GOTG 2014 - Round 3 - November 2013

Round 3 Winner - Tasleem Lalji

Tasleem Lalji is a British national of Indian origin. She has been living in Hungary since 1991 having  arrived with her husband Nadir Lalji, on a private enterprise from the Congo.Tasleem has three kids who are all based in Canada  now. Being a full-time mom kept her busy enough but she spent most of her time in Hungary working with the International Women's Club and was chairwoman for four years. She now spends her time between India, Canada, and Hungary.

Round 3 Competitors

Still being a university student, with matching age, Miklós Morandini  is probably one of the youngest taking part in Gift of the Gab. Life somehow always steered him towards the English language, so when deciding what to major in, the choice was obvious. During his first week he was involuntarily enrolled in the Brown Cow drama club and has been charged with and found guilty of amateur acting on multiple occasions since.  This being mixed with the humble Christian morals he grew up with created a complex thought in the deep recesses of what could be classified as his mind. He decided that it is his life to make the people around him just a little more joyful and content, while trying to be as subtle about it as possible. Not an easy task, he is often forced onto centre stage, no matter how hard he tries to avoid it.  The Gift of the Gab is different. It is a challenge, mostly for himself, to see how far he has come over the years.

David Lally has spent all of his life so far in Ireland with the exception of a five-month Erasmus study in Belgium. A recent graduate of Trinity College, David's focus has varied in over the years between socialising, rowing, dating, travelling, debating, drinking beer and eating Camembert cheese. He wasted three years in University regretting not taking part in the debating scene and didn't take to the stage until his final year.  When he finished rowing this year (mid-July), he had no set plans or immediate career ambitions. So when he was offered a chance internship in Hungary, he grabbed it. International experience, adventure, and the space to avoid making any concrete inroads to the structured work environment saw him arrive six days later. In Budapest, he's learning how to become an adult (cook, clean, shop, budget, sleep), how to survive a  working day, how to play Frisbee.

Brendan Dunne left Ireland one summer long ago and never made it back! Although his career guidance counsellors and his mammy had him on the track for joining the ranks of infamous Irish PR guru PJ Mara, life had other ideas. Brendan found the attractions of Budapest too much to turn his back on and has enjoyed his adventures away from Ireland. He has had stints in Bratislava and Frankfurt but life guided him back to Budapest once again where he lives with his wife and three kids. His path along the way was lit by the beguiling lights of the advertising and media business. Although not quite the stuff of an average Mad Men episode, his career in media has been far from dull. Inspired by the October round of GOTG, he seeks to become the 'first' Irishman in the 2014 final.

ZitaHarsányi is a Hungarian and English teacher from Budapest. A great storyteller. She has developed her entertaining style of teaching English and Hungarian particularly while working at the Hungarian-Chinese school in Budapest. She spent a year in Yorkshire, England, perfecting her English and in 2011 did a spell working in an orphanage in Transylvania. No stranger to GOTG, Zita made her debut with us last year and some of us still can't get that song out of our heads :-)