I saw the above sign at the railway station counter. It explains in Hungarian how Ukrainian refugees can get free tickets on trains in Hungary. Thank you for these free tickets, but why is this information in Hungarian only? An information which is only relevant for Ukrainians? While I was buying my train ticket to Vienna at the Budapest Nyugati station some Ukrainian refugees arrived. They came with their interpreter, logically, otherwise they would be lost.

I had a similar experience recently at a Shell fuel station. There were signs indicating to foreign drivers that they have to pay a higher fuel price and these signs were only in Hungarian. “Köszönöm!”

I have seen Hungarian only signs at major tourist spots and then you have all the tourist taking pictures of the signs and translating them with Google translate, so that they understand what they are actually looking at.

In many Hungarian shops the sales people do not even know at least 20 basic words in English like the colours and “too big or too small” or “price”?

It is only consequent that the Hungarian government is waiving the language exam requirement for diplomas starting from 2024. Hungarian language, what else?! English? “Nem kell!”…means “Not needed!”

As headhunters we know that English language knowledge is the entrance ticket to a nice job and a good career. We also know from experience that the same job (for example Chief Accountant) with English pays double salary compared to local language only. So, you can double your salary by knowing English or German. Why would you not encourage everybody to learn English and other foreign languages? The answer is obvious, but I let you give it yourself.

Klemens Wersonig
Founder & CEO
TARGET Executive Search Group