Monday, October 19, 2009

Language Barrier


My friend Hajni is in town visiting from Hungary. I am so excited to see her, but she called me this morning and I found out a sad fact: My Hungarian Is Gone. Hajni happily talked and talked and talked and then after my 3rd "Tessek?" (Pardon?) and one "Nem ertem" (I don't understand) she stopped and said in English, "Willy (that was my nickname in Hungary) you have lost your Hungarian. I am going to cry."

All I could say was "Me, too."

And I've been depressed ever since. This is a sad day. I mean I knew I hadn't used my Hungarian for a couple of years, but I didn't know it had died. Please pray that it'll come back so Hajni and I can talk at dinner tonight. I think that forgetting Hungarian is one of the unforgivable sins.

8 comments:

Ginna said...

I will pray for it. That is sad. I lost all my German, and I never had it that well to begin with. I miss it though. You'll be ok. I bet you're just a little rusty.

{Erica} said...

Bret reads his scriptures for 20 minutes every night in Spanish. He says it's the only way he has been able to stay fluent...well that and using it a lot at work :)

But reading your scriptures in hungarian will help. My French was going and I got it back when I started to read in French. My brothers do this too and they are still pretty good in their mission languages...

brittney said...

oh, how sad! I bet you've still got most of it, you just need more than a phone conversation to bring it out!

EmmaP said...

i am sure you could find some Hungarian bloggers out there... :)

have fun with your friend! If it helps, eat a cupcake... or two:)

K said...

The hard drive only has so much space on it, Megs. I know that you're young enough not to know this, but it's true, and becomes apparent more and more over the years. You know how the system on your computer takes up one mighty hunk of the memory? Well, you've installed the mommy part of the system now, which pretty much means your right and necessary focus on the kids (a component of love) sucks memory like a fiend. If I say this: on one hand Hungarian, on the other, raising children well - which one would you pick? And don't tell me you can have both, dear one. Because if that were true, I'd not only be fluent in French, but i would have written the GAN (Great American Novel - so why didn't i just write that in the first place), and I'd be calculous fluent, and I'd be doing genealogy - all at the same time. As it is, hard for me to remember to unplug the treadmill when I finish with it.

Diana said...

One thought....it's always harder to understand someone over the phone than it is in person. I hope you have a wonderful dinner visit with your friend.

Jennifer said...

That was one of my hugest fears when I came back from my mission. I have always (or almost always) prayed in my mission language (American Sign Language) to keep it up. And I try to find as many deaf friends as I can. Keep in touch with her as much as you can, and that will help. And I'd suggest prayer and the other idea of reading scriptures in Hungarian, too. Don't worry--it's still in there. It will come back.

Vhari said...

Ah stink! It will come back. I'm sure it will tonight. I'm jealous! Dinner with someone from Hungary sounds awesome. And that picture? Wow. I wan to go.

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