“Hi, Jancsi, how was magyar iskola?” – Third-generation Parenting in Cleveland
Abstract
Heritage language maintenance in Hungarian communities is often a struggle, as each successive generation succumbs to the inevitable forces of assimilation. Newer immigrants think that these forces won’t apply to them, but sometimes later find their own children speaking more and more English and less and less Hungarian. What are the factors that can slow down this assimilation process? What are the factors that allow a community to maintain the Hungarian language into the third generation, ie for those children whose parents and maybe even grandparents were born in the USA, far from Hungary? A detailed analysis of the Hungarian community in Cleveland can shed light on the broader context of Hungarians abroad. Qualitative research done with members of the community show the specific factors that influence language maintenance, and how a group can use the power of community to maintain a strong ethnic identity, to live in two worlds simultaneously: one Hungarian and one American. Put simply, this paper shows how the Hungarian diaspora can maintain its language, culture, and traditions, and how parents can pass on their language and their culture to their own children despite assimilating forces. In sharing the results of his research, the author helps illuminate what it really means to be Hungarian in Cleveland.
Video length: 21:25
Start Date
26-3-2022 10:10 AM
“Hi, Jancsi, how was magyar iskola?” – Third-generation Parenting in Cleveland
Heritage language maintenance in Hungarian communities is often a struggle, as each successive generation succumbs to the inevitable forces of assimilation. Newer immigrants think that these forces won’t apply to them, but sometimes later find their own children speaking more and more English and less and less Hungarian. What are the factors that can slow down this assimilation process? What are the factors that allow a community to maintain the Hungarian language into the third generation, ie for those children whose parents and maybe even grandparents were born in the USA, far from Hungary? A detailed analysis of the Hungarian community in Cleveland can shed light on the broader context of Hungarians abroad. Qualitative research done with members of the community show the specific factors that influence language maintenance, and how a group can use the power of community to maintain a strong ethnic identity, to live in two worlds simultaneously: one Hungarian and one American. Put simply, this paper shows how the Hungarian diaspora can maintain its language, culture, and traditions, and how parents can pass on their language and their culture to their own children despite assimilating forces. In sharing the results of his research, the author helps illuminate what it really means to be Hungarian in Cleveland.
Video length: 21:25
Comments
To see closed captioning for the video, link to https://youtu.be/Pt4k3elTaRQ?si=LtF_2ghlEdW5YC80