The Role of Cultural Competence in the Teaching of Hungarian as a Foreign Language and in Cultural Diplomacy

In the present paper, I aim to shed light on the importance of cultural competence from three perspectives. First, in my capacity as a sociolinguist, I will talk about how Hungarian culture is incorporated in the textbook Colloquial Hungarian (Rounds and Solyom 2011), providing particular examples from various dialogues and cultural notes from the book. I believe that linguistic competence, communicative competence, and cultural competence are equally important parts of foreign language teaching and foreign language learning. Second, as a foreign language instructor at U.S. study abroad programs, I plan to discuss the importance of cultural norms of the speakers of the local language in the host country. Third, as a director of an American cultural and resource center in Budapest, I will talk about the importance of building bridges between two cultures, describing the goals and missions of the center as well as giving specific examples of the activities of the American Corner Budapest.