Life goes on . . . in Budapest

I work for Campus Crusade for Christ in Budapest, Hungary. Here's my thoughts on living in Hungary, my work with Campus Crusade, and other things that run through my head.

Monday, March 14, 2005

Just call it Wien!!!


Yesterday we went to Vienna with my parents. This brought up one of my biggest pet peeves about the world. Why does every language have different names for cities?

For instance, Vienna. We call it "Vienna", the real name in German is Wien, in Hungarian it is Bécs (pronounced Baych). What is up with that? Bécs sounds nothing like Vienna. It seems like we could just all call it Wien, which is the actual name of the city. The signs from Budapest pointing to Wien have a ton of different names on them (if we could all just agree, it would save money on signs)

Another example, Germany.
Real Name - Deutchland (what's wrong with that? Why can't we all call it that?)
English - Germany
Hungarian - Nemetország (Hungarian is weird so we'll forgive that one)
Spanish - Alemania (nothing like any of the others)

The list goes on and one. Maybe the world would be a more peaceful place if we could agree on what to call each other.
 Posted by Hello

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