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The joys of bilingualism

By Andris Heks - posted Thursday, 28 July 2022


And now with the click of my finger I can hear the whole Operetta in Hungarian, any time, as I first experienced it live, in my youth. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNX5mKcbKVQ

In 1974, at the age of 28, after I had already called Australia home for 10 years, I went back with my Aussie wife to visit my motherland, Hungary.

But after ten years in Australia, when I spoke Hungarian only to my mother and sister here, I yearned for the sound of my mother tongue to surround me, as it was in my youth.

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This yearning was fulfilled with an extra bonus on my first visit back to Hungary in 1974.

The extra bonus was that I had the opportunity of hearing Hungarian in one ear and English in the other.

I was a kind of bridge between the two: translating to and fro, connecting the English language and the Aussie culture with the Hungarian language and culture.

In doing so, I could enjoy my hybrid identity as an Aussie Hungarian or a Hungarian Aussie.

The joy was palpable.

In Budapest then, I was on a bus with my Aussie wife, who talked to me in English while I could hear my fellow Hungarians around us chatting away in Hungarian.

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It was great fun to eavesdrop on their conversations and to simultaneously translate the contents to my wife.

Every language reflects the accumulated wisdom of the culture it represents.

The current Hungarian language still retains most of the original words which the ancient wordsmiths came up with.

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About the Author

Andris Heks worked as a Production Assistant and Reporter on 'This Day Tonight', ABC TV's top rating pioneering Current Affairs Program and on 'Four Corners' from 1970 till 1972. His is the author of the play 'Ai Weiwei's Tightrope Act' and many of his articles can be viewed here: https://startsat60.com/author/andris-heks.

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Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

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