Comments on: Slovakia and Hungary in Language Law Row

By: Controller

Controller — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 12:05:21 +0000

“Another thing – imagine a Slovak tourist who wants to visit these southern parts of Slovakia. He sees a lot of sights and memorials but he doesn´t understand a word of what they say because it´s just in Hungarian.”

Have you ever been to Swiss, Sweden, Finland, Belgium, Ireland, Poland or – horribile dictu – USA? Why don’t they hva problem with regions where noone speaks the state-language?
I guess it is far not the question of communication, but the question of cultural attitude and the way of thinking about your own status on the plant called Earth (included Euope as well…)

By: Moosquibe

Moosquibe — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 22:57:12 +0000

I’ve been to many Slovakian cities, including the mostly Hungarian ones (Komárom/Komárno, Sturovo/Párkány, etc.) and at least half of the banners and marquees are in Slovak, and I couldn’t meet a single local soul who doesn’t speak Slovak. It isn’t really possible to deal with your official business without it.

Who would fine the doctor and the patient? Some malignant “patriots” who overhear them are far enough for destroying a doctors career. People who are concerned know damn well how this works.

I still believe, that most of the Slovaks are just as normal people (I have friends who are) as most of the Hungarians, and this is just a fake-problem generated by stupid populist politicians who’d sell their mother for a single vote. This is a perfect example, why absent minded nationalistic, alcoholic hard-right people with criminal record(Slota) should not be let anywhere near being on goverment.

By: Moosquibe

Moosquibe — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 22:41:34 +0000

“What this article hasn´t mentioned as well, is that the OSCE High Commissioner has read the act and even though he has some objections to some formal matters, he sees no violation of the European standards whatsoever.”

according to the Slovakain Minister of Foreign Affairs. This turned out to be a simple lie two days later…

By: Lydia

Lydia — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 09:48:05 +0000

Hi, I am a Slovak student and I´m watching all this confusion about the Language Act in our Slovak media. This article is just like any that could be found in our newspapers – very biased and one-sided. The whole idea behind the act was that when a Slovak comes to the south of Slovakia and needs to visit a doctor, or buy something at the grocery store, they often have no possible way to communicate with the people – almost all of them speak only Hungarian. There is absolutely no problem with two people (let´s say a doctor and a patient) who both speak Hungarian, to communicate in this language. Who could possibly fine them when the whole conversation was private and both of them prefer speaking Hungarian?

Another thing – imagine a Slovak tourist who wants to visit these southern parts of Slovakia. He sees a lot of sights and memorials but he doesn´t understand a word of what they say because it´s just in Hungarian. If he is interested in the history of the area, he will probably need to pay an interpretor for the day.

What this article hasn´t mentioned as well, is that the OSCE High Commissioner has read the act and even though he has some objections to some formal matters, he sees no violation of the European standards whatsoever.

Our constitution clearly states that there is only one state language in Slovakia – the Slovak language. Has ever a German patient had problems to communicate with a Turkish doctor in German? I don´t think so..

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