Storm in a Teacup?
According to the latest information from the Hungarian National Sailing Association it wasn't a large boat that overturning in the storm on Sunday, but a speedboat. Overall they can't currently put a figure on how much damage was caused when 7 or 8 boats collided in the turbulance, or if they did collide.
It seems the news of boats being capsized on the Danube are mildly exaggerated. No big boats sank, but cutlery was dropped, plates spilled, glasses flew in the air and awnings ripped on a number of the river's floating restaurants like the Columbus and the Spoon.
If you want pictures of the chaos caused by the storm there is a really good set published by the cloneshit (hu) blog over on flickr. And the whole thing is a big talking point here.
This morning people are picking through the detritus and working out what it all means. On the National Holiday right at the appointed hour for the firework display as everyone (1-1.5 million) was gathered along the Danube the skies opened, a gail force wind appeared from nowhere, the heavy rain quicky turned to pelting hail... Someone was sending a message. Just not any of the politicians or meteriologists, who according to all reports all knew what was coming, but still put everyone in danger.
This morning, despite the corrections to the initially exagerated news the death toll stands at 3 with hundreds injured. The toll of the injured that were carried or crawled to the hospitals is pretty depressing. Of the 287 so far reported injured, 44 are serious. They are still searching for two missing people in the Danube. Estimated damage is about half a billion forints (you do the math).
In very late breaking news it's good to see that the Guardian in the UK is keeping up its unrivaled record for cheesy, out-of-date and cliched stories about Hungary. They have only just covered the Hungarian Tourist Board's cartoon affair 'scandal'. Better late than never, hey? To be fair they did manage to contain their journalistic tourette's, so never mentioned goulash in the piece - now that is great editorial self control. British readers can look forward to a story about last night's events sometime in November.
So, your Hungarian word for today is 'tömegszerencsétlenség' or 'mass-misfortune' (also, stampede, bloodbath or 'collective disaster/badluck' depending on the situation) - as in "példátlan tömegszerencsétlenség" or 'unparalleled mass-misfortune'. A pretty neat summary of the event, but let's hope you don't have to use it too often.
Stop complaining and think of the Relatives.
I know how it is. You've lived here for a while and, well, you start to get blasé about conversing in magyar with your mates down at the local késdobáló - who wouldn't. You're starting to feel unfulfilled again, you're getting itchy feet? Well, just take the time to make the time and learn one of the relatives native tongues.
You can handle the agglutinative, vowel harmony, word order stuff and you're happy about the lack of gender. Well, there you go. You spent all that time developing a talent for knowing how to say something before you know what you want to say (which Hungarian word order seems to demand) then don't let it go to waste. Find an even more remote and tiny group of people to converse with like the Finns, Estonians, Udmurt or Mari. Hell, push the boat out try the Ostyaks.
And while you're doing your newly-turned-native best to complain about everything, think of the language relatives, because weather-wise they have got it much worse right now.
Finnish
You want to start with what you know? Ok, try the Finnish-Hungarian etymologies. And as soon as you've realised that that is really confusing, you should just move on to the Introduction to Finnish course. The actual language lessons start here.There's about 5.5 million Finnish people you'll be able to jaw with for your efforts. And if you have got use to the magyar way of things, you'll quickly find out how different the official Finnish is from the spoken form. The Finnish love to swear, so make sure you practice these too. And with only 5.5 million people you can use these words to express your indignation in shops and restaurants around the world with little fear of having a native overhear. What more incentive could you want?
You'll notice amongst those that the Hungarian 'persze' ('of course') is very close to the Finnish 'perse', meaning 'ass'. So, if you're in Helsinki, don't go stating the obvious.
The weather there is a tropical -1 to -3 degree C. Jealous.
Estonian
With Estonian you're down to about 1.1 million people. You can pick up some basic lingo such as words and phrases. Also, try the online dictionary, or ones of proverbs. There's a good academic resource, but a lot of the discussion and content is in Estonian, so it's a bit of chicken and egg problem. There are some resources, amongst which Timm's page is one of the better.There's a lot of good things to say about Estonians, their culture and their economy (they'll be getting the Euro in Jan. 2007, even with slightly rising inflation at present), but I'll save that for another day.
Truthfully, the best resources to learn the language are books and CDs.
Weatherwise, things are better here too! Only about 0 to -2 degrees C.
Cheremis/Mari
Would love to go there. Capital of the Republic of Mari-El is Yoshkar-Ola (â??Red Cityâ??) along the Volga river with a population of about 300,000. There are around 600,000 native speakers altogether, but this is an endandered language.There's not too much information online in English. What is tends to concentrate on getting yourself a Russian bride. Still some of these have reasonable (if general) background information. Neighbors of the Maris are the Udmurts and Chuvashes, both Finno-Ugric relatives.
The Mari language comes in two flavors, Meadow and Hill (well, some say there are 4, but...). The Meadow is the most common. Best source for learning the language on line is in Mari, Russian and Japanese.
There is an ideal opportunity this summer though. There will be a Summer School in the Mari language from July 2nd to the 19th, in Yoshkar-Ola. The cost will be 265 Euros covering tuition, food, dorm... Travelling time is about 16 hours from Moscow. Hell, I really want to go!!
Current weather conditions -27 to -29 degrees C. Not much wind though. Cosy.
The Rest
OK, so there aren't too many people to talk to with some of these languages, but you have to admit that spending any time with these people would make your existence a lot less meaningless and insignificant. You'd be able to bore every expat you ever meet again silly - and have good reason to. They would never be able to trump you with something better.Imagine the dinner parties: 'What, you did the round Asia thing', you'll be able to say. Hell, I've lived with the nganasans. More whale meat, anyone?
For all round general information there's a great site maintained by Estonians. There's also a Ugric Languages Congress that is held every 4 years, since 1992. So the next one is in 2008, get learning!!
And, so, I was a bit misleading about their current weather? I had to find something to hook you in.
