Adrian Buck > Recent Status Updates

"Egy csomo diák volt még ott...és néhányan rosszalloán néztek ránk...a magánsulisokat kinézik" pg 116. Sounds familiar, so I'm dealing with the private sector here. How significant is it in Hungary, and does the Neumann count?

"It is therefore important to provide learners with tools to predict the pronunciation of a written word" pg 149. It is also important to provide teachers with evidence of how successful these 'predictions' are likely to be.

Problems with organisation, "The 'r' exerts its influence even when it is silent: it may be regarded as an "underlying" element". it would have be a good idea to introduce the concept of morpheme here, without it it is difficult to follow the discussion. Similarly the distinction between weak and full forms of the same vowel is not adequately developed, why not just treat them as distinct vowel sounds?

"Indeed alien pleasures have practically the same effect as proper pains"

"He was a Christian, but not in the way people tend to think of it now - it wasn't a business opportunity for him, not a certificate to flash at the Nazis so that he could get a rake-off, make a deal, and grab some of the spoils." pg 283

" a person ought to be conscious of his friend's existense, and this can be achieved by living together and conversing and exchanging ideas with him - for this would seem to be what living together means in the case of human beings; not being pastured like cattle in the same field"

Actually, as more books go in I feel more comfortable, it's possible I peaked in university at 40+ books a year. Now, if I can just keep my wits together for a decent retirement, it is as Hegel wrote 'The owl of Minerva spreads its wings only with the falling of the dusk.'

"you only benefit from a book..." pg 173. It's getting too discursive, this is what ruin Conversations in Bolzano.

Interesting that book is frank about the rampant cheating, but not about the rampant swearing - Hungarian think politeness is more important than honesty?

"the good man has these several feelings towards himself, and extends to his friend the same relation" pg 294. It's interesting that Aristotle regards friendship as deserving of rational analysis - this is pre-universalist (pre-Christian?) ethics; and that his analysis of economic transactions falls within his analsyis of friendship.

"She always looked me straight in the eye. It was as if she were always asking me a question" pg 141. If I had to define what it is about Hungarian girls that makes English boys go giddy, it is that Hungarian girls look at men, and English boys are not used to that. Roger Scruton has quite alot to say about this.

"Monsieur Ántái-Kélémén .... - Lemásolhatom?" Pg 97/8
Succint description of the difficulty of disciplining the clever Hungarian kid, given the integration of the punishment system with the assessment system in Hungarian Schools. In my school, it was the idiots who mucked around in Hungary its usually the 'clever' ones - the result is the same, wasted time.

Uploading my library is like reviewing my entire life. I realise how diffcult it will be to read as much again as I have already read.

Amazing and difficult to figure out when this book was written: it was written as three novellas about the same characters, one in 1941, one in 1949 and one in 1980.

Its good to see some observations I'd made about the similarities between English and Hungarian confirmed. My biggest difference with Nádasdy is over his judgements of when these differences are exceptable and when not: 'fók' is not OK for 'fork', but 'nó' is OK for 'no'.

"Virágba nehéz volt lelket önteni. teljesen kiakadt, és nem is a jegytól, hanem a megaláztatástól" pg 90. Is this included in Hungarian teacher training?

"- you know, the lot: good habits, ways of doing things, furniture, Christian Ethics, bridges ... and it was all part of the same thing to him: he loved this world and wanted to preserve it from danger. Men call this culture." pg 46

None of these activities have level indicators or approximate durations.

" -Nincs - rázta meg a fejét Cortez. Olyan menő a cipője!" Maybe if I'd read Twilight in Hungarian it would have been more bareable.

"Not all of those who stayed [in East Germany] were admirers of the communist system, but they had assessed the situation, worked out how much compromise would be required and how much passive opposition would be possible. They made what they thought was the best choice for themselves and their families, and then waited to see what woul happen next.

"...failed planning, failed architecture, a failed utopian dream" pg 409. But people weren't compelled there, they went because compared to their hovels/small holdings these Socialist cities did offer a higher standard of living. The problems they encountered were similar to the problems encountered in industrialising cities from 19th century Britain to 21st century China.

One thing that these recipes overlook is that the kids don't appreciate the teaching point buried in the task. They just want to complete the ostensible task, and they'll take any shortcuts that get them there, even if that means skipping the teaching point.

Slow chapter on socialist realism with good look at the Hungarian film industry. My first beef with her analysis - "Since factory managers were government employees salaries, they saw no need to exert any special effort". Naive about incentives within Socialism, and could be true of any salaried employee, public or private.

"On the other hand in the perverted constitutions friendship, like justice, is little found, and least in the worst; for in a tyranny there is little or no friendship."

"The notion of small children as blank slates or lumps of clay which the regime could mould at will was not a new one in Germany: the Nazis had used very similar metaphors (as had the Jesuits, among others)" pg 320. Nor I think in Hungary, where the Church had long had a central role in education.

...gyorsan elmeséltem neki a napomat, na meg persze a tőri ötösömet.
- Reni, ez fantasztikus!
Presumably, Ricsi's parents are equally delighted with his 5.

Surprisingly useful section on speaking activities. I could even imagine that the students would listen have to each other. Also ways of getting them to value questions as much as answers.

"...it's also clear that the recollection of the past - the murky, confusing, conspiratorial past - created emotional and psychological trauma even when n violence was used at all" cf Darkness at noon

"...nationalization politicized ordinary workplace conflicts almost everywhere. When factory workers were angry about pay or conditions in their state-owned factories, they aimed their protests directly at the state" (pg 254). She's completely under my skin now, I'm done on rethinking Hungary 1945-1948, I'm working on Britain 1945-1979

"But at least in the very beginning, the Soviet Union clearly intended to preserve at least the appearence, and to some extent the reality, of democratic choice. And it expected to benefit." Interesting, the Hungarian sources I read on this all felt that before 1948, the reality was there.