International Conference in Warsaw for Hungarian Department

A two-day international conference on Hungarian Studies began in the Polish capital on Wednesday to mark the 70th anniversary of the Hungarian Department of the University of Warsaw. The opening ceremony of the anniversary conference was attended by Hungarian Ambassador to Warsaw Orsolya Zsuzsanna Kovács, and was also addressed by Orsolya Maróti, Head of the Department for International Hungarian Language Training and Education of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

Csilla Gizinska, Head of the Hungarian Department, told MTI that the department is one of the largest Hungarian language and cultural research and teaching centers outside the Hungarian language area.

“The Hungarian-Polish friendship, which has a centuries-old tradition, not only motivates and helps us in our work, but also obliges us,” she said. She emphasized that it was also largely up to Hungarian Studies in Poland how to reach out to young people, “to make these contacts new and not least to take them further.”

Gizinska said that

it was important for the department’s students to acquire the knowledge of Hungarian language and culture that would help them to find jobs in all segments of the labor market – cultural, academic, and competitive.

She added that it is precisely thanks to their knowledge of the Hungarian language that a large proportion of graduates can find a place to work.

According to the website of the Waclaw Felczak Institute for Polish-Hungarian Cooperation in Warsaw, the Hungarian Department was the first of the three Polish Hungarian Studies departments to start its work in 1952, and has continued its teaching and research activities without interruption ever since. It was established with the help of professors from the University of Warsaw who found refuge in Hungary during the Second World War and later returned to their homeland.

Featured photo via MTI/Bruzák Noémi