Those words ring even truer today: “Whether it comes to contemporary Hungarian language use, the retranslation of Shakespeare’s and Dante’s works or the situation of vulnerable social groups, he demonstrates extraordinary well-informedness and expertise coupled with a civil society mindset and sensitivity. His work is free of any pedantry, and his teacher persona serves as an inspiring model for meeting the dual requirements of competence and realism, ordinariness and creativity. He shows the university community how to navigate the cultural scene with an ease bordering on the provocative.” 

As Professor at Eötvös Loránd University, he introduced generations to English linguistics and to thinking about language, and his clear, personal writing and lectures drew a wider audience into the world of language and literature. He was a regular guest at MOME, and each visit stands out in our memories. 

Most recently, he joined us as a speaker at the Rubik Symposium, where his talk The Cube and the Worm – Old Words for New Things held the audience rapt. He spoke about how, in the 1970s, Rubik felt like a breath of fresh air and came up with something that mattered out of the blue. 

In his 2017 graduation speech, he spoke about the uncertainty of starting out, creative freedom, and professional humility, encouraging graduates to accept life’s unpredictability and turn it into an opportunity. 

One of this school’s great strengths, he said, is the various directions it opens up, the many paths it offers graduates. “You have not only learned what is good and what is beautiful, but also how they are made, what they are made from, and at what cost. You can develop, sew, saw, draw, weld, and conjure. Take pleasure in the variety of life, in its unexpected challenges […]. Have role models. Small ones, like the upright tailor down the street. Bigger ones, like Miklós Tamási, who built the Fortepan archive from scratch, selflessly; and the greats, like László Moholy-Nagy, who did so many different things in his life – I imagine he even stacked boxes.” 

He reminded students that their paths may take them to less prominent or more prominent roles, and that both should be met with dignity and responsibility. 

Earlier, when he received the Moholy-Nagy Award at our university in 2016, he reflected on his career and his childhood, and spoke with quiet authority about the idiosyncrasies of the English language, conveying his deep commitment to and love for his field. 

His lectures did more than impart knowledge – they opened up a way of thinking that revealed both the freedom and the responsibility inherent in language, culture, and human relationships. In an interview, he shared one of the central ideas of his philosophy of life, putting it as follows: “Faith does not belong only in church. If you believe, you must believe from morning to evening, in the marketplace, and at school – and sometimes, of course, you need to go to church.”