On February 16th, the Association of Csángó-Hungarians in Moldova organized the 5th inter-school Hungarian language competition in cooperation with Bákó County's Board of Education.
Moldovan Csángó villages where a school or a similar educational possibility is available were free to send three children each to the Domnita Maria School in Bákó. The children had to represent different age groups - there were three groups, each one integrating classes 1 to 4, classes 5 and 6 and classes 7 and 8. The pupils had to qualify for the contest by participating in a pre-qualifier in their home schools.
The oldest age group were given the task to write an essay on the Hungarian language. Here are some examples about what Csángó children think about this topic:

 

''One beautiful day some questions came to my mind. Why do I love the Hungarian language? Why does it seem easy to me, while others can barely pronounce a word in it? I knew the answer to these questions and many others.
You cannot love a foreign woman instead of your mother. It's the same with language: I love the Hungarian language, because it is in my blood, I cannot love another language the same way. I can learn this language so easily because I am Hungarian and I am willing to accept this fact, not like others who are ashamed of their origin and pretend to be Romanian just because they live in this country. I don't agree with that: Denying your language is like repudiating your mother.
In a hundred years, people won't speak the Hungarian language as they do today, because the elderly who are speaking Hungarian or Csángó are dying and the young are not willing to adopt the language to pass it on to their children. Only those young people are taking it on who are married since 5, 10 or even more years. (...) I think it is not right that this language, which is accustomed to me, will be extinct. That's why I want to continue learning Hungarian: I want to have something to hand down to my children. (...)''

 

Izabella Botezatu, 8th class, Buda

 

''I am a Csángó-Hungarian child, who was born into the Hungarian language. For me, there is no other language that is so beautiful, because I speak Hungarian since my early childhood. The most important language is the one you learn from your mother. Rhymes, tales, everything I learned in Hungarian first and these are the ones I like most. You can learn every language very easily as long as you want it with all your heart and not only because the teacher is giving you good grades.
In the Csángó village where I grew up the elderly speak Hungarian with all their heart. When you meet an elderly person, you greet in Hungarian, no matter who the person is or were he came from. The youths and the children forgot Hungarian because of the Romanian school, but they don't speak Romanian either, only at school. At home within the families, they speak Hungarian with their parents or among themselves. (...)''

 

Jeromos Pantiru, 8th class, Bákó

 

''In Romania, people speak Hungarian since ancient times. My whole family still speaks Hungarian. I love the Hungarian language, and I love it that people in my village speak Hungarian. They want us to do it as well.
Actually, the language in my village is not Hungarian. The language we speak, the Csángó language, is an ancient Hungarian language. Csángó is not different from Hungarian, it is just older. The people in my village will speak Romanian in a hundred years, because the little children are not speaking Hungarian that often, because their fathers don't bother teaching them.
I wouldn't be happy if people spoke no Hungarian or Csángó anymore, but I can't do anything about it. (...)
In the past, children learned Hungarian at school and they could barely speak Romanian, only the highest people in the country. But then something happened I don't know about. From then on people don't speak Hungarian that much, only the elderly.''

 

Lőrinc Simon, 7th class, Lészped

 

In addition to a present, the children received a certificate signed by the minority education supervisor, the principal of the host school and the education commisioner of the association. The Romanian Ministry of Education organizes a national competition, where the two most exceeding pupils can compete with other children from different counties. We wish them good luck!

List of the results.

 

 

11.03.2008