Place of living

 5. Tétel - Place of living - Lakás

• candidate's flat/house

• furnishings, pieces of furniture

• household chores and appliances

• flat-related costs, maintenance

• the ideal home

Transitionally I live in a flat on the first floor in a block of flats on a housing estate with my mother, my sister, my husband and my daughter. We are constructing a two-storey big family house in Inárcs and we would like to move there in May. We’ll have a big garage, a double balcony, a big terrace, two bathrooms, a guest room, a working room, two children’s rooms, our bedroom with a walk-in closet and in one place the kitchen, the dining room and the living room. There is huge garden so we’ll make a big playground for the children and there’ll be lots of flowers and fruit trees. 

Every rooms will be colourful there won’t be white wall. Every wood and furniture will be cherry-coloured and modern. There will be pictures on the walls and lots of plants everywhere. 

In the kitchen there will be lots of household appliances because I like that kitchen utensils are near my hands, for example, the scales, the kettle, mixer, the deep fryer, the food processor and so on. In my kitchen there will be on the worktop the kettle, the food processor, the deep fryer, scales, the cutting board, the graters, the nutcracker, the toaster, the microwave oven and the bread slicer. The crockery, the plates, the cutlery, the cups and glasses, the bowls, pans and pots will be in the cupboard.  

Our future house is my dream house.

The expenses of home are especially the overheads, for example, the bill of electric light, the bill of heating and gas, the bill of water and canal and so on. These expenses are the most. I think the second biggest charge is the food.

The maintenance of home may be so high if you call a specialist. You’d better you do it yourself if it needn’t professional help.

I think owning a flat is better because it’s a good investment and more secure than living in a rented flat. If you rent a flat, the owners can ask you to leave any time while if you live in your flat, you can stay there for all your life. It’s also true that you are more willing to finance repair jobs and redecorating if you are the owner.

6. Tétel - Housing - Lakásviszonyok

• living in the city or in the country

• living conditions (own property, rented accommodation, lodgings, hostel)

• flat or house

• neighbourhood

I prefer the countryside because I like peace, quiet and nature. I agree that living in a city has advantages but I can’t imagine living in a dirty and noisy city with crowds of people around me.

In a city it’s easier to find a job and there are more possibilities for spending your free time. Specialised health services are more easily accessible and there are big hypermarkets and plazas eith a wide variety of goods. In cities there are more banks, post offices and all kinds of services. On the other hand, the air is polluted, the streets are dirty and noisy, there is more crime, and life is too hectic. In a village life is more peaceful, the air is clean, there are flowers and trees everywhere and people know each other. People are friendlier, they always have the time for a chat, and they are willing to help each other. The disadvantages are that the infrastructure is not so developed, the number of services is generally smaller, and you may have to commute to make your living. If you need to contact the authorities because of some administrative matters, you have to travel to the nearest city, and it can take all day.

In villages most people live in a family house, though there may be some blocks in the centre. In town centres there are blocks of flats and apartment houses, and on the outskirts there are big housing estates with prefabricated buildings. In the green belt you can find detached, semi-detached and terraced houses.

The English prefer living in houses and hate high-rise buildings. In most English towns you can find terraced houses built from red brick.

Living in a high-rise block of flats has problems. Families feel isolated and lonely. There is not much contact with the neighbours. The children have nowhere to play. The old people have to depend on the lift (elevator) to reach the outside world. When the lift is not operating, the old people are cut off from human contact. On the other hand it may be problem with the neighbours because of noises. In these building the sealant is bad and the walls are thin.

I think houses have only one problem: the scoop of snow.

In my opinion owning a flat is better because it’s a good investment and more secure than living in a rented flat. If you rent a flat, the owners can ask you to leave any time while if you live in your flat, you can stay there for all your life. It’s also true that you are more willing to finance repair jobs and redecorating if you are the owner.

We can get flat or house in many ways; we can buy it in a lump, but it rare because a flat or a house is very expensive. If we don’t have enough money we’ll get on credit. In this case we pay the amount and interests monthly for a long time. If we don’t have capital we can rent a flat or a house or we can live in a room or a boarding school if we’re students.

7. Tétel - Holidays and celebrations - Ünnepek és ünnepnapok

• family celebrations (birthdays, name days, anniversaries)

• Christmas, Easter

• public holidays

• customs and traditions

Many countries around the world share certain holidays, such as New Year’s Day, Easter and Christmas, but not every country celebrates them in the same ways or even on the same day.

We celebrate birthdays, namedays, wedding anniversaries, March 15, Easter, Whitsun, Mother’s Day, August 20, October 23, All Soul’s Day, Christmas and New Year’s Day. 

In Hungary most people get married on a Saturday afternoon. All couples have to get married in a registry office, and those who are religious have a church wedding, too. In the registry office, the ceremony is led by a registrar, and the couple and their two witnesses sign the register. The bride wears a long white wedding dress with a veil and a train, and the bridegroom an elegant dark suit with a white shirt and a tie. The bride holds a bouquet, and the bridegroom has a buttonniere. After the ceremony there is a reception, which held in a restaurant, and in villages is often held in a big tent. At the reception several kinds of dishes are served and the new couple cuts the wedding  cake. At midnight the couple change their clothes and the so-called bride’s dance starts. All the guests dance with the bride and give some money to the couple to contribute to their new life together.

Namedays aren’t celebrated, for example, in English-speaking countries. In Hungary namedays are almost as important as birthdays and are celebrated in all families.

At Christmas we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. Christmas is a holiday full of traditions. The most important day is Christmas Eve, December 24, when the family comes together for the Christmas dinner. The traditional dishes are fish soup, stuffed cabbage and poppy seed and nut rolls. The Christmas tree is decorated before the dinner with sweets, brightly coloured lights and glass ornaments, and Christmas presents are placed under it. At midnight lots of families go to church for the midnight service. On Christmas Day and Boxing Day relatives visit each other and have lunch together.

In England Christmas Eve is the time for the annual office party and many English people go to a midnight mass, while others go to church on the morning of Christmas Day.

In Hungary on New Year’s Eve people usually go to parties where they eat and drink and enjoy themselves. At midnight they drink champagne and sing the national anthem. Then people go to the streets and watch the fireworks.

In England people go to parties or dances on New Year’s Eve. At midnight they drink a toast to the New Year and link arms to sing Auld Lang Syne. In London thousands of people gather to celebrate at Trafalgar Square.

At Easter we celebrate the Resurrection, that is, the rising of Jesus Christ from the tomb three days after his crucifixion. On Easter Sunday morning we eat ham, hard-boiled eggs and cold pork in aspic. On Easter Monday boys visit their relatives and friends and sprinkle women and girls with perfume or water. They get chocolate or painted eggs, and chocolate bunnies. In England many people go to church on Easter Sunday.

The Hungarians celebrate March 15th, the day of the Hungarian Revolution and War of Independence of 1848-49, August 20, the day of King Stephen I. and October 23rd, the day of the Declaration of the Hungarian Republic.

As far as I know, public holidays in England are called bank holidays because on these days the banks are closed. New Year’s Day, Easter Monday and Boxing Day are bank holidays. May Bank Holiday is the first Monday in May. The British also celebrate St. Valentine’s Day, May Day, the Queen’s birthday, Halloween, Guy Fawkes Night and Armistice Day.

St. Valentine’s Day, February 14th, is the day of lovers.

Both Britain and the U.S.A. also celebrate some holidays which are not common in other countries, for instance Valentine’s Day (February 14th), April Fool’s Day (April    1st),May Day (May 1st) and Halloween (October 31st). An important Welsh holiday is St. David’s Day (the patron saint of Wales) on March 1st, and in Ireland, St. Patrick’s Day (March 17th) is the day celebrating their patron saint. Midsummer’s Day (June 24th) marks the longest day of the year, and Guy Fawkes’ Day (November 5th) commemorates the survival of the monarchy and the King after Guy Fawkes unsuccessfully tried to kill him in 1605.

In the United States each state has its own legal holidays but most states observe the holidays set by the federal government. These holidays are: New Year’s Day (January 1st), Martin Luther King’s Birthday (3rd Monday in January), Washington’s Birthday (3rd Monday in February), Memorial Day (last Mondy in May), Independence Day (July 4), Labor Day (1st Monday in September), Columbus Day (2nd Monday in October), Veterans’ Day (November 11), Thanksgiving Day (4th Thursday in November) and Christmas Day (December 25).

As in Ireland, St. Patrick’s Day is observed in America, a day when people wear green for the Irish saint.

Many of the holidays have traditional foods and activities associated with them, and nowadays it’s commond to send greeting cards to family and friends on many of these days.

On Halloween children dress up as witches or in other costumes, make lanterns of pumpkins and light candles inside them to scare the witches away. They visit houses wearing costumes and knock at the door, and when it’s opened, they say trick or treat. Trick means playing a joke, and treat means getting a gift, usually sweets. This day is celebrated both in Great-Britain and in the United States.

8. Tétel - Reading; television, video, cinema - Szabadidő - olvasás, televízió, videó, mozi

• reading (books, newspapers, libraries, Internet)

• TV, cinema, video

• reading vs TV

• TV vs cinema

I think reading is a very useful pastime. I like reading interesting books because I can relax with it.

People go to a library to borrow books and cassettes, read newspapers and magazines, photocopy materials, listen to music and use computers. 

It’s oftener that we buy the newspapers. In Hungary there are local and national daily papers. The local papers tend to concentrate on the news of the county and write only short articles on world and national news. As for the national daily papers, there are two basic types. One is quality papers which focus on more serious issues and try to cover all kinds of topics. Newspapers belonging to the other group, tabloids, concentrate on sensational news, such as murders, tragedies and stories on famous people. The headlines are sometimes provocative, using big letters. The articles are short and there are lots of pictures.

The British are a nation of newspaper readers. Many people even have a daily paper delivered to their homes in time for breakfast.

British newspapers can be divided into two groups too: quality and popular (tabloid). Quality newspapers are more serious and cover home and foreign news thoughtfully while the popular newspapers like shocking, personal stories as well as some news. These two groups of papers can be distinguished easily because the quality newspapers are twice the size of the popular newspapers.

Of course the press means more than newspapers. A vast range of magazines and weeklies is published, aimed at readers interested in all sorts of subjects. In fact, there are magazines for practically every special interest you can imagine. There are women’s magazines, gourmet cooking magazines, or magazines dealing with gardening, science, cars, motorcycles, computers, modeling, home decorating, fashion, sports, body building, film, theatre, music, news magazines and so on.

I love books. I love to read especially tales to my daughter. I buy books by internet because it’s comfortable and cheaper than I buy books in the bookshops. 

In my opinion, people prefer watching films to reading. Watching films is less demanding than reading books after a tiring day at work or at school. Although cinema tickets are quite expensive, so are books.

People not only watch what is on TV but watch videos and DVDs. It’s better because there isn’t commercial during the film. I understand that commercials are important for channels and sometimes provide useful information for everybody. They can also be quite entertaining, though I hate it when the film that I’m watching is interrupted at the most interesting part with commercials.

In my opinion, TV contributes to our social life. People like talking about TV programmes. For example, they discuss all kinds of information on the characters of soap operas, try to guess what will happen to them in the next episodes and talk about the actors’ and actresses’ private lives. They also like criticising the way presenters talk and dress.  

I prefer those channels which broadcast documentaries and films on nature, animals and fabulous events. I often watch tale channel with my daughter, we have lots of favourite programmes. I watch the news every day because I like to know what is going on in the world. I also enjoy watching quiz shows and comedies. 

We go to multiplex cinemas in big plazas where we go to not only for the sake of the film, but also to enjoy ourselves with our friends before or after the film. Usually we have dinner there before the cinema.

I mostly listen to the radio while driving. I like channels which offer programmes with few commercials and lots of music. I also like programmes which provide news every hour or half an hour and information on town traffic and road conditions.

Mass media is a phrase often used to describe ways of giving information and entertainment to very large numbers of people. It includes newspapers, advertising and radio and of course, television.