Hello,

We are a brit- Hungarian couple with kids. We are looking to move to Hungary next September. We only ever lived and worked in the UK and Brunei before.
Moving back, the biggest concerns are kids language skills- they speak very little Hungarian, hence the reason moving back and reconnect to the culture. They are 5 and 8, so still young. Currently in international school following British curriculum, I know it will be a difficult transition.
We cannot afford international schools in Hungary, so looking for alternatives. Has anyone tried to send their kids in similar situation to Hungarian state schools? What was the experience like? Or tried alternative schools? If so, which ones?

I would love to hear your experiences and advise on this!

No direct information.
But at the school my 10 year old God-daughter attends they are all taught English, which I believe is common through out the country, so your young children will not find it difficult to integrate and make friends. Kids are remarkably adept at such things.
I would add I am surprised just how large her vocabulary already is. It goes way beyond the basic level I would have expected. (I blame certain popular internet sites for some of this!)
I find that almost all young people I meet now are pleased to converse in English, even if I speak to them in my appalling Hungarian they will thankfully reply in English, bless their little cotton socks.

Along time ago (27 years) when we came here my kids (5 and 9) had rudimentary Hungarian and slotted into the Hungarian school system quite easily. They both went through they Hungarian education system and both tipped out of Uni. with technical masters degrees. Back then I considered the Hungarian education system better than the English system and whilst I've been away from the education scene a long time now from what I see of my grandchildren I have no complaints about the education system here.
There are dual language schools that teach a major part of the syllabus in a foreign language (usually English but German is also available). This may be worth investigating.

If you are planning to come over in September (2023?) then you have almost 1 year. I would suggest that you change the home language to Hungarian by way of boosting their language skills (and might also help the non-Hungarian partner) You can also get a lot of the kids youtube cartoons (Pippa Pig etc.) in Hungarian and having their favourite characters speaking Hungarian will help. Also the Hungarian partner can give bed time stories in Hungarian as a read along exercise. You could contact your nearest Hungarian club or society to see if any one there has childrens story books their kids have grown out of. With kids of 5 and 8 a year will see a big advancement in language skills if some time is put in.

thanks for the encouraging words!

thanks! Can I ask which school did your kids go to? I speak to them in Hungarian, but not exclusively, they do understand a lot, but don’t speak it. There’s always a point at which they get frustrated, if the subject too complicated. I try my best and have books and we are developing, albeit slowly.

I’m just worried if there is no help at all in schools, they get dropped in the deep end. Hungarian is notoriously hard language right learn.

Did your kids come from the British educational system too? We are almost same age, 5 and 8!
How did they find the Prussian style education after the British approach?

Our kids came from the British education system although at 5 my daughter had only just started but did some time at nursery school.

Once here they both went to the local village school and integrated without much problem. Of course then having a couple of kids from the west was a bit of a novelty. A lot can depend upon the teachers and how they manage the situation. After the local village school my son went to the Ferences Gimnázium, Esztergom and my daughter went to the Patrona Hungariae Gimnázium Budapest. Following that they both went to the Budapesti Műszaki és Gazdaságtudományi Egyetem where my son tipped out with a masters degree in mechanical engineering and my daughter got a masters degree with honours as a civil engineer. I honestly don't think those results would have happened under the British education system.

When we were in England my wife spoke to the kids in Hungarian and when I came home she switched to English so that I would not be left out. When we came to Hungary we tried Hungarian as the home language to help my Hungarian but after a few months we noticed that my daughter wouldn't reply in English and in fact her English was getting lost so we switched the home language back to English as we felt her English was more important than my Hungarian. No problems with my son because at the age of 9 his English was more fixed and of course he was reading English Today my son is bi-lingual but my daughters English is not quite so good and she has an accent. (Whilst at Uni my son did some part time work for GE translating service manuals. That put him off translating for years!!)

It is not unusual for kids to answer in the easiest language or the most appropriate language at the time. Both my kids speak to their children in English and they have asked us to do the same but they will answer in Hungarian. They will also drop in the odd word in the other language when speaking if that is the word that comes out first and of their own volition I have also heard my granddaughters playing with their dolls in English. (Sometimes I will also answer in English within the family when in a Hungarian conversation so it's not just the kids)

That'My sister's children (she's married to an Englishman) are really happy to also speak German.
The family also spent two years in Budapest many years ago but of course forgot everything except the most basic words.
Conversations in two (or more ...) languages are also a good idea. Often happen to my Hungarian wife and me (German) that we switch to the other language because of a missing word and when her son comes in we switch to English for him to practice it.

This is a very accurate assessment, it describes my household to a Tee, even to the kids talking privately to their toys bi-lingually. Peter is right in his deduction that it is just a case of using the easiest word irrespective of origin.
At the dining table it is quite normal to be asked to pass the Peas directly after a request for the Krumpli. The common term for this is 'Hunglish'

I was not expecting much English outside of Budapest, but on my recent house hunting trip (mostly in the middle of nowhere in Bacs Kiskun, i was pleasantly surprised by how many people would reply back to me in English when they could tell I was struggling with Hungarian, had a few instances as well where I said nem értem and the person would respond by explaining what they had asked me and giving some Hungarian tips, overall very pleased with the experience and have more confidence that moving would not have as much of a language problem as I had first imagined.

I found it was pretty much all young people that spoke English, but some older Hungarian women are very grumpy about it