ON OUR CURRENT BUSINESS AND LIFE IN MAGYAROSAG

David with our translator Andrea on Feb 22nd at the Alsózsolca Disnotoros (our town's annual pig fest). We were treated to a free breakfast because he was one of the sausage contest judges. There was a lot of homemade sausage and palinka (that is a homemade fruit based alcoholic drink and it is very strong)

Magyarosag is what the Hungarians call their country where we now live. David and I started a Hungarian kft (that's a partnership) consulting business January 2025. While we offer multiple services, our primary focus has been teaching English as a Second Language also called ESL. For the first quarter I was sub-contracted to teach, via Zoom, a group of 9 accountants vocabulary related to their work. I had 3 students each day, 3 days per week for 90 minute sessions. As a bookkeeper myself, it was very enjoyable for me to talk with colleagues in Hungary about our shared passion. Then as referrals grew, we began to have clients who visited in person. At times David would join the conversation. Dave even did a session on cooking with a client. Being able to talk with both of us was very beneficial and that person, a dentist, is still visiting weekly. Another group opportunity came along with a start-up tech business in Budapest via zoom. These folks needed to talk with ESL speakers in other countries and sometimes Americans who used a lot of sports idioms. Expressions like "I hit the ball out of the park" or "I dropped the ball" were often confusing to the Hungarians who may not be familiar with American baseball. Their main sport is soccer which they call football.

Many Europeans have studied English for years in school, but it is often British English taught by other Hungarians. Hungarians can read and write in English, and their pronunciation may be quite good except for some of our words that don't follow the rules. Having a chat with a native American English speaker is rare in certain parts of the country outside the bigger cities. So, David and I have a niche, and we are excited for the opportunity to help our new neighbors and colleagues. For us it is making new friends while contributing to the society where we now live. We did take a month hiatus during David's illness.

For anyone not following us, David became seriously ill in the spring due to a diabetic infection on his foot. He was in the hospital twice. The first time it was 12 days in April. Then in June there was a second shorter stay. Thankfully he is much better now and can resume most normal activities. We are so grateful for the medical professionals who helped him, and for our team of translators who were always at our side to ensure we fully understood the doctors.

Yes, I said team! We have an English-speaking personal assistant, Andrea, who owns a consulting business that helps businesspeople relocate. She usually trains people in big companies and does career counseling for individuals. She was recommended to us by our lawyer shortly after we arrived in Miskolc. She would help us with government meetings, finding a realtor and other business-related work. We never imagined she would need help with a medical emergency. But we are so grateful for her and her staff. If she could not take us to medical appointments or be at the hospital, then she had 3 other folks on call and ready to assist. We never felt alone during this crisis. We asked our ESL clients to be patient because we had to delay some prepaid lessons until things got back to normal. Those people were understanding and kind. One of them offered some very good medical advice. Our dentist-client even helped us understand all the new medications. He arrived one day for his lesson after we had just come from the pharmacy. He saw we were a bit overwhelmed with all the new prescriptions.

David has made a remarkable recovery but is still under medical care. He has a primary doctor, a nurse who visits 3 days a week, a diabetes specialist and a vascular surgeon. He was seeing the surgeon weekly for a while, but now he is on a break until September. So back to ESL and a little summer relaxing.

Most of our clients are adults, but I was asked to chat with an 11-year-old boy who had a great understanding of English but no opportunity to exercise his skills. I wondered what we could discuss. Turned out I could use most of the same Fluentize lessons and we could enhance with him telling me about Hungarian history and fencing, his current sport. After this, another mom asked me about helping her teens who need to pass required English proficiency tests. To that end we have now added a "Family chat" plan to our offerings for ages 10-17. This new offer will start in September so it can coincide with school.

In December we were granted one-year resident permits. The requirement was to have this kft business. However, someday we may want to fully retire. To that end, when David recovered enough, we went to the Immigration office in Miskolc and formally submitted a request for his dual citizenship because of his Magyar heritage. We provided proof that all 4 of his grandparents came from near this area where we now reside. We spent 2 hours answering questions and providing documents which were uploaded to the main office in Budapest. Now we wait and hope. So stay tuned! :)