I had a great time visiting the Csanyi Alapitvany in Pecs, Hungary (6th February).
I arrived in the morning, and right away I had the opportunity to meet with 14 bright young English learners. After introducing myself and the reason I was in Hungary, I tried to make my PhD research more accessible to the students by challenging them to think about different activities in their daily lives, which help define who they are. This brainstorm also gave me a chance to get to know them as well, which I really enjoyed. After the presentation was over, I asked them what I should see and do in Pecs, and they gave some great suggestions about some of Pecs’s tourist sites, which I was able to visit in the afternoon. Finally, we ended our time together playing a fun party game called “celebrities,” where each student held a piece of paper to their forehead with a famous person’s name written on it. They had to ask each other questions in English to guess their celebrity’s name, and it was very fun to hear them speaking English together. I learned that many young Hungarians don’t know who Bono is. It was a very curious and friendly group, and I was happy to have traveled from Budapest to meet them. Afterward, they invited me to each pizza and cake (yum!) and I was able to talk a little more thoroughly with some of the students who stayed behind. Thanks for the invitation!!
Robert Mevissen, fulbright scholar