Re: Converting your qualifications
 

And there was me thinking it was a known fact that Hungarian was one of the more difficult languages to learn - superior intellect has nothing to do with it! I don't believe Eskimo's to have a superior intellect however, I would never attempt to learn Inuit-Inupiaq.

An approved EON electrician must sign the application for the upgrade and not all Hungarian electricians are approved, that's all I'm saying Steve.

No problem with a glass half full attitude but when it is in relation to something as significant as moving to a foreign country, more so if the person has children to consider, it is better to be realistic. I have seen many dreams fall apart here and believe me, it's not a pretty sight!

Perhaps it will all be as easy as you envisage, I do hope so but if others ask advise, I will give it - warts and all.

Re: Converting your qualifications
 

Nothing is easy, especially here in the UK. However nothing is impossible. Hungarian language uses our symbols unlike Chinese or arabic for instance, now they are difficult languages. Hungarian in comparison is far easier to learn than french.

You are not required to be qualified to work as an Electrician in Hungary, any one can set themselves up and work as an electrician. The Approved EON contractor are just acting as employees of EON and the meter upgrade is the smallest part of the work.

The likes of Roy coming over with a Full Part P, which is a European standard, will set him above alot of the Electricians in Hungary, whom do not hold this qualification or in fact in some circumstances any qualification. My uncle is an extremly successful electrician in Budapest and he mainly works on the theatres on all the special effects & lighting, working on projects such as Cats & starlight express, which he was kind enough to get be a prized seat for:thumbsup:

People should never give up on the basis that others have failed. There have been hundreds of brit expats that have failed in the likes of Australia, with an English langauge. Things do not always work out, so you change direction and carry on, thats the story of life all over the world.

No matter what direction you take, a positive attitude is a must to succeed

Re: Converting your qualifications
 

Okay, I think we'll have to leave it that as I have never heard anybody else claim this and it is accepted that Hungarian is one of the harder languages to learn - unlike French, Italian, Spanish etc Then again, don't take my word for it.

Fact is, you can't imply that somebody will get their head round the language easily or get a job without having done so yourself or knowing the difficulties ahead.

Further example, Brit living here for 4 years, speaks passable Hungarian and yet gets turned down for a job in Tesco because her language skills are not good enough.

What you need to remember is that not everyone will have a financial buffer on arrival nor other employment opportunities. Perhaps once you have been here and done it yourself, you will be in a better position to advise others on how easy it is ;)

Re: Converting your qualifications
 

At no time have i told anyone they would get a job with EON:confused: I said as a positive to your negative post that maybe they could get approved or get a job with EON which is very different to me stating that if you come over to Hungary with your qualifications you will get a job with EON.

The langauge is not as difficult as you portray, that i know for a fact. Everyone has different abilities and some will always take longer to learn, that does not make the subject near impossible for all.

The person that failed to get a job at Tesco, i assume is now studying harder than ever to master the language to secure a job. Which when they have done so will get a job.

Not everyone that emmigrates does so on the basis of retirement. The poster asked if their qualifications would be recognised, which they are, as i have already established this fact with the authorities. I also gave advise on learning the Hungarian language, however i did assume that the poster does not speak the language which in hindsight was wrong of me. Please reread my reply, which did not state what is now being portrayed

Coming from the UK will normally provide a good financial buffer, along with good qualifications is a recipe for success. As a worst case scenario a person could easily set up business and employ hungarian staff to handle sales, you just employ a Hungarian that speak's english, if you had the financial stabilty to do so.

Re: Converting your qualifications
 

As I said, perhaps once you have been and done it, you can advise how easy it is.
Until then, I beg to differ and yes the language is difficult, our polyglot neighbours studied at the Sobornne and taught at Berlin university so both perfectly capable and yet they found Hungarian difficult.
The Brit who tried to find employment at Tesco is in fact returning to the UK due to lack of employment and being unable to find employment with a Hungarian company and truth be told - their Hungarian is actually quite good.

Re: Converting your qualifications
 

I did not offer any advice to the poster on how easy or hard it is to make a living in Hungary. Hungary is no different to any other country to make a living at this moment in time, it does however have a low cost of living which is a plus

No one could ever forsee whether a business would succeed or fail. In business it is always about being in the right place at the right time with the right marketing and most importantly customer satisfaction that ensures repeat work. There are hundreds of very succesfull foriegn firms working within Hungary German owned EON is testament to that

Lots of people master the hungarian language, many of my family have married people from the UK, Germany, swiss, Austria, all of their spouses are now fluent in Hungarian without a problem. The best thing for the poster to do is to attempt to learn the Language in the UK with proffessional tuition, attempting to be self taught, which i believe is why alot of people fail with languages, is not in my view the best way forward.

Re: Converting your qualifications
 

This isn't about a business failing or succeeding. The OP said he was considering moving here to work as an electrician.
If he speaks Hungarian great, if not, he will struggle. You can come here with an abundance of qualifications and ample experience but unless you master the language - as in any non English speaking country, you will struggle.

There are people here on and off the forum who have tried a variety of ways of learning the language - online, self taught, professional tutor and non professional tutor and I have not yet heard any of them say the language isn't difficult. Just because it is difficult doesn't mean you can't learn it but you can not compare learning Hungarian to the learning the likes of French, Spanish, German or Italian. It is more difficult and some will never be fluent enough to find employment here.

If the OP has children then they also have to be a consideration, younger children will integrate more easily but older children can struggle and end up with few Hungarian qualifications, a lack of English skills and no English qualifications and hence limited prospects.

Think we'll have to agree to disagree on this one and I sincerely hope it all works out for you and your family.

Re: Converting your qualifications
 

Life would be pretty boring if we all shared the same opinion:)

I agree to disagree as i really do not find any difficulties with the langauge and our eldest is actually picking up the langauge the easiest. Hungarian has no where near the complexacies of French.

Hungary has a population of approx 10,020,000 whom speak the langauge, thats a whole lot of people that have mastered it.

Re: Converting your qualifications
 

... and over 850 million have mastered Mandarin yet you acknowledge it is difficult :banghead:

Have you looked yet at verb conjugation? Further, the complexity of the morphology in the Hungarian language is indeed alien to us. It is generally accepted by linguistic experts that French is one of the easier languages for English speakers to learn - likewise the other Romance languages but hey, what do we know :rolleyes::scarper:

Re: Converting your qualifications
 

I've been following this argu...sorry, discussion, with interest, and whilst trying to read both sides with equal impartiality, I came across "The Hungarian langauge is not that difficult". I was somewhat surprised at this, because, relative to other languages, Hungarian is without doubt VERY difficult to learn.

Then, a few posts later we see the unbelievable "Hungarian in comparison is far easier to learn than french." At this point I realised that Rural was wrong in accusing SteveNLisa of wearing rose tinted glasses - she is obviously wearing a blindfold!

However, when she gets round to removing them, I wish her every success for the future.

Re: Converting your qualifications
 

As i have already said, we all learn different things at different speeds. Dont assume that if you struggle with a subject others will do the same.

Anyone that wishes to learn any langauge needs to try it and not base the outcome on failures of others.

Exactley what do you find so complicated about it?

Re: Converting your qualifications
 

This is the final comment I will make on the subject as you appear to have already formed your opinion and nothing I say will alter that - though that was never my intention. However, to suggest that Hungarian is easy and that Ray - the OP would get his head around it, is something I had to comment on. Idealistically, this forum is to provide advice to people who may be considering a life changing decision and sometimes the information isn't what people want to hear but as far as my posts are concerned, they are always, to the best of my knowledge, accurate.

Rather than taking my word for it, I think the following report will prove the point:
Which is the most difficult language to learn?
There is no single answer to this question; it depends on so many factors. However, the British Foreign Office has looked at the languages that diplomats and other embassy staff have to learn and has worked out which they find the most difficult to learn. The second hardest is Japanese, which probably comes as no surprise to many, but the language that they have found to be the most difficult to learn is Hungarian, which has 35 cases (forms of nouns according to whether it is subject, object, genitive, etc). This does not mean that Hungarian is the hardest language to learn for everybody, but it causes British diplomatic staff, who are used to learning languages, the most difficulty. :amen:

So having cited our polyglot neighbours (who have spent over 30 years learning and teaching languages) and now staff at the British foreign embassy (again, intellectual sorts accustomed to learning languages) I congratulate you all at having been able to pick the language up so easily and am now confident that your move will be a successful one and wish you all the best. :thumb:
Perhaps you could get a job teaching us all Hungarian :rolleyes:

Re: Converting your qualifications
 

As someone who is learning the language, i DO NOT find it difficult and i know plenty of others that have not had any problems with learning Hungarian either.

I am confident that anyone, no matter what their interlect, that gives the commitment can master the langauge or any langauge for that matter.

Do not be put off peoples, try it for yourself first

Re: Converting your qualifications
 

I speak quite a few european languages, and have been studying hungarian as well. It is definitely not easy language (although no language is really easy if you go far enough, not even italian which is basically quite easy), and hungarian does require some amount commitment to learn. I have been able to master it reasonably well so i believe anyone could learn it if making the effort.

I have friend of mine who really learned it without going to more than basic courses after that she has just started to use the language and over time she has became pretty fluent.

I mean simply that it is worth the effort to learn, it is not going to be easy ride but according to my experience not overwhelming either. The more you use it everyday better it gets.

About kids and language:

I was just talking with two scandinavian couples with children who has been living here in BP close to two years. Both of these families' children go to local hungarian school (the kids are between 8-13 years or so) and they told me that (surprisingly to me) they had little difficulties in hungarian school and enjoyed the school, the language seemed not to be biggest problem, but maths was bit more difficult in the beginning than at home... The other girl (10 years) just had exam in history and was one of the best in her class... Amazing how children learn languages - what happens with our brains after 18? One of the ladies told me that her daughter translates her when they go to theatre...

The parents seemed to be very happy with schools and told that it is not that different from scandinavia (bit more strict) (and considering that scandinavia has best ranked schooling systems in europe then i assume that at least if you choose the right school you should have little worries).

Obviously this is in BP.

In BP there are lot of expats working with little or no hungarian but obviously countryside is different.

Re: Converting your qualifications
 

Hi Tomasc, I had not intended posting here again but felt I had to in order to thank you for, as usual, your well written and considered post.

You are correct that it is not easy and that was the whole point.
To consider moving over in the hope of finding employment, without speaking Hungarian, especially if it is to the countryside and involves technical terminology, would be foolish.
My husband now speaks Hungarian reasonably well though his grammar is not terribly good, I speak it less well but can usually make myself understood in most situations - but it has taken time. Unless somebody has the financial buffer to support themselves (and their family) until they are fluent enough to find employment, they are taking a risk and this has been proven by several expats who sadly have returned to Spain or the UK.
Budapest is of course different and there are several employment opportunities such as TEFL, call centre, IT work for which I would imagine English is not a necessity, in the countryside there are far fewer opportunities.
Our German neighbours whom I previously mentioned, managed to eventually speak well enough to be understand though they were never fluent and did not expect they would ever be so (one is now back in Germany and the other working on a fair trade initiative in Africa). One spoke better Hungarian than the other and during their time here, she found employment in three different jobs, each time having to again learn new terminology.
So it can be done as my husband and others are proof of that but having climbed the mountain, we would never tell anybody that it is easy!

As I have already explained to Steveandlisa, in private, the school situation is one of luck really, we have heard both good and bad experiences. Some schools are more willing to assist immigrant children and help aid integration than others. Should you have children requiring extra learning support or understanding, you will need to be extremely lucky to find a school prepared to offer the extra support!

It's great to hear of a family so ready and willing to give it a go but they would be better waiting until they have been here and experienced it for themselves before implying all is rosey.

Anyhow, hubby says time to calls it quits on this so again, thanks for your post and I shall now take my leave.