Teaching Hungarian as Heritage Language in North America

Abstract

The primary aim of this chapter is to outline the most important centers of Hungarian schools and heritage language teaching in North America, focused mainly into Canada. In this study, the following topics will be described: Hungarian churches, Scout movement, folk dance groups, and nonprofit organizations. These are the key elements in preserving ethnic identity in the Western Hungarian diaspora.

The 2011 census reported 316,765 Canadians of Hungarian descent. More than 90% of all Canadians with Hungarian ancestry live in Ontario and the Prairie Provinces.

Hungarians arrived to North America in different waves of immigration. The first wave of immigrants arrived from the second half of the nineteenth century, primarily to escape increasing poverty in the Austro-Hungarian Empire and to find greater economic opportunities abroad. This first wave of immigrants founded the first Hungarian churches and schools. The next, larger wave of Magyar immigrants fled Hungary in interwar period and near the end of World War II. Finally, there is the post-1950 era in Hungary which precipitated another influx of refugees to the American continent, mostly the young freedom fighters.

This study describes 16 Hungarian heritage schools in Canada: two in Alberta (Bethlen Gábor, St Emeric), three in British Columbia (Dörmögő, Szt László népe, Kelowna), nine heritage schools in Ontario (Arany János, St. Elizabeth, Helicon, Oskola, Guelph, Kitchener, Hamilton, Mississauga, and Windsor), and two in the province of Quebec (Hungarian School of Montreal and Fehér Mihály). Higher education has also Hungarian sections like Toronto and Alberta Universities.