English as a second language

Today's excursion: A lengthy tram ride along the Danube and out into the working class part of Budapest.  On the newer trams, the recorded announcements are in both Hungarian and English  when there's a connection to the metro.  Most restaurants and shops in touristy areas have signs in English -- the language that works for everyone.  Tourists from Germany, Holland, Austria, Italy and Switzerland all speak English as their second language.

Not only do we - and, to be fair, the Brits -- export our language.  We also export our food culture.  There are McDonald's at every metro stop. Subways and KFCs create a jarring contrast when paired with beautiful fin de siecle buildings.

And there is Hunglish -- words borrowed directly from the the language of marketing: polo, pullover, TV, whiskey, non-stop (24 hour store) and many more.

But Hungarian itself may prove impossible to learn.  Unlike French and German, there are no clues.  Take, for example, the word "tej." It means "milk."  But it's pronounced "tay," which sounds like the word for tea in French and German. Remarkably, tea means tea in Hungarian and English (and Basque, for those who care about such things).

There are few cognates that sound and mean the same thing in both English and Hungarian, except for words that have been borrowed. A person with a big English vocabulary can often puzzle out the meaning of words in Romance languages and German without actually knowing the language.  Not so in Hungarian.