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Hungarian - January challenge thread | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Multilingual Lounge |  | |
| hribecek Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5349 days ago 1243 posts - 1458 votes  Speaks: English*, Czech, Spanish Studies: Italian, Polish, Slovak, Hungarian, Toki Pona, Russian | Message 385 of 1549 03 April 2011 at 5:30pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Ez nagyon, nagyon érdekes. Mondj többet, ha akarsz.
I found it really awe-inspiring when I went to železná ruda in the Czech Republic and saw the old border post with West Germany; it's huge but now it's eerily empty with lots of derelict buildings, like a ghost town. I'd love to know what the border posts and borders were like between for example the Soviet Union and Finland or Norway. 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 386 of 1549 03 April 2011 at 5:31pm | IP Logged | |||||
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About the Berlin Wall. This photo is the border control from the East 40 meters before it, the photo is not very good as taking photos was not allowed... :-))) And this photo is the border control, photo taken from the West, standing on the "white line" (the border between the Western and the Soviet zones) just at the sign "You are leaving the American sector" (see at http://images.travelpod.com/users/tumbleweedxng/1.1202594820 .you-are-leaving-the-american-sector.jpg - this is NOT my photo). The first two photos are mine, I took them in 1984, when traveling to East and West Berlin.
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| Kisfroccs Bilingual Pentaglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 5409 days ago 388 posts - 549 votes Speaks: French*, German*, EnglishC1, Swiss-German, Hungarian Studies: Italian, Serbo-Croatian | Message 387 of 1549 03 April 2011 at 5:35pm | IP Logged | |||||
If you read my post, you will see that I meant indeed "communism" influence, not russian. :). Never mind, please, I find your stories really interesting, and I knew what you were saying, apart that the Russian were not to be "seen" in Hungary. But I knew they left 1991. But then again, if there wasn't my boyfriend, I wouldn't know all of what you said. In Switzerland they hardly teach all of this stuff. It was up to me to read literature, go to museum in Hungary, Czech Republic, to speak with persons who had witnessed all these things (my Russian teacher - I hardly know two or three words - told me a lot about how it was in Armenia...) . And I'm far from knowledgeable ! But again, it shows the general indifference the western world has for eastern europe, apart "partying" in Prag and beautiful girls in Hungary and east Europa. (I have to agree, there are more beauties there than in Switzerland - don't know why :)). I find your history, the fate and twist of history really interesting and fascinating. People seems to believe there are only twats (sorry for the word !) in eastern Europe and they are worthless. Just look at the reaction in Switzerland for "east european nurses" / "Romania and Bulgarian entry in the European Union", "the Balkan emmigrants" etc. In a way it revolts me. 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 388 of 1549 03 April 2011 at 5:59pm | IP Logged | |||||
I have a funny story about Berlin from 1984. I had with me a golden coin, I went to a West German bank and sold the coin, and then I went to a computer shop to buy a computer. I bought the computer. There was a German (West German) law that every foreigner had right to ask back the 14 % value added tax of goods purchased in Germany when leaving the country. So when going back to East Berlin, I stopped at the borders western side. There was no border control from the Western part, as the West Germany and the USA, UK and France didnt recognize the border. There was only a kind of cabin with a West German customs officer inside. He had no right to stop anyone or ask questions, as in a legal sense they didnt not recognize the border, but he was there for "information", if someone asks something. So I went to him asking in bad English how could I get back the 14 % value added tax? He replied in even worse English, so we understood each other perfectly... :-) He asked what I was carrying? I answered "a computer". Then he said "do you have a written permit issued by the High Command of the Allied Forces in Berlin, for the exportation of high tech technology into the Soviet zone?". I said this was an ordinary computer bought in a computer shop, not a nuclear device smuggled from a military base. He said "I know what is it, but it seems that you dont know that this item is qualified as a high tech product of possible military purpose and it is banned for export to the Eastern Block". I asked then how could I get a permit. "You will never get it, but you can try visiting the High Command of the Allied Forces in Berlin". I asked "what is your advice, what to do?". He smiled: "continue going with your computer into East Berlin without asking back the 14 % value added tax". 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 389 of 1549 03 April 2011 at 6:31pm | IP Logged | |||||
Even the Austrian-Hungarian border at Hegyeshalom before the summer of 1989 looked like a fortress with anti-tank obstacles, so you can imagine how looked like the Soviet-Norway border, Norway being a NATO member country! In the Soviet Union there was a 50 km wide "border zone" even on the borders with Czechoslovakia, Poland and Hungary - countries that were de facto under Soviet occupation!!! Ordinary Soviet citizens needed a special permit to enter the "border zone". And you needed a good reason for asking such a permit, saying "I want to go there on my vacation" was not an acceptable reason, you needed a family member living there or a friend with a written invitation for you. The same was in Bulgaria, on the Greek and the Turkish border there was a "border zone" wide between 10-15 kms. On the Yugoslavian and the Romanian border it was only 1 km wide. When I was at the Bulgarian Black See in 1987, we tried to go to the south, but were stopped by border guards 15 kms before the Turkish border. You needed a special "entry to the border zone" permit, only people having permanent residence in the border zone were exempted. But if, for example, your mother was living in the border zone, you as a son still needed a permit for every time you wanted to visit her, if you were not living there. It was officially abolished in 1991, but de facto control ceased in the end of 1989. So for us the new situation is a total change! 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 390 of 1549 03 April 2011 at 6:46pm | IP Logged | |||||
In Cuba, 25 years ago a Czech friend of mine met a group of Canadian tourists. They talked a little bit, and then a Canadian asked my friend "so you are from Prague, tell me please, is there electricity in Prague or you use only candles?". 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Kisfroccs Bilingual Pentaglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 5409 days ago 388 posts - 549 votes Speaks: French*, German*, EnglishC1, Swiss-German, Hungarian Studies: Italian, Serbo-Croatian | Message 391 of 1549 03 April 2011 at 6:55pm | IP Logged | |||||
:D, of course candles ;) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| hribecek Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5349 days ago 1243 posts - 1458 votes Speaks: English*, Czech, Spanish Studies: Italian, Polish, Slovak, Hungarian, Toki Pona, Russian | Message 392 of 1549 03 April 2011 at 7:27pm | IP Logged | |||||
My mum asked me this same question when I was planning to move to the Czech Republic in 2005! And when I had my wedding here in 2007, lots of my relatives who were coming asked me questions about security on the streets and if there's modern technology etc. Westerners STILL imagine Eastern Europe as being some sort of backward, bleak and dangerous place. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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