How Will We Ever Communicate?
I’m Dutch and my girlfriend is Hungarian.
I went to meet her parents for the first time at Christmas a couple of years back and my GF suggested that I should learn a couple words like: Hello, how are you. Those kind of things. I took it a step further and got a lot of help from two co-workers, just to surprise my girlfriend and parents.
When we got there, her father was not so keen on me being not Hungarian.
He was saying some things to my girlfriend like, “How will we ever communicate?” and “It’s such a shame that you couldn’t find someone who is Hungarian or at least speaks it.”
I look at my GF, then calmly responded to her dad that although my Hungarian isn’t the best, I will learn it for them because now they are my family too. I also thanked them for having me over and told my GF’s dad that I hope that one day he can accept me for who I am — an “outsider” as put it.
The moment I said that, he teared up and said that no one ever did so much for his daughter and his family in this way and he appreciates it very much.
After that, A bottle of Palinka appeared on the table and from that moment on I don’t remember much from that night.
Now several years later, me and my GF’s dad are really close although we live on opposite sides of Europe.
Soon I will go again to Hungary for Christmas, And now I am planning to ask him for his daughter’s hand. I hope I will pronounce it correctly.