1. Can you tell us a bit about yourself? Where you grew up etc.?
I grew up in Utah, and knew nothing about Hungary at all. I studied French as a high schooler, and thought that was neat. I don’t have any Hungarian heritage, which people assume I have since I speak the language.
2. What is it that you study here at IU?
Hungarian linguistics, syntax, really. My dissertation will center likely on grammatical aspect.
3. What is it that brought you to study Hungary?
I was a Mormon missionary there for two years, 2013 to 2015. You don’t get to pick where you go, but you can fill out paperwork beforehand where you can indicate if you are interested in going abroad. I had no idea, except maybe knew where it was in Europe. My mom looked it up in a book, and thought they were communist. Then, you learn how it works as you go. We had a training in Provo, and then I went off to Hungary. You also have a partner who is more experienced in the language so you can get around. We got sent with a grammar book. I thought the language was really cool.
4. What kind of activities is the Hungarian Cultural Association involved with now? Do you host events? Conversation hours? Etc.
This year we should have some exciting stuff. The last several years we haven’t done so much. We always hold celebrations for larger Hungarian holidays, for example for the failed Revolutions. We also get together with the Hungarian community which is large. We want to do a lot this semester: the Hungarian FLTA would like to do cooking classes, we will have Mikulaas, and potentially folk dance classes. We also always have Hungarian conversation hours. In a way, it feels like this is the first year after COVID, even though it’s been some years, because people have still been on the backfoot.
5. What has the HCA been involved with in the past/can you tell us a bit about the history of the HCA?
I came in in 2019, my second semester lockdown started. So my second year here, they put me in charge, after the lockdown. So I don’t know much about before that because things were just starting back up. When I came to IU originally, we did have some lectures and coffee hour, which were great. During COVID, I had to hold coffee hour on zoom, which was difficult, and we had to take a break, because everyone wants to talk to each other, but this gets tricky on zoom. The coffee hours have occasionally gotten over 20 people, since we have some people from Hungary in the Neuroscience, Law, and other departments.
6. What are your plans/wishes for the HCA in the future?
We are thinking of starting movie nights, since Hungarian cinema is interesting. Last year we watched one called “Liza, the Fox Fairy”, it was a strange movie. Of course, you always want people to know more about a place you’re interested in. Budapest is getting more attention as a tourist city, because of how nice it is around the river. People, if they know about Hungary, know about their politics, as Trump mentioned Orban the other night in the debate. Tucker Carlson also mentioned Hungary and did a presentation from Hungary. Hungary only allows a 5 minute presentation by any opposing parties, so it has a lot of control of its media. But Hungary is more important than people give it credit for. It is not getting less relevant, given the current political climate, the Russian war with Ukraine, and competition with China and the EU. If the HCA can work to make people more aware of it, that will be great.