I’m actually surprised no-one has complained yet about the site being English. Apart from the voiceless masses who just stopped reading: logs show the number of visitors about half – at best – of what it used to be.

If there were expectations that I’d return to Hungarian, I’m afraid I’ll have to disappoint. I actually like SeSam.hu as it is, accessible by an infinitely bigger number of people than when it was written mainly in my native tongue.

I’m sorry for those who will have to miss out this way. I tend to think not knowing much English is like living without a limb lately. And I’m disinclined to be apologetic about the fact that I do speak the language.

Funny though, when I was home for the summer even my mother chastised me for – in her words – being snobbish and looking down on dubbed movies and TV shows. She’s right though, I really don’t like watching movies translated to Hungarian anymore if the original was English. I don’t doubt that the dubbing can be excellent quality and we have many talented voice actors. Nevertheless the movie inevitably changes, since no two languages have identical words and phrases. Some nuances are lost, some are added.

The best thing about knowing a language is when you start to understand the little details. Find the untranslatable sentences, phrases that only seem to make sense in that particular language. Try watching a standup comedy for instance. Understanding those completely is – I believe – a sign of proficiency.

If this is pretentiousness or arrogance, I can live with it.