Newsgroups: bit.listserv.slovak-l
Date:         Sun, 22 Nov 1992 16:30:41 +0100
From:         MARTONAK@ITSSISSA.BITNET
Subject:      Re: Roots of the Slovak-Hungarian Conflict

Mr. Joe Pannon writes:

>> In article <CMM.0.88.721579836.juris@telos.ai> Igor Jurisica,
>> juris@TELOS.AI.TORONTO.EDU writes:
>
>> Well, this is something nobody mentioned yet, but I had a few Hungarian
>> colleagues as students when I studied (1982-1987 in Kosice). All of them
>> had enormous problem with the Slovak language. The obvious reason was
>> they learned everything in Hungarian from the kindergarten up to the high
>> school! Slovak was only a foreign language, and majority of them had a
>> very bad attitude to learn it, supported by their teachers who were
>> obviously mainly Hungarian. So their ability to speak Slovak IN SLOVAKIA
>> was very poor even after they finished the high school ! Can you imagine
>> the same attitude of the Hungarians in other countries, like Canada, or
>> U.S.A.?

Few months ago I sent an article to SLOVAK-L, describing my own experience
with Hungarian colleagues during my studies in Bratislava, which refers to the
same period (1982-1987) as mentioned above. Some of them, and not incidentally
those, who had had all previous school background in Hungarian, had really
tremendous problems to speak and understand Slovak. No need to say that this
lack of communication created a lot of problems, particularly for themselves.
I am saying this again simply as a matter of fact.

>There you go again, Lubosh!  I could not count the foreign-born
>engineers and computer specialists I met here at The Boeing Company
>whose English is also horrible!

Frankly speaking, I see no point at all in comparing foreigners coming to the
USA and speaking poor English with people born in Slovakia, and living there
for 18 years and still not even wanting to learn the official language of the
country they are citizens of.

>Your analogy is also false, Lubosh, when comparing Hungarians in
>Slovakia to immigrants in the US or Canada.  This may sound reasonable
>comparison to American readers of this list, and I suspect they were
>your real target audience.  However, Hungarians ARE NOT IMMIGRANTS IN
>SLOVAKIA.  They are just as natives there as are the Slovaks!  The
>borders have changed.  That's quite different from the situation of
>immigrants who left their own native lands to settle in another country
>and thus can reasonably be expected to assimilate in their chosen new
>land.  That can not be reasonably expected from Hungarians within the
>Carpathian basin who have lived there for over 1,000 years.

I am afraid you have misunderstood the point. I think there's nobody in
Slovakia expecting Hungarians to assimilate, in spite of our well-known
extraordinary power of assimilation of other nations. If they don't consider
Slovak to be worthwhile for them to learn, let them not do so. In my mind, the
point is, that it is ridiculous to hear about lack of minority rights, and
nationally motivated discrimination from people, who have had the possibility to
complete their high school education in Slovakia COMPLETELY in Hungarian, and
till the age of 18 years have neither wanted, NOR been ever forced by anybody
to learn Slovak (to remind you who is speaking about that all the time: the
Egyuttelles movement and Mr. Duray Miklos).
        If one tried to forget for the moment about all the historical
background of the Slovak-Hungarian relations, in my mind the problem at present
is the following: the Hungarian minority in Slovakia has been guaranteed all
the rights which comply with usual international standards. The Budapest
government encourages them to demand more than that.

Regards.

Roman Martonak.