Since 1 January 2012, the legal framework of language diversity and multilingualism in Hungary has changed. In our country essay, however, we will analyse the linguistic situation based on the legislation in force at the time of the completion of LRE questionnaire.

The (former) Hungarian Constitution does not contain any explicit provisions on the official language of the state. Article 68 set out that the Republic of Hungary shall provide for the protection of national and ethnic minorities and ensure their collective participation in public affairs, the fostering of their cultures, the use of their native languages, education in their native languages and the use of names in their native languages¹.

Act LXXVII of 1993 on the Rights of National and Ethnic Minorities² recognised 13 minority languages: Armenian, Bulgarian, Croatian, German, Greek, Gypsy (Romani and Boyash), Polish, Romanian, Rusyn, Serbian, Slovak, Slovene and Ukrainian. In addition to this law, today’s minority and foreign language education is based on the 1993 Public Education Act, the Government Decrees of 1995 on the National Core Curriculum and of 1997 on the school-leaving (‘Matura’) exams, and the 2005 Higher Education Act.

Hungary ratified the two most significant Council of Europe documents, the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (1992/1995/1998) and the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities (1995/1998), for the languages of the so-called traditional minorities: Croatian, German, Romanian, Serbian, Slovak and Slovene. Act XLIII of 2008 included Gypsy languages (Romani and Boyash) under the scope of Article 2(2).

Act CXXV of 2009 on Hungarian Sign Language and the use of Hungarian Sign Language is considered to be the most up-to-date sign language law in Europe defining the Deaf community as a linguistic minority. According to it, from 1 September 2017 HSL-Hungarian bilingual education will be compulsory for d/Deaf children in schools for the Deaf, meanwhile in integrating schools, it will be optional even if chosen by only one child’s parent. 

There are three important legal instruments on migration: Act I of 2007 on the Admission and Residence of Persons with the Right of Free Movement and Residence, Act II of 2007 on the Admission and Right of Residence of Third-Country Nationals, and Act LXXX of 2007 on Asylum.

¹ The new Hungarian constitution of 2011 (‘Fundamental Law’) recognises the Hungarian language as the official language of the state. It undertakes to protect the Hungarian language and the Hungarian sign language as part of the Hungarian culture. Article XXIX sets out that ’every nationality and ethnic group living in Hungary shall be considered a part of the state forming entity. Every Hungarian citizen belonging to a nationality has the right to undertake and preserve their identity. National and ethnic minorities will have the right to use their own languages, to use their names in their own languages both individually and collectively, to foster their culture and to education in their own languages.’ The new constitution explicitly prohibits the discrimination on the grounds of national origin and language, as well.

² Hungarian terminological distinction between ‘national minority’ and ‘ethnic minority’ rests primarily on whether a minority has a ‘kin state’ or not. The Roma do not, hence they are considered to be an ethnic minority. In virtue of Act CLXXIX of 2011 on the Rights of Nationalities, which entered into force on 1 January 2012, ‘nationality’ is the new term to be used instead of ‘national and ethnic minorities’.

Languages offered in pre-primary education

There is pre-primary education (national minority schools and specific bilingual institutions) in the following nine R/M languages: Bulgarian, Croatian, German, Romanian, Rusyn, Serbian, Slovak, Slovene and Romani/Boyash. Local governments must provide pre-primary education in R/M languages in a settlement only if it is required by the parents of at least eight pupils. There are 927 nurseries with a minority education programme (21% of all nurseries). More than 40,000 children (12.5% of all children in pre-primary education) are enrolled in minority nurseries, with more than 21,000 children enrolled in Gypsy minority education but only 2.4% (approximately 500 children) receiving education in Romani/Boyash language¹. In many cases minority programmes (at all levels of the education system) function as covert forms of foreign language (FL) teaching, especially in the case of German, where children may not have a minority background at all, but schools use the minority education label in order to gain extra financial support.
Although pre-primary education in foreign languages is becoming more and more popular in private (generally fee-paying) nurseries, in public institutions it is not common practice. There is no pre-primary education in immigrant languages.

¹ The other children receive so-called Gypsy cultural education where the language of instruction is entirely Hungarian. Nemzeti és Etnikai Jogok Országgyűlési Biztosa, Jelentés a nemzeti és etnikai kisebbségi óvodai nevelés helyzetéről. Budapest, 2011,pp.23-42. http://www.kisebbsegiombudsman.hu/data/files/205104474.pdf

Languages offered in primary education

There are 608 institutions with an R/M language education programme (26.5% of all primary schools). More than 100,000 children (14% of all students in primary schools) are enrolled in R/M language education. The Armenian, Ukrainian and Polish communities do not have minority language education within the public education system and 92% of Roma children are not taught in Romani/Boyash at all¹. More than half of students receive German minority education, as parents’ positive attitudes and decisions are influenced by a perceived international market value of the standard variant of the German language.
The following five foreign languages are offered in primary education: English, French, German, Italian and Russian. One foreign language is compulsory from the fourth grade of primary schooling. Provision in immigrant languages is not common practice in primary education, except in a Chinese-Hungarian primary school in Budapest.

¹ Nemzeti és Etnikai Jogok Országgyűlési Biztosa, Jelentés a nemzeti és etnikai kisebbségi általános iskolai nevelés-oktatás helyzetéről, Budapest, 2011, pp. 33-42.
http://www.kisebbsegiombudsman.hu/data/files/217986220.pdf

Languages offered in secondary education

Students, in principle, are free to choose which foreign language they wish to study. In practice, the foreign languages available in lower secondary education are English, French, German, Spanish, Italian and Russian. In upper secondary education other languages (e.g. Boyash, Chinese, Romani etc.) are also offered. Still, Hungary ranks unfortunately high in the number of students learning only one foreign language (57.2%; EU average: 33.4%)¹.

¹ Eurostat (2009): European day of languages. Eurostat News Release, Stat 09/137. http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=STAT/09/137&type=HTML

Languages offered across 3 VET institutions in Hungary

Languages offered across 3 higher education institutions in Hungary

Education of national and R/M languages does not play an important role in either VET or university education.

Every university surveyed by Language Rich Europe offers courses where the language of instruction is a foreign language (mainly English, German and French). Certain universities provide their whole (fee-paying) tuition period in a foreign language, thus trying to attract foreign students.

There are six higher education institutions which train minority language teachers. Teacher-training for Armenian and Rusyn is completely missing. Six higher education institutions provide training for lower elementary teachers of Croatian, German, Romani/Boyash, Serbian, Slovak and Romanian languages. Seven institutions provide minority nursery teacher-training programmes in Croatian, German, Romani/Boyash, Serbian, Slovak, Slovene and Romanian languages. Due to the decreasing number of students opting for minority teacher training, the continuous operation of a minority public education system  – except for German – is already under threat¹.

¹ Nemzeti és Etnikai Jogok Országgyűlési Biztosa, Jelentés a nemzetiségi felsőoktatás helyzetéről, Budapest, 2011, pp. 4-7.
http://www.kisebbsegiombudsman.hu/data/files/223936615.pdf

Languages offered in audiovisual media and press across 3 cities in Hungary

The media in Hungary is dominated by the national language. However, radio and television programmes are offered in R/M languages in public channels, and there are a few radio stations broadcasting entirely in R/M languages (for example MR4, Radio C). Television programmes in languages other than Hungarian are generally dubbed in Hungarian. Sign language interpretation is offered in important media events. According to the Hungarian Sign Language Act, the public television broadcaster shall ensure that in the course of its broadcasting service all announcements and newscasts of public interest, motion pictures and public service programmes are available with Hungarian subtitling or sign language interpreting for a fixed number of hours from 2010, and in entirety from 2015.

Languages offered in public services and public spaces across 3 cities in Hungary (N ≥ 2)

The public administration of the three Hungarian cities surveyed are characterised by a moderate multilingual profile. Most cities provide services in oral and/or written form in foreign – and, occasionally, R/M – languages, but institutionalised language strategies are absent. Interpreters are used, although not employed permanently. The repertoire of languages other than Hungarian is dominated by English and to a lesser extent, German. In areas with minority communities, their language may also appear in public services.

Languages other than English offered in business across 21 companies in Hungary (N ≥ 2)

Businesses surveyed by Language Rich Europe in Hungary generally have a low language profile. One third have some form of language policy, but investment in language skills for their employees is not high. Most of the time language skills are acquired prior to employment. Approximately half of the companies provide limited business English training for employees, while very few provide support in Hungarian for non-native speakers. The national language and English are the main languages used, followed by French and German.

Hungary is known as a monolingual country; however, the reality is different. It is impossible to give an exact answer to the question of whether plurilingualism in the classroom and multilingualism in society at large are acknowledged in Hungary as there are several educational forms and different types of schools. Even within the same type of schools, there are huge differences in terms of the efficiency of education. There are three main and two additional types of educational programmes for minorities: the three main types are mother-tongue, bilingual, language teaching, with the additional types being academic improvement education for Gypsy minorities and supplementary minority education.

There are public schools which specialise in supporting foreign language teaching and bilingual education. In these institutions support for and education of languages other than the national language usually takes place at a high level, whereas general education is characterised by a lower level in this respect.

Most Roma and Deaf people in Hungary share a number of common features. Coupled with a long tradition of being evaluated in terms of the degree of recognition of their language (Romani and Sign Language respectively), these features include a lower or higher degree of social separation, which is linked to a low employment rate, poor social situation, few labour market opportunities, and deep poverty. All of these are closely related to the low level of education and the high drop-out rate from public education of a significant part of the Roma and Deaf youth.

The lack of immigrant languages in education, business and public administration is mainly due to the relatively low number of immigrants. Most are ethnic Hungarians speaking Hungarian as their mother tongue, coming from neighbouring countries. The proportion of foreign students in public education is also low¹.

Although the legal framework of support for minority languages and foreign language education is well-established, much remains to be done in the field of practical implementation of multilingualism². Statistics provided by the Special Eurobarometer 243 in 2006 indicate that only 42% of the population can actually carry out a conversation in at least one foreign language as opposed to the EU average of 56%³.

¹ Illés Katalin – Medgyesi Anna (2009): Migráns gyermekek oktatása. Menedék – Migránsokat Segítő egyesület. Az Európai Unió Európai Integráció Alapjának támogatásával megvalósuló program kiadványa. http://www.menedek.hu/files/20090831konyv_belso.pdf
² Edit H. Kontra – Csilla Bartha (2010): Foreign language education in Hungary: Concerns and controversies. In: Sociolinguistica 24/2010. pp. 61-84. at p. 68.
³ European Commission (2006): Europeans and their languages 2005.
ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/archives/ebs/ebs_243_en.pdf

There are many promising initiatives and innovative developments in the provision of the Deaf and Hungarian Sign Language as well as Romani and Boyash languages in Hungary. These include: the implementation of the new Sign Language Law; two new programmes at Eötvös Loránd University - HSL BA and Teaching English as a Foreign Language to Deaf Learners; The Kedves Ház (Nice House) in Nyírtelek; the ‘Pedellus programme’ in Ózd; the Dr. Ámbédkar School project in Sajókaza; and the Gandhi Public Foundation and High School in Pécs¹. In the field of foreign language education, the World–Language Project must be mentioned, which operated from 2003 to 2007 and took the form of several sub-programmes².

Although linguistic assimilation has been taking place within minority communities, one can experience positive attitudes towards multilingual skills, where younger generations are highly motivated in learning different foreign languages. The Russian language also has a growing market value, which is a strong evidence for the fact that Hungary succeeded in overcoming the ideological bias towards past practices of foreign language education.

¹ Bartha Csilla – Hámori Ágnes (2011): Cigány közösségek, nyelvi sokszínűség és az oktatás nyelvi kihívásai – magyarországi helyzetkép. In: Európai Tükör, XI. évfolyam, 3. szám, pp. 107-131.
http://www.kormany.hu/download/7/1b/20000/europai_tukor_2011_03.pdf
² Fischer Márta – Öveges Enikő (2008): A Világ–Nyelv pályázati csomag háttere és megvalósítása (2003-2006). Áttekintő tanulmány. http://www.okm.gov.hu/letolt/vilagnyelv/vny_fischer_oveges_090115.pdf