Magyar News, 1992. szeptember-1993. augusztus (3. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1993-02-01 / 6. szám
LITTLE ANGELS AND CHRISTMAS (Photo: Jancsi Racz) THE HUNGARIAN RHAPSODY To get the real meaning of this name you have to go back to the 1920’s, to the era of the silent film. I guess very few people, today, could say that they were witnesses to that time. We could get some ideas from cinema posters, or by finding videos of that period. Among the top stars, with Rudolph Valentino and Ronald Coleman, we see a beautiful young lady, Vilma Bánky. She was the heart-throb of people who now are in their 80’s or 90’s. Bánky was a Hungarian who first appeared in Hungarian, French and Austrian films. This is where Samuel Goldwyn discovered her and turned her into a Hollywood actress. For the few years till the talkies were invented, everything was going fine. It was when Vilma Bánky had to say words in English that things went bad. According to Goldwyn, Bánky only knew how to say “lamb chops and pineapple.” The movie “This is Heaven” was a flop because the audience didn’t understand what she was saying. Bánky was married to Rod La Rocque, an actor, for 42 years and lived in Los Angeles. She lived a long life. After her husband died she went through an illness for ten years. She died two years ago. She didn’t want anybody to know about her death. In her last years she became embittered because her friends didn’t visit her. Probably there was a communication problem, as it happens to older people, they reverse to their original language. Vilma Bánky was “The Hungarian Rhapsody.” The Pannónia American Hungarian Club does the honor to organize the Hungarian Christmas Party every year. It truly is an uplifting event. The immigrant and American-bom little children do their Christmas play in Hungarian. Sometimes it is a medley of songs, poems and plays, sometimes it is the Bethlehemes Játék. This year it was about Christmas itself. All the children spoke one-by-one on how Christmas came about especially as it was celebrated in Hungary. They also decorated the tree during their speech. Mrs. Sara Balogh, president of the Pannónia Club welcomed the participants and the audience, and Reverend Fuleki presented the opening prayer. The performance was directed by Mrs. Julia Borsos. She did a wonderful job, also did the performers; Krisztina Aranyi, Abigail Balogh, András Balint, Dora Fenyvesi, Ferenc Katai, Tünde Leszai, Tünde Miklós, Anita and Rita Vass. The audience, one-hundred strong, joined in the singing of Christmas songs and hymnals holding lighted candles in the darkened auditorium. The conclusion of the program was the giving of gifts to all the children and the reception with Hungarian style hotdogs and puff pastries. It was a warm and friendly celebration, thanks to the leadership of the Pannónia Club. HOW DO YOU COUNT IT IN HUNGARIAN? There doesn’t seem to be much difference in the way the numbers are set up in the English or Hungarian? Or in many other languages. It is decimal, it goes from 1 to 10, and 10 times 10 is a hundred, and just play with the number 10. You get every-But, if you analyze the order of numbers you may find a glitch that doesn’t conform with the decimal system. It is easy to say thirteen, fourteen, or twenty-three, twentyfour, fifty-three, fifty-four. Somehow you can’t say one-teen or two-teen. There are special words for these two. This probably came from the dozen system, at least within one dozen. In England when they were talking about changing the money system to decimal, many people objected to it. So I found out that the dozen has more variety possibilities than the number 10. And it was easier to count coins by groups of 3 or 4. Since in the old day s, before printing money, they just had coins. Try to spread out a bunch of coins on the table and count them fast by moving them from one side to the other. You could do it one-by-one, or in Page 6 pairs, or for the dozen concept with three or four fingers at a time. It goes really fast. This is why you have eleven and twelve. One day it would be interesting to learn about what the ancient Hungarians used in their arithmetics but for now we have to be content with the decimal system, one that is not tainted with the number 12, the dozen. In the Hungarian you go from one to ten, then you continue by putting one on ten - TIZEN-EGY, two on ten for twelve - TIZEN- KETTŐ, and so on. Then you should learn the multiples of 10, till you get to a hundred. That is SZÁZ or EG Y-SZAZ, then you are back to the single digits because 200 is KÉT-SZÁZ, 300 is HÁROMSZÁZ, and so on. You find the same pattern with 1000, EZER, also the million what is MILLIÓ. Here we change track. A 1000 million is a billion. Not for the Hungarians. 1000 million is a MILLIARD, and it has to be a million millions to become a Hungarian BILLIÓ. A thousand BILLIÓ would be BILLIARD, after you hit TRILLIÓ and TRILLIARD. But if you have to count your dollars in Hungarian and you have to use these big numbers, you are better off if you don’t learn anything. Just hire me as your interpreter. (Nice try!) * * * 20 húsz 21 huszonegy 22 huszonkettő 30 harminc 31 harmincegy 1 egy 2 kettő (két...) 3 három 4 négy 5 öt 6 hat 7 hét 8 nyolc 9 kilenc 10 tíz 11 tizenegy 12 tizenkettő 13 tizenhárom 14 tizennégy 15 tizenöt 16 tizenhat 17 tizenhét 18 tizennyolc ............ 19 tizenkilenc 1 000 ezer If you have a problem with the pronunciation, you should refer to back issues all the way to last year July. If you need information, call 377-0569. 40 negyven 50 ötven 60 hatvan 70 hetven 80 nyolcvan 90 kilencven 100 száz 101 százegy 102 százkettő 200 kétszáz
