations and places, like famous sights or the BKV, the public transport, where the knowledge of foreign languages would be crucial amongst the providers.
The things that I am most devoted to in Hungary, aside from wanting to buy a Transylvanian traditional outfit to wear proudly at folk-festivals in Germany, are the various gastronomic festivals. I am such a huge fan of the Fishermen’s-soup of Baja, that I even bought my own cauldron to set up and cook fish-soup in. I love the Lecsó (ratatui)- Festival of Székesfehérvár and I am always in for some fat cock-pörkölt; which I have come to learn to prepare myself. I am proud to announce that I recently cooked traditional Hungarian food for about a hundred German guests of mine!
I believe Hungary does have its issues regarding intolerance, however, the small South-East German village and its region, where my Mother comes from, has more problems to face in this respect. Radicalism exists in Hungary too, unfortunately, but I find that German extremists are much more radical than their Hungarian comrades. In Germany, for instance, there are regions where foreigners are simply not tolerated to the extent that they are actually cast away from places. In Hungary we hear about radicals who have rumbles on the streets and we find it very alarming – in Germany, extremists burn the houses of foreigners with the families sleeping in them.
The media could do a lot in Hungary to prevent inflammation of racist hatred.
What bothers me in connection with Hungarians is that they are not the kind of people who stick together. Even if Hungarians find themselves alone abroad, they will not get together for some reason – unlike other nationalities, they would not seek each other’s company deliberately once they get away from home, and this I find a little awkward.
On the other hand, Hungarians are a lot more easygoing and laid-back than Germans. Parties here are much looser than back in Germany, there is a lot more carefree dancing here.
Hungary is a beautiful country and one should not think that Budapest is all there is to this country. I admit, if one takes a train to visit the countryside, the first impression of the trains or the grey buildings and factories along the road might not be ultimately positive, but it is worth it. Balaton amazes me every time I go there; I often visit festivals in the countryside, or the lovely village my father comes from, Vaskút, south of Baja.
One thing that the Hungarians should learn from Germans is tidiness and preciseness. Nowadays, there are a lot of efforts to keep streets clean – but it sometimes appears to be a façade to me. Germans can be precise even in cleaning and this is what Hungary lacks.
I therefore support the fining of littering on the streets to make our environment really clean and to enhance environment- awareness.
The German song translated “Women in the East are better kissers and are more beautiful” is absolutely true. The one area where Hungary is by far better than Germany, or actually any other country in Europe is clearly the beauty of the women.
Naturally, I am dating the prettiest of them all.

The BpSun Staff

28.11.2008