Multilingualism and the Formation of Political Consciousness

Abstract

This chapter defines multilingualism and autoethnography before narrating the author's experiences with multilingualism and multilinguals. The chapter maps the formation of the author's political consciousness, an unexpected critical affordance of multilingualism in Hungary and beyond, by exploring the intersections between 1) the author's personal experiences teaching English, becoming multilingual, and forming relationships with multilinguals; and 2) the geopolitical terrain and events at the end of the twentieth, and beginning of the twenty-first, centuries, including the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, the fall of the Berlin Wall, Hungary's transition from socialism to democracy, the 9/11 terror attacks, the rise of nationalism and populism in Hungary, and the disastrous end of the war in Afghanistan. Ultimately, the chapter explores these intersections in order to show “people in the process of figuring out what to do, how to live, and the meaning of their struggles,” a meaning made clearer when traced alongside an evolving political consciousness.