Follow the jump links to learn more about Hungary:
Lifestyle and Family Living
Teen Life
Dress and Appearance
Diet and Meals
Educational System
Geography and Climate
Population
Language
Government
Religion
Spending Money
Safety and Support
Fun Facts
Lifestyle and Family Living
Hungarians are very independent and value human rights. However, families are traditional in their ways and maintain a rather patriarchal family structure. Parents are usually protective of their children. Everyone shares in the housework, and families enjoy spending time together on the weekends.
Students are generally placed in towns. Public transportation is good in Hungary, and monthly transit passes are paid for by AFS Hungary. Teenagers are expected to inform their parents where and when they are going out.
Hungarian host families, like all AFS host families worldwide, are volunteers and are not paid. They open their homes to students in order to share their community and culture as well as to enrich their own family lives.
Teen Life
Like teenagers everywhere, Hungarian young people enjoy spending their weekends visiting friends, going to movies and hanging out in the local café.
School or community organizations offer activities such as sports, drama, folk dance and music clubs, and you will be welcome to participate in any that you choose.
Soccer, basketball and volleyball are popular sports. You can also ask your host family or local volunteer about local community service organizations.
Getting involved in any of these activities is a great way to learn more about your community and to make new friends.
Dress and Appearance
Hungarian teenagers like to dress casually; they wear T-shirts and jeans.
For the winter months, you will need a warm waterproof coat, heavy boots, sweaters, mittens and warm socks. As temperatures in different buildings tend to vary in the winter, it is best to wear clothes you can layer to adjust to varying temperatures.
For special occasions, more formal dress is expected: for girls a dress or blouse and skirt; for boys a jacket, slacks and tie.
Diet and Meals
It is said that the Hungarian kitchen is the third best after the French and the Chinese. Culinary habits are changing now, so the food is lighter than in the past but without losing its great flavors.
Typical Hungarian dishes tend to be hearty. A traditional favorite is goulash, a soup with meat, potatoes, onions and paprika; another is pörkölt, a stew. Paprika and other spices and sauces are used in many dishes.
Side dishes include noodles, potatoes and dumplings. There is a wide variety of bread and pastries. Soups are common and usually accompany both lunch and dinner.
Hungarian salami and sausages known as kolbász are well known. Characteristically Hungarian products and specialties are smoked ham and goose liver, stuffed cabbage, paprika chicken, roast pig, roast duck, letcho (mixed sweet stewed paprika and tomatoes), sour-cherry strudel, a sweet appetizer known as vargabéles, and a fish soup, halászlé.
It is considered inappropriate for individuals to request special foods, to prepare separate food for themselves or to raid the refrigerator.
Educational System
School is probably the best place for you to meet people and make friends during your time in Hungary. AFS students attend public schools with classmates their own age. Hungarian students take their studies seriously and work hard toward their fourth-year final exams, which are important for college admissions. You will be able to take the courses your school offers to you, but Hungarian and foreign language courses are required.
The school year runs from the beginning of September to early June and is divided into two semesters. Classes are held Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Schools can provide some extra activities such as school trips, sport and games, choir, arts or theater. Uniforms are usually not worn.
While it may be possible to obtain academic credit for the coursework you successfully complete while abroad, AFS cannot guarantee this. Please discuss your plans with your school before you go abroad.
Geography and Climate
Hungary is approximately the same size as Portugal. It is located in the geographic center of the European continent and is bordered by the Slovakia on the north, Austria on the west, Ukraine and Romania on the east and Slovenia, Croatia and Yugoslavia on the south.
It is generally a land of flat plains with hill country around the Danube River. Hungary is surrounded by some of the great mountain ranges of Europe. For this reason Hungary has historically been the route for trade and ethnic migrations between Asia and Western Europe.
The climate is moderate. Winters may be very cold and snowy (average temperatures around – 1°C/30°F). In summer, the weather is warm and can be hot.
In the Hungarian puszta (plain), it is possible to observe native animals and learn about ethnographic traditions.
Population
Hungary’s population is approximately 10 million. Budapest, the capital, has a population of 1.8 million. The ethnic structure of the country is Hungarian 92%, Roma 1.9%,and German, Serb, Slovak, Romanian and others making up the rest.
For more than 100 years, Hungarians streamed out into the world to find new lives, driven by ambitions and pushed by wars, political persecution and economic disasters. Now an estimated five million people who consider themselves Hungarian live outside the country. Generations still keep their roots and memories alive connected through numerous international and national organizations.
Language
The official language is Magyar, also known as Hungarian.
Government
Hungary is a republic with legislative powers invested in a unicameral National Assembly. The National Assembly elects the president.
Religion
Half of Hungarians are Roman Catholic. Calvinists, Lutherans and Jews make up most of the rest.
Spending Money
The Forint is the official currency in Hungary.
Your program and country information packet (provided in the months prior to your departure) will give you an idea of how much spending money is appropriate and whether you should arrive with any amount of the local currency in hand.
Host families pay only for ordinary family events in which you are expected to participate. When you do such things as shopping for yourself or going out with friends, the expenses are your responsibility. Depending on the cost of living in your host country, we recommend you budget about $100-$300 per month.
Remember: never travel with large amounts of cash. Instead, bring travelers checks or follow the advice in the country and program information packet. Another option for obtaining money while overseas is to use a debit card linked to a checking account back home (but try not to use a debit card for daily purchases since there are ATM and currency exchange fees). Or, you can transfer money using wiring services such as Western Union.
You and your parents should determine a budget and preferred money transfer plan before you depart so that you are not caught without spending money while abroad.
Be conscientious of your spending since conspicuous consumption may not be viewed favorably and spending more than your peers and family may create a distance between you and them.
Safety and Support
AFS has the utmost concern for the welfare, safety, and security of our participants. We’ve been exchanging participants throughout the world for 60 years—that’s six decades of history and experience in international education with an exemplary record of safety, security, and service.
AFS maintains a network of experienced staff and trained volunteers who provide support in each country. In the event of an emergency, 24-hour assistance is available to students, their parents, and the host families. Furthermore, your AFS tuition includes comprehensive medical insurance coverage to ensure that medical care is available to our participants anywhere in the world and at all times.
While we have the above support structures in place, we also encourage you to take responsibility for your own safety and we give you the guidance to do so. Many of the AFS orientation activities, both at home and abroad, are intended to give you the tools to stay safe. We also provide country-specific safety tips to each participant prior to departure.
Learn more about the AFS safety and support network.
Fun Facts
- Hungarians became familiar with their popular spice Paprika through the Turks; by the 16th century, it was grown in Hungary as a medicine.
- Rubik’s Cube, patented by Ernõ Rubik, became an international hit, being named Toy of the Year in the United Kingdom in 1980. If someone wanted to try every possible combination while making a turn once a second, finding the 43,252,003,274,489,856,000 combinations would take 14 billion years.
- Kocsi (coach) is one of the few Hungarian words that has been adopted by nearly all other European languages (coach, kutsche, coccio, coche, etc.). The name of the vehicle goes back to the village of Kocs in Komárom-Esztergom County.
- The ballpoint pen was invented by József László Bíró, a Hungarian journalist in 1938. In Argentina, where he died, he was so famous that Inventors’ Day is celebrated on his birthday (September 29).
- Vitamin C is highly concentrated in green paprika. Albert Szentgyörgyi, the Nobel Prize-winning Hungarian scientist, did research in biological oxidation and found the concentration. This result made possible the production of vitamin C in large quantities.
- Other famous contemporary Hungarians include Andrew Vajna (producer of many Hollywood movies including Terminator 3), Andrew Grove (founder of Intel), George Soros (stock exchange guru) and John Neumann (computer, game theory).
