A Briton in Hungary

Cover illustration by Tibor Kaján.

It was George Mikes, a Hungarian journalist, who called Hungary „a country full of aliens”. He recognized, in this self-mocking description, that Hungarians are different from other people living in Central-Eastern Europe. How different are they; and how deep do the differences go? Why do Hungarians resolutely, stand up on buses when there are empty seats to be had? Why do they write their names backwards? Why do they applaud a performance in a way that would seem insulting to Western performers? Why do they so enjoy making long speeches? Why are they still so bitter about what happened in 1920? These are some of the questions raised in this book. It does not laugh at Hungarians; when it laughs, it laughs with them. It does not analyse the culture in drily-academic fashion – but it does seek to understand it, in a methodical way, if tentatively, and always with affection. Dr Colin Swatridge has been a teacher, an A-Level Chief Examiner, and Open University tutor, in England. Since 1996, he has been a visiting lecturer in more than one Hungarian university, and he has given demonstration lessons in several gymnasiums. He lives in Hungary for one third of each year, and, for the other two thirds, he lives in the NorthWest of England, where he is now a free-lance writer on educational topics. Among other books, he has written a coursebook for use in Hungary – So To Speak – whose purpose is to encourage students to express opinions on contemporary issues in essays and in discussion.