PaulinEger

We've been in Hungary for 11 years and for us it was important not to live in an English community. We have several English friends but don't live in each other's pockets. We used to meet up once every couple of months but that has died off.
We are currently living in our 3rd house in Hungary, in a small village of around 600 people. When we moved in we were the only permanent Brits here. Shortly afterwards quite a few more moved here and there are now about 11. We actually don't like most of them and never speak, although we rarely see them. There is only one couple who we get on with and they've been thinking of returning to the UK and don't get on with the other Brits here.

scrubbedexpat142

Because (round here) people don't cut their grass (or use other machinery) on Sundays!
​
Funnily enough, in the UK, for years we lived on the border of town & country, edge of the New Forest and the noise of mowers, chain saws, pressure washers, etc on Sundays used to drive us mad. Then we moved into the town for our last 18 months and the peace was bliss!

Don't know if the law is local or national (& can't find any references) -
​​​our "Hazi rend" have prohibited such activities for years.

enter

Can agree with you Paulin Eger, some are strange here but suppose the world over its the same, its probably because we are relatively squashed together in a smaller area with less choice to who we get on with..

Susan Delgado

true that, and a damn fine lot

scrubbedexpat142

And of course Hungary is one of those Countries where you can, to a greater or lesser degree depending on locale, get away with speaking the language & where locals, if they can, are more than happy to speak / practice English.

Try that in France, for example!

We have found that when we speak Hungarian to English speaking Hungarians we confuse them & they tend to insist on speaking in English (mainly of course because of our lousy accents!) - & we are grateful at the apparent willingness to switch to English.

Peter_in_Hungary

A bit different from when we first came here, when I walked into a shop the assistant would immediately start speaking (bad) German. Even now in shops where I am not known sometimes I still get spoken to in German and I reply (in Hungarian) No, just Hungarian or English please, whereupon with some relief they switch to Hungarian

scrubbedexpat142

​​​​​​Yes - a delightful "mature" lady stopped us for directions the other day & started off in German but then did switch back (I wouldn't know if her German was good or bad!).

FenTiger

There's 4,000 Hungarians living in Brighton according to a Hungarian woman we met on our return flight from Hungary last year.

cathyg

scot47

In Central and Eastern Europe German has been a major "lingua franca" for centuries... Your average Anglo Germanophobe may not like this, but fact it is !

scrubbedexpat142

The peace & quiet at weekends & public holidays, marvellous!

Novocastrian

And your non-average Anglo Germanophile loves it.

Novocastrian

Why would you want to?

scrubbedexpat142

Not quite with you but from my experiences in France the French are anxious that everybody should speak French.

Tweedpipe

An interesting thread.
Having just popped in from the French forum, having read and re-read the above comment, I'm having difficulty in understanding it.
In so many French cities, I've found the locals more than ready to reply in English, whether I address them in French or English. After all the years here I'm pretty fluent, but my Bristol accent of course is a dead giveaway that I'm not a French local, although rarely experienced any reluctance on their part to try out their English if they're capable.
Not surprisingly I've picked up the local SW France accent too, which tended to horrify my French Parisian work colleagues for a few years at Orly and Roissy/Charles to Gaulle. A bit like a country bumpkin addressing a group of Oxford or Cambridge intellectuals.