Catching up with Europe: Speakers and Functions of English in Hungary

Abstract

In several studies it has been shown that, since the political and economic changes precipitated by the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1989, English in the`new' Hungary is in great demand and the number of its uses and users is expanding (e.g. Halasz, 1993;Medgyes, 1993;Petzold, 1994). This paper discusses the functional range of English and its penetration into Hungarian society and shows that in just a few years English has become an essential tool for modernization and economic development and a significant medium in the tourist and entertainment industries as well as education, and that need for the use of English in the workplace has had a major impact on its learning, especially in Budapest. The data is drawn from Petzold's comprehensive study of English in the capital city (1994). The authors offer an account of the sociolinguistic contexts of English in Hungary and provide insights into the reasons why Hungarians regard English proficiency as vital to their country's efforts to catch up with its more prosperous neighbors to the west.

The linguistic landscape of tourism: Multilingual signs in Lithuanian and Polish resorts

“…In contrast, Russian and LithuanianRussian signs do not exceed 1% (cf. Petzold and Berns 2000). Though Vilnius is a multi-ethnic city with relatively large Russian and Polish minorities, Russian and Polish hardly ever appear in the public signage in Vilnius Old Town.…”

“…LL has also received some attention in the postSoviet urban areas in Hungary (Petzold and Berns 2000), Azerbaijan (Shibliyev 2014), Ukraine (Pavlenko 2009(Pavlenko , 2010, Russia (Yurchak 2000), the post-Eastern bloc in general (Gendelman and Aiello 2010), Latvia (Marten 2012, Pošeiko 2015, and Lithuania (Ruzaitė 2006).…”

Predicting challenges to English as a global language in the 21st century

“…In addition to calculations of numbers of potential speakers with whom to interact in each potential language, this choice is to some extent determined by relatively intangible, perhaps even emotional factors. As Petzold and Berns (2000) show in the case of Hungary, along with the rapid political and economic change that accompanied the waning of Russian influence in the country in the 1990s came a sudden rush of interest in English as an international language and an abrupt switch from Russian to English as the dominant second language in the country's schools. Yet, more than mere commercial relations must have been involved in this process as German was -at least in principle -a viable alternative since an older German-speaking population survived and Germany quickly replaced the former Soviet Union as Hungary's dominant trading partner and soon established itself as the country's principal source of tourism income.…”

Shaping the climate for language shift? English in Sweden’s elite domains

“…These inquiries have focused on topics such as the position of English in the administration of the European Union (Melander, in press), the role of English as a European lingua franca , attitudes toward English (Hyrkstedt and Kalaja, 1998), functions of English (Petzold and Berns, 2000), and the acquisition of English as a third language among European bilinguals (Cenoz and Jessner, 2000). Our focus is related to these topics but is in some ways more specific, targeting language use patterns in particular high-status domains, which may be characterized in some sense as`i nternational,'' yet are also clearly part of Swedish society.…”