I really enjoyed the Hungarian summer course 2013 at PKE. While Hungarian is definitely a challenging and difficult language to learn, our teacher Imre Iszak really made it come alive for us by teaching us not only the Hungarian language, but elements of Hungarian culture and history as well, and even a few Hungarian jokes! We were also able to experience the language first hand through our interactions with our coordinator, Noemi Kiss, and our two guides, Geza and Judit. Our trips both in Oradea and out in the Apuseni Mountains and the Bear Cave also gave us a fascinating look into life in western Romania, something few Singaporeans get a chance to experience. I really do wish our time with PKE and in Oradea could have been longer and I will definitely come back to visit in future - once I achieve a certain level of fluency in Hungarian, of course!

by Kevin Wong, Singapore

The summer program in Oradea was an amazing experience and is a treasure trove for insights into the Hungarian language. Ymi was an incredible teacher who not only taught us the language, but also gave us snippets of culture and history as he explained the meanings behind certain words and pronunciations. Because our class was small, we also enjoyed a great amount of interaction which enhanced the overall learning journey.
Noemi as part of the supporting staff and our host was excellent. She made sure that all our needs were provided for. She arranged for tours around the town with different students which were truly fun since we got to meet people our age. The trip out of town to the Apuseni mountains was also extremely enjoyable and allowed us to see the different sights in Romania. On the last evening, I will always remember the fun conversation we had over pizzas during dinner where we really started to know about her and her husband better. I deeply regret not trying to talk to her earlier to learn more about Hungary. Her hospitality is truly something to be praised and I commend her for the hard work.
Finally, we can't forget the students who took us around the town. Geza and Judit were really fun tour guides and they really let us experience the sights and sounds of Oradea. Merely making small talk was a great way to understand what life was like in this country.
All in all, i would highly recommend this course to anyone who wants to learn a new language, and at the same time, learn about the life and culture of a European country.

by Matthew Josiah Tan

Teaching in a multi-cultural and/or multi-lingual context is always a challenge, yet the knowledge derived from such experiences can add significantly to one’s understanding of how these situations are best handled. In this perspective the course was quite revealing, but my overall sense of the context had more to do with familiarity than with novelty. By this I mean that the course hardly seemed like an event of crossing cultures, though some aspects of such a situation also showed themselves. It was quite interesting to note the ease and seamlessness of interaction from very early on, later realizing the undeniable presence of a whole common culture, which proved to be helpful in performing my tasks. In this case one may definitely argue in favour of global culture, as the links it creates are very convenient for advertising anything that is unique. Naturally, this also depends on the individuals involved.
In this respect as well I was fortunate, again, receiving students who had great interest in learning the language and were very adept at absorbing the knowledge passed on to them. I would subscribe to the age-old maxim that coming from a multi-lingual environment is an advantage to learning foreign languages. This particular group exemplified this admirably, even more so than a foreign language teacher would usually experience in our geographical area. We may be used to deal with a small number of languages from one or two language families, so when a third language family comes into the context it naturally sparks more interests regarding the contribution it makes to the experience of learning a new language. I would venture to say that adding a third system to two that are already radically different from each other is done with expected ease, as far as it can be empirically determined.
As every person is unique so is every group-dynamic. I was quite surprised at the rapid rate of progress with this group. They were very enthusiastic and determined, putting serious effort into keeping up with the quite steep learning curve imposed by the short timeframe. In fact, keeping them supplied with information and occupied with constructive tasks was more of a challenge for me than starting to learn a new language seemed to be for them.

Izsák Imre

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