Abstract
The authors, a historian and a language-learning expert, recently devised an introduction to Hungarian history, language and culture for students in Wellington, New Zealand. We describe the origin and circumstances of New Zealand’s Hungarian community, why we thought to develop a Hungarian language course, and how the course relates to the interests of New Zealand students. After explaining our approach to historical and linguistic components of the course, we consider the future of Hungarian studies in New Zealand.
Keywords: Hungarian cultural studies, interdisciplinary teaching, Hungarian diaspora in New Zealand, teaching Hungarian history, cultural literacy, teaching Hungarian language, communicative language learning
Recommended Citation
Koller, Bálint and Alexander Maxwell. “Pilot Course or Flying University? A University Course on Hungarian Language and History Taught in Wellington, New Zealand.” AHEA: E-Journal of the American Hungarian Educators Association, Volume 6 (2013): http://ahea.net/e-journal/volume-6-2013/16
Biography
Bálint Koller currently works as an advisor at the Language Learning Centre, a special division of the Library at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. He earned MA degrees in English Language and Literature (with TESOL Qualification) as well as American Studies at ELTE University, Budapest. He also studied at Trinity College, Connecticut for an academic year as a recipient of the Kellner Scholarship. He is a contributing author to Prof. Zoltán Kövecses’s Language, Mind, and Culture: A Practical Introduction.
Alexander Maxwell teaches history at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, where he also directs the Antipodean East European Study Group. He studied physics and history for his Bachelor’s degree (University of California, Davis), completed MA degrees in History (University of Wisconsin, Madison) and Nationalism Studies (Central European University, Budapest) before completing his Ph.D. in history (University of Wisconsin, Madison). He is the author of Choosing Slovakia: Slavic Hungary, the Czechoslovak Language, and Accidental Nationalism, has translated Jan Kollár’s Panslav tract Reciprocity Between the Tribes and Dialects of the Slavic Nation, and edited the volumes The East-West Discourse, Symbolic Geography and its Consequences and The Comparative Approach to National Movements: Miroslav Hroch and Nationalism Studies. He is presently working on Patriots Against Fashion, a history of nationalism and clothing.