Speechless?! (Budapest)

After just a few months in Budapest, I am now convinced that if I had a forint for every time am stuck for words living here, I'd already be a millionaire (and probably in pound terms!).

Living in Hungary may be great, but the challnge in communicating with the locals, whether its in meetings, shops, metro ticket office or on kids' playgrounds, is making many of us feel half the person we'd be in our home countries. Even the simplest missions take ages to complete (start thinking of buying the tickets way before you reach the metro stop, recite conjugation in your head, try to establish whether what you are about to say is definitive or dot, and worst of all- hope that the person serving you speaks back using the most minimal vocabulary possible). Dreadful, defeating, and for most part, not fun.

However- when you do manage to have a few sentence long exchange in Hungarian, when you succeed in processing the information thrown at you with a speed of light, when you manage to pick the right answer from the darkest bottom of your brain - there is no limits to your joy. Your posture straightens, your eyes shine, you smile, and the warmth of immense pride fills you from head to toe. How little is required to make me feel amazing for a few hours (until I approach my next linguistic struggle!). And I thought the that finding a shop selling Clippers tea was the peak of happiness.

IF YOU KNOW the feeling I am describing, if you too wish that you could feel this joy more often than not, here are some good news. NovoSchool ( Protected content ) is launching language classes this autumn that are like no others. How are they different? Perhaps by covering clear conversational topics (getting around, shopping in the market, arriving at a meeting, calling someone etc), teaching essential and practical vocabulary, offering lots of practice, and explaining only a tiny bit of (essential) grammar. DESIGNED BY EXPATS, TAUGHT BY NATIVES, the course will aim to get us closer to that peak of happiness - to speak like (or at least, with) a native!

For more information, please visit NovoSchool on Protected content or email Kat directly on Protected content .

A new course (4X hours/ week on Fridays) starts on the 3rd of October, wlll run for 20 weeks (till 27th Feb Protected content will cost only HUF 90,000 /person (please mention 10% discount of Internations when you apply!).

Thank you and see you all soon!