What we do

The support of education at international universities in the field of Hungarian studies – also called Hungarology – is a priority area in cultural diplomacy. This discipline represents Hungarian literature, cultural history, and history as well as Hungarian scientists and artist, thus communicating the values of Hungarian culture and promoting the mutual understanding between our cultures and nations. The majors originally founded with traditional profiles in linguistics and philology have responded to the needs of the past decades and opened up to new fields of sciences, adopting a more interdisciplinary approach.

In the framework of this activity, the MFAT manages and operates the network of guest lecturers, the Klebelsberg Kuno Scholarship, and the Methodology Centre for Hungarian as a Foreign Language and Heritage Language.

Our Hungarian studies scholarship supports the preservation of Hungarian intellectual values in three major fields. Every year, there are three calls for applications with three different purposes in the framework of the Klebelsberg Kuno Scholarship:

• For scholars: we offer scholarships supporting scientific activities aimed at identifying and preserving written documents and objects related to the Hungarian language and culture (so-called Hungaricums) in museums, archives, and libraries abroad.
• For talented Hungarian university students living abroad: we offer scholarships supporting research that can help students to develop professionally and to prepare for their scientific career.
• For teachers of Hungarian weekend schools operating in the diaspora and in sporadic minorities: we offer scholarships supporting participation at conferences on methodology so that teachers can enrich their expertise in methodology and Hungarian language at our trainings in Hungary.

The applications are judged by professional juries consisting of members with diverse backgrounds.

As a Methodology Centre for Hungarian as a Foreign Language and Heritage Language, we work in close cooperation with the Hungarian studies workshops of international and Hungarian universities, participate in the teacher training program for Hungarian as foreign language at Eötvös Loránd University and at Károli Gáspár University of the Reformed Church of Hungary, and organize conferences and trainings in the field of teaching Hungarian as a foreign language and Hungarian studies. Apart from our annual conference of guest lecturers, we also organize the Day of Hungarian as Foreign Language, which attracts a wide audience and provides an important professional opportunity for scholars of Hungarian studies and for teachers of Hungarian as a foreign language.

The Centre gives professional help to Hungarian people living in diaspora and in sporadic minorities as well as to weekend schools and their associations by publishing the Balassi booklets for children, a series promoting the gamification of education, and by organizing trainings for teachers in Hungary and abroad.

THL2, the journal of the field has a history of more than 15 years by now, disseminating research results and methodological experiences related to Hungarian studies and the teaching of Hungarian as a foreign language.