Education paper by Molnár, Miklós
Fungarian Educational Tours

Learning Hungarian Can Be Fun. The Story of Fungarian. (Accepted)

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
Fungarian offers a light-hearted way of learning Hungarian, specializing in providing educational tours to school groups ranging from small classes to large field trips, as well as individual visitors and expats. Our innovative approach to learning the language incorporates dissemination of the best of Hungarian culture and thus empowering the students to function well in everyday situations. After 14 years of its launching, by now Fungarian is an accepted brand in tourism and among teachers of Hungarian as a foreign language. The presentation will highlight some linguistic aspects learners find strange or even amusing when confronted with everyday situations, as well as what first visitors find strange in Hungary or what causes culture shock for them. The innovation of Fungarian is dialogical and interactive learning wrapping cultural, historical and practical information into a session. These intercultural encounters provide a lot of empirical data to enable the teaching staff to find the appropriate means to make Hungarian culture familiar to foreigners. (fungarian.com) Since the clientele has been 65 per cent American a significant intercultural database has been assembled. The lecture will focus on what first-time visitor Americans find strange in Hungary or what causes culture shock for them including an analysis of more than 200 Tripadvisor reviews that they have submitted. The conclusion the presentation is aiming at is to provide an alternative way to motivate foreigners to learn Hungarian and appreciate Hungarian culture.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Miklós Molnár taught at the University of Economics before founding one of the first and most successful English language schools in Budapest. He also set up Hungarolingua Translation Services and Fungarian (see www.fungarian.com). Miklós has trained tourist guides and also worked as a guide in many countries.