If you would like to be interviewed as a Surprising Expat, please write with a few details of what you do, to: Marion by clicking here.

Willie Gevertz has just cycled up to one of his regular haunts on the bank of the Danube, in Leányfalu, where he lives. I am probably the only person in this village who has not personally met him – with an impressive 150,000 followers across his social media channels  and with regular post viewings in the tens of thousands, he is not only a local personality, but a nationwide celebrity, known as the ‘New York Guy who loves Hungary’.

“Whenever I'm walking down the street in Budapest, people come up to me. They say: Hello, Willie, what's up? Hey, how's it going? I'm shocked – in random villages in the middle of the country, people come up to me and say hello, and it's quite bizarre – but it's interesting for sure.”

William Gevertz was born in New York where he lived until he was eighteen. He then attended Middlebury College – a prestigious Liberal Arts University where his grandfather, parents and aunt also studied.

“I played on the football team, meaning soccer. I played soccer my whole life. It's a very big part of my identity, really. Middlebury’s actually a very competitive school. It's known as being a language school and it's famous all over the country for its language institutes. But shockingly, given my interest in language and my apparent aptitude in it, I didn't even take a language there!

“I studied political science and then I did my Master's degree in London at the London School of Economics and Political Science. I studied comparative politics. My research project was actually about Cornwall and the Brexit vote, and so I just went down to Cornwall, which was lovely -  really enjoyed Cornwall –  and researched by sitting in pubs and waiting for salty-looking fellows to talk to me! The first two weeks were my research. And then after that I went on a journey. My grandmother bought me a Euro rail pass. And yeah, I just went up the coast, went to Wales, went to Scotland, Inverness, and even the Isle of Skye…”

Willie’s first contact with Hungary came in 2016 when he decided to visit a friend who was studying at the Aquincum Institute of Technology. “We both loved Budapest, but I really was drawn in by the city. It was so beautiful. I think we went to six bath houses in five days.” When his friend graduated but stayed in Budapest, the two decided to spend a few months sharing the apartment and enjoying the city.

“Americans get three months in the EU every six months without a visa. So after three months, I had to go back home. But I had just met my now wife at a party at that time, in the third month, a week before I left. But it was good because it was a reason to come back. I went back to America in March of 2018, and then I came back here in July, through Thanksgiving, I was here. We got deeper and deeper in our relationship and then I went back to America over Christmas. And then I came back…

It was only much later that one of Willie’s family members began to research their family tree and discovered that his great-great-great grandparents had emigrated to New York from modern-day Slovakia – then part of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy – in 1882. However, the Hungarian language was lost down the generations, and Willie knew not a word upon his arrival.

“So I didn't know any, any at all, even like when I was in the taxi, the guy said ‘hello’ to me when I left. And I was so confused! Why is he saying hello? And then I learned afterwards okay, they say it for hello and goodbye.”

Willie’s sociable nature and desire to communicate with those around him was frustrated by a language so alien, though in all likelihood, this proved exactly the impetus required to embark upon trying to learn it.

“I went to live in South Africa for a year in Cape Town after my undergraduate degree. And then I lived in London. I was used to always, you know, talking to people or even just listening to snippets of conversation on the subway, or down the street. And here it was like living in a vacuum because you can't understand anything. And I was quite fascinated by the letters and everything. I just really like to read the street signs, and I annoyed my wife to death asking her questions: What does this mean? What does that mean?

“I think it was a year and a half in that I got to my first Hungarian tutor, Orsolya Kemény. she was very, very good, very helpful. I went in thinking I was kind of a hot shot because obviously most foreigners don't learn Hungarian, and then I realised I couldn't even count to 10!”

Three years later, with his conversational Hungarian more secure and his interest in the country ever deepening, Willie decided to launch his YouTube channel.

“I was making edited stories on social media with videos of my adventures, with interesting music in the background. So, I had some sort of a following, maybe a few thousand people, but I wasn't such a big deal or anything.

“But then right before COVID I was working freelance – basically unemployed! And then COVID obviously happened and I was bored. I was always making stuff about Hungary, but it wasn't such a big audience. But then I decided to transition to making these vlogs, or just walking around and giving a history lecture about something random. It was about four vlogs that I made with the GoPro my friend gave me, and I posted them on YouTube. I might have had about 500 followers.

“The videos were getting something like a few hundred hits. And then 24.HU the magazine – I didn't even know who they were – wanted to do an interview with me, and a profile. This was with a camera guy and it was very well produced. And that got like crazy, crazy traction on their website. I think on Facebook it was viewed over a million times. I was shocked. The most shocking number was that thousands of people shared it. Tens of thousands shared the video on Facebook with the title ‘New York Guy Loves Hungarian History’.

“And then after that, it was crazy! A month went by and every big network, RTL ( Focus and Reggeli), TV2, Sláger FM, Petőfi Rádió, asked to do some sort of piece derived from that. New York man loves Hungary. So after that little burst of a month, I had accumulated so many more people that were following these vlogs. And so I just kept it going. It was called Walking With Willie, (now just With Willie). And every episode was just me walking around with my GoPro, waving it like an ADHD crazy person - which I am! And just talking about random topics of Hungarian history and interacting with the environment, meeting random people on the street.”

Alongside his vlogs, Willie teaches both Hungarian and English online and in person – something he clearly enjoys, and which utilises his natural enthusiasm for the subject alongside his skills in dealing with people.

“I started once we moved here to Leányfalu teaching English to kids in the neighbourhood and started doing summer camps. We have had several camps here in the summer at the football field and we go canoeing down the Duna, hiking, biking. Yeah, it's really quite amazing to be able to have so much fun working with the local kids!”

Of his Hungarian lessons, Willie says, “I'm not qualified as a Hungarian teacher at all. But I thought, OK, maybe I can help people as an intermediary because I know how to explain certain concepts and I'm very interested in linguistics. Maybe a few people want to learn. And the response of people was unbelievable. I got about 500 messages!”

It is abundantly clear that Willie is much in demand, and also that he has the energy and enthusiasm to work on many projects simultaneously. A more recent demand on his time has come with the joyful birth of his son, Nathaniel, some ten months ago. This has caused him to focus on the ventures to which he most wants to give his time.



Last autumn, Willie crowdfunded his #HungaryWithWillie travel series and was able to hire professional videographers to shoot across five different regions of Hungary. He has gradually been releasing installments from this project across his various social media channels, and next spring he plans to travel to Transylvania (Érdely) to shoot part two of the project.

“I've been there once and that's really where my wife and I fell in love. And I've always been interested in it from a historical perspective. My undergraduate research project in political science was on Bosnia, and I lived in Sarajevo. And that's obviously a flashpoint of ethnic dispute. So, these sort of ethnic borders are very interesting to me. But I've always been nervous about offending someone in Romania making a video about Hungarian culture. But now I feel much more confident that I know how to handle these things. And it's such a beautiful place, so visually alone it will be very interesting.”

In spite of his undeniable success, Willie has, as yet, not sought to monetise his vlogs – something he is hoping to address in the near future. “I was actually invited, two days ago to the Hungarian Tourism Summit. I started out by saying that I'm the worst travel influencer in the world because I don't make any money from it!” He also recently received a commission from Hungary’s Ethnographic Museum.

In answer to the question relating to his possible future plans, Willie pauses. “You know, I'm always very encouraged by people that are supportive of my work, but also people that want to collaborate and do things together. Now that I've accumulated this sort of bizarre position for myself – some notoriety – I suppose I would like to use it to do some cool things…. I'd be very encouraged by more creatives coming to me saying they want to do this or do that. Yes, I'm looking for people to work with and do creative things with: teachers, videographers, tourism operators…”
 

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Marion Merrick is author of Now You See It, Now You Don’t and House of Cards and the website Budapest Retro.

If you would like to be interviewed as a Surprising Expat, please write with a few details of what you do, to: Marion by clicking here.