Well, I'll be out there on Sunday, it looks like, so if you see an almost 40-yr-old bald, bepectacled guy with blue jeans, black tee shirt, walking around with an 8-week old baby in a red car-seat converta-stroller (or whatever the hell they're actually called) and blonde wife, come by and say hello.

I contacted my Hungarian friend to see if she would come 'guide' me and give expert advice but she's not able--she's home in Hungary for the summer! So, I'll be flying solo: if Sunday works for the Binkos, then let's make that LTH night! If you see a 60-year-old bald, bespectacled guy--probably in shorts and a polo shirt with a white baseball cap (but who knows)--that is more than likely to be me.

Binko - You are aging rather quickly. 20 years in two posts.

funkyfrank wrote:Binko - You are aging rather quickly. 20 years in two posts.

LOL, no. 2 separate gents -- Binko and Gypsy Boy!

=R=

Well, with the 8-week old (our first child, an no previous child experience for either of us), it sure as hell feels like I'm aging 20 years in the time those two posts were made.

Anyhow, as long as the weather is somewhat reasonable (like not completely storming), I shall be there. My plan is to get there noon-ish to 1 p.m. or so. I wish I could have made today, because it sounds like (and maybe I'm wrong) that today is all the different gulyases, and tomorrow there's just one? Or maybe not. But that's what it sounds like from the schedule.

I'll be the guy wearing glasses which do not help my sight.

Nice write up of the fest:


http://www.chicagoreader.com/Bleader/ar ... s-festival

A good write-up of the festival. I took a bunch of pictures and when life calms down again, I do hope to post them with a few comments of my own. By and large I agree with pretty much everything Mike had to say. It was a nearly perfect day, seemed very "authentic" (though I'll certainly defer to Binko's judgment on that), and was a lot of fun. Looking forward to "Taste of Hungary."

Gypsy Boy and Binko,

Do either of you have a resource for learning Hungarian? Recent changes in Hungarian have made citizenship accessible to those with Hungarian grandparents. I have collected the necessary documents for citizenship but will have to take a test showing basic proficiency. Any guidance would be appreciated.

I don't have anything specific. I lived there for five years, and only learned basic-to-midlevel conversational Hungarian (although my food, especially ingredient, vocabulary got quite good: better than my co-mother tongue Polish.) It's a pain-in-the-ass language, and supposedly the most difficult Roman alphabet language to learn for an English speaker. (I would guess Finnish is probably right up there.) Then again, like all languages, it's something you can learn through intense immersion. I have a friend who was monolingual before he came to Hungary when he was in his early 20s, ended up living somewhere way out east where there were no English speakers around, and managed to learn the language by going to the bars for a couple of years. From what natives tell me, he has absolutely no trace of foreign accent when he speaks--just Eastern Hungarian. So it's doable.

But I really don't know what resource would be best. You can probably start out with some tapes or something, but you really need to interact and talk with people to really get it down. I believe there are online video chat resources that deal with language learning, where you exchange your English skills for somebody else with their language skills. I would think that would be quite helpful. Or I wouldn't be surprised if you can find someone from the Hungarian community here who offers those types of services. There is also a meetup group, so it might be worth checking that out, too. I'd also consider calling either St. Stephens of Hungary Church here in Chicago or the Norridge United Church of Christ and see if they have any leads.

Regardless, you can get a taste of it by starting out with something like this, and then I strongly, strongly, strongly recommend finding ways to actually use Hungarian with other people as soon as you can.

I'll echo what Binko said for two reasons: (1) it makes a lot of sense and (2) I know little to nothing about the language. My familiarity is far more with Romania (and its food) than Hungary. Sorry I can't be of any assistance.

Thanks to both of you. I will call St. Stephen and the Church in Norridge. There are two major benefits to a EU passport. 1. I won't have to wait in lines as I travel to and within the EU. 2> Both my boys will be able to get Hungarian passports. This will allow them to work in the EU without visas. Global Economy - Global Citizens

HI,

A friend of mine married and moved to Holland. In the early 1980's, it was a huge effort in Washington, D.C. to find anyone to teach her Dutch.

A few years ago, I was at an Icelandic dinner. A home schooled high school student was learning Icelandic language from an instructor based in Italy. All the practical instruction was done via skype.

It may well be your kids can learn Hungarian without leaving home, just accessing the internet.

Regards,

2017 Festival will be July 8-9. I drove past as they were hanging the banner last night.