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Abstract
This case study is a part of a research project dealing with the evolution of the post-socialist market. Companies with majority foreign ownership are very rare on the market for foreign language services in Hungary and import competition is negligible on this market as well. One other curious feature of this market is the long-term and decisive presence of public education. The demand for language instruction grew rapidly in the last decades of socialism. Competition and the presence of private enterprises began in the last year of the socialist system because of the permanent shortage. After the collapse of socialism a large number of new private companies entered this market as well. The demand fell during the transformational recession and rose again in the years leading up to Hungary's EU accession. Since 2004 this market has shown more and more signs of saturation.
Notes
71 Pert of an interview.
70 Part of an interview.
69 Part of an interview.
68 Part of an interview.
67 Az általánosan (2004), p 81.
66 Part of an interview.
65 The membership of NYESZE increased much more slowly than its founders expected. There are about 65 registered members of the association, which represents not more than 10–15% of the whole market.
64 Statistical Pocket Book of Hungary (2005), p. 135.
63 Part of an interview.
62 Az általánosan (2004).
61 Major (Citation2002), p. 177.
60 Major (Citation2002), p. 177.
59 Part of an interview.
58 Laki (Citation2004, Citation2005).
56 More details are availabe in the Accreditation Handbook of NYESZE or on the website http://www.ecml.at/html./quality/english/continuum/external_quality_assurance/nyesze
54 Part of an interview.
53 Part of an interview.
52 Part of an interview.
51 Part of an interview.
50 Part of an interview.
49 Part of an interview.
48 Part of an interview.
47 The modified constitution of Hungary repealed all the laws, orders and internal directions which limited or negatively discriminated against the private economy. Paragraph 9 abolished the advantages of the so-called socialist ownership, saying that ‘in the Republic of Hungary public and private property enjoy equal protection’.
46 Part of an interview.
45 Part of an interview.
44 Az általánosan (2004), p. 19.
43 More precisely: plus points.
42 Part of an interview.
41 Az általánosan (2004), p. 19.
40 Medián (Citation2004), pp. 48–49.
39 The Common European Framework advised by the Council of Europe distinguishes six levels of language knowledge:A1 Breakthrough, A2 Way stage, B1 Threshold, B2 Vantage, C1 Effective operational proficiency, C2 Mastery.
38 Median (Citation2004), p. 6.
37 Medián (Citation2004), p. 6.
36 Statisztikai Tájékoztató (Citation1994, Citation1996, Citation2002).
35 Az általánosan. (Citation2004), p. 19.
34 Medián (Citation2004). p 1.
33 We focus here on the competitive elements of this industry. But the new private language schools and their surroundings functioned as a network or sub-culture of young language teachers and university students in the 1980s as well. This network helped to coordinate the business activities, hastened the learning process and therefore diminished the costs of entry in a lot of cases. But this part of the story is not the topic of this article.
32 Part of an interview (manager at a foreign trade company, earlier teacher-manager of a private language school).
31 Part of an interview (owner-manager of a language school in Budapest who was earlier a language teacher at a secondary school financed by the local government).
30 Dörnyei & Medgyes (Citation1987), p. 34.
29 Part of an interview,
28 Dörnyei & Medgyes (Citation1987), p. 32.
27 Dörnyei & Medgyes (Citation1987), p. 32.
26 Part of an interview
25 The authors of a study on legal private enterprises in the 1980s visited seven newly established private language schools. Five of them were economic partnerships and two were cooperatives (Dörnyei & Medgyes Citation1987).
24 This was the representative umbrella organisation of allies of the communist party.
23 Part of an interview.
22 Part of an interview.
21 A departmental order of the minister of education regulated who in the state sector (at state-owned companies, local governments, ministries, research institutes etc) were obliged to get an official certificate of their language knowledge. The certificate (based on a successful examination) was the necessary condition to receive the so-called language bonus. (If I remember correctly a single language certificate and therefore the bonus increased our salaries by 5–8% at that time).
20 The central budget subsidies stagnated at that time (Karvalits Citation1989, p. 228).
19 Karvalits (Citation1989), pp 229–230.
18 Karvalits (Citation1989).
17 Karvalits (Citation1989), p. 229.
16 Karvalits (Citation1989), pp. 229–230.
15 The Association for Scientific Education (Tudományos Ismeretterjesztő Társulat—TIT—in Hungarian) was founded in the first half of the ninetenth century by Hungarian patriots. The declared aim of the association was to increase the scientific knowledge and technical skills of the Hungarian population.
14 Dörnyei & Medgyes (Citation1987), p. 31.
13 This was the generic term for the modern languages other than Russian taught in schools at that time.
12 English, German, French, Italian.
11 Medián (Citation2004), p. 5.
10 Medián (Citation2004), p.5.
9 The so-called red passport permitted travel without a visa to some socialist countries (Poland, Czechoslovakia, GDR, Bulgaria and Romania) only. When a Hungarian citizen visited Western countries he or she used another so-called blue passport (which required the permission of the Ministry of the Interior).
8 Képzős szerkezetek (2006).
7 Medián (Citation2004), p.12.
6 Medián (Citation2004), p. 8.
5 Az általánosan (2004), p. 22.
4 Association of Language Schools in Hungarian is Nyelviskolák Szakmai Egyesülete (NYESZE). I shall use this abbreviation in this article.
3 Laki (Citation2004, 2005).
2 Financed by the Hungarian Scientific Research Fund.
1 Zsuzsa Kapitány gave a detailed description of the Hungarian car market (Kapitány Citation1994). Éva Várhegyi analysed the changes in the market for banking services (Várhegyi Citation2004). Andras Bauer presented an interesting study on the rapid development of the Hungarian mobile phone market (Bauer Citation2003). Imre Fertő & Gábor Szabó made interesting observations on the changes in product lines in the post-socialist Hungarian agricultural sector (Fertő & Szabó Citation2004). Péter Vince analysed the impact of privatisation on the delivery and supplier contracts of Hungarian companies (Vince Citation2003). Éva Voszka examined the relationship between market evolution and market competition in post socialist Hungary (Voszka, Citation2003).