Start with the alphabet, not the vocabulary
| Country | Script | First-month priority | Where English gets you through |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hungary | Latin, with unfamiliar letters and long words | Pronunciation rules and about 50 survival words | University, larger shops in Budapest, most student services |
| Greece | Greek alphabet | Reading the alphabet, so signs and forms stop being noise | University, tourist-facing services, larger cities |
| Bulgaria | Cyrillic | Reading Cyrillic, which takes about a week of evenings | University, medical faculties, younger people in cities |
If you learn one thing before flying to Athens or Sofia, make it the alphabet. Being able to sound out a street name, a bus destination, a pharmacy sign and the word for exit converts an intimidating first week into a manageable one, and it takes a few evenings rather than a course.
Hungary
Hungarian is not related to the languages around it and is genuinely difficult: extensive case endings and vocabulary that offers a Bengali or English speaker almost no free cognates. The compensation is that you can complete a degree, handle the university and live in Budapest with English.
Two practical notes. Stipendium Hungaricum's catalogue includes a Hungarian language preparatory course as a non-degree option, which tells you the state considers language preparation part of the offer. And outside Budapest — Debrecen, Pécs, Szeged — English coverage in shops, offices and healthcare thins noticeably, so the same degree involves more Hungarian depending on which city you are in.
Target A1 to A2 in the first year for daily life. Do not expect Hungarian to open a graduate job in a year; it will open a part-time one sooner.
Greece
Public administration works in Greek, and this is the country where paperwork most often needs a Greek-speaking helper. Universities have international offices and English-taught programmes; the tax office, the residence permit process and the utility company do not run on them.
The alphabet is the first barrier and the smallest. After that, Greek is a normal European language to learn, with much of its scientific and academic vocabulary already familiar through English. Aim to read the alphabet before arrival and A2 within the first year.
Bulgaria, and the medical exception
Cyrillic, again, is a week of study and worth doing before you land.
The real point about Bulgaria is medicine. English-taught medical programmes attract Bangladeshi students precisely because they are taught in English — and clinical training is not a classroom. Ward rounds, patient histories and examinations involve Bulgarian-speaking patients, which is why Bulgarian language teaching appears in these curricula. The exact requirement, how many semesters and whether it is examined, differs by faculty, and we do not publish a figure here because it is set programme by programme. Open your own faculty's published curriculum and find the language courses in it before you accept an offer.
Treat that as a feature rather than an imposition: a doctor who cannot take a history in the patient's language is not a working doctor. The related guides are the Medical University of Sofia and Sofia University.
The first-month survival list
The same short list works in all three countries and can be learned in a fortnight:
- Greetings, please, thank you, sorry, and "do you speak English?"
- Numbers to a hundred, plus prices and dates
- "I do not understand" and "more slowly, please"
- Directions: left, right, straight on, where is, how far
- Shop and pharmacy words for what you buy weekly
- The words on official forms: name, surname, date of birth, address, signature, student
Add to that the alphabet for Greece and Bulgaria and you have removed most of the friction of the first month. Everything after that is easier, because you will be learning inside the country rather than from an app in Dhaka.
Paperwork is where the language actually bites
Enrolment, the residence permit, the tax number, registering an address and opening a bank account all happen in the local language in all three countries, usually at a counter with a queue behind you. Universities help international students with the first round; nobody helps with the second year's renewal.
Two practical defences: take a classmate who speaks the language to any appointment that matters, and photograph every form you complete so the next one takes ten minutes rather than an afternoon. Neither is a substitute for learning, and both buy you the time to learn.
What it is worth, in plain terms
- For the degree: nothing. All three teach and examine in English on their international programmes.
- For paperwork: a lot, especially in Greece.
- For part-time work: decisive in most customer-facing jobs, in all three.
- For staying afterwards: decisive almost everywhere except a handful of international companies.
- Outside the country: Hungarian and Bulgarian are of little use elsewhere; Greek slightly more so. This is a real difference from learning German or French and it should affect how much time you spend.
A workable plan
- 1Before you fly: the alphabet for Greece or Bulgaria, and 50 survival phrases for any of the three.
- 2First semester: join the university's own language course. They are usually free or nominal for enrolled students, and the beginner cohort will be other internationals.
- 3First year: A2, which covers shops, transport, a landlord and a simple appointment.
- 4Second year: decide honestly whether you intend to stay. If you do, B1 is the level where work conversations start, and it will not happen by accident.
Country context is on the Hungary, Greece and Bulgaria pages, and the choice between an English-taught and a local-language programme is set out in English-taught versus local-language programmes.
Official sources — check for yourself
- Study in Hungary — official portal
- Stipendium Hungaricum — programme catalogue
- Sofia University — Medicine in English
Rules and figures change. We review these articles periodically and show the date above, but always confirm the current requirement with the official source before you act on it.
Common questions
Can I study in Hungary, Greece or Bulgaria with only English?+
For the degree, yes — international programmes in all three are taught and examined in English. For daily life, paperwork and any customer-facing part-time job you will need the local language, and Greek administration in particular runs in Greek.
How long does it take to read Greek or Cyrillic?+
About a week of evenings for the alphabet itself, which is the single highest-value thing to do before you fly. It turns signs, forms and bus destinations from noise into information.
Do English-taught medical students in Bulgaria have to learn Bulgarian?+
Clinical training involves Bulgarian-speaking patients, so language teaching is part of these curricula. The number of semesters and whether it is examined is set by each faculty, so read your own programme's published curriculum rather than a general figure.
Is Hungarian worth learning if I may leave later?+
Outside Hungary it is of little practical use, which is a fair reason to aim at A2 for daily life rather than at fluency — unless you intend to stay, in which case B1 is where work conversations begin.
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