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Hungarian - January challenge thread

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maxval
Pentaglot
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Bulgaria
maxval.co.nr
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 Message 401 of 1549
04 April 2011 at 1:14pm | IP Logged 
hribecek wrote:

When I'm in England and I tell people that I live in the Czech Republic, probably at least 75% look at me with a puzzled and wondering look in their eye, either thinking 'what's that?' or 'wow, you're brave'.

I always find it strange too that even most young English people call it Czechoslovakia even though they were born AFTER the 2 countries seperated!


In Hungary it was the opposite. Many people called Czechoslovakia as "Csehország", and some people continued calling after 1993 SLOVAKIA as "Csehország" too.

Political geography has been one of my favorite subjects since my childhood, I was able to list the capitals of all countries of the world as a child. Even now I am able to do this in the case of 95 % of the countries. I forgot only a few capitals in Africa and Oceania... :-)

My knowledge in this subject can be considered as very good. Until the last year I was an editor in the Hungarian Wikipedia, and all country listing there are my work. Now I work only for the Bulgarian Wikipedia, and there all country listings are 90 % my work too. So it is always strange for me that so many people lack even basic geographic knowledge. For example, two thirds of the Hungarians think that England is the same as the United Kingdom. Other people have never heard about Northern Ireland, thinking it is not a part of the UK. Not speaking about less known facts! When I tell to people that the Isle of Man is not part of England, and not even of the United Kingdom, they dont believe.

There are some facts that almost all the people know wrongly! One interesting example. Many people know that the French Emperor Napoleon I after his defeat at Waterloo was exiled to Saint Helena Island. But in Hungary 95 % of the people think Saint Helena is in the Mediterrenean Sea. When saying them that it is in the Atlantic Ocean between South America and Africa, they find this fact strange. I am sure in the UK 95 % of the people know where is Saint Helena, as this is a British related fact.


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maxval
Pentaglot
Senior Member
Bulgaria
maxval.co.nr
Joined 5073 days ago

852 posts - 1577 votes 
Speaks: Hungarian*, Bulgarian, English, Spanish, Russian
Studies: Latin, Modern Hebrew

 
 Message 402 of 1549
04 April 2011 at 1:17pm | IP Logged 
Chung wrote:
Nem értem teljesen a hatodik vicc csattanóját



Felirat a falon: LENIN MEGHALT, DE ÜGYE ÉL!

Egy járókelő: - Akkor már inkább maradt volna életben...



Azt jelenti, hogy akkor már inkább maradt volna életben, minthogy az "ügye" folytatódjon.
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maxval
Pentaglot
Senior Member
Bulgaria
maxval.co.nr
Joined 5073 days ago

852 posts - 1577 votes 
Speaks: Hungarian*, Bulgarian, English, Spanish, Russian
Studies: Latin, Modern Hebrew

 
 Message 403 of 1549
04 April 2011 at 1:49pm | IP Logged 
hribecek wrote:

Nem értem a szám 1, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12 és 15. Néha értem a szavakat, de nem értem a viccelt.




1.
- Tudomány-e a marxizmus-leninizmus?
- Nem. Ha az lenne, először állatkísérleteket végeztek volna.


- Is Marxism-Leninism a science?
- No. If it was a science, they would have conducted tests on animals first.


The joke is based on the following. In the communist regime, the communist ideology (officially called "Marxism-Leninism" after the death of Lenin) was considered oficially not just an ideology, but a SCIENCE, an even the only perfect social science. So people didnt need to "believe" in Marxism, they just had to accept it as "scientifically proven".



7.
A pokolban:
- Hogy lehet, hogy Hitler nyakig áll a sárban, Sztálin viszont csak derékig?
- Mert Sztálin Lenin vállán áll.


This is comparing Stalin and Hitler. The message of the joke is that Stalin is a continuation of Lenin, and not a separate person. The joke is from the 1960s. After the death of Stalin, there was a "destalinization" process in the Soviet Union, this process meant that the ideas of Lenin were good, but Stalin made unacceptable changes to the communist ideology, this is why after Stalin the Communist Party "restored" the ideas of Lenin, cleaning the ideology from the "deviations" of Stalin. This was the official communist ideology after the death of Stalin in the Soviet Union, and in Hungary too. But this was in reality a false propaganda. In reality Stalin made only a few changes to the communist ideology, and the whole system of the Soviet Union was invented and implemented by Lenin, and not by Stalin. Stalin was only a follower of Lenin, and in reality ha didnt mad any significant changes.

Most Western communist parties were also followers of this "anti-Stalinist" communism in 1960-1980. In reality this was a big lie. Even now most communist parties of the world are of this type, they consider Marx and Lenin "good guys" and Stalin as a "bad guy".

(I need to say in order to be fair that there is also a communist minority that doest accept Lenin either. They are anti-Leninist communists who consider that Lenin was not a true follower of the ideas of Marx.)



8.
Sztálin idejében pályázatot hirdetnek egy új, Moszkva központjában felállítandó Puskin-szoborra. Személyesen Sztálin elvtárs bírálja el a műveket.
Első mű: Sztálin elvtárs, kezében Puskin-kötettel.
Sztálin: - Ez történelmileg helyes mű, de nem jó a politikai üzenete.
Második mű: Puskin, kezében Sztálin-kötettel.
Sztálin: - Ennek megfelelő a politikai üzenete, de történelmileg helytelen.
Végül a győztes mű: Sztálin, kezében Sztálin-kötettel.



In the communism era the most important was the ideological purity. This is the base of this joke.



9.
Moszkvai óvodások kimennek sétálni a parkba. Találnak egy sündisznót az egyik bokor alatt.
A tanítónéni megjegyzi:
- Látjátok gyerekek? Ugye felismeritek? Hiszen több dalt is tanultunk már róla!
Az egyik gyerek lehajol a sünihez, közelről ránéz:
- Sosem gondoltam volna, hogy így nézel ki, Vlagyimir Iljics!


A group of children from a Moscow kindergarten go out to the park. They find a hedgehog at a bush in the park.
The childrens teacher says:
- Do you see it? Do you recognize it? Surely you do, we had learned many songs about it already.
One child leans his head near to the hedgehog and says:
- I haver never thought that you looked like that, Vladimir Ilich!


In the communist regime ideological education began at the kindergarten. So the children surely learned also songs about animals, including hedgehogs, but the main part of the education was ideological and political, maybe in the form of some stupid tales about Lenin (Vladimir Ilich Lenin) and other stuff of this kind. So when the teacher says that they have learned many songs about it, the child thinks they are songs about Lenin, and he decides the the strange creature found at the bush is probably Lenin.

I tried to tell this joke many times to Americans, and no one understood it. Even after giving explanations, they looked at me strange and asked "and where is the joke here?".

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maxval
Pentaglot
Senior Member
Bulgaria
maxval.co.nr
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852 posts - 1577 votes 
Speaks: Hungarian*, Bulgarian, English, Spanish, Russian
Studies: Latin, Modern Hebrew

 
 Message 404 of 1549
04 April 2011 at 2:14pm | IP Logged 
hribecek wrote:


Nem értem a szám 1, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12 és 15.



12.
Egy kérdés, melyre a jereváni rádió nem tudott választ adni:
- Ha az egész világon győz a szocializmust, honnan fog a Szovjetúnió búzát vásárolni?





This is about the fact that the Soviet Unions economy, and specially the agriculture was functioning so bad, that they had to import even grain from abroad. This was a real shame, as the best grain soils in the world are in the territory of todays Ukraine and South Russia. And they had many more agricultural soil than any other country in the world. But communist economy was functioning so badly, that they couldnt produce enough grain even for their own needs. So the Soviet Union bought wheat every year from abroad, mainly from the USA.


There was even an other Soviet joke about this. In English:
- What is the state motto of the American state Kansas?
- "Land of the wheat of the Soviet Union".


And a similar joke. This was told even by US president Ronald Reagan at a press conference! Reagan liked very much Soviet jokes, and he knew a lot of them.

A lark flies from the Soviet Union to Finland.
A Finnish lark asks the Russian lark:
- Why did you come? Is there hunger in the Soviet Union?
- Hunger? Are you joking? There is no other country in the world where people waste so much grain as in the Soviet Union, so there is always plenty of grains for us, larks.
- Then why did you come?
- I wanted to sing.


Search in You Tube with the keywords "Ronald Regan" and "Soviet jokes"! Now I cant give you a link, as I am in the office, and You Tube is banned by the system administrator... :-)
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hribecek
Triglot
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Czech Republic
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 Message 405 of 1549
04 April 2011 at 2:35pm | IP Logged 
maxval wrote:

Political geography has been one of my favorite subjects since my childhood, I was able to list the capitals of all countries of the world as a child. Even now I am able to do this in the case of 95 % of the countries. I forgot only a few capitals in Africa and Oceania... :-)


This has always been my own little party trick too! I was obsessed with knowing where every country was and what the capital was. Just like you I've now forgotten quite a lot of the African and Oceanian ones.

I used to be able to name all of the American states in under a minute too! I would just need to review them a bit to be able to do it again.
maxval wrote:

I am sure in the UK 95 % of the people know where is Saint Helena, as this is a British related fact.


Terrible Geographical knowledge in England (I shouldn't speak for the rest of the UK) extends to British related facts too! 99% of people wouldn't know where St. Helena is and maybe even the same percentage wouldn't even know it exists!

A high percentage would also know nothing about the Isle of Man, only maybe that it exists somewhere.

English people as a generalistation only know what they need to know to survive in terms of Geography, so knowledge of the rest of the world is restricted to France because it's just across the channel, some Spanish islands and coastal resorts, the USA and Australia because the USA is always on the TV and a lot of English people have relatives or friends in Australia.

I've met people who've been to Prague for example but didn't know which country it was in! They just went there for a stag weekend and the only important thing was alcohol!

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maxval
Pentaglot
Senior Member
Bulgaria
maxval.co.nr
Joined 5073 days ago

852 posts - 1577 votes 
Speaks: Hungarian*, Bulgarian, English, Spanish, Russian
Studies: Latin, Modern Hebrew

 
 Message 406 of 1549
04 April 2011 at 3:16pm | IP Logged 
hribecek wrote:

I've met people who've been to Prague for example but didn't know which country it was in! They just went there for a stag weekend and the only important thing was alcohol!


This happens in Bulgaria too, at the Black Sea. There are many "alcohol tourists" who come only because of the cheap alcohol. Some of them want also "girls". You can even find FEMALE alcohol tourists seeking men. There is a special category of Bulgarian guys who "work"

There are two main categories: Scandinavians and British. The British are worse! Why? Because Scandinavians just sit at a table and drink all the day, then sleep, and after waking up, drink again. So usually they dont do any trouble, they are silent drinkers, usually they dont want even sex, just a box with bottles of vodka is enough. British guys (usually 18-22 years old) want more "experiences", this includes not only drinking and having sex, but also singing loudly all the night, getting involved in interesting scandals, "fighting" with other people, and so on. Bulgarian newspapers call these type of tourists as "English football hooligans".
2 persons have voted this message useful



maxval
Pentaglot
Senior Member
Bulgaria
maxval.co.nr
Joined 5073 days ago

852 posts - 1577 votes 
Speaks: Hungarian*, Bulgarian, English, Spanish, Russian
Studies: Latin, Modern Hebrew

 
 Message 407 of 1549
04 April 2011 at 3:21pm | IP Logged 
hribecek wrote:

This has always been my own little party trick too! I was obsessed with knowing where every country was and what the capital was. Just like you I've now forgotten quite a lot of the African and Oceanian ones.

I used to be able to name all of the American states in under a minute too! I would just need to review them a bit to be able to do it again.


I know even now all the countries where are they, this is not a problem. I have trouble only with the capitals. Maybe there are 5-10 % when I dont know the capital.

I didnt try with US states. Probably I can name at least 45 of the 50 states in 3 minutes, BUT without the capitals. I know only a few of their capitals.


1 person has voted this message useful



maxval
Pentaglot
Senior Member
Bulgaria
maxval.co.nr
Joined 5073 days ago

852 posts - 1577 votes 
Speaks: Hungarian*, Bulgarian, English, Spanish, Russian
Studies: Latin, Modern Hebrew

 
 Message 408 of 1549
04 April 2011 at 3:29pm | IP Logged 
hribecek wrote:

Terrible Geographical knowledge in England (I shouldn't speak for the rest of the UK) extends to British related facts too! 99% of people wouldn't know where St. Helena is and maybe even the same percentage wouldn't even know it exists!


This is strange. How is it possible that a British person who went to a British school doesnt know where are the British overseas territories? They are not so many, only 14 (or 13 if we dont count the BAT as its only "de iure", not "de facto"). I understand if an American or a German or a Hungarian doesnt know this, but if a British doesnt know, this is very strange.


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