Multilingualism, culture, museum learning

Abstract

Language difficulties can be a problem for foreign students studying in Hungary: they see as Hungarians do not speak foreign languages, which hinders the well-being of foreigners. At the same time, students studying at Hungarian universities also have different cultural expectations: it is important for them to gain cultural experiences, expand their knowledge of Hungarian culture and history. Classical public cultural institutions, such as museums, can be perfect places to learn about the culture and history of a country.The aim of this study is to introduce our research findings whether foreigner students studying at the University of Szeged have to face these problems. Our goal is to find out how important it is to them to get to know Hungarian culture, and whether they think about museums from this point of view and what kinds of language barriers do they have. In our study, we present the results of focus group research with foreign students studying at the University of Szeged.The results show that the students who took part in the research had language difficulties in Hungary which has affected their knowledge of Hungarian culture and history. They don't usually go to museums to gain more information but they think museums can be great places for this purpose although the students have problems with museums' multilingual aspects.We have come to the conclusion that foreign students are interested in Hungarian culture but the language barriers are building walls between them and the museums.