A Hungarian English Teacher?

Avtor: ANITA RÁDONYI

I'm a big city girl!

Hi, my name is Anita, and I am a LanguageSitter®. I am from Hungary, but I have been living in Slovenia for almost 2 years. I am from a picturesque, medieval town by the Austrian border, called Sopron, also referred to as the “jewelry box of Hungary.” When I started my university studies, I moved to Budapest and lived there for 12 gorgeous years that made me a true big city girl. Now, I’m trying to discover Ljubljana and other parts of Slovenia, and to be honest, I love it here!

Beautiful Budapest, a city that never sleeps.

I am not a typical Hungarian. Or am I?

My international friends keep saying that I’m not a typical Hungarian, as I am not a pessimist (that’s apparently a very Hungarian thing), plus I can’t handle spicy food. Well, what can I say? On the other hand, I have done a lot to represent and preserve Hungarian cultural values, as I danced folkdance for 20 years. With my dance group, I travelled throughout Europe and introduced the Hungarian virtuosic dances to different audiences.

This is what I look like in an authentic Hungarian folk costume.

After my university years, I worked as a receptionist and tour guide at a hostel in Budapest, which meant meeting people from all around the world, making friends from different countries, and presenting my country’s culture and language to foreigners. During these years, I heard hundreds of different English accents, which as an English teacher is a quite precious experience. I enjoyed every minute of it!

If you had told me 10 years ago that I’d be teaching English, I would have laughed in your face.

I’ve always enjoyed learning languages. I’ve studied English, German, and French and now of course I’m struggling with Slovene. But teaching languages was not my cup of tea, or at least that’s what I thought back then. I began by teaching in an elite secondary grammar school during my teacher’s training. It was undoubtedly a very useful experience, but I didn’t find my true path until I started teaching individual lessons. These courses made me realise that one-on-one teaching is my calling.

To my greatest surprise, it turns out that I’m an incredibly patient person while I’m teaching, and I even enjoy explaining grammar topics. Seeing my students’ progress and enthusiasm is the most rewarding feeling ever. Not being a very formal person myself, I usually manage to hit a personal, friendly tone with my students, who get to talk about anything that interests them (in English, of course). This approach is my signature as an English teacher, as I believe you enjoy the process of language learning a lot more if you can talk about whatever you want.

Before I moved to Slovenia, I had been teaching English in Hungary for 6 years. Based on my experience, people know a lot more than they think; they’re usually just too shy to communicate. I firmly believe that a language tutor’s most important role is to give confidence to his or her students. Not being a native speaker, I needed to go through the same stages of learning English as my students do. Reaching a high level of fluency is not an easy task, but it’s far from impossible. With my communicative, playful, and enjoyable methods, you can improve your English sooner than you’d expect. At the moment, my Slovene knowledge is still pretty basic, but that only means that you’ll need to use English all the time with me, which can greatly contribute to your learning process. You don’t need to be afraid of communicating in a foreign language; just imagine that I’m dealing with your very complicated language on a daily basis.

Teaching Hungarian is challenging, but certainly rewarding

Although Hungarian might not be one of the most popular languages to learn, LanguageSitter® gave me the chance to teach my native tongue to an amazing lady in Slovenia, who’s raising two half-Hungarian children and wants to understand what they’re gossiping about. We had a great time reading fairy tales and children’s rhymes in Hungarian and learnt all the basic expressions she needs to get by.

I’m also very grateful that I got to participate in an event at a local elementary school for the “European Day of Languages” as a part of the LanguageSitter® team. On this day, people across Europe celebrate the diversity of languages and present the cultures of countries across Europe. I was asked to introduce the Hungarian language and culture to 12-year-olds. I could see the enthusiasm of the children when they heard some funny words or when we talked about food, but probably they enjoyed putting together a funny performance to present in front of the whole school the most! It was a huge success, and they were rewarded with loud applause!

I am proudly posing with two “new” young Hungarians.

I am proud to be a part of the LanguageSitter® team, as we offer tailor-made courses for our clients, focusing on individual needs and customizing language learning to each person’s pace. I’ve met amazing people through my work, who also taught me a lot about their own fields. I’ve had the chance to gather some knowledge about a variety of topics, including the automotive industry, marketing, football, fashion design, art, etc. I’ve also had clients who just wanted to improve their speaking, so we met at restaurants or bars and had long chats about whatever came up. We had a blast, and they learnt new vocabulary in an instant!

I love my job and I believe this is really something my clients can feel. If you have any insecurities about speaking English (or Hungarian), you shouldn’t hesitate any more. Just contact me, and while having a good cup of coffee, we can relax and chat about anything you want! Or if you prefer a bit more traditional way of learning, I can work with that too. But there is one thing you should keep in mind: if you really want, you can learn any language!

If you really want, you can learn any language!

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ANITA RÁDONYI

LANGUAGESITTERKA® ZA ANGLEŠČINO IN MADŽARŠČINO
[email protected] | www.languagesitter.si

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