From Hunglish to C2 British English

Well, the title of this post is rather bleak, I know. The reason for this is – and I can only refer to one of the greatest lines in British sitcom history here – because “I’m a genuine, 100%, 24-carat plonker, a wally.”! Add Del Boy’s tonal emphasis to this. Why do I write this blog? This is quite simple: I want to keep my English “alive” and not lose what I’ve picked up during the last couple of decades. I’m not a well-informed, highly intelligent, literate person – I almost failed my GCE A Levels, and if it hadn’t been for my French, I wouldn’t have been able to pass. And, of course I could write about my childhood, how difficult it was, and how much strength staying alive cost – I basically had to sacrifice learning on the altar of survival and finding reasons to live. But this is all in the past now, and I’m grateful for all the help I invisibly and imperceptibly received from high above. Now, back to the initial why. So, there is, of course, another hidden objective: improving my ...

There is one man in Britain who managed to offend Hollywood’s elite live, from The Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, California. And, quite surprisingly, he could get away with it not once but five times. And he even managed to create two shows based on the fierce controversies his speeches provoked. Just think about his fifth and final speech. He not only scolded the entire film industry and Hollywood stars, but he also made it clear how he thought of those hypocrites that preached water and drank wine. It was definitely baffling to see the confusion of the creme de la creme who thought they’d attend an event where they’d be praised to the skies, but, instead, they got some much-needed reality check. And it was done by someone an insider who knew exactly where the bodies were buried. It was astonishingly funny. Wouldn’t you agree? If you succeeded in returning from YouTube watching Ricky’s Golden Globe speeches, let’s cast our attention back to his ingenuity manifested in those shows I...

It’s been a while, probably ten years, since we first saw The Café by Ralph Little and Michelle Terry on BBC Entertainment. This piece of British humour instantly blew us away. Not because it has unexpected twists and turns, not because it’s as brilliant as Only Fools and Horses or One Foot in the Grave, but because it gets you to a certain mood – best described as a modern, close-to-real-life but plausible fiction that immediately captivates you and keeps you hooked until the very end. So, a few years ago, right after BBC Entertainment and the Hungarian Broadcast Supervisor Board – or something like that – couldn’t agree on a few things, BBC Entertainment was no longer among the available channels. Unless, of course, one buys a satellite antenna and subscribes to the channel. Sadly, the channel was closed in 2024, so, a piece of historical comedy broadcast is now merely part of history.  Anyway, we wanted to buy it on DVD, but those plonkers in the UK decided not to make it avail...