How even after learning 10 languages I can still face the same challenges traveling as a monolingual!

I recently flew to eastern Hungary planning to spend the night in Debrecen before going to visit the Transcarpathian region in western Ukraine.

While I normally don’t face too many problems with communication while traveling in Europe thanks to the languages I speak, I don’t speak any Hungarian and as Hungarian is so different from the other languages in the region, I cannot even guess any of the words.

So when in Hungary, I am completely dependent on the locals understanding one of my languages.

Once I have arrived, my friend from Debrecen, Máté, tells me: “Sorry, dude. I have to study for my final law exams but since you are heading to Ukraine, you should definitely stop in Nyíregyháza. There is a party called FŐHE going on there. Lots of popular Hungarian artists will be playing. You’ll have fun!” And with that I head off the following morning to Nyíregyháza, population 120,000, 70 kms from the Ukrainian border.

Arriving at the train station in Nyíregyháza, I go to the international departures cashier to buy my ticket to Uzhhorod for the following day. “English? Deutsch? Русский язык? Limba româna?”, I ask. The lady shakes her head negatively. Ok. This should not be too difficult to explain. “Uzhgorod. Tomorrow. 10 am.” I say holding up my two hands open to show the number 10. Again the woman shakes her head from side to side saying something in Hungarian.

I look around at the people behind me in the queue. “English? Deutsch? Русский язык? Limba româna?” I inquire. They all shake their head in the same manner as the woman behind the counter. I try again at the cashier. “Uzhgorod?” This doesn’t look good. She is not giving me a ticket and is becoming more agitated with me. The pace and tone of her Hungarian is faster and sterner. A guy behind me in the queue blurts out something like “informatsja” pointing towards an office across the concourse with the ubiquitous ‘i’ icon.

Pushing my suitcase into the information office, I start the process again. “English? Deutsch? Русский язык? Limba româna?” No luck but at least this lady smiles and seems a lot more receptive than her colleague at the international departures cashier. “Uzhgorod?” She looks blankly at me. “Ungvár?” I try, knowing this is the name of the city in Hungarian. Again, no recognition of my destination.

“How does a tourist ever manage to buy a ticket in this station?” I ask myself. It’s a four-border region with health spas. I cannot be that unusual as a non-Hungarian speaking tourist. I intimate to the lady that I want to use her keyboard. I open GoogleMaps on her screen and type in “Uzhhorod”. She goes “Ah!” after seeing where the city is located and points to a Hungarian border town, Záhony and shakes her head while pointing to Uzhhorod. I guess I am only getting a ticket to the border.

She writes down the timetable for getting to Uzhhorod and I bring the piece of paper back to the original cashier and say “Záhony” and voilà! I have a ticket to the border for the following morning.

Later that evening, I arrive at the FŐHE party and join the queue to buy an entrance ticket. Immediately four girls join the queue behind me. One of them asks me something in Hungarian … I smile … what else can I do? She leans in close to me, grasping my hand, hazel eyes sparkling with inebriation all the time ranting excitedly in Hungarian while her girlfriends watch on giggling.

For the evening, I meander through on all Hungarian night out. Order my drinks with Tarzan-like grunts and hand gestures, dance to Hungarian hip hop and enjoy the bewilderment in revelers’ faces as they realize that I am not actually Hungarian all the time imbibed by the sound of a language that I understand absolutely nothing in.

The following morning, I awake at my hotel, Nyilas Fogadó, by the lake at Sóstóhegy. I chat in a mixture of English and Russian with Iván at reception (who is originally from Mukacheve in Ukraine). Reflecting on my 24 hours in Nyíregyháza, Ivan asks me: “So Conor, what is your conclusion from your experience here?” “Hmm”, I ponder … Ivan answers for me: “Obviously you have got to learn Hungarian as well, man!” We burst out laughing. Sure, a polyglot’s journey is never complete no matter how far and with how many languages I travel with.

So in Nyíregyháza, I was unfamiliarly faced with not being able to converse with locals. So how did that affect my trip? Well, I still bought my train ticket, found ways of directing taxi drivers, ordering food and in fact, everything that I really needed to do so mission accomplished. Having the confidence to relax and persistence to figure out some way of communicating whatever it is that I need is a skill that I’ve acquired over the years of traveling even where I don’t speak the language.

Oh! And by the way, the girl in the queue at Föhe … well, I do understand one useful word in Hungarian, at least … “puszi” … Happy traveling! 😉