Hungary is having a “Week of Proficiency in Foreign Languages” with events to sensitize the public to the importance of that issue. Even though the command of a foreign language is a definite advantage in the labor market, Hungarians have a lot to improve there – the Professional Association of Language Schools has told this paper. “Only about a third of the managers of Hungarian small and medium sized companies speak a foreign language.

About three-fourth of those in the corporate sector do not speak a foreign language, which means they cannot directly communicate with the rest of the population in the European Union. A considerable number of Hungarian firms could do well in the European Union if their employees spoke a foreign language,” complains András Salusinszky, president of the association.

Salusinszky says studying a foreign language is a good investment because those with a certificate of proficiency in a foreign language earn more. “In public administration the monthly salary can increase by close to HUF 40 000 with such a certificate. Calculating with average language school fees, the investment can be returned in less than two years.

Command of a foreign language is rewarded in the corporate sector too.

A survey by the Hungarian subsidiary of Randstad Recruitment Agency has found that certain jobs in the service sector are only available for applicants with an advanced level certificate of a foreign language. Command of a second, third etc language earns you a rise of between HUF 15 000 and 35 000, Salusinszky says.

Eurobarometer 2012, a recent European Union survey has shown that only 35 percent of Hungarians say that they speak a foreign language and every third Hungarian doesn’t even plan to start learning a foreign language.

At Hungarian colleges and universities thousands of students do not get their diploma each year because they have not taken the requested language exam yet. At the Saint Stephen University of Gödöllő, Pest county, almost a third of the students did not get their diploma for that reason, and the figure is 35 percent for the National University of Public Service in Budapest and the Óbuda University of Budapest, and 45 percent at a college in Nyíregyháza, Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg county.

In the second part of September free demonstration classes and trial exams are organized and textbooks are discounted in Budapest and twelve Hungarian towns. In Budapest language schools are propagating new learning methods during a three-day exhibition.

Translated by Budapest Telegraph

Source: Magyar Nemzet