Hungarian and online communities: 12 years ago I unconsciously planted the seeds of my current life

Once again, it started with a trip to Budapest. However, unlike the case of Russian, I explained in the previous episodes, I was not prepared ahead of it, but I got curious only once back.

I got interested in it because I had put Russian aside since it was too difficult to learn on my own (I mean, I was 15 and had no clue about “cases”, declensions, verbal aspects, and so on… it was too much of a mess).

I remember I had gone to a bookshop in my town and asked for a Chinese and Russian phrasebook, which I still have!

After that journey, I went to that place and asked for a Hungarian one. In that case or shortly after, I also got a small dictionary that I used so much that now is almost torn in pieces - but of course, I am keeping it as a memory for the rest of my life.

Hungarian: why?!

My curiosity came from some things told by our guide in Budapest. She was great, but she had just given some information about the language: the typical info like that it’s a far relative of the Finnish language and so on… the basic stuff you tell a group of not-so-young Italians on holiday.

But, for me, that was enough.

Again, the sound of the language was crucial in making me like what I was learning.

Do you say it's hard? #triggered

Another point that “triggered” me positively was that while I was getting information about the language, a pretty frequent point was that it was super difficult. My typical reaction in these cases, still nowadays, is: that’s bullshit. So, I saw it as a challenge I wanted to defy. If I could learn it, that meant it was not that hard 🙂

This episode is called “Hungarian and online communities”. Why?

A huge difference compared to Russian and the other “language experiences” I had had before is that Hungarian made me know people online.

Alert: hard nostalgia upcoming

First, I was an active member of the gorgeous SharedTalk website. It was a fantastic language exchange platform. Let’s not forget we're talking about when people in Europe used MSN Messenger. The closest thing to a smartphone was a Blackberry. Facebook was yet to come or was at the very beginning.

So, what usually would happen on SharedTalk was that you would chat with somebody there for some time, and then if both of you clicked, you would add each other on MSN. I met a lot of Hungarians like this. I’m still in contact with some of them after all these years.

I <3 Hungarians

Hungarians were fantastic motivators. This triggered a virtuous circle: the more they encouraged me, the more I learned, the more I progressed, and the more, of course, they were enthusiastic about my work. I will never thank them enough for this.

But, Sharedtalk was not the only precious tool I discovered.

Let me remind you a bit of my situation: you are 15, you live in a town of fewer than 50 thousand people, there is no Facebook, online language classes are not a thing yet, and there are probably no Hungarians in your town or any way you are unable to get this information and in case to contact them - since you neither live in the friendliest place on earth. Moreover, you have to go to school! And you are not allowed to go to Milan alone, which is your “biggest cultural reference” around. To sum it up, you are not much more than a child.

How do you escape the trap?

You write all day long in online chats, so you desperately lack speaking.

Having calls online is still not that normal.

The discrepancy between your oral and written Hungarian becomes so big that when during a cruise you meet two Hungarian ladies working on the ship and you want to talk to them, you wander around with a notebook awkwardly writing down everything you want to say before reading it out loud because your brain is not connected to your mouth hahaha.

That was real!

However, at some point, I got The Idea.

Making YouTube videos in Hungarian!

About what?

About Italian. So my objective was - again - teaching Italian, but to Hungarians.

At the same time, Facebook was slowly conquering all the MSN users, so requests for building a Facebook group linked to the channel were popping up here and there. That group still exists, even if I haven’t been active there for years.

I made around 10 videos between 2008 and 2011. They were really artisanal.

I had no clue about how to make videos, so I used a camera to record a PowerPoint presentation. Only later I started using a webcam or Windows Movie Maker.

A milestone in my life

This was one of the greatest things I did in my life, but also one of my biggest regrets because I neglected it for 10 years before starting to be active again at the end of 2022.

I had left it because:

• Why should you waste your time on YouTube when you are still in high school?

• What about the university?

• Why think about YouTube when you have exams to pass and have to grow up being a normal person with a normal job and not a weirdo?

Eventually, you realise everything was already clear

Now I feel like my path was already clear back then. The ten years I spent ending high school, getting a degree, and becoming a normal employee were just a deviation from my path.

A path I got back to, stronger and more motivated than ever.