1956–63: MY FIRST YEARS IN OXFORD
1956–63: MY FIRST YEARS IN OXFORD
Author(s): George GömöriSubject(s): Cultural Essay, Political Essay, Societal Essay
Published by: BL Nonprofit Kft
Summary/Abstract: My interest in the English language goes back to 1947 when at the age of thirteen my mother sent me to Sárospatak to learn the tongue of Shakespeare. This was an excellent Calvinist grammar school (gimnázium) in North-East Hungary with a long-standing tradition of teaching English (quite a few of its alumni visited England as early as the seventeenth century). As I had no English at all when I arrived there in September (my classmates had started learning the language two years earlier), I had to sit an exam three months later. With two other boys we took special lessons from a schoolboy four years our senior. Dezső was a born teacher, using progressive teaching methods – he believed in rewards, not in punishments. When it came to spelling (very hard for Magyars who have no diphthongs and “w”-s in their language), he put boiled sweets on the table and said: “Boys, whoever can spell this word right, will get them”. I became the fastest speller in no time. When a year later I returned to my former Reformed Church school in Budapest, the Sárospatak method showed its effectiveness. At the end of the year there was a written competition in each subject and I won first prize in English with my essay which was about London or how I imagined that great city.
Journal: Hungarian Review
- Issue Year: III/2012
- Issue No: 06
- Page Range: 78-84
- Page Count: 7
- Language: English