Magyar News, 1998. szeptember-1999. augusztus (9. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1998-11-01 / 3. szám
OTHER \S HUNGARY Louis. Judit was extremely helpful modifying her schedule to accommodate us and to give an overall picture of publishing in Hungaiy today. It was interesting to find out that with the the political change, two of the three publishing companies closed down. On the other hand, now there are too many, mostly small, publishers numbering five hundred. During the Communist regime books were very inexpensive. Those that were canying the ideological message were done below price, therefor all others had to follow. They were subsidized by the government. Now, the past practice has caused a serious effect. The consumers are used to the subsidized prices, so it is impossible to sell publications at their true price. Therefor they have to find grants and other sources to pay for putting out a book. There are the foundations associated with the Cultural Ministry, and there are some like the Soros Foundation in the USA. The meeting ended by Judit Pataki donating the books to the Hungarian library, and there was a long question and answer session. Olga Rethy on behalf of the Pannónia Club and Joseph Stiber on behalf of the American Hungarian Heritage Association, both offered to purchase a cabinet for the libraiy, bringing it up to four storage cabinets. To expand the utilization of the Hungarian books, Joseph Balogh informed the meeting about his inquiries with public libraries who might attach the list of books to their computer programs. He also mentioned that there are a few hundred audio tapes from the Hungarian Radio in Budapest that could be connected to the library. Naturally a Hungarian gathering can’t end without a spread of famous pastries and other goodies by the hostesses: Betty Turrell and Marika Nagy. The sponsors were Calvin UCC, American Hungarian Heritage Association and the Pannónia Club. At the table of goodies, at left Marika Nagy and at right Betty Turrell Carolina Szabó and Judit Pataki with bilingual books paper, richly illustrated partly by woodcuts and by children’s drawings. When one opened the book to a page the text was in Hungarian and on the opposite page, to read the English text one had to turn the book upside down. This clever idea seemed to have a child more involved. It’s like, what we call, switching codes. A physical interaction with the book in this manner helps the child to make the change from one language to the other. The other book was written by Yehudi Menuhin, the world famous Russian violinist. Beside all the advantages for children, it has a section for those who play the violin. Richly illustrated are pages of exercises actually with the instrument, then others are physical exercises to tone muscles and help posture for proper playing. It amazing. Had I known all this, I would still play the violin myself. These two books were shown at the little Hungarian library at the Calvin United Church of Christ. Carolina Szabó started to collect Hungarian books, or those written in English about Hungarians, and with the support of the church and the community the number of the books are in the thousands and more are being donated. At the church’s Club-Room people interested in reading and supporting the culture of reading, gathered one evening. There was a respectable guest from Hungary, Judit Pataki the director and editor of the AB OVO Publishing Company in Budapest. With her daughter she came to visit friends, June April and her husband It is not an everyday experience to open up a book and have a choice of languages. A choice between English and Hungarian. Well there is such a thing. Recently we were lucky to have two different books in our hands. One page was in English and the other was in Hungarian telling the same story. These books were designed for children but adults were happy to handle them too. One of the books was James Joyce’s children’s story presented in a poem, “The Devil and the Cat”. The hardbound publication was produced in a high quality. Selected fine Carolina at her Hungarian library ONE SIDE IS ENGLISH Page 3
