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4. The World Turns Its Back – The 1960s

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Still in the 50s I attended primary school in the 14 district of
Budapest named Zugló, a school in Angol (English) Street, and
oddly enough, the name of the street determined my life to
come, although I did not have the slightest clue of that then and
even much later when I was already studying at the secondary
school. I did not care about the future. Nevertheless, I started
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teaching in 3 grade, still in secondary school; I taught a man in
private lessons, during which it turned out that teaching, which
ran in the family for centuries, was not as far from me as I had
though earlier. I could not manage to successfully apply to
English Faculty of ELTE university (a leading university of
Budapest), and this coincided with the customs of the
communist regime, which said that I needed an “appropriate”
(proletarian) family background in order to gain admission. I
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started to work as a currency cashier at the Keleti Railway
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Station office of IBUSZ because tourists from the Western
countries started to appear in the 1960s. I dreamt of becoming a
tour guide when these elegant, lively people visited the office
for some business reason. I was in charge to run the office at
Easter 1963 when a sympathetic American couple with two
adorable, prettily-dressed daughters wanted to change money.
While doing it, they asked for my help regarding
accommodation and sightseeing. This turned out to become a
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lifelong acquaintance. Not to the happiness of the “comrade”
who was responsible to watch over me “somewhere”, I suppose.
By no means had I any chance of making the slightest career in
civil service or politics. Not that if I really had wanted to. Later,
a fellow student from the university and fellow tour guide
visited the Living Languages Seminar and asked: You want to

18 “Eastern” Railway Station. There are main stations for trains bound for east, west and
south in Budapest.
19 The most important travel agency of Hungary in that age. Founded in 1902.
20 Everyone was titled as “Comrade” at the time, like Mr. in English. Comrade became a
communist title.

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