Wed 29 Mar 2006
Much of our experience in Hungary has defied conventional wisdom regarding cultural transition. It’s been a wonderful time for us, and in hindsight it is hard to remember if, or when, we had any significant “culture shock.” Today’s experience marked both an accomplishment and a first. It was the first time we have been totally without understanding on an issue and simply had to fork out the money. (We didn’t understand why we needed to spend another $100 to renew a customs bank guarantee which does not expire until one month AFTER we leave.) On the other hand, upon nearly getting stymied at our local bank for our request to extend this customs bank guarantee, I pulled out my Hungarian and saved the day. Here’s how the conversation went:
[English]
Clerk: This letter will be ready tomorrow.
Jerry: I will not be in town tomorrow, and my renewal deadline expires before I return. Is there any way I can have this today?
Clerk: No.
Jerry: Can my wife sign for me?
Clerk: Yes
Jerry: When can she come by and sign for this?
Clerk: As soon as we open in the morning. We will probably do this at 5:00 today.
Jerry: Can I come back at 5:00 today and pick this up?
Clerk: I’m sorry, I don’t understand. (meaning, she didn’t understand my English.)
Jerry: “Lehet vissza jövök ötkor? (Can I come back around 5:00?)
Clerk: You speak Hungarian? Pillanat. (One moment.)
[Clerk talks to coworker then turns back to me.]
Clerk: My coworker is checking to see if we can do it now.
Five minutes later I walked out with the paper I needed.
In the mean time we had a nice conversation in broken Hungarian and broken English.
January 28th, 2007 at 4:44 pm
Yes, sometimes things DO work out. With prayer and acting in faith with Christ-like character, things SOMETIMES happen they way they need to (to our perspective).
I stumbled across your blog and have enjoyed perusing it. In 1990 I came to Budapest as part of a church planting team, staying until 1995, returning to the States with a Hungarian wife and newborn son! Then in 2005 the Lord FORCED us back here. Life is interesting! The length of our stay this time is unknown.
I totally empathize with your culture shock! I went through it too. God bless. – Steve Herrmann
September 6th, 2008 at 12:53 am
Hi,my name is Abraham from indonesia. I have a assignment for CCU(Cross Cultural Understanding Class)And I’d like to have a several question for you.
Have you ever had a culture adjustment in your living place? Can you accept the cultural changing in there? How did they(the people)accept you? Is any requirement to become one society with them?
Thanks for your help. I appreciate if you reply my comment.
September 6th, 2008 at 8:34 am
Yes, we experienced some cultural adjustments when we moved to Budapest. We lived in a community with many other Americans, and my job did not require that I become fluent in Hungarian, so we did not assimilate into Hungarian culture very much. We had to adjust to many different things, though. For example, since our bank account remained in the US, we could not pay our bills like everyone else using an electronic bank transfer. Instead we had to visit the post office every month and pay our bills there with cash. This was not terribly difficult, but it required us to make adjustments to how we lived our lives. I enjoyed making the changes, so it was not difficult to accept them. The Hungarian people accepted us very warmly, especially when we made our best effort to speak Hungarian. And, yes, in order to become integrated with Hungarian society it is necessary to speak Hungarian at least! The entire three years we lived in Hungary we were “cultural outsiders”. This was a consequence of us not speaking Hungarian and not living there long enough to learn the deeper things of Hungarian culture.