# Pionír munka



## ausermilar

Hello!

Last week I had lunch with a group of friends (in their forties and fifties) and their families near Sárospatak. We all were in a camping and we needed chairs and tables for lunch: so, we began to gather them from all the corners of the camping and our work was rather quick and neat (itt, ott, nyomás, rendben). 
At the end of our task, one of the guys said that "ez volt egy igazi pionírmunka!" and all of them agreed with a smile.

Has this expression something to do with their KISZ experience? (just one of them comes from Érdely, so I suppose the expression is just Hungarian).

Köszönöm szépen.


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## AndrasBP

ausermilar said:


> Has this expression something to do with their KISZ experience? (just one of them comes from Érdely, so I suppose the expression is just Hungarian).


Yes, probably. 
Was the phrase used by the person from Transylvania (Erdély)? In Hungary, we normally used the word "úttörő".


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## ausermilar

Yes, you're right, but what's the meaning? (good job? serious job? quick job?)


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## AndrasBP

I'm not 100% sure but I think it refers to organizing skills/teamwork.


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## Zsanna

A pionír or úttörő (= "roadbreaker" i.e. someone who goes ahead and finds the right way, meaning otherwise exactly the same as pionír=pioneer, also figuratively: a person who discovers a new way or how to do something) indicates a stage (from the age of 10 to 14) before you could be a KISZ member (from the age of 14 until the end of your shcooling period, grammar school and/or higher education).
Both being a type of youth organization that existed in Hungary before 1990.

The quoted sentence reminded me one we used to repeat jokingly (already as adults) coming from one of the pioneer rules we had to learn: "Az úttörő ahol tud, segít." (= A pioneer helps wherever he can.)
It indicated something like 'With pleasure', 'I'm such a good boy, aren't I? Haha.'...

I think the intention behind the quoted expression ("pionír munka" may be also in the meaning of: 'you had to get down and just do it', 'it was a job to be done'... straightaway) must have been similar but I don't think it is widely used  in Hungary.
Similarly to AndrasBP, I would also think that the speaker wasn't from Hungary because of these background differences. (Use of 'pionír'+ the expression itself.)


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## elroy

Zsanna said:


> = "roadbreaker" i.e. someone who goes ahead and finds the right way


This sounds like what I would call a "trailblazer" in English.
trailblazer - WordReference.com Dictionary of English



Zsanna said:


> "Az úttörő ahol tud, segít." (= A pioneer helps wherever he can.)


A cultural equivalent in the US might be "A Boy Scout helps whenever he can."
Boy Scouts of America - Wikipedia
Two Things All Leaders Can Learn From Eagle Scouts


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## Trisia

A bit late, but chiming in to agree with everyone. 

If the person was from Transylvannia, over in Ro you also became a pioneer at around 8 years of age all the way through middle school (8-14). The "oath" one took was to study well and be industrious, they could earn pionner pins that said "frontrunner in patriotic work" and I think one of the informal mottos -- for girls, at least, could be roughly translated as "If I have to, then I'd love to" (Similar to Zsanna's "With pleasure")

Yeah, not adding much, but that would kind of be some of the experience from this side, so it makes sense to me as well.


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