American in Finno-Ugric Studies

IFUSCO

2011-05-06T15:40:00.000-07:00

IFUSCO starts Monday! If you're in Budapest, please let know! I'd love to meet up!

IFUSCO 2011 Update

2011-01-14T07:36:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone,
Just wanted to let you know that the IFUSCO 2011 Call for Papers is out! :-)

http://finnugor.elte.hu/?q=ifusco

Feel free to pass it on to any interested parties! :-)

People I met at CIFU 11

2010-08-15T04:57:00.001-07:00

I met and spoke with Gábor Zaicz and was tasked to do a project for him! Although that may be difficult since I was never a degree student at IU, nor was I privy to specific class information...I can get in touch with the people who have access to the info that this professor wants, but I don't know if those people will give ME that info... I also got his card! :-) And at Friday's reception at the Ethnography Museum in Budapest, I also traded e-mails with Eszter Ruttkay-Miklián (the lady whose article I used in a paper)!

Let's see...the Japanese lady I spoke with earlier in the week, is apparently THE Hungarian person in Japan! And she invited me to a get-together for her Hungarian-learning Japanese students; taking place in about a month!

I also met a second American prof, who does Erzhya and Mordvin stuff. When he found out that I studied at IU, he asked me, basically, if they were hiring anyone in this (Finno-Ugric) field. I told him I didn't know, but gave him the names and e-mails of people who could bring him up-to-date on the Finno-Ugric IU situation (a couple who were here, and who are returning to IU next week; I'll call them Matt and B.). I'll just say that, probably most universities have their department politics, and that CEUS in Bloomington is no exception.

Something funny about the American in Aarhus. After he met me, and found out that I study Hungarian, he asked me if I know anyone who studies how people (like me) learn Hungarian. My jaw dropped, and I said that not only do I know someone, but she's here (at the conference) right now. I introduced him to Matt & B. on Thursday, and they were perfectly content to sit and chat about what B. had accomplished/found out, with her study (in which I was one of her guinea pigs! :-) ).

I fuond out that one of my professors from Milwaukee was here! Thanks to Facebook, I recognised this redheaded friend of hers, and knew who she was immediately when I saw her here (the friend). I went up to her and introduced myself, and told her I knew the Milwaukee professor, and she was surprised. We chatted a bit about that, and then when saying good-bye, the redhead told me to get in touch the next time I'm in Budapest. :-)

I met a ton of people here, and have invitations to visit Munich and Aarhus any time over the next school year. I wonder...if I go to Denmark, could I also get to Bergen and Tampere in that trip?

CIFU Conference Day 6: Trip to Szentendre

2010-08-15T04:56:00.000-07:00

Today was our excursion to Szentendre. Or so I thought. I had been there before for a few hours and didn't really want to go back. However, that was not our destination. We were bound for a town/village? called Skanzen (http://www.skanzen.hu/index.php). The site has an English option.

I ran into my Italian friend from earlier in the week and chatted with him a bit. We had lunch there, which consisted of any of the following:
-open-faced bread with butter and red onions on top
-open-faced bread with a combination of melted cheese/cottage cheese mixture (türös)
-bread with tomatoes on top
-plain bread
-some sort of fried fat snack thing
-water
-beer
-plum-filled croissant-type things for dessert.

Take a guess at what I ate? Bread, water, and 2 crossiant things. The Italian guy then told me that there are wild apple trees somewhere in the park, so we went to look for them. We didn't find them, but we found cherry trees instead! I asked him if they're edible and he ate one right there on the spot! He said it was good, so I picked one, too, except mine wasn't sweet at all! :-( And the inside was bright orange! We walked and eventually found bee hives (méhkas). I didn't like that word so I made one up, a 'bee house' (méh-ház), but that doesn't work 'cause it sounds funny because the vowels have to match up when you talk. So yeah, he thought that was funny, but what he thought was even *more* funnier was when I told him, in Hungarian, that the Queen Bee lives inside and that the King (Bee) is dead. I don't know if it's what I said, or how I said it. I mean, how many students know the word for 'bee'? I mean I know it, 'cause in Glasgow in class with Z I'd have tea sometimes and would want to put honey in the tea, so that's how I know it. I guess that, plus the fact that I'm American, and was talking about the bees like it was a no-brainer...? ::shrugs:: I passed a guy making braided bracelets, and tried to make one. I figured that since I can braid hair, just not my own, that this would be a piece of cake! It was not. You had to braid it and count to 4 and then flip the piece to the back. The guy finished my bracelet for me, and then went to take photos.

I took some photos of the area, and some photos of bales of hay that were in front of a bldg with a thatched roof.
Heading back to Piliscsaba, I said good-bye to the French Delegation and headed back to the dorm.

Oh, I forgot to mention another friend I made this week. A guy I'd seen around the conference all week and the dorm turns out to be not only an American from NYC, but Jewish too! Of the 400 people here, I meet a Jewish guy from NYC... :-p :-)

He's a visiting prof in Aarhus ,Denmark and teaches 6 classes on Linguistics there. He's fluent in Dutch, Irish Gaelic, and has spent some time in Columbo, Sri Lanka, doing field work.

He told me about this pizza place he found earlier in the week, so he, 2 Dutch guys and myself went there for dinner last night. I ordered a pizza with grilled eggplant on top, and this pizza was made differently from the usual ones in the US or the UK.

There was barely any tomato sauce on the pizza in the first place, and the cheese was only on top of the eggplant, not throughout the entire pizza. Which was a nice change from how pizza usually is. I also ordered the parsleyed potatoes, rice-and-peas, and they gave me more eggplant on the side! Yikes!

The Dutchmen spoke English for my benefit, and had either had too much to drink, or are just like that anyhow, because they were attempting to tease this prof and I at the end when the check came. Like it was a date or something, which it wasn't, but maybe the Dutch are --- maybe that's just how they are. ::shrugs:: Oh, and one of the Dutchmen has a friend in Tartu (Estonia), who owns a flat (British for 'apartment') in Budapest that I might be able to rent. He'll e-mail the friend on Monday and get back to me soon, I hope. I have 3 flats to see on Monday, and it would be great if one of them works out.

Let's see...oh, so the prof teaches Linguistics in Denmark, and apparently the Danes are such experts in American pop culture, that for one of his Powerpoint lectures, he made up this soap opera involving Spiderman and X-Men, and incorporated local Danish stuff into it, too, so to get the point across about whatever he was teaching. I can't remember the whole story right now, but he said he could send me the power point. Maybe I can put it here at some point.

After dinner, the guys went up to pack, and I ran into Dimitri, who is pretty much recovered from his cold.

The Dutch and Americans leave in the morning, so we're doing breakfast tomorrow before they head to Budapest.

CIFU 11 Conference Day 5: Trip to Lake Balaton

2010-08-15T04:55:00.002-07:00

Today the plan was to head to the Balaton, to see Veszprém, Zirc, and Tihány. I was up at 7 to breakfast with K. and after saying our good-byes, I headed down to the main bldg. This guy I had seen all week, and who presented right after me on Tuesday-- I asked him in Russian where the buses were, but he didn't know but came along anyhow. We get to the buses and I ask the drivers which ones are going where, and this Russian guy asks, in Hungarian, which bus goes to the Balaton. I was stunned! I thought he had said that he doesn't know Hungarian, that he only knows a little bit, which was why I was careful about how I spoke to him, thinking he was a beginner. However, I find out on the bus that he not only speaks it quite well, that he taught himself from books without a teacher!

His name's Sergei, and we chatted all afternoon on the bus, in Hungarian, about all kinds of stuff! He's Russian, from Perm (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perm), and is married with either a 3 month old, or 6 month old, baby girl named Katherine. Let me think, today is Sunday and we chatted on Friday, though I took notes about what we were talking... :-p so I could remember and put them here.

::flips to note pages::

Since Sergei's from Perm, I told him a bit about the translation I did for Z last semester. He had heard of this Herberstein guy, and of the Vjatkai people too (present-day area: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirov_Oblast), who, in the 15th century, tried to escape the clutches of Muscovy, but were unsucessful. Many died, and those left alive were made slaves of the Duchy (of Muscovy). To learn more about the previous sentences, please see the blog entry called "Translation for Z", or along those lines, and hit Control plus F to search for "Vjatka( i )".

But back to Sergei. He knew about the above area and the people. We then went from 15th century Russia to World War II Europe and talked about the Fascist parties in power, and about the Hungarian Arrow Cross (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrow_Cross_Party). When we couldn't think of words in Hungarian, we turned to the people behind us, which were Russian-speakers and an American professor who speaks Russian. The American professor sat diagonally behind us, and in front of whom were sitting 2 Russian speakers, so it was quite easy to turn to them for Russian/English help when we couldn't think of the word in Hungarian!

So, the professor (in Russian) was telling Sergei about the Arrow Cross, and that they were Fascists in Hungary during World War II. Sergei was like, "Ah, ok, the Fascists (Fascisti!, got it)". After this, *of course* the natural progression of conversation turns to Stalin (<-- heavy sarcasm right there), and that people in Russia might say, "Oh, I love Lenin", "Stalin was great!", but they had to say it quietly otherwise face the consequences. :-/ Funny side note: As this conversation was going on, the song playing on the radio was "Can't Fight the Moonlight" by Leann Rimes! :-p There aren't many Hungarians in Perm, so Sergei taught himself Hungarian out of books, and has been studying it for more then 10 years. We then talked about movies: -"The Mirror" by Andrei Tarkovsky -"Wild Strawberries" by the Swede Ingmar Bergman -David Lynch then came up, and though I haven't seen "Twin Peaks" or all of "Mulholland Drive", we talked about these types of movies for a bit, and moved on to the following writers/directors: Milos Forman, who is a Czech Jew living in the US (a writer), and then the Hungarian Szabó István, and Fabri Zoltán. We ran into a slight problem when I was talking about "Underworld". I described what it was about, but didn't know the word for "Underworld". I didn't want to say, "World of the Dead", so we turned to the American and Russian speakers near us. The professor was able to help, and gave the Russian equivalent. This professor didn't know that I knew Russian, back when he was talking about the Fascists in Hungary, and was surprised to have me listen in to the conversation. Side note: I saw the prof in the dorms, and I think that because I've been speaking Hungarian all week, some forget that I studied Russian. I gotta say though, my Russian got better all this week, so I'm somewhere between passive and active right now. I started out understanding only a little bit of the various conversations around me, and then had to remember how to give directions on the fly at times, and then speaking with, well, Dimitri did most of the talking, but I was able, slowly, to put sentences and questions together to talk to him. But when *he* spoke to *me*, I could understand almost everything. So, my Russian is still there, but definitely better than it was last week. Then we got to talking about music. Sergei is really into the classic Hungarian rock: Bikini (No, for real! Look them up on You Tube!), Omega, and then one of the singers who either left Omega, or sounds similar to Omega, and I can't remember the name. I told him about the Russian singer Varvara and her music videos that I like: "Dreams" (nice scenery): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKpgFU3CN48
"Melted Snow" (Kind of a lovey-dovey song):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqbHFF3qR-M&feature=related

and then of *course* she *has* to do her own version of the Russian song "Katyusha", popular during World War II ::eyeroll::
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nabYYdQkS58

After we arrived to Zirc (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zirc), we went to the museum dedicated to the life and work of Reguly Antal, the famous Hungarian Finno-Ugricist (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antal_Reguly).
We then went into the library where there are so many books that he either wrote or used, over the course (során in magyarul for anyone interested! :-p) of his research.

After the museum, we took the bus to Tihany (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tihany), where we had lunch before going into a church. I sat at a table with an older Hungarian lady who studied Mongolia (she said she has her PhD in Mongolistics, and thus speaks Russian), a Hungarian girl named Sarolta (which I couldn't believe 'cause it's a really old Hungarian name! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarolt), and a Russian guy. I thought Sarolta looked vaguely familiar, and it turns out she knew who I am from my name tag, because she came to hear my presentation. She also wanted me to send her the paper that I talked about. Her thing is the Pechenegs
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pechenegs), and we got to talking about them and then Middle Ages' history. The Russian guy in our group is in fact NOT Russian, but ethnic Komi from the Komi Republic in Russia
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Komi_Republic). He and I spoke in Hungarian about history and general stuff. Sarolta asked him for the Komi equivalents (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Komi-Zyrian_language) of some Hungarian phrases. There's Perm Komi and Zyryan/Zyrian/Siryan Komi, both of which he wrote in Russian for phonetic reasons (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Komi-Zyrian_language), and also in Komi, but I'll just put the Russian transliteration below:

English / Hungarian / Perm Komi / Zyryan Komi
-Hi / Szia /---/ Чолом!
-You're Nice (to me) / Te engem kedves / ---/ Те меным мусa
-I Love You / Szeretlek / Ме тэно любитa /(both use Ме тэно рaдейтa)
-Good Day / Jó napot / Бур лун! / ---
-Thank You / Köszönöm / Aттьö / ---
-Good Bye / Viszlát! / Aдззисьлмтодв / Áддзысьлмтодв

Sarolta, this Komi guy, and I traded e-mails. For the linguists, if you want to get in touch with this guy, let me know and I can give you his e-mail. When I get to Budapest, I can also scan in the paper he wrote on, so you can see it for yourself. :-)

After lunch, we headed to the monastery, which turned out to be a church. I stopped along the way to take pictures, and I saw people in sailboats out on the water! In the church is buried the first king of Hungary, called Andrew I; who died in 1060. The Orthodox priest with us, put a small photo of something on the stone slab that was the top of the coffin, in the middle of the cross that was carved into the stone, and said a blessing in Russia--in Latin, maybe. I'm not sure. But I did find out that this priest is ethnic Mordvin, and is an Orthodox priest.

After Tihany, we headed to Budapest for the evening reception at the Museum of Ethnography. We arrived at 8:15, and the the event was over at 9. I helped myself to some parsleyed potatoes (Yes, you read that correctly, 'parsleyed' potatoes). and I ran into Sarolta who was leaving, who gave me her uneaten chocolate cake, with sprinkles on top. The cake was chocolate mousse and had a layer of creme de menthe as the first layer under the sprinkled top.

Ugh, my English is so bad right now. ::shakes head::
Speaking Hungarian + trying to remember Russian = not good for when you have to write/speak in English!!!

I guess a professor was right. My Hungarian *has* gotten better by leaps and bounds, but my English has gone the other direction! I have however, learned new words, which is good, and about which I'll mention in this and Saturday's entry.

Hmm, let's see, so potatoes and chocolate cake in Budapest, then I ran to catch one of the buses that was taking us back to Piliscsaba. The first bus has no free seats, so I went to the smaller bus. The French guy who talked about fantasy lit. saw me enter and called me over to sit with him. He's one of 4 people here that are part of the "French delegation", as he so aptly called it. :-) :-p He has studied Hungarian for a year, but his Finnish and Estonian are much better. Oh, and we spoke in English. Mostly about American music and international films not in English. He's really into Classic rock from the '60s and '70s: Dylan, Jefferson Airplane, something Star Ship, Creedence Clearwater Revival, The Doors, and something else that I can't remember. It's a group my parents listen to, that I've heard of, but don't listen to myself.... We talked about movies too. He like Quentin Tarantino films (like Kill Bill, for example), and that QT really knows how to select music that compliments the film perfectly. He's seen Amelie (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amelie), and has seen the other film that the same actress stars in, " A Very Long Engagement" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Very_Long_Engagement).

Wow, a lot happened today and it wiped me out!

Trip to Szentendre tomorrow (Saturday)!

CIFU 11 Conference Day 4

2010-08-15T04:55:00.001-07:00

Today got off to a slow start. It was supposed to be "Transylvania Day" for me today, and first lecture turned out to be given in German, so I went out to get a coffee. The 2nd lecture, about Hungarian as a mother tongoe or foreign language in Transylvania didn't happen because the lady didn't show up. However, I did chat with a Japanese lady for about 15 minutes during a break. Oh, and unless I mention otherwise, all conversations this week occurred in Hungarian.

So, the Japanese lady. She teaches Hungarian at Osaka University, but lives in Nagoya, which is between Osaka and Tokyo. Some of her students will be studying in Budapest for the school year, and she'll be with them I suppose. They're having a party mid-September and she invited me to it. She gave me her business card and I have her my email. Her business card is bilingual and looks awesome!

After the break, the lecture was about how the concept of love is portrayed in Hungary, and compared to how it's perceived in the Csángo (Roman Catholic, Hungarian) communities in Romania. Basically it comes down to Hungarians finding love by dating and the csángo find love only within marriage. That's the lecture in a nutshell.

The afternoon lectures (in English) were interesting: About Bashkortostan and an Estonian networking site.
1.) Bashkortostan and how the heroes of wars don't die; their memories live on.
The speaker looked at 3 wars Russia has been involved in over the past 60 years:
A.) The Great Patriotic War (a.k.a. World War II)
B.) The Soviet-Afghan War
C.) Chechnya

There's a school that's named after one of these heroes, who was post-humously awarded the Order of the Red Star, and wanted peace for the citizens of Afghanistan. The heroes are honoured for their military contribution with wreath-laying ceremony on the anniversary of the war. They are remembered so veterans of today can tell the guys of today how to be the next heroes of the next fights (i.e. in Chechnya). War and heroism increase brotherhood amongst the guys who served. There's also the memory of the soldier in bibliographies, in photos (like an icon). She ended with a quote by Benedict Anderson:
"The power of the nation resides in that people are willing to die for it".

The Estonian lecture was about how Estonian girls present themselves online and what they write on their page. The website looks like a cross between MySpace and Facebook. The MySpace background options, with the Facebook boxes to fill in info. 1/3 of Estonia's 1 million people are on the site; most of which are 10-14 year olds. Oh, the site is called: www.rate.ee if you want to check it out.

After that, I went to a Finno-Ugric roundtable where I saw the Vienna people and the Dutch prof, who not only has cool ties and smokes a pipe, but also has a pocketwatch.

@Michell: I said I knew that I know you and how he's a great professor, which he was surprised about (in a good way). He then said that he hadn't seen you around much this past year, so if you have time, maybe send him an e-mail and update him on what you're doing.

I spoke with someone from Vienna, but completely forgot to mention this web site that Vienna is affiliated with... Mayb I can do that tomorrow night. We'll be going to a Budapest Museum for an evening reception tomorrow night, so maybe I can talk to her again.

I also met the head of the North American equivalent of this conference (called FUSAC).

Oh, I'm going on an excursion to Lake Balaton tomorrow and won't update this til late tomorrow or sometime Saturday. Hope you're liking the posts!

CIFU 11 Conference Day 3

2010-08-15T04:54:00.002-07:00

Today I went to several lectures. and even chatted with the author whose article I used in my paper last Autumn!

But I'll get to that in a bit. I started the day by going to the fantasy guy's lecture. It turns out, that he's French, and speaks Finnish and Estonian. His dissertation is on Fantasy and Sci-Fi elements that are in Finnish and Estonian folklore, and Finnish short stories. There are links between the 2, fantasy and folklore, and were more prevalent in the 19th century, and not so much in the 20th century.

The 7 Brothers (which reminded me of The Brothers' Grimm), is a famous work in Estonia written by Aleksis Kivi in the 19th century. An Estonian famous author from the 1920s and '30s is called Aino Kallas. The works are set in unknown places, and not connected to Finland in any way.

Kalevipoeg, by Kreutzwald and a 19th century work by A. Ketzberg deal a lot with werewolves. The author Hegla wrote a book called Scary Estonia. A. Kivirahk took things from Estonian History and put it into their works: Butterfly, The Granger, The Man Who Knew The Language of Snakes.

As he was talking, I understood why he came to my presentation yesterday. Folklore elements that he mentioned, are some that I did, too:
1.) Re-writes of popular tales
2.) Supernatural Creatures: Werewolves
3.) Supernatural Objects
A.) Raven Stone (In the Kaarnakivi by Juhan Jaik), (In the story "The Birth of River Ahne" by Herta Laipaik)
B.) Wandering Rock (the sorceror's stone, for example, in the famous book The 7 Brothers.
4.) He skipped swamps and rivers, but I thought of Shrek and made a note to ask him later.
5.) Landscapes: The Woods
A.) Magical places which can be passages to other worlds
B.) could indicate danger
C.) a place where dreams and visions take place (LOTR, anyone?)
He mentioned other examples from Estonian folklore, and I really want to read them! (Laipaik's Lattepiiga, and Gailit's Werewolf

He ended by saying that folklore is important in modern fantasy literature of Finland (FI) and Estonia (EE), but is different from that in Western Europe and North America.

I stayed for the next presentation after his. This was the girl who came up to me and wanted me to send her my paper. I think I will, since she's not going to do anything with it other than read it. Her talk was on the Multiculturalism in contemporary FI Youth Literature.

She talked about The Alex Trilogy of books, which I totally want to read, but I have to learn Finnish to do that! They're not translated at all, because they talk about issues centrally impacting Finland. Anyhow, here's what the books are about:
1: Set in Southern Russia where a dictator rules. Terrorists blow up a bomb and the main guy, Alex, ends up in an orphange. He goes to live with his relatives in Sweden (SE), but his Dad takes him away to FI instead.
2: 1 Somali and 1 German teen meet Alex after he gets to the orphanage, but A's brother soon comes and takes him away.
3: The concern is to get the others' families to come to FI on refugee status, to seek asylum. But only 1 gets a residence permit, not both of them. The home regime gave amnesty to political refugees. The main themes throughout the 3 are becoming a refugee, being one, and then integrating into a new culture.

After that, I went to get tea and chatted with the fantasy guy and his friend, who turned out to be Finnish. K. and I had seen these 2 in at least 2 lectures per day since the conference started, and it was good to chat with them about the lectures we had attended. The Finnish guy taught Finnish in Russia; in Izhevsk in the Udmurt Republic. He does Finno-Ugric stuff in Helsinki.

After that, I went to a linguistics lecture on the passive voice indicators in Hungarian and Estonian, and the literary work as the example was Kosztolányi's Édes Anna.. Since the 3rd person plural form of a verb, can be used to indicate passive voice, I wondered why she didn't mention the other verb thing that can indicate it as well: -va/-ve for the linguists or Hungarian people reading this.

I didn't know how to ask her about that in Hungarian, since her lecture was in Hungarian, but maybe I'll have time to meet with her tomorrow and ask. I went back to the main bldg to get more tea and somehow met this girl's friends and a professor, who were able to answer my question. They said that it's the freedom of the translator to decide which passive structure to use. That makes sense.

These girls invited for lunch after our chat, and we got to talking about school and what I'm doing this year and such. They're all at ELTE (a Budapest university) and in the Finno-Ugric Department. I mentioned my 30 page Herberstein translation homework, to the professor, and she *knows* the guy who wrote the 30 pages I translated! He is also in their dept at ELTE.

After lunch, I walked around til it was time to go to the late afternoon lectures. I went to the lecture of the professor who came to Glasgow in November, and asked her a question after her lecture. After her, was the author of the article I used last year! I went up to her afterwards and introduced myself, and we chatted for a bit. She seems to be sick with whatever I had, but she said to e-mail her and we can talk more after the school year starts. Oh, and when I told her I used one of her articles in my paper, she smiled and said that she didn't think anyone had read that particular one. :-D It was really cool to talk to her today.

I managed to run into Dimitri today, and we had another conversation. Kind of. Since he knows I can understand more than speak, he did most of the talking. So, he's from Mari-El, and he pulled out his phone and started to play a music file on it.

Okay, get this: It was a traditional Mari song, complete with the grandmotherly older ladies singing, put to electronic music one would hear in a club (or discotecque)! It was awesome to listen to. I asked him if he could send me a copy of the file or something. He has the video from the csárdás dancing from last night, too. Oh, I found out that his brother, who's 20 (Dima's 26 like me), studied Hungarian politics in Budapest 2 years ago, and knows Hungarian. Yes, he told me this in Russian and I understood. This is so crazy! ::laughs::

A bit later I met his friend L. Her dad's Finnish and her mom's Swedish and she grew up in St. Petersburg. She speaks Finnish and Russian, and has a brother who studies/researches something Celtic linguistic-related in Ulster (Northern Ireland). She'll be a student in Edinburgh in September, and from what I've seen of her sketches and Facebook photos, is a fantastic artist and knows how to capture that something which makes a photo extra special.

OH! I just found this out. There's Russian Facebook and an international Facebook, but that's somehow linked to the Russian one. Oh, and one of the Hungarians I met at lunch was a student of Lea's some time ago. She remembers H. and H. too, and I told her I'd pass on greetings to them when I write to them.

CIFU 11 Conference Day 2

2010-08-15T04:54:00.001-07:00

Today was fun! I hung out with my Finnish-German neighbour (let's call her K.) to get breakfast at the Aldi across the street, and then we came back and got ready for the day. On the way back, we ran into a Russian lady who wanted to know how to get to the market. She knew a few words in English and one of them happened to be "across", as in "across" the street, which was what I wanted to say. She said it in Russian, and then kind of motioned left when she reached the light. Oh, my gosh, so many Russian speakers!!!!!!!!!!!!

I went to my presentation session, and hung out there for the first part. These Russian ladies would not stop with their questions at the end! I felt very lost, but left early to go to see the IU people's presentation. Or catch the end of their talk, rather. I did, and it was great catching up with them! My new Italian friend spoke to the wife, and she told me that he's Italian, not Hungarian. I know that this guy teaches Hungarian in Italy, but I thought he *was* Italian. He speaks it really well though, and when he and I spoke, we barely used English, except for school words I either didn't know or had forgotten.

I had to dash back to my section for my talk, and I got there early. I told the chair, who's Russian, *in* Russian, who I was and when I'm presenting in that block. He thanked me for that and then the first lady went. She's Hungarian and spoke in Hungarian about minority literature traditions. She mentioned Slovakia a lot, so when she was finished, I asked her about the Status Law --only now do I realise I meant to say the Slovak language law, NOT the Status Law -- and if because of the law minority literature book sales went down, or if because of the law, the books were sent out of the country? She responded something to the effect that she was looking at it from a different perspective than that, and something that I can't remember right now...

So, then there's me: I gave my paper and had a few questions. I guess people really *do* pick and choose what to go to! 2 people my age asked questions (and the Russians were quiet for once!), and the guy asked me something about similar Finno-Ugric mythology references in fantasy literature. I told him I hadn't found any, but would like to talk to him about it later. What ran through my head when he asked the question was a Finno-Ugric LOTR or Harry Potter or something. What *is* fantasy literature...? I have no idea, but I'll find out tomorrow, since he's giving a talk on it first thing in the morning.
@You-Know-Who-You-Are: I guess it's cool to be in "fantasy land" for times like this, isn't it?

Later that afternoon, a girl from ELTE (a university in Budapest that has a Finno-Ugric Department), approached me during a break and wanted to chat. She wanted to know about the class I took that first got me interested in this topic. She was nice to talk to and we traded e-mails. She asked me to e-mail her my paper so she can read it better. I told her I would, and she said there's no rush, but how do I know she won't use it for something? Any ideas on this? I checked the program booklet and this girl is due to speak after the fantasy lit. guy. Maybe I talk to both of them again during a coffee break.

Later, K. and I went to the rest of the second-language acquisition group's talks. Vienna people were totally in charge. In fact, the woman chairing this is the Finnish professor at the University of Vienna (Austria), who is also the Chair of that university's Finno-Ugric Studies program, and one which I had been in touch with a year or 2 back when looking at Finno-Ugric Master's programs (Vienna said no because I don't know German, Groningen said no because of not knowing Dutch, and Helsinki said no due to lack of Finnish). The male professor that spoke was really effortless in his presentation. I want to say he's Canadian, because of his vowels, but he must have lived in Europe because he a mixed continental-Canadian? accent. He would be really cool to work with.
Anyhow, back to the main lady in chair who"s the head of the dept in Vienna. Last year at IU, the Finnish prof mentioned this lady, and since I attended some of her section, I thought I could say hello and explain the IU connection. It turns out that K. also knows the IU prof, since they go to teachers conferences often.

After that, K. and I went straight to the lecture called "Cats in Udmurt Folklore". The lecture was in Finnish, but since K. speaks it, she took summarised notes and will tell me about it tomorrow. I saw Dimitri again, and this time we actually had a conversation! He brought a dictionary with him, and I felt really dumb looking up words like "to read", "to remember", and something else, but basic first year verbs...I finally could tell him that though I studied Russian, since I've been speaking Hungarian it's difficult to speak Russian because I don't remember the words (even though I learned them at one point). So I found out a bit about Dimitri. He's from the Russian Republic of Mari-El (about a 16 hour train ride SE of Moscow).

@Mom and Dad, this is where I wanted to go to study Mari last summer, remember? But IU ended up working out instead.

Anywho, he's a student at Mari State University, and studies the National (I think!), and in this case I mean national as in "nation", dances of the Finno-Ugric peoples across Russia. He showed me pictures of a trip and he and some friends took to Dagestan (Yes, THE Dagestan), and he says that it's awesome. Seriously. He also took a trip to Bashkortostan (or Baskiria). In his dance ensemble, they performed dances from the Komi people (who have really cool costumes!). Oh, and he speaks Mari! I forgot to ask which Mari (Hill or Meadow), but I can ask tomorrow. He also has the Russian Facebook :-p

Let's see...I think that's it for now. I hope you like the updates so far!

CIFU 11 Conference Day 1

2010-08-15T04:52:00.000-07:00

Conference updates to the blog will happen the day after they occur. Thank you.

After meeting the Italian guy, we sat around talking while registration to open. After I registered, I was given a cool satchel bag that contained:

-3 volumes of all of the abstracts that were submitted

-a program booklet

-1 pen, with the conference and Piliscsaba engraved on it

-1 heart-shaped cookie

-1 brochure detailing the Finno-Ugric studies available at Pazmany Peter University (where I am now)

-1 legal-style notepad with the CIFU name and logo on front cover

A Hungarian girl then showed me the way to the dorm. She asked me in Finnish if I knew Finnish, and I used the one sentence of Finnish I *do* know, to tell her that I unfortunately don't speak any Finnish. We switched back into Hungarian and I found out that she's a student here, and has been/is? working as a nanny in Helsinki, where there are apparently lots of Hungarians.

The first day was a long one. But I met/heard so many people!! Okay, wait a sec while I get out my notes...

::pauses::

Opening speeches seemed to take forever, but boy, were they intense!! VIPs from around the Finno-Ugric realm were in attendance for the opening ceremonies:

1.) A representative from the Parliament of Finland, Department of Education

She spoke about how that as a language develops, a culture does too. She also said that "in Finland, language rights are guaranteed in the Constitution". She also talked about Finland's Kindred People's Program and the "Russia Action Plan", and how that in Russia, 2008-2009, the language education changes have gone from specific to very general, which isn't good for the minorities there.

2.) A gentleman from the upper echelons of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. He opened with a funny story (okay, a lot of us thought it was funny, but I hope you do too!): He was in Italy, travelling to the airport in a car with a Spaniard, a Brazilian, and an Italian. He was amazed that they all could communicate with each other in their respective languages, while he could not. Compared to them, he spoke a barbaric language. He said that those 3 guys were proof that the Roman Empire conquered the World! And that Hungarian was seen as a kind of barbaric tongue, even today. He then said something about laringeal theory(?), and then concluded with some remarks in Russian, with which he spoke a strong Hungarian accent! :-p :-)

Oh, and the above people spoke in English, and had Hungarian and Russian equivalents up on a PowerPoint.

3.) Guy number 3 is from the Hungarian-Russian Delegation. You'd think he would speak in one of those languages, but he did not. He didn't even speak in English, or have a PowerPoint so all of us could follow him. He spoke in German. Yes, and though I could catch some things, there's a lot I missed. Oh, but, he *did* refer to a guy called Stachanov, which had me smile (Stachanovites, anyone? :-p).

The rest of the guys spoke in Russian, which I was only able to follow a bit of, and didn't have accompanying translations.

4.) Guy number 4 is from the Russian Federation (RF), and in the highest level of government in the Komi Republic.

5.) From the RF and in the highest level of government in the Udmurt Republic.

6.) From the RF and in the highest level of government of the Republic of Mari-El (after this, I'll just call it Mari-El).

7.) From the RF and in the highest level of government in the Mordvin Republic.

8.) The last guy to "speak", was not actually present. The chair of the Congress read this guy's paper, which had translations on PowerPoint so everyone could follow. This guy had a lot to say about History. And religion. For example, he said that the Tower of Babel was stopped by the New Testament. And that at Pentecost, these differences were/are? put aside. He also talked about the Counter-Reformation and that the namesake of the university we're at, Pázmány Péter (Catholic University), was a sort of "Cicero in the Purple". Pázmány thwarted Count Gábor Bethlen (in the 19th century), and prevented Rakóczi from allying with the Ottomans and Protestants.

After opening speeches, I saw my new Italian friend again and chatted with him briefly. Later that afternoon, I met 3 Finns. 2 in Helsinki and 1 in Oulu, and the latter is at the Giellagas Institute and teaches courses on Saami culture! The middle guy is here doing something in Linguistics, something with Negation (i.e. I don't like this). I started talking about double negation with him, and that in Hungarian, you would use EVERY negative word possible, to say someone doesn't like someone, or knows nothing at all about what you're speaking. I.e. You don't know nothing about nobody).

So, then, I saw my Italian friend and then there was time to change before the opening party.

We saw a guy ironing on our way upstairs, and it turns out that he's Russian and from Mari-El (let's call him Dimitri), who speaks German but not English. I tried to talk to him in Russian, but since I've been in Hungarian -and for the past year or so, or 2 -- haven't spoken Russian at all, so my vocab is REALLY rusty now! I couldn't remember how to say "I forgot", so I could tell him in Russian that while I studied Russian before, I can't remember how to speak it, though I can understand it when other people are talking, or if someone asks for directions.

He got the gist of it, and I saw him later at the party.

So, apparently, "semi-formal" means different things to different people: I got dressed in a Champagne-coloured sheath dress I brought for the dressy event, paired it with a black clutch and heels, and walked over to the "party/feast/whatever you want to call it", with my Finnish friend from the dorms. She lives in the room next to me, and is half Finnish and half German. She French braided my hair for me, and we talked about Marimekko (a Finnish clothing brand and other Finnish things on the way there).

I saw Dimitri, and my Italian friend, but I also heard someone from North America. Get this, especially at Kat, if she has time to read this, after getting settled in Moscow at her new job!!! :-) :-D :
I met an American girl, who studied Finnish on the East Coast, who goes to school at Leeds, in England, which is 4 hours south of Glasgow!! Oh, and she said that I look familiar to her, and although we tried to figure out how (from Facebook, or Academia), we couldn't come up with anything. :-( She has a cute 9 month old baby girl who was all smiles until she got tired...)
Kat, she reminds me so much of you. You guys could be sisters, and your personalities are so alike!

I have to go find the dog that just walked in the dorm, and tell him to go out, but will be right back

back!

Oh, and a certain Dutch professor (@Michell and Marten) had on the coolest tie!!
@Dad: Things can be said for having interesting ties. His tie looked like an eye doctor's chart. It was very cool. This guy was also very laid back and seemed very personable. I didn't actually talk to him, but only heard him speak. And though it would be nice to chat and say that I know you Michell, it might be awkward, too, since you and I haven't met, and I don't know him...Maybe if I'm introduced, or maybe later in the week...? Oh, and he also was smoking a pipe, the kind someone's grandfather would! :-p Europe is so cool!

Let's see...Oh!!!! THE coolest things about today:
3.) People I know from IU are here, presenting. One is tomorrow, Tuesday, and the other on Thursday
2.) A visiting professor from Glasgow's Finno-Ugric week (back in September)
1.) The author of an article I used for a paper last Autumn (the one that Professor Smith graded): Eszter Ruttkay-Miklian, is here! Her talk is tomorrow at 5:30, and had I known she was going to be here, I would have brought the paper for her to sign? Or not...anyhow I'm so excited to see her name here...I kinda want to call Professor Smith and tell him!

That reminds me, I need to figure out how the phones in the dorms work...will do that later. I present tomorrow. Will tell you all about it!

Spring is here - kinda'

2010-05-14T02:23:00.000-07:00

Wow, I haven't updated since Christmas!

Ok, so, the Spring term was successful, I hope! I'm waiting to hear back about paper grades.

I wish I could say the weather's been Spring-y, since we're now in May, but while it was sunny last week, this is Day 2 of cloudy weather. :-/ Maybe it'll get sunny again!

Hmm, let's see...lots to talk about!

I went back and forth all term about a dissertation topic. I tried to link an idea present in both Western and Eastern Europe, but that was deemed too difficult to write about. I eventually came up with a dissertation idea, which I love, and the professors seem to like the people I could potentially interview. The theme isn't Finno-Ugric related, but I'm looking forward to writing it!

The summer will be a mix between working on the dissertation and the CIFU 11 paper due mid-August. I wonder if anyone reading will be attending? http://fu11.btk.ppke.hu/

I found an amazing degree that makes my Finno-Ugric interests totally feasible! It's Polar Law at the University of Akureyri, in Iceland. Before you ask me if I've seen the news and such, my answer is yes, and that though airspace where I am was shut down, and the airports closed, I saw no ash from the Eyjafjalljökull volcano. Oh, and the university? It's on the opposite side of the island from the volcano. But I love it. I would definitely like to apply for the program. It's right up my alley! :-)

http://www.arcticportal.org/images/stories/News_Files/PolarLawA4_flyer_090110_WWW.pdf

After looking around the web, I found a blogger who was in the program and have been chatting via e-mail. He says I'd be a good fit for the program, and that his classmates come from diverse backgrounds: Traditional IR/area studies, a few people from the Arctic region, and someone doing Media. It costs about USD $1,000/month, and after graduating from where I am now, I would need to work for a year (though a summer would be great), to pay for the living costs for the 2 years I'd be in the program. That's my plan. I love it, and am looking forward to applying, but I intend to run it by professors here first. What do you think? :-)

Research Paper Number 1: Finno-Ugric elements

2009-12-25T07:37:00.000-08:00

This is slightly out of order from the last post, but for my first paper this past semester I managed to incorporate Khanty, Mansi, Selkup, and Buryat into it. My paper was about Stalin's nationality policies towards the indigenous communities, while keeping in mind Rogers Brubaker's theory on sub-state identity and its applicability to understanding the nationalities question under Stalin (and subsequent leaders). During the paper, I found a multitude of contradictions: the government said one thing and leader at whichever period contradicted it, stating that the opposite is such a great thing and should be kept. Papers or articles which may be of interest:

-Humphrey, Caroline. "Buryatiya and the Buryats." 2nd Ed. In The Nationalities Question in the Post-Soviet States, Graham Smith, 113 - 125. New York: Longman, 1996.

-Ruttkay-Miklián, Eszter. "Revival and Survival in Iugra: Minority Peoples of the North in Soviet and Post-Soviet Russia." Nationalities Papers 29, no. 1 (2001): 153 - 170.

-Smith, Graham. "The Soviet State and Nationalities Policy." 2nd Ed. In The Nationalities Question in the Post-Soviet States, Graham Smith, 2 - 22. New York: Longman, 1996.

-Sobanski, Florian. "The Southern Selkups of Tomsk Province Before and After 1991." Nationalities Papers 29 no. 1, (2001): 171-179.

-Vitebsky, Piers. "The Northern Minorities." 2nd Ed. In The Nationalities Question in the Post-Soviet States, Graham Smith, 94 - 112. New York: Longman, 1996.

Conference

2009-12-25T06:37:00.000-08:00

Wow, I haven't blogged in 6 months...hmm, I guess my latest news for this blog is that I've been accepted to a conference! I found out in November, and wasn't expecting to hear back since I applied after the deadlines for background info submittals and and abstract submittals. Imagine my surprise and shock when I logged into Gmail and see an e-mail with an attachment from the conference's secretary. I open it and my jaw drops. They accepted me to the conference next summer, to present! Oh gosh! I think I'm one of the younger people there! A few of the guys presenting are a few years older than me, but then most of the other people are 15 - 20 years older...Not to mention that THE guy on the planet in charge of the panel I submitted for, must have read through my abstract at some point, and liked it!
Well, that's not so intimidating now, is it?

There's also information about how to pay...wow, the fees are high! 120 Euro just for registration! And if I pay after a certain date in April, the price jumps 30 Euro. Dorm accommodation is about 10 a night. Airfare -- one-way -- won't be that expensive. Man, that's a lot of money. I asked friends what to do who have been to conferences, and they said to ask my department.

After the initial e-mail to my department, I found out a couple of weeks ago that they'll reimburse me up to £200 for fees! Wow...that's amazing! Turn around time for getting reimbursed is about 2 weeks. So, after my refund checks come in for tuition next semester, I think I'll pay for the conference so I have it out of the way.

Oh, and I know a professor in the field. And she'll be at the conference! Around the same time I found out about my acceptance, my department was in the middle of a Finno-Ugric week, which consisted of films and lectures about, mostly, the Khanty and Mansi, though there was one about the Saami. A visiting professor whom I asked/told about the conference, will be there in August. She wished me luck then left with her colleagues. But back to the films: My tolerance is low for freshly-slaughtered-reindeer-being-eaten-raw-on-camera, thankyouverymuch...The Saami film though had a cool soundtrack. "Liekkas" by Sofia Jannok was the final track, and lo and behold, her videos are on YouTube! I like "Irene" because the pink sky is gorgeous! I wonder if the skies are that pink in Tromsø? Anyhow, I'd love to go that far North and see everything. One of my professors went to Kirkenes for a research workshop, and only had good things to say about the area (though we only chatted about for a few minutes, but still...). The Barents' Institute is Head-Quartered there, and it has some relation to barentsindigenous.org

But...yeah, I have conference funding! Since it's winter break from school, and, being the vintage clothing aficionado I am, I decided to go around to the vintage shops by the university to see if I could find anything for the conference (which will be a week long and have 2 receptions, in addition to people presenting everyday). Stopping in to one shop with a friend to show her a coat, a beaded sleeve caught my eye. I moved the items around and pulled off the rack a bubblegum pink sheath dress and matching coat! I tried them on and fell in love with the outfit! It fit perfectly and has princess seaming on the dress and the coat and just enough detail to make it dressy. All the original beading is still on, too, though 2 beads are a bit loose, but they can be easily fixed. I found my reception outfit! All I need now are heels and a handbag, plus an similar outfit, in more subdued shades, for presenting. I thnk I'll try my luck again at this store after the holidays. Maybe my presenting outfit will be there. :-D

Oh, and there is the drama of the visa process. Next September I'm supposed to go to Budapest as part of my university's Master's degree. We do the first year here in Glasgow and the second at 1 of 4 universities on the continent. I'm going to Budapest (hopefully anyhow), and their academic year starts September 1. The conference is August 9 -14. I'd rather have my visa start from the conference date; maybe a couple of days before, instead of dealing with it after the conference, so afterwards, I can just settle into a routine before school starts. Wow, that's a lot of work. It's almost New Years' and trying to set things up for next September is a bit frustrating; at least right now. I hope things will work out though. Maybe it'll be easier as April is around the corner.

Round 1: Mari El+Hungary vs. Russia, Round 2: Hungarians in Slovakia, Romania+Hungary vs. Slovakia+Romania = Round 3: Not Good At All For Anyone

2009-06-16T18:57:00.000-07:00

First off, in the response to my title, hopefully not ever!

So...
Was catching up on my F.U. blogs over the weekend and found an interesting article on this blog:

http://mariuveren.wordpress.com/2008/12/18/russification-efforts-in-mari-el-disturb-hungarians/

Yes, it's 6 months old but that's not what caught my eye. The title did. Entitled "Russification efforts in Mari El disturb Hungarians," I thought, 'Wow, there are others who know about the Mari, cool, and they're Hungarian! Maybe I can find one to talk to about it.' Nevermind that I don't know how to talk about ethnic identity stuff at all yet, but just the idea of meeting someone who can talk about it, or tell me about in a way I'll understand it, is someone I'm looking forward to.

Parts of the post I found amusing, such as:
"And their anger (that of the Hungarians [note the use of the definite article here]), reflected in an article that appeared on a Budapest website last week (barikad.hu/node/21278) has now been translated into Russian by the Inosmi.ru agency (www.inosmi.ru/translation/246103.html) and has now been disseminated to the Finno-Ugric world (on) an Estonian site (mariuver.wordpress.com/2008/12/16/russifikacija-me/)."

Does that strike anyone else as funny or is it just me? Yes, the post is serious but I couldn't help but shake my head in wonder and laugh with a smile on my face. In an oh-my-gosh-I-can't-believe-I-just-read-that kinda' way.

First: Hungarians flipped out over (hopefully-not-in-the-near-future) Mari Russification.
Second: the Hungarian article was put into Russian,
Three: then went Russian > Estonian,
Fourth, Estonian > English where it was transmitted to the English-speaking world and then commented on in English blog, called MariUver, run by a non-native English speaker!

Wow, is that a mouthful or what?

Another section of the blog post I like is:
"The appeal, which called on the Hungarians not to forget their fellow Finno-Ugrics who are now subject to methods intended to deprive them of their “national self-identification that Hungarians should appreciate because of what has happened to them in Slovakia and Transylvania, prompted the Hungarian response on the internet."

Hmmm, Hungarians definitely know about self-identification after Trianon. Though Wilson *did* want them to decide for themselves how to govern, but *no*, European powers *had* to mess it up after the war. Instead of letting the Hungarians decide their own borders, it was done for them. Due to that border shift (and a huge one at that), Hungary's borders changed significantly, as did the population. Today, as a result of the 1920 decision, Hungarians live all over the Carpathian Basin; the former Yugoslavia, Romania, Ukraine, Slovakia, and Austria. Furthermore, in Slovakia and Romania there has been anti-Hungarian sentiment. Articles I read in the New York Times and on the BBC,

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1827214.stm

indicate that both countries were facing anti-Hungarian sentiments throughout both countries.

In my opinion, since Hungary has dealt with this before, they were prompted to take action involving their brethren since they previously experienced animosity toward themselves. Those countries with whom they had once had a good relationship, now faces(-ed?) souring due to the legislation regarding minority rights in each.

In terms of the title, if either happened, Europe (and the rest of the world) would be divided (again!). This time how to treat minorities; those with bias or dislike toward one or more ethnic groups would lead the pack, and before long, war between neighbors might ensue! Again, hopefully not, but I sometimes think worst-case scenarios...

Finno-Ugric stuff in the British Isles

2009-06-16T17:31:00.000-07:00

Wow, who woulda' thought!

So, after receiving an email from one of my future professors last week I'm getting super excited about school next year (next year? What am I saying, it's a few months away)!

The professor told me that there will be Finno-Ugric activities at school in November! They'll be showing some of Lennart Meri's films on the peoples of Russia, and combining that with a series of visiting lectures by famous people in the field! After googling the names I found out that one of the speakers is the son of one of the Baltics' former presidents! Wow, how cool is that?!

So then, after looking up the people mentioned in the email and telling facebook Finno-Ugric friends about it, I've been doing research based on back-and-forth discussion/Wall comments with one of them. Said person is into Saami stuff, and wanted to know where to find the films mentioned in the professor's email.

I sure didn't know what any of the films were and "ask[ed] Google," as a friend of mine likes to tell me, when she doesn't know the answer. (Thanks Liz!) :-)

So, Google had several pages of answers for my search. I found some sites in Estonian, some in Finnish, newspaper articles, a few blogs, and then...

one blog post in which the owner wrote excited about receiving "the Encyclopedia cinematographia gentium fenno-urgricarum, or... Lennart Meri's Film [E]ncyclopedia of the Finno-Ugric [P]eoples."

http://corcaighist.blogspot.com/2009/05/encyclopedia-cinematographia.html

I got so exited reading the post I decided to comment and tell the author how cool I think they are, and asked where the aforementioned book was found and if they would like to chat with American Finno-Ugricists (Is that a word?)/or, Americans in Finno-Ugrics. No word yet, neither from the author nor my Saami-studies buddy (<--joke, get it?). :-). Hopefully they'll check their email and or facebook (which incidentally, I invited the blog author to since they weren't already on), so we can chat. Who woulda' thought that there would be a few Finno-Ugric people on both sides of the Atlantic, not to mention the British Isles, AND on the continent...
Next year's gonna be fun, I can't wait! :-D Now all I need is my passport back...

F.U. Music Links

2009-05-05T19:12:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd start a post about F.U. music. Feel free to add to it.

-Elin Kåven, Sami: Norway
-Mordens, Mordvinian: Russia. Mordens live in Saransk, Central Russia.

You can find them mentioned here:
http://liet-lavlut.eu/article.php?l=7&a=301

-The Karavan Familia, from Hungary, plays cheerful and original contemporary Romani music.
-The Raud-Ants, Votic: Balto-Finnic, Estonian-Russian border.
http://www.liet.nl/article.php?l=7&a=69
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drBg5m5TPNM&feature=related

-Nox, Hungary. Eurovision 2005

Finnish:
-Uniklubi
-Lovex
-Lordi
-HIM
-The Rasmus

Not that Russians would have F.U. crossover in their songs but... could Varvara (Варвара)'s "Otpusti menya reka (Отпусти меня река)" and "Dreams" have F.U. influences? They may have been changed for a western audience but are still there, nonetheless:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nos_uH0Y1xs&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPi0rnVHaGU

What do you think (about the Varvara thing or any of the above)?

FU stuff in grad school

2009-05-05T18:44:00.000-07:00

I'm so excited! I can do F.U. stuff in grad school next year. There are 2 professors I may work with. One focuses on the Baltics and Nationalism stuff, and the other looks at F.U. minorities within the Russian Federation! Since both fall under the ethnic/minority studies umbrella, and I'll be sending them an email and hope their follow-up response will be a positive one about working with me on this sub-field while working on my Master's in the broader, larger field of Russian, Central, and East European Studies.

In other news, I'm finished with finals. I only had one, for Hungarian, and I'm now finished with the language sequence. Yay! :-D
I'm hoping to continue Hungarian next year but I'm not sure how that will work exactly, since I'll be in an entirely different education system...

But, this summer will be an exciting one. Though I won't be going to Russia or Finland to study, :-(,
I found out that I'm the recipient of ACLS funding to study Romanian this summer. I figure it will be a good language to know, if I'm going to have Hungarians in the Carpathian Basin as one of my research interests. :-)

I made a new F.U. friend last week: A Finnish violinist who's into Sami stuff and has been to Finland a bunch and has been to Lappland and the (Sami) museums there.

Mythology

2009-04-16T20:53:00.000-07:00

This past year especially, I've found the mythology completely breathtaking!My first introduction to it was with Jankovics Marcell's Fehérlófia cartoon. That and reading Géza Róheim's Hungarian and Vogul Mythology gave me great background for when reading Nándor Pogány's Magyar Fairy Tales From Old Hungarian Legends, followed by Vilmos Dioszegi's Tracing Shamans in Siberia. That was a cool read. I found myself caught up in the story about the Buryat and the 336 rivers, streams, etc that pour into Lake Baikal. I wonder if Dioszegi planned naming the evil witch 'Baykal?' ::grin:: :-D

But the story/legend is romantic. As fairytales go (though this isn't), I found myself sighing when the main girl in the story received letters via white sea-gulls from the prince she was interested in. Too bad she had to run away...But that's how stories go! So I can't complain. For now. Now I just need to find more stories/legends like that and I'm set! :-P

F.U. Links

2009-04-15T12:52:00.000-07:00

Since I can't figure out how to keep the 'link list' on the blog, I'm deciding to start them here and update as needed. Feel free to comment if you know of other sites I, or others, would be interested in. Thanks!

Finno-Ugric Forum:
http://finno-ugric.getforum.org/board/
A new facebook friend's site that I thought I'd put on here to try and get some new traffic to

Finno-Ugric Studies Associaion of Canada (FUSAC):
http://www.yorku.ca/vpaweb/fusac/general_info.html

International Congress for Fenno-Ugric Studies (CIFU):
http://fu11.btk.ppke.hu/

International Finno-Ugric Students’ Conference (IFUSCO):
http://ifusco.info/

Liet Lavlut
http://www.liet-lavlut.eu/

Resource Centre for the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
http://www.galdu.org/web/?giella1

Facebook related F.U. stuff:
Groups:
Damn I Want to go to Finland
Finno-Ugric Peoples Unite
Hungarian Students Global
Hungary
I Speak an Uralic Language
Mi magyarul beszélünk!
No One Pronounces My Last Name Correctly
Protect Human Rights in Russia
SUOMALAIS-UGRILAINEN TIETOTOIMISTO 2.0
The Committee for Finno-Ugric peoples (University of Helsinki)
Uniklubi
Ural-Altaic People Unite

Applications:
Uralic (Finno-Ugric and Samoyedic) Stuff

Causes:
Save Minority Languages

F.U.

2009-04-15T11:55:00.000-07:00

I've been amused when talking to friends about this F.U. thing.
Though I make sure to tell people the subject matter before using the abbreviation, when I mention it again, they still can't resist, either:
a.) cracking up as if they forgot what it means, or
b.) surpressing a grin that can't help but eventually come on their face

Or, via internet, I get 'ROFL' or :-D ...

A good friend's response was, "FU ha, speaking of someone I could have said that to, do you ever see 'Person-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named' ?"

Okay, it may be a bit funny, but that's not where I'd like to go with it...I'm glad people find it amusing.

1st Post: American in Finno-Ugric Studies

2009-04-15T11:42:00.000-07:00

Hello!
My name's Tara and I'm a 20-something American student currently studying Hungarian. I've been interested in Finno-Ugric Studies (hereafter referred to as F.U.) for the past year or two. The Advanced Hungarian language and Medieval Hungarian History courses I'm in have kept this F.U. flame alive all year. My language teacher, especially, has been great with letting me incorporate F.U. themes in class projects, essays, and oral assignments all year! I hope to continue this F.U. study in graduate school next year, in the United Kingdom.

That's enough about me, though. How about you? Where are you, how old are you, and how did you become interested in F.U.?