Failed Attempts at Teaching About Racism

When moving to a new culture, there is bound to be some culture clash; however, after time you grow accustomed to most of the new culture and sometimes even learn to appreciate some of the differences. For instance, now that I'm back in America I can't stand how obsequious waiters are in restaurants, and I still find it odd that that the cashier at the grocery store is the one that weighs my produce. There are some things though that I could never get used to, in fact, I don't believe I ever should get used to. I feel fairly confident to say that when teaching abroad, at some point every teacher is going to hear a student say something horribly racist. I don't want to repeat any of what I heard here (since I don't believe most of it is worthy of being reprinted), but as an example I'll say that when I was teaching in Qatar I gave an assignment where the students had to write about someone they thought was a great leader. The most popular choice was to write about Sheikha Mozah. The second most popular was Hitler.

And I'd like to thank...

As a young, naive high school teacher in Hungary, I thought it would be good to have a lesson with students about the antisemitic and anti-Roma comments I occasionally heard. The class I was teaching was on US culture, and we had been talking about Martin Luther King, Jr. I felt this was a good time to ask about if they had seen any examples of racism in their lives. Their answers indicated that they had, but the examples they gave all had to do with acts of violence, so I asked if words could be considered racist. For instance, I asked, have any of you told or heard a joke that made fun of Jews or Gypsies? This was definitely the turning point where the lesson started to get uncomfortable and many of the students went on the defense. I will never forget how one student responded. She said that in her experience, every single Gypsy she had ever seen fit the stereotype. Until she met one who didn't, she would hold on to that belief.

I look back now and can't believe how overbearing I was being. I can only imagine the reaction if a foreigner had come to my high school when I was a teenager and accused us of being racist. More so, it has occurred to me that this wasn't my country and this wasn't my battle. It's easy enough for me as an American to pontificate about equality and antisemitism in the Arab-Israeli conflict because it's not my homeland that has been taken away. Compared to my Palestinian students, I don't really see why I deserved to have any place in the conversation.

Gyöngyi Magó in class

I recently learned about a documentary titled There Was Once (in Hungarian Egyszer Volt), which is about a history teacher named Gyöngyi Magó in Kalocsa, Hungary, a small town famous for its paprika and embroidery. In researching about the holocaust, she discovered her own small town's role in the holocaust, began to seek out some of the survivors, and to teach her students about it. In some ways I feel like she could do this and I couldn't because it is her town and her country, and she has every right to be a part of the conversation.

I have looked all over the internet, and I can't find a copy of this film for sale. The film's website has some clips and a trailer, but that's all I've been able to find. The US State Department will be screening the film in Washington, DC on December 10th to commemorate Human Rights Day. If you're in the area, I recommend checking it out because there is probably no other way to see this film. 

Not all of my attempts at teaching about racism were unsuccessful. One semester I invited students to help generate essay topics, and several wanted to write about racism. At this point I had learned to take a little extra care with this issue, so the prompt I gave them was, "Why do people who hold racist beliefs think they are not racist?" I liked this prompt because it wasn't directly accusing anyone of anything, yet it still comes to a fairly universal truth. I don't think anyone believes they are racist, even people who have really strong racist beliefs. They somehow rationalize it in their mind.

I think this essay prompt worked better than the class discussion I tried to have before for two reasons. First, it was all in writing. Students are going to be more inclined to be honest if they don't have to say what they think in front of the whole class. The other reason is that it allowed for more critical thinking because I wasn't leading the discussion with a particular endpoint in mind. I think if I were to broach this topic in the future it would be more about exploring racism in general or possibly having a debate and allowing the students to come to their own conclusions.

And with that in mind, I hope no one comes to any quick conclusions about people in Hungary or Qatar based simply on this short blog post. As with people anywhere in the world, the majority are absolutely wonderful, but they face their own unique challenges and have their own unique cultural perspectives. I think I have come to learn that judging someone to be a racist can be just as unproductive as judging someone by their race or ethnicity. When we begin to talk about race and racial integration, we should realize that these are incredibly complex and nuanced issues without simple black and white answers (just look at the Guardian's section on Roma, Gypsies, and Travelers for some of these complexities).

Happy Holidays

I have no problem with the phrase "Happy Holidays." After all, in the month of December Christians may be celebrating 4 Advent Sundays, St. Nicholas Day, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, up to 12 days of Christmas, Boxing Day, New Years Eve, New Years Day, and Epiphany. Saying all of those could be quite cumbersome as a greeting, so I feel that "Happy Holidays" is an efficient form of oral shorthand, though essentially just "Have a Nice Day" in the month of December.

What I do have a problem with is when people claim that the phrase "Happy Holidays" is in some way culturally sensitive. I might lose some people here, but I argue that it isn't. The culturally sensitive argument goes something like this: I don't know which holiday you're going to celebrate this December, so I'm just going to say "Happy Holidays"--a generic phrase--because I don't want to be guilty of wishing you a happy [insert holiday] when in fact you won't be celebrating said holiday. My problem is that I don't see how using a generic phrase can be culturally sensitive because different cultures are proud of what makes them different. Treating a cultural celebration generically ignores those differences.

Political correctness often takes two forms. The first is where we call people what they want to be called. This is a type of being PC that I think most people agree with. Minorities in the United States, African Americans, LGBT, American Indians, Asian Americans, etc., all have words they like to be called and ones they don't. The most culturally sensitive thing to do is call them whatever it is they want. Most Native Americans actually prefer to be called American Indians, but what they'd really like is if you called them by the name of the their tribe. When it comes to saying "Happy Holidays," who is it that we are trying to placate? The first group that comes to mind are Jewish, but do they want to be wished a happy holiday, or would they prefer to be wished a happy Chanukah?

The other form of political correctness is where in order to avoid offending people we treat everyone identically, which is to say generically. I believe this is the kind of political correctness that deservedly gets a bad name. This is why we have elementary school sporting events where both the winners and losers get medals. The form of political correctness I mentioned in the paragraph above acknowledges people's differences, whereas this form ignores them; that is, it is not based on reality. In the real world there are winners and there are losers. Trying to hide this fact is essentially a lie and a disservice. Another example is how a lot of people believe feminism is about trying to make men and women identical. I imagine actual feminists must tire of hearing this, since feminism is about celebrating and empowering women--because men and women are different. Other people claim to be "colorblind" when it comes to race, but Black and White people are different in good ways too. We should be celebrating these cultural differences, not ignoring them. This also obviously goes too far when we take symbols of one of one of those holidays, like say a Christmas tree, and call it a "Holiday tree" even though none of the other December holidays have trees as a symbol. Again, I have to ask who is being placated by this genericness.

When I was given the Chanukah gelt, I had the option to chastize

him and tell him to call it "Holiday gelt." Instead, I just said,

"Thank You."

Moreover, the dean of the school where I work is Jewish, and the other day he handed out Chanukah gelt to everyone. I'm not Jewish, but I wasn't offended by this. In fact, I thought it was very cool that he was essentially inviting us to take part in his culture's celebration. Anyone who has lived in another country or studied a foreign language knows what it feels like to be on the outside of the target culture. Being invited to take part in that culture can be a joyous moment.

 Is this the solution?

So again, I am not against using the phrase "Happy Holidays" because at worst it is a little generic. However, I am also not against holiday greetings that specifically mention Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanzaa, Ramadan every 30 years or so, the Solstice, Festivus, or anything else that might be happening during the month of December. So what is the solution? I don't see why before greeting a complete stranger we can't simply ask something like, "What are you celebrating this month?" and actually get to know them a little before giving them a holiday greeting. After all, aren't the holidays supposed to be a time when people are closer and a little bit kinder? Then if they say Chanukah, wish them a happy Chanukah. If Kwanzaa, then wish them a happy Kwanzaa. If they're celebrating nothing (which some people do), then wish them a good day. Because everyone can always use a good day. 

Obviously it's different though if you're a store (or a blog) and don't have the ability to actually get to know everyone who will be shopping there (or reading your posts). So to my readers I wish you a happy holidays, wherever you are or whatever you're celebrating.

Tabuttantamóonk

Why are some languages taught in schools, but not others?

Something I always find interesting is which languages get taught in schools in different countries. When I was in high school the options were Spanish, French, and German. This made sense to me. Spanish speaking countries were to our south, French-speaking Quebec was to our north, and English and German were related languages. During my senior year they started to offer Japanese. I know that Chinese has become popular as of late too. I reckon that these aren't for geographic purposes, but more because people believe they might be useful in a business setting.

When I moved to Hungary to teach at a high school, I assumed that besides English some of the languages spoken in neighboring countries (in this case German, Slovak, Ukrainian, Romanian, Serbian, Croatian, and Slovenian) would possibly be taught in the schools. German was, and so was French. Finnish is fairly popular there as well, since Hungarian is related to it, but none of the geographically nearby languages were readily taught. I am aware that if you grew up in a town that had historically had a large Slovak population, like say Szarvas, where my great-great grandmother was from, then there are schools that teach Slovak, but if you were from a different town, then the opportunity simply wouldn't be there. I find this a little peculiar, since you would think that knowing the language of a neighboring country could be quite useful in social and business settings.

Of course, back in America I find it a little peculiar that German is still commonly taught, but Dutch isn't. After all, old New York was once New Amsterdam. Also, Dutch is much easier than German. But for whatever reason, there is simply not the demand for it. Where I live has a large Scandinavian background, yet Swedish and Danish aren't a part of any school curriculum that I'm aware of.


Learning Wampanoag for Thanksgiving

 The popular image of the "first" Thanksgiving is full of inaccuracies. 

With it being Thanksgiving time, I also can't help but reflect on the "first" Thanksgiving where the Pilgrims and American Indians from the Massachusett tribe shared a meal together. It's become popular as of late to be critical of portrayals of Europeans' and Indians' interactions from this time period. Take the picture above. The pilgrims didn't actually dress that way, and the Indians are actually dressed like Plains Indians, not like a tribe from New England. It makes about as much sense as if the painting of Washington crossing the Delaware featured everyone dressed as cowboys. Yes, there is criticism, but for many it seems that it doesn't go beyond sharing a few humorous memes on Facebook. 

As a language teacher, I have to ask myself why is it so few people are interested in learning any of the native languages of this country. I imagine many people would respond with how they simply wouldn't get any use out of it. After all, don't most Indians speak English? I've already addressed this issue of language utility in a previous post, and I simply don't buy it. Irish is a popular language for many Americans to learn, and pretty much everyone in Ireland speaks English. I believe that prestige, which has to do with our attitudes toward the speakers of the target language, is a major factor. If we have positive attitudes toward the original inhabitants of this country, it stands to reason that many of us would be interested in their languages and cultures as well. But I fear that we don't actually have a positive attitude toward native cultures, rather we incorrectly believe that we live in a postracist society where such things don't matter. I argue that such things very much do.

So for this Thanksgiving I gave myself the challenge to find five simple words in Massachusett (also called Wampanoag or Natick), the language that would have been spoken at the "first" Thanksgiving: Thanksgiving, potato, turkey, pumpkin, and corn. I am of course aware that none of these items would have been eaten at the "first" Thanksgiving, but I was hoping to use some of what I learned at my Thanksgiving dinner, and we will be serving turkey, not venison or eel.

I did some searching on the Internet to see what I could find. The first thing I found was that the Wampanoag language went extinct in the late 19th century. Let that sink in for a minute while you're preparing your meal today: The language spoken by the Indians at the "first" Thanksgiving died out over a century ago. If you're familiar with the sad history, then you know it wasn't because its speakers died of natural causes.

In 1993 it was revived and there are now roughly 400 people who can speak it as a second language. I found a little bit about the revival project at this website. I also found this dictionary that was written in 1903. I searched around and found that the word for turkey is néyhom and corn is weatchimín. Potato and pumpkin weren't in the dictionary. Thanksgiving is tabuttantamóonk, from tabuttantam, meaning to thank. Try saying that last one out loud and realize that you're speaking a dead man's tongue. It gives me chills.

What about Navajo or other American Indian languages?

I thought I'd try my luck with Navajo since it has the most native speakers of any American Indian language with about 200,000. It is also a language that every American should be grateful for thanks to its being used as a code during World War II. And sure enough, I was able to find a lot more materials to learn that language online. I liked this website quite a bit since it had different games and activities as well as audio clips of the words being pronounced. I couldn't find the names of any of the Thanksgiving foods, though it probably wouldn't have been appropriate since the Navajo are from the Southwest, not New England. Their languages are from two completely different language families (Algonquian in the case of Wompanaog, Athabaskan for Navajo). Trying to tie the Navajo into the "first" Thanksgiving story makes about as much sense as connecting Bulgarians to the signing of the Magna Carta.

One last place I went to look was the blog of the National Museum of the American Indian, which is part of the Smithsonian. Wouldn't you know that the first blog post on it was titled, "Do American Indians celebrate Thanksgiving?" It's written by a member of the Kiowa tribe, so he knows a lot more than I do since I'm just a guy who knows how to Google things. I highly recommend that you read it.

I recognize that my call for European Americans to learn an American Indian language is probably unrealistic, but I can't help but feel that an opportunity was missed when I was in school. When my family was stationed at an Air Force base in Turkey, someone came to our school once a week and taught us a little Turkish. Back here in the States, pretty much everyone learns a little bit of Spanish. Everyone knows uno, dos, tres, but why don't we know the same in any native language? I don't see why we can't all learn a little bit of Wampanoag, Navajo, Cherokee, or whatever the language of the tribe that used to or continues to populate whichever state you currently live in is, especially around days like Columbus Day or Thanksgiving.

Birthdays

I have dropped the ball, not only in maintaining this blog (obviously), but also as linguist. I wished a friend a happy birthday yesterday on Facebook, and her response was as follows:

So weird. Not in another language? Hmphhh. I'll expect a post to your blog regarding the best and worst birthday wishes in Hungarian, Basque, and Bermudan Cantonese in the near future...

Well, I can't say for Basque (since I don't speak it) or Bermudan Cantonese (since I don't think that exists), but I can certainly go over some different birthday customs in the different countries I've lived in.


Hungary

The way to wish someone a happy birthday in Hungary is Boldog születésnapot! Boldog just means happy, születés means birth, and nap means day. It's sometimes shortened to the less cumbersome Boldog szülinapot!

Hungarians will have birthday parties with cake and presents. The other tradition that I recall is someone comes and pulls your ear once for every year you are old (10 years old = 10 ear yanks).


The other thing of note is that they don't sing our version of the Birthday song. Instead, they sing this song, by children's song singer Judit Halász:

The chorus goes:

Boldog, boldog, boldog születésnapot
Kívánjuk, hogy legyen még sok ilyen szép napod,

Which translates to:

Happy, happy, happy birthday
We wish that you will have many other days that are as lovely. 

It is also worth mentioning that you would probably not celebrate your birthday at work or at school. Hungarians get to have birthdays but also névnapok (name days). Every name is assigned a certain day of the year (sometimes more than one, if the name is popular). The daily names are generally published in name calendars or even in the daily newspapers, so pretty much everyone knows them. It is far more common to celebrate this day with colleagues and classmates. You could look yours up here.


Argentina

I don't recall getting invited to lots of parties while living in Argentina. A quick Google search told me they also do the pulling on the earlobe thing. I also remember that like in most of Latin America, a girl's 15th birthday (her quinciñera) is a very big deal. So big in fact, that the South American equivalent of John Hughes made a movie called Dulce Quinciñera on the topic.

That last bit wasn't true, obviously; I'm just trying to fill up space since I genuinely don't know much on the topic. I do know that they sing the birthday melody most Americans would be more familiar with. To wish someone a happy birthday in Spanish, you say ¡Feliz Cumpleaños! The song is a little bit different and uses the phrase ¡Qué los cumplas feliz!, though sometimes they'll also sing Cumpleaños feliz to the same melody as well.


Qatar

Someone will have to correct me if I'm wrong, but Qataris generally do not celebrate birthdays. With that said, it's a very multicultural nation, so it really depends on where you came from originally and what customs you brought with you. I did a quick Google search just for "birthdays in Qatar,"  and I wasn't surprised to find most of the results were expatriate forums where someone was planning a birthday party for their child.

So how did I do? Did I get most of this right, or is anything missing? And what about any of you? Do you know of any birthday traditions in other countries that are worth sharing? Feel free to leave a comment below.

Horror in Any Language

To help you celebrate Halloween a bit better, I've compiled a list of foreign films that are either horror or just downright creepy. I asked my brother (who watches a lot more films than I do) to help me come up with this, and his blurbs are listed with his initials: BS (as opposed to mine, which are DS). This list is by no means meant to be exhaustive, but I think you'll find a lot to choose from here.

Some of these are silent films, and it would be a shame to leave them off the list just because there is no spoken foreign dialogue. Plus, if you can find a copy of any of these from the original country, then you should be able to read the intertitles in the target language. Many of these are available from the Criterion Collection on DVD (or Hulu). A good number of them are available on YouTube as well, if you look hard enough.

Figure de Cire (The Man with Wax Faces)
Director: Maurice Tourneur
Country: France, Language: Silent, Run time: 11 min, Year: 1914.

A quick tour through a wax museum ends badly. The available print is so damaged that the warped quality of the film seems to constantly invade the scene with ghosts from another dimension. BS


Умирающий лебедь (The Dying Swan)
Director: Yevgeni Bauer

Country: Russia, Language: Silent, Run time: 49 min, Year: 1917.

Ballerina makes tragic decision to join crazy, death-obsessed director's theater troupe. BS


Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari (The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari)
Director: Robert Wiene
Country: Germany, Language: Silent, Run time: 67 min, Year: 1920

For me, this film is all about the arresting expressionist visuals, but it is also about a murderous somnambulist, the doctor that pulls his strings, and madness. DS


Körkarlen (The Phantom Carriage)
Director: Victor Sjöström
Country: Sweden, Language: Silent, Run time: 93 min, Year: 1921

Last man to die during the year automatically has to take over the role of grim reaper for the next one. You would think that upon hearing this on New Year's Eve, the film's protagonist would try really hard not to die that day. Only then the movie would only be five minutes long. BS


Häxen (Häxen: Witchcraft Through the Ages)
Director: Benjamin Christensen
Country: Sweden, Language: Silent, Run time: 87 min, Year: 1922

A bizarre amalgam of history lesson, modern parable, and special effects extravaganza, Häxan frightens with vivid imagery as it presents its thesis on witchcraft, superstitions, and the occult through slideshow, visual essay, and spirited reenactments, drawing parallels with then (and often now) relevant social issues and pleading the case for reason in the face of inexplicable phenomena. BS


Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens (Nosferatu, a Symphony of Horror)
Director: F.W. Murnau
Country: Germany, Language: Silent, Run time: 81 min, Year: 1922

An unauthorized German-remake of Dracula with some all around frightening visuals. Plus, Western Slovakia stands in for Transylvania, with the Orava castle being used as Count Orlak's castle. DS


狂った一頁 (A Page of Madness)
Director: Teinosuke Kinugasa
Country: Japan, Language: Silent, Run time: 70 min, Year: 1926

One of the earliest known surviving Japanese films, a visual approximation of the mind of a madman. BS


La Chute de la Maison Usher (The Fall of the House of Usher) Director: Jean Epstein
Country: France, Language: Silent, Run time: 63 min, Year: 1928 

This version of the Edgar Allan Poe tale (the too loose adaptation of which prompted Luis Buñuel to quit as assistant director) is a slow-burning visual feast of spectral illusions and creepy creakings at the titular house of Usher, artfully evoking the trauma of watching a wife slip away into dementia and death, and all culminating in a transcendental, impressionistic maelstrom of fog, lights, and horror. BS


Vampyr 
Director: Carl Theodor Dreyer
Country: Germany, Language: German, but mostly intertitles, Run time: 75 min, Year: 1932

For having nominally created one of the great enduring classics of vampire lore, Dreyer seems less concerned with the mythology surrounding those rascally creatures of the night than with sustaining a general sense of dread that could easily be transplanted to a film devoted to any other class of ghoul. In fact, the subtitle to Murnau's Nosferatu may have been more apt here: A Symphony of Horror. BS


Une Nuit sur le Mont Chauve (Night on Bald Mountain)
Director: Alexander Alexeieff & Claire Parker
Country: France, Language: None, Run time: 8 min, Year: 1933

A pinscreen animation set to Mussorgsky's piece of the same name. BS


Der Student von Prag (The Student of Prague)
Director: Arthur Robison
Country: Germany, Language: German, Run time: 87 min, Year: 1935

Man comes to regret not having agreed to more precise terms in his deal with the devil. I love this movie so much. BS


Vredens Dag (Day of Wrath)
Director: Carl Theodor Dreyer
Country: Denmark, Language: Danish, Run time: 110 min, Year: 1943

In a small town in Denmark where accusations of witchcraft run rampant, an older pastor marries a young woman in exchange for not burning her mother at the stake. In true Dreyer fashion, the ending is as chilling as it is ambiguous. DS

Spalovač Mrtvol (The Cremator)
Director: Juraj Herz
Country: Czechoslovakia, Language: Czech, Run time: 95 min, Year: 1969

After the Nazis have occupied his Czech homeland, a smalltime funeral director is all too eager to prove to them his mettle. You seriously need to watch this movie right now. (There is a little adult content.) Also recommended is the same director's Morgiana. Also, Valerie and Her Week of Wonders is supposed to be a great Czech vampire film, though I haven't seen it yet. BS

La Femme qui se poudre (The Woman Who Powders Herself)
Director: Patrick Bokanowski

Country: France, Language: None, Run time: 18 min, Year: 1972

A catalogue of vaguely creepy Lynchian visuals, including, yes, a woman powdering herself. BS

La Cabina (The Telephone Box)
Director: Antonio Mercero
Country: Spain, Language: Spanish, Run time: 35 min, Year: 1972

Man gets trapped in phone booth, learns patience, is not rewarded for this. BS


Suspiria
Director: Dario Argento
Country: Italy, Language: English with some German and Russian, Run time: 92 min, Year: 1977

This one is technically a cheat since the movie is mostly in English. I'm allowing it though because Italian films back then dubbed all their dialogue anyway for the target market, even in English, so if you bought a copy of the Italian version, it would be just about the same, with the same overpowering prog-rock soundtrack to boot. Plus it features traveling to Europe to study, which seems fitting for this blog. The only thing is, the school in Suspiria also specializes in the occult. As such I imagine this incredibly gory film would probably be a more accurate representation of what Hogwarts would actually be like. DS


La Ville des Pirates (City of Pirates)
Director: Raul Ruiz
Country: France/ Portugal, Language: French, Run time: 111 min, Year: 1983

May or may not be just a dream that I had once, with actually little to no pirates. Assuming it exists, you seriously need to watch this movie right now. BS

Riget (The Kingdom)
Director: Lars von Trier
Country: Denmark, Language: Danish, Year: 1994 

This finally converted me over to von Trier. Delicious hospital-set horror comedy, somewhat episodic like Twin Peaks. BS

Outer Space 
Director: Peter Tscherkassky
Country: Austria, Run time: 10 min, Year: 2000

A slasher film where the victim is the film stock. BS

Låt den rätte komma in (Let the Right One In)
Director: Tomas Alfredson
Country: Sweden, Language: Swedish, Run time: 115 min, Year: 2008

This film features a young human and vampire following in love. One of the characters is a pale, lifeless looking female. Basically, what I'm trying to say is if you loved Twilight, I am going to force you to watch this movie. DS

Martyrs
Director: Pascal Laugier
Country: France, Language: French, Run time: 99 min, Year: 2008

My friend Alissa recommended this for me, but I haven't been able to see it yet. From what I can tell it is an incredibly bloody revenge horror thriller.

Katalin Varga
Director: Peter Strickland
Country: Romania, Languages: Hungarian and Romanian, Run time: 82 min, Year: 2009

More of a revenge thriller than a horror film, though the ending is quite horrific. Also, it still takes place in Transylvania, which is enough to earn it a spot on this list. DS

So that's our list. What are your thoughts? Is there anything we missed? Have you seen any of these? What's your opinion? Feel free to leave a comment, if you have.

Crisitunity

Crisitunity

Should the link above stop working due to its being removed from YouTube, there's an episode of the Simpsons where Lisa tells her father, Homer, that the Chinese word for "crisis" is the same as their word for "opportunity." Homer replies that he does know this, and the word is "crisitunity." Obviously, the portmanteau "crisitunity" is not actually a Chinese word, but how valid is Lisa's claim? After all, politicians and motivational speakers have been making this claim for years. Armed with a very basic knowledge of Chinese (and a little bit of help from this Wikipedia article), I decided to investigate, and found the word for crisis to be Wéijī. You can see the character for it in Figure 1.

 

Figure 1. Wéijī, meaning "crisis," with different elements colored.

Before analyzing this, if you'd like a quick review of how Chinese characters work, check out my previous post here. The first character,  wéi, is colored red and orange. The orange section means "danger" and is actually a picture of a person standing on the edge of a cliff. The orange part beneath it is also a picture of a figure crouching below. It doesn't get much more sinister than that. 

The second character is jī, which also has two components. The green character means "wood," which is why it kind of looks like a tree. The blue part is a picture of a small table. There is a nice idea here, that the wood is an opportunity to make a table. In traditional Chinese The second character would actually be a little bit different, 機. Instead of meaning "table" the second character here means "subtle," which I think provides an equally nice image, that some wood is a subtle opportunity to build something.

So I should probably say right here that this is not the word the Chinese use for "opportunity;" it means and only means "crisis." When you hear that they have the same word for both, you immediately think that it's one word with two meanings (like esperar in Spanish, which means both "to hope" and "to wait"). At the very least you'd hope they the two words were homographs, that is, two words with the same spelling but different meanings. Of course, I think most English speakers would think it odd if someone from another country claimed that Americans have the same word for flying mammals that only come out at night as for what athletes use to hit balls. So what exactly is the word for opportunity in Chinese? I have it below in Figure 2.

 

Figure 2. Jīhuì, meaning "opportunity," with different elements colored.

You will notice that the first character is exactly the same as the second character in wéijī. The second character, huì, generally has to do with meeting or assembling. So assembling your jī is the definition of an opportunity.

Those who argue that "crisis" and "opportunity" are the same word in Chinese point to jī, the common element in both of these words. They say that wéijī could essentially be considered a compound word, something along the lines of danger-opportunity. The problem with this is that jī by itself doesn't really mean opportunity. It also combines to form 机场 (Jīchǎng), which means "airport;" 机密 (Jīmì), which means "secret;" and even 机枪 (Jīqiāng), which means "machine gun." To say that the Chinese have the same word for crisis and opportunity makes about as much sense as saying that they have the same word for opportunity, airport, secret, machine gun, AND crisis. (Although now I realize in writing that sentence that I may just have been put on some kind of list by the TSA).

The second point is that just because a word has a similar root as another doesn't mean that those words have the same meaning, as guitarist Nigel Tufnel learned in This is Spinal Tap.

What's wrong with being sexy?

So as is often the case, know-it-all Lisa Simpson is just spouting information that isn't actually true (like when she claimed the Coriolis effect makes drains run the opposite direction in the Southern Hemisphere).

The Revolution Will Be on Film

 Lyukas Zászló - Revolutionary Flag with a Hole

On October 23, 1956 revolution broke out in Hungary. Students protested in the streets and cut the communist symbol out of their flags, leaving a hole in its place. At first it seemed a success, where chants of "Ruszkik Haza!" (Russians go home!) were met with the Russians actually going home. Imre Nagy, the prime minister, made plans for a new democratic government. It seemed like the tiny Hungary force had defeated the mighty Russian empire, until the Russians turned their tanks around the crushed the revolution with full force.

It's said that the revolution didn't fail, it just took several decades to succeed. Thirty-three years later, on October 23, 1989 communism officially fell in the country and the Third Hungarian Republic was declared. Since then it has been a national holiday and the subject of a number of films. For those who want to improve their Hungarian and celebrate the holiday as well, here is a review of some films dealing with the revolution or the communist era. If you were able to get a hold of all of these films, you could actually have a pretty decent (and fairly depressing) film festival. In reviewing them, I'll do my best to avoid spoilers, but it's kind of like avoiding spoilers in Titanic. You know the boat is going to sink in the end, and in the case of these films you know that the Russians are going to come back in the end.


Napló Gyermekeimnek (Diary for my Children)
Directed by: Márta Mészáros, 1984, 106 minutes.

Juli and János

I know this technically takes place a little bit before 1956, but I feel like it sets the stage well for what happens later. Also, it was the only of these films actually filmed during the communist period, at a time when criticism of Stalinism was more acceptable. It's also directed by one of Hungary's most famous directors, Mészáros Márta, who also directed a later movie on this list. It centers around Juli (Czinkóczki Zsuzsa), who is taken to her new adoptive family. Her father was an artist, and so he did not fare well when the communists came to power. Her new adoptive mother is Magda (Polony Anna), who is a ranking member of the communist party. Juli doesn't like her adoptive mother or the things she stands for and constantly misbehaves. She often ditches school to go to the cinema, and a lot of the film involves actual movie footage from the era (including an eerie propaganda piece where a party member chastises a music conductor for being too bourgeoisie).   Juli feels closer to János (Jan Nowicki), another member of the communist party, but who is an engineer and is less ideological than Magda or the other members of the party. 

There are some fantastic scenes in this film. One involves Juli going to a classmate's birthday party. The classmate's father is a high-ranking member in the party, and so no one everyone is a little on edge and afraid to enjoy themselves.

Napló Gyermekeimnek is available from Amazon in the US and UK. Since it was made in the communist era, there is no inappropriate language or violence.

Szabadság, Szerelem (literally "Freedom, Love"; Released as "Children of Glory")
Directed by: Goda Krisztina, 2006, 123 minutes.

 
Trailer with English Subtitles

Of all the films on the list, this seems the most like it could have been produced by Hollywood. This may be because several of Hollywood's Hungarians worked on the film. The screenplay was written by Joe Eszterhas (who also wrote Basic Instinct and Showgirls) and the film was produced by Andrew G. Vajna (who produced the Rambo and Terminator films). It also seems to follow the same formula as Titanic or Pearl Harbor in that it takes a historic event and frames an unlikely love story around it. In this case, our star-crossed lovers are Károly (Fenyő Iván), who plays for the national water polo team, and Viki (Dobó Kata), a student and leading member of the revolution. It also features Csányi Sándor as another water polo player, which is only worth mentioning since he's also in Kontroll, which is an awesome movie in its own right, but it has to do with subway ticket checkers, not the 1956 revolution, so I'll end this digression here.

The film starts at a water polo match in Russia, where the officiating is clearly rigged, so the Russians win. After the game, Károly gets in a fight with one of the Russians. Upon his return to Budapest, he is picked up by the ÁVO, the Hungarian secret police, where he basically gets a slap on the wrist and is told not to hit the Russians back. He later finds himself at the university at a student rally, where word of the uprising in Poland is given to the students. Viki gives a big speech and helps organize a solidarity march at Bém square (named for the Polish general who fought for Hungary in their 1848 revolution). At first, Károly is simply attracted to her, but he later becomes a full believer and participant in the revolution. Together they manage to find themselves at all the important events of the revolution; they go to Kossuth square in front of the parliament building and hear prime minister Nagy Imre's speech, and they are present when the ÁVO opens fire from the Hungarian Radio building. After fighting the Russians off, Károly goes back to his water polo team to prepare for the Olympics. When the Russians return, Viki is still in Budapest, but Károly is on his way to Melbourne (where he ultimately plays in the famous "Blood in the Water" match). Spoiler alert: Things end really well for only one of them.

Of all of these, I think this one is probably the best place to start for people who are not familiar with Eastern European cinema (since it feels more like a Hollywood production). It also provides the best overview of the revolution, making it again a good place to start. Still, I would actually say it's probably the weakest of all the films on this list.

Szabadság Szerelem is one of the easier of these films to get your hands on. It is available on Amazon in the US and the UK. It has several scenes of intense violence, some language not appropriate for children (since several of the main characters are water polo players), and a brief sex scene with female nudity.

A Nap Utcai Fiúk (The Sun Street Boys)
Directed by Szomjas György, 2007, 89 minutes.

The boys and Juli in front of the Nap Filmszínház

This film takes also takes place in the days following October 23, 1956, only it's much smaller in its scale than Children of Glory. It's the story of some boys from Pesterzsébet, an outer suburban district of the city. They hear about the revolution and want to join up so they can shoot Russians. They choose to defend a city block on Nap Utca (Sun Street) and make a movie theater on it their base.

Getting ready to light a Molotov cocktail

With nothing but guns and Molotov cocktails, they take down a Russian tank. As teenagers, they're very interested in the West, as seen by the fact that once the Russians leave, one of the first things they do is procure a copy of American rock music to dance to. When they're not defending the theater, they watch movies, including what appears to be a Stalinist propaganda film.

Gábor and Juli share a victory dance

The focus of the film is actually much more on the love triangle between Totya (Czecző Sándor), the leader of the group, Juli (Gáspár Kata, daughter of Bánsági Ildikó, who was Juli's actual mother in Diary for my Children), his girlfriend, and Gábor (Bárnai Péter), Totya's best friend and the narrator of the film. The film has more to do with their relationships than water polo matches or the fall of Budapest.

A Nap Utcai Fiúk is not available on Amazon. It could be purchased and shipped from Hungary directly from this website. It has some scenes of violence, but they aren't as bloody as Szabadság, Szerelem. There is some inappropriate language, which is to be expected from teenagers.    


A Temetetlen Halott (The Unburied Dead)
Directed by Mészáros Márta, 2004, 127 minutes

Nagy Imre in solitary confinement

I actually saw this one in the theater when I first lived in Hungary, since they took all of the seniors at the school I worked at to see it. There were no English subtitles, and my Hungarian at the time was very weak. In addition, at the time I really didn't know anything about the 1956 revolution, so I couldn't fall back on previous knowledge to follow the movie. A Temetetlen Halott focuses entirely on Nagy Imre (Jan Nowicki, who also played János in Diary for my Children), who became prime minister of Hungary during the brief period when they were free from the Russians. The film starts with his giving a speech at the window of the parliament building to the excited crowd on the evening of October 23, 1956. His plans for the government are foiled when the Russians return, and he and his families take refuge in the Yugoslav embassy (which still stands in Budapest off of Heroes square as the Serbian embassy). A deal is made with the Russians where he believes they'll let them all go home. Instead, he is taken from his family.   

The new Russian-approved government needs a scapegoat for the revolution, and they choose Nagy to take the fall. A good portion of the movie consists of interviews and a show trial where they try to prove that Nagy was responsible for the rebellion, but he holds firm throughout.

A Temetetlen Halott is available from a third seller on Amazon in the US. There's really no violence or inappropriate language, though like all of these films, it really isn't appropriate for children.


Moszkva Tér (Moszkva Square)
Directed by Török Ferenc, 2001, 88 minutes

One of the most important squares in Buda is Moszkva square, or Moscow square. At least it was. In 2011 the government changed the name back to its precommunist name, Szell Kálmán square. This was especially confusing the last time I was in Budapest on a bus I thought was going to Moszkva square, but then I couldn't find the stop anywhere on the train schedule.

Buli, csajok, verda - Party, girls, cars

In the film, Moszkva square is where a group of high school students hang out in 1989, just a few months before communism comes to an end in Hungary. History is happening all around them, but they're too interested in girls, cars (even if it's the cheapest, ugliest car they can get) drinking, making money by forging train tickets to the West, and cheating in school to even notice. And speaking of history, they're all in history class together. In one of the opening scenes their teacher informs them that on the exit exams the years of the communist era won't be covered. Holding up the textbook he says, "There are a lot of good things in this book, but strictly speaking, most of it is not true." Later, there's a great scene where they're all watching the news, and it's reported that Nagy Imre is going to be re-interred. None of them knows who Nagy Imre is, and one suggests that he might be related to Nagy Lajos (who was king of Hungary in the early 14th century).

Petya and Zsófi

The film's main protagonist is Petya (Karalyos Gábor) who is also romantically interested in his classmate Zsófi (Balla Eszter, who is also in Kontroll), and both are very good in the film. I also really like how much of the film takes place in a school, since it reminds me a lot of the two years I spent working in schools in Hungary.

Unfortunately, I cannot find any place that will import this film to the US. I did see a copy of the entire film on YouTube, but it doesn't have English subtitles. There really isn't any violence, but there is a lot of teenage drinking, plenty of language my mother wouldn't approve of (it would be a good primer for learning Hungarian profanities), and some nudity. 

Bear in my mind that nearly all those are going to be Region 2 DVDs, and so you would need a player that is capable of playing it.

Another film option would be the documentary Freedom's Fury (2007), which is about the aforementioned blood in the water match. I haven't seen, so I can't review it. What about you? If you've seen any of these films, what do you think? Are there any that are missing from the list? As always, feel free to leave a comment. 

Ngram Viewer

Something I've been playing on entirely too much (instead of doing work) is Google's Ngram viewer. What this does is lets you compare words from the corpus of your choice (i.e., search millions of books) over the past 200 years. You can choose the corpus of American English or British English, and I've found the differences to be fairly interesting. For example, in American English, we spell the word "color," while the British spell it "colour." The results are too wide to post here (but you can see the whole chart here). I've posted the relevant section below in Figure 1:

 

Figure 1. Colour (red line) versus color (blue line) in American English.

The red line represents use of the spelling "colour," while the blue is the now standard American English "color." We can see that previous to, say, around 1845, "colour" was the more dominant spelling in American English. After that, it changed over to without the "u."

Another one I tried was the difference between "math" and "maths" in British English. As some of you might be aware, the British generally shorten the word "mathematics" to "maths." I've had it explained to me that they do this because mathematics ends in an "s" and so must obviously be plural (like in "physics," "linguistics," or "Christmas," hey, wait a second...). How long has this been the case? I got the following results here and posted the relevant section to Figure 2.

  

Figure 2. Maths (red line) versus math (blue line) in British English.

Two things are of interest here. First, previous to the 1970s or so, there wasn't a lot of usage of either word in writing, but in general math was the preferred form of the two. Then "maths" overtook "math" as the standard form around the 1970s (around when people became confused about how plurals work).

You can also use the Ngram viewer to test for other languages, though I couldn't think of as many interesting queries. I decided to try the words "escoger" and "elegir" in Spanish. They both basically mean "to choose," only that "elegir" is preferred in Latin America since "escoger" sounds a little bit like an obscenity in their dialect (at least this was the case when I lived in Argentina). The results (found here) do show that, in general, "elegir" has been the preferred word over time.

I've done some other ones I found to be fairly fun. Like soccer versus football in British English, or cricket versus baseball in American English. I know the later two aren't synonyms, but the chart is still interesting because you can see pretty much the exact point when baseball overtook cricket in popularity in the United States.

And with that raise of the finger, cricket in America was given out for a duck.

So check it out and have fun with it. If you find anything interesting, feel free to share it with others in the comments section.