Our Teachers

Madár Emőke

I am Emőke Madár, a teacher at the Szent László Hungarian School in Vancouver and its principal since May 2022. My family and I moved to Vancouver in July 2018; before that I taught in Hungary at a German minority-language and dual-language elementary school. As fate would have it, I was able to join the teaching at the Szent László Hungarian School as early as September 2018. The enthusiasm of the school's volunteer team enchanted me from the very beginning. In my work here I can put the professional experience I gained at home to very good use, and I keep developing my skills, because a weekend Hungarian school requires an entirely different approach and material.

My goal is to awaken enthusiasm for learning the Hungarian language in as many children as possible.

Dr. Ungár Júlia

Molnár Katalin

I am Katalin Molnár. I have been teaching Hungarian at the Szent László Hungarian School since 2014, at the suggestion of Ágnes Kalmár. At first I had a group of children who spoke Hungarian well; later I taught children at various levels depending on their family background. In 2018 I took part in a four-day methodology course in Budapest organized by the KKM–Balassi Institute for teachers who teach Hungarian at weekend schools abroad. In 2019 the Methodology Conference taught us how to prepare lesson plans, which helped with using the Balassi workbooks — the books published in that series support language acquisition and the preservation of Hungarian identity for new generations living in the diaspora. Since the pandemic I have been teaching online. I graduated from ELTE in Budapest, in the Teacher and Kindergarten Education program.

Barna Laura

I am Laura Barna, a scholarship recipient of the Kőrösi Csoma Sándor Program from Budapest. This year I am delighted to join the teachers of the Szent László Hungarian School in Vancouver, to make the Hungarian language loved and interesting for the children living here. Although I do not have a teaching degree, I have been educating and mentoring young people within scouting for six years. Scouting is built on "learning by doing," and in that spirit I aim to teach playfully, so that the children pick up the language while having fun — and along the way get to know Hungarian folk customs, holidays, and hungarikums as well. It is a big and exciting challenge for me to find the activities and methods that are effective and entertaining for the students, whose language levels vary widely. Throughout the school year I will do my best to help in the life of the school and make sure the children enjoy the classes.