Magyar Hírek, 1986 (39. évfolyam, 1-26. szám)
1986-03-28 / 6. szám
im Teaching Hungarian — in Swedish schools CHRONICLE In the office of Sven Gullman, the Stockholm official responsible for the special education of immigrant children, the data offered already proved something: in the 1984/85 scholastic year 101 of the 153 elementary school age children of Hungarian origin in Stockholm, and 19 of high-school age children learnt Hungarian being taught by 11 teachers. Later I came face to face with the first living proof in the person of Laci Wohlgang in a small room of a suburban school. He was nine years old when he came to Sweden with his parents. Now he is fourteen, and —as he admits — dreams mostly in Swedish, although they speak Hungarian at home. His relation with the Hungarian teacher went through phases typical in such circumstances. First he began in an immigrant class, a year later he was transferred to a regular Swedish class, where his teachers and his parents considered he needed four hours coaching in Swedish and just that many hours in Hungarian each week. Ferenc Szabó, his Hungarian teacher, recalled that in the early phase even the Hungarian classes were often spent in talking over Swedish language problems, until Laci reached the stage —rather soon but that is not unusual with children— when he thought he spoke Swedish better, than Hungarian. Thus, the Hungarian classes could be used to study Hungarian and things Hungarian in earnest. There are more than one hundred thousand children, whose native language is not Swedish in elementary' and highschools of Sweden. They account to 9 per cent in the elementary schools, and 5 per cent in the highschools. Migrants of many ethnic groups bringing with them their own particular culture, began to reach significant proportions during the years of the post-war boom. In 1956 — 57 a few thousand Hungarian families settled in Sweden. At present the number of Hungarians and those of Hungarian descent resident in Sweden is estimated at around 13,000. Of them about 2,300 would be the number of school age children, and about 50 per cent of them receive teaching in their native language at the schools. Bertil Jakobsson, head of a department of the Swedish supreme authority on education informed me that state-assisted teaching in the native language is given in about sixty different languages. Hungarian is one of the major languages amongst these, being about the tenth largest. The law provides that children speaking a language other than Swedish at home, or communicating with at least one of the parents in such a language, can request to be taught his or her native tongue at school. Children and their parents affected must be informed about their rights each year. * The work of teachers of the native language requires quick adjustment, change of rhythm and style hardly conceivable in other spheres of teaching. A young pupil of Julianna Kunz, a teacher in Bromölla, was just singing the ditty “Aki nem lép egyszerre” (He, who doest not keep in step . . .), then a class attended by three teenagers followed. “Why do you take Hungarian lessons?” I asked them. “I need Hungarian, when I go home ...” replied Gören Beszédes. “We are Hungarians, that’s why . . .” added a friend. The teachers of the native language are pleased to speak about the attachment of their pupils. They' are, to a certain extent, surrogate mothers of fathers as well, with whom the children share their joys or miseries, and they are also proud that the best of them broadcast some knowledge of things Hungarian even amongst their Swedish schoolfellows. Experiencing such heart-warming instances gives them much-needed motivation, for their work is often rather tiring. Just have a look at the teaching schedule of Julianna Kunz: Monday: six lessons at Olofström Tuesday: two lessons at Olofström, and also at Bromölla, every second week Wednesday: eight lessons at Kristianstaad, Thursday: nine lessons at Kristians taad, Friday: ten lessons at Bromölla. She does this rain or shine in a radius of about 50 kilometre, driving under all conditions. Her schedule is not even so bad, considering that she does not have to go from school to school each day. Edit Gombár in Malmö, for instance, teaches in five kindergartens and four schools’, changing the venue of teaching (and the method and style as well) several times a day. Altogether 82 teachers of Hungarian as a native language work in Sweden, 47 of them without qualifications. The Malmö and Stockholm colleges are trying to improve this ratio. (They are training teachers for 11 other national and linguistic groups besides Hungarian.) But future qualified teachers of the native language attending the colleges are not inundated with offers in spite of the situation outlined. The reason is that most of the native language lessons are given to Hungarian children by qualified teachers even now. The unqualified teachers work mostly in districts far away from the cities, giving only few lessons, enough for a parttime job, that’s all. Be that as it may, the profession still seems to be attractive. For years the succession of applicants and graduates has been unbroken is Stockholm and Malmö. * Professor Oszkár Lázár, of the Finno-Ugrian chair of Lund University took part in the training of Hungarian native language teachers right from the start. He is a linguist, but his thoughts on whether Hungarian children in Sweden could preserve their Hungarian identity today seem rather those of a sociologist. “Accelerated assimilation is likely” he says “because the principal language in which the child is educated at school will be his intellectual native language. The majority of them will not be able to discuss political matters, for instance, in Hungarian. The effect of the parental home in many instances is insufficient for the development of the desirable bi-cultural state, yet we must do all we can to make attractive, and raisethe standards of the ties with the linguistic and cultural roots in the widest possible circle of Hungarians living here.” ISTVÁN BALÁZS Five years in the light of statistics The Central Statistical Office reported about the 1981 — 1985 period—that of the Sixth Five-Year Plan —that the rise in national income had slowed down. Instead of the stipulated 14 to 17 per cent, it increased by only 7 per cent. On the other hand, the external balance of payments of the country remained steady as a result of great efforts, and export surpluses were recorded each year in spite of the deterioration of the terms of trade. Tourism has played a major part in the improvement of the balance of trade, a total of 15 million foreign visitors came to Hungary in 1985, 1.6 million more than in the previous year, and 1 million more than in 1980. Total money income rose by 48 j>er cent over five years, but the price level of consumer goods increased by 39 per cent in the same period. Thus the per capita real income increased modestly, by 7 — 8 per cent in the five years. The average gross earnings of workers and white collar workers were Ft. 6,000 a month in 1985. The population of the country was 10.640.000 on the 1st of January 1986, 0.2 per cent fewer, than a year earlier and 0,7 per cent fewer, than five years ago. One of the reasons is the declining birthrate, while the other factor was the high death rate. The rate of the population decline slowed down somewhat in 1985; about 130.000 children were lx>rn that year, 5.000 more than in 1984. The Legend of St. Elizabeth at the Liszt centenary The spokesman of the National Philharmonic Society at a press conference discussed the programmes of Budapest musical life for the summer season of 1986. The centre point are festive concerts to be given on the occasion of the Liszt centenary. Commemorating the centenary of the death of the composer, the orchestra of the Hungarian Radio and Television conducted by György Lehel will perform the Legend of St Elizabeth on the 31st of July at the Budapest Congress Hall. A new ballet of the Győr Ballet Company, based on Liszt works, and featuring Iván Markó as leading dancer will also have its premiere at the time of the anniversary. In a series of public concerts the Hungarian Radio will present Liszt songs and choral works. Another series will present piano music by Liszt in twelve recitals. Concerts given by Antal Doráti, conducting the State Symphony Orchestra, and by Ijimberto Gardelli, the noted Italian conductor with the same orchestra will also be part of the musical events of the season. The Youth “Orchestra of Europe” conducted by Elihu Inbal, will make its first appearance in Budapest this summer. Mahler’s 9th symphony will be on their programme. 30
