Joining the Hungarian Group

We were late.. as usual, I'm a teriible time keeper. But because of this all the doors into the building for the Hungarian Group were locked. It's the oldest building in town and a labyrinth of courtyards, corridors and staircases, We've never been there before.

It was pouring with rain, (s) was getting scared because we couldn't find the in door and the building looked like something from Harry Potter (which he's just started watching lately) (d) was stressed because she always is when starting something new and I was cold and wet. Husband was keeping calm on the surface. Not the start to our language journey I was hoping for.

Finally, we got in, followed the bilingual signs and started to hear the distant hum of the Hungarian spoken language ahead. The first thing I saw on entering the room was lovely cakes and tea. Then we joined the kindergarten group singing nursery rhymes. (d) & (h) watched from safety of the chairs around the walls of the room. The leader was talking fast in Hungarian - of course - what did I expect - that they would all stop talking Hungarian and speak English because we'd arrived? No this was going to be hard. We felt like aliens just landed.

(s) did really well, he joined in all the actions, took his turn to bang the drum in the centre of the circle and seemed to enjoy it. I did notice he was becoming more and more quiet - I guess not understanding anything can do that to you.

Next was folk dancing downstairs. A beautiful young teacher dressed in Hungarian dance attire organised the children and parents and began to explain the routines. This was easier to follow as we only needed to watch her to know what to do. But I felt sorry for (d) who was by far the oldest (the average age was 2yrs) but she joined in well and kept smiling. Both children recognised Hungarian words and told me when they did so. That was promising I thought. The dance went on for a long time and Ben started to make a friend.

Next it was time for those lovely cakes and then a visit to the adult language class. The class is suitable for (d) and as most of the children her age are in a Hungarian catch up class being native speakers this will probably be the best place for her and I. Leaving (h)&(s) to enjoy nursery rhymes and craft upstairs. What a star (h) is supporting my ambitious goal.

Finally it was free time and we had a chance to chat to some of the English spouses mainly husbands. We felt a bit more at home then and when asked why we wanted to learn Hungarian, the alien feeling melted and I felt more legitimate in being able to say "I'm half Hungarian and want to learn the language".

This is not going to be easy and we all feel a bit daunted and out of our depth. I keep telling myself that this is the hardest day. We will only keep on learning new words and getting to know people, so it will only get easier from here... won't it?