Hungarian Bus Company Schedule Web Site No Longer in English

I struggle to find a bus timetable in Hungarian in UK, and there are more Hungarians in UK than the other way round.

I'd say it's still pretty intuitive, at least compared to the Chinese Rail booking site:

https://kyfw.12306.cn/otn/leftTicket/init

davidpearce wrote:

I struggle to find a bus timetable in Hungarian in UK, and there are more Hungarians in UK than the other way round.

And there are more English speaking Hungarians in the UK than the other way around. 

After all, English is one foreign language option taught in Hungarian schools. I doubt few English speaking countries offer Hungarian as a foreign language in many secondary schools.

Thus my main point: the bus schedule site above use to have foreign language options (English and German). Then the site was "upgraded" for appearance, but "downgraded" for language access. Which is a puzzle if the site was built correctly -- i.e. the language sources should be in separate, easy to translate files or databases. Even the "No-Smoking" signs in Hungary are required to be in multiple languages for tourists (including, but limited to Russian and English). What a pity then that the bus schedule web site now ignores tourist opportunities.

zif wrote:

I'd say it's still pretty intuitive

It may be linguistically unfair, but there are 1.5 Billion English speakers. And thus hundreds of millions of those might be potential tourists. Why make being a tourist harder for the tourists than necessary?

A properly constructed web site should be easy to translate into many languages (especially for the headers and page text). So it should be trivial to be a tourist friendly site. Which pays countless dividends for both the bus company and the country.

And there are quite a few Russian tourists in Hungary, for example. Even Russian should be a language option, IMHO, since the current web site layout may not be so intuitive to someone who just knows the Russian Cyrillic alphabet.

Call me a sceptic but I always ask myself who is benefiting from this situation?
Could it be an honest mistake, or could there be a profit motive behind this?
I know Hungary is becoming very popular with tourists, why would a offical site not want to make it easy for them?
Could the taxi industry be behind this or those tour buses.
Trying to dissuade tourists from using public services which cost less then those tour buses cost?
I always see big bro behind most business motives, look for the money and usually you find the answer, who is making a buck off of confusing people more then they are as an average tourist usually is.
It should be easy enough to figure out the schedule in Hungarian if one knows a few words of HU, most tourists don't bother learning time tables before visiting.
I know when we were in Paris we got super ripped off on our ride from the airport to our hotel room.
Later once we dropped off our luggage we used the tube. My husband had lived in Paris for a year and knew his way around the city. Most people don't have the time to figure these details out with just having a few days to visit, they are in a rush so using a cab is faster then using their brains.

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

Call me a sceptic but I always ask myself who is benefiting from this situation?

A healthy, and ancient question.

So ancient, in fact, even the Romans had a saying for it: Cui bono? (i.e. Who benefits? or To whose profit?)

I think Americans have a modern equivalent: Follow the money. 

Honestly, I see a few possibilities that may include:

1) Growing nationalism in the country, so that only Hungarian is an option.

2) Business reasons: From server records, not enough clicks on the "EN"/"DE" option, so they did not think it was "worth" providing an English/German option again. (But then a very short sighted  business decision for reasons I already stated).

3) An incompetent company that built the new website did not understand how to Internationalize their software.

4) Simply nobody in charge thought of including a foreign language...... 

davidpearce wrote:

I struggle to find a bus timetable in Hungarian in UK, and there are more Hungarians in UK than the other way round.

It's not just there, if you go to the Balaton ferry and boat company, the timetable for 2016 is available in Hungarian but not in English and German.   

The links for English or German timetables take you to the 2015 timetables.

See here: Balaton Ferry and Boats

I admit I come at this from a different angle.

I'm very aware that being born a native English speaker has smoothed my way in life immensely. It was one of the great gifts of my birth. Imagine if I'd been born in Eastern Europe, speaking natively a language such as Polish or Hungarian or Romanian of not much use at all beyond my native borders. I'd have had to study English to get anywhere, and what a hassle that is, trying to remember that learn and burn and fern all rhyme, but though and rough and cough don't.

So when I do come across a language obstacle, I try not to grumble, and just remain grateful for the great many times English has helped me out.

zif wrote:

I admit I come at this from a different angle.

I'm very aware that being born a native English speaker has smoothed my way in life immensely. It was one of the great gifts of my birth. Imagine if I'd been born in Eastern Europe, speaking natively a language such as Polish or Hungarian or Romanian of not much use at all beyond my native borders. I'd have had to study English to get anywhere, and what a hassle that is, ......So when I do come across a language obstacle, I try not to grumble, and just remain grateful for the great many times English has helped me out.

I dunno, people in The Netherlands do not think about this much. English is a daily way of life to them but they speak Dutch to each other at home. Dutch is relatively obscure (but a lot easier than Hungarian).  For them, English is the language of commerce, Dutch the language of culture.  They don't seem to have a problem about it, they embrace it as a necessity for a trading nation. Sweden/Norway/Finland/Denmark think much the same way too.

English ,my Hungarian born husband says is one of the hardest languages because to him it is not logical. In his Hungarian brain he is over complicating English, he can't believe it is as easy a language as it is.
Two, to, too etc. drive him crazy.
He is a self taught English speaker now, whatever language mistakes he makes he loves to blame me as I knew him when his English was very limited. He had only been in the US for 18 months before we met each other.
When he left Hungary he had no idea he would find himself in the US and he arrived in the states knowing less then 10 words of English.
Must of been scary to be literally dumped off at a rat infested hotel as young man all by yourself , no money , no language skills and no way to go back home again.
He only knew how to order, Ham and Eggs those 3 words in English, ate that almost everyday until he was sick of it.
I sometimes feel like a real spoiled brat coming to Hungary with everything here for me, a home, a husband . money, a car etc. I am not even half as brave as a refugee.
I suppose it does take a young person with a ton of energy and strength to start up a new life in a new country. In reality trying to figure out a bus time table in Hungarian is the least of our worries , we often get too comfortable in life and want everything to come easy.
My father's native language was not English, he was 7 when he arrived at Ellis Island with his mom. His dad was waiting for them in the states. He often told us he would attend school in Conn. with other children who came from all over the world, they all had to learn English from a teacher who couldn't speak any of their native languages. Human nature is if you have to do it, somehow you will get it done, we have become way too soft and want things to come easy without hard work, it is hard work to learn a new language.
I wish I could speak more then just English. I admire anyone who can speak more then one language. In the states most people only speak one language, not so much because they are lazy more like the country is so large and there isn't allot of need to know more then one language.
I know my father refused to teach us his Rusin, a Slavic language because he never imagined any of us ever traveling to his homeland. I visited and really wished I knew some of the language when meeting relations still living there in Poland.

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

.... I know my father refused to teach us his Rusin, a Slavic language because he never imagined any of us ever traveling to his homeland. I visited and really wished I knew some of the language when meeting relations still living there in Poland.

It's pretty much the same story I have heard from other people who are the offspring of immigrants to the USA. 

I have a  US colleague whose parents were Belgian, French speaking.  They never taught him French which seems totally ridiculous to me.   On the other hand, yet another colleague with a Belgian mother (also French speaking) was brought up in Scotland and speaks French as a native. It seems that Atlantic divide was particularly acute.

Personally I think it's like driving.  Everyone needs to know how to drive.  Or everyone needs to know how to ride a bike, fix a puncture, iron clothes, boil an egg or wire a plug.  Basic skills sets.

The Fluffyettes are totally bilingual and we've deliberately encouraged it - using books in both languages, traveling to the motherland (for me, the UK), watching movies in both languages.  We speak English at home (as I'm useless in Hungarian) but I also use German quite a lot if only incidental to work situations. I have very weak German connections but somehow it seems natural to have knowledge of that around here.   I've notice Fluffyette1 has picked up German to a degree by simple exposure.  Fluffyette2 will learn German formally in school.

One has to use what is expedient to the situation, even if it's difficult to communicate. I had a car from the airport a week ago and the driver spoke Hungarian, German, mid-level English, French (told me his wife was Romanian, she did not speak Hungarian, didn't know English, and spoke only French as a foreign language and they used French at home).   So we conversed first in English and then we spoke in German.   

It sure helps to know more than one add on language in Hungary. English and German should get you by anywhere (Romania, French works best but English and German quite acceptable).  Russian might help in Serbia and Bulgaria but not Croatia or Slovenia.

Would be nice if everyone knew how to drive, growing up in Calif I have to say most people should not be allowed to drive!
It is cool to teach children more then one language.
My son had little to no real interest in learning Hungarian, only wanted to learn enough to be able to ask a girl on a date and read the bus time table, even then when he visited HU by himself over 15 years ago he got mixed up and spent half the day on a train going here and there in total confusion.
Sight seeing for sure.
He speaks Japanese fairly well, trying to learn to read the konge ( not sure how to spell that)
One has to have a passion to learn anything of value.

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

....
It is cool to teach children more then one language.
My son had little to no real interest in learning Hungarian, only wanted to learn enough to be able to ask a girl on a date and read the bus time table, ....
He speaks Japanese fairly well, trying to learn to read the konge ( not sure how to spell that)
One has to have a passion to learn anything of value.

If he'd been spoken to in Hungarian, then he would just know.  I know it's water under the bridge.

I asked Fluffyette1 which was easier - English or Hungarian - and the answer was that it was "just the same".  I think that's the main point.  In kids mind, multiple languages are "just the same".  It's effortless.

"Get them when they are young and you have them life"

Who said that?  Hitler used it have multiple others. Might be in the Bible (Proverbs?).   

Having had to learn languages because of work needs, I've found it very difficult to do and had to really put in effort (courses, out of hours lessons, night school). It was just a necessity.

People who speak it from when they are kids have a tremendous advantage.  All kids can speak multiple languages - language is an inate ability of human beings.  All that needs is for a language to be imprinted but by age 8, the ability declines.  Shame really.

We really wanted to teach our only child to speak perfect HU.
At the time my young husband and I were living in Hawaii and never even thought about HU.
Larter my husband was working a good 14 to 16 hours per day with his own business in Calif.
and had no time to do anything let alone give HU lessons.
We never in a million years even thought he would even visit HU let alone live here for a bit and marry a HU.
I hate to say it, do not wish to hurt anyones feelings but for me, Hungarian sounds so hard and ugly, I can not even think about twisting my mouth to make out the sounds.
I sometimes wish my husband was from a place like France where the language is pretty, Italian or Spanish even.
I will say however we did enroll our son into a HU private nursery school when he was a toddler,he still didn't get much in the way of language skills in Calif. in a HU school.
They were pushing religion more then language so he had to be pulled out.

fluffy2560 wrote:

Who said that?  Hitler used it have multiple others.

Godwin's law. Apparently, it's true..... 

klsallee wrote:

fluffy2560 wrote:

Who said that?  Hitler used it have multiple others.

Godwin's law. Apparently, it's true..... 

Oh yes Godwin's Law but not adversarial so not strictly admissible.

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

We really wanted to teach our only child to speak perfect HU.
At the time my young husband and I were living in Hawaii and never even thought about HU......
I hate to say it, do not wish to hurt anyones feelings but for me, Hungarian sounds so hard and ugly, I can not even think about twisting my mouth to make out the sounds.
I sometimes wish my husband was from a place like France where the language is pretty, Italian or Spanish even....

The thing about kids, as if I need to tell anyone, is that they are learning sponges. They don't need language lessons, they just get it anyway by just speaking around them. No formality required.

I agree that HU is quite ugly but that depends.  There's a term for how pleasant a language sounds - the actual term escapes me - someone might chip in for that term. 

For French people, they like Russian!  English speakers like the Romance languages like French or Spanish (except Portuguese - surprisingly harsh).  The best sounding language to native English speakers is Italian.   Somehow has a bounce and beat which is musical.  Don't care for it myself as every time I've been to Italy something has gone wrong.

I must be an exception as I listen intently to someone speaking German but usually it's because I am interested for some odd reason in the technicalities of it.

We're definitely   !!!

Off topic, yes but life is about jazzing things up some.
Funny, I don't like German for the same reason you don't like Italian, something always and I mean always went wrong with us in Germany, Can't even write a list, it would be too long  to mention the mishaps that happened to us there.
My one grandfather grew up in the US but German was a language spoken in the home.
He even had a German accent although he was born in the US.