Spanish NHS Invite LOLHS' Mrs. Hajdu as Guest Speaker

by Zach & John Eichholz
Last week, our society had the pleasure of having Mrs. Hajdu of the TASC department speak to us about Hungary! Hungary is a Eastern European nation located in the Balkans region of Europe. Historically, Hungary had been a powerhouse and controlled large swathes of land in the Austro-Hungarian empire and in fact, made up the majority of this great empire. Because of this, the Hungarian influence in the region is quite large. Mrs. Hajdu, although not ethnically Hungarian, lived in Hungary for seven years and eventually married a Hungarian. Mrs. Hajdu’s interest in Hungary first piqued while working at a restaurant in the United States. From there, she moved to Hungary and soon found work in the business sector proofreading documents translated from Hungarian into English. Mrs. Hajdu lived in the capital city of Budapest, which is actually composed of two cities, but eventually moved to the beautiful countryside. Hungarian is one of the most difficult languages to learn in the world, especially for native English speakers. Speaking about her experiences, Mrs. Hajdu stated that it took her around two years to learn the language and five years to master it. Interestingly enough, Mrs. Hajdu commented that she learned most of her Hungarian in the countryside given that many Hungarians in the city already spoke English. Overall, the Spanish Honors Society had an awesome time with Mrs. Hajdu which was reflected by the many questions the students had for her. In the future, we hope many students become more interested in the history, culture, and language of the great nation of Hungary and continue to learn more about various other countries in that region.