32 messages over 4 pages: 1 2 3 4
maxval
Pentaglot
Senior Member
Bulgaria
maxval.co.nr
Joined 5074 days ago
852 posts - 1577 votes 
Speaks: Hungarian*, Bulgarian, English, Spanish, Russian
Studies: Latin, Modern Hebrew
| Message 25 of 32 03 January 2012 at 1:04pm | IP Logged |
Zgarbas wrote:
It's difficult because it makes no friggin sense.
Ok. So I have a sort of knack for languages. Not as in actually learning them, but I'm generally good at reproducing, getting the basics and stuff. Not useful in the long run but useful when just casually interacting with a language. I've been living in a Hungarian-filled area for nigh 3 year now and had my first interaction with it about 7 years ago. I get to hear it spoken a lot and get to interact with written signs and what not.
I spent about 3 weeks in Hungary, albeit mostly surrounded by tourists.
I can't even pronounce the most basic sounds. In fact, despite learning my first words over 7 years ago, I still cannot pronounce them. Whenever someone pronounces it back to show how I don't know how to pronounce it, I am unable to even feel the difference, not to mention re-enact it. After meeting hundreds of people with Hungarian names I still get confused by some that I had not interacted with.
Not that I've made put much effort into learning it, but seriously. Impossible language.
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When I watched for the 1st time in life Basque Television, I had the same feeling. :-)
It is very frustrating to watch the TV for 10 minutes and do not understand even a single word. It didnt happen to me with any other language before.
But the key is your remark about effort. Without effort noting can be done.
3 persons have voted this message useful
| William Camden
Hexaglot
Senior Member
United Kingdom
Joined 6273 days ago
1936 posts - 2333 votes
Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Russian, Turkish, French
| Message 26 of 32 03 January 2012 at 6:18pm | IP Logged |
I have never studied it but from reading about it, I would say that Hungarian is about as difficult for an Anglophone as Turkish is. Both languages have non-IE structures, as well as vocabularies with little transparency for those who know West European languages.
1 person has voted this message useful
| Zgarbas
Triglot
Newbie
Romania
goblinjapanese.wordp
Joined 4712 days ago
12 posts - 15 votes
Speaks: Romanian*, EnglishC2, Japanese
Studies: Spanish, Mandarin
| Message 27 of 32 03 January 2012 at 8:24pm | IP Logged |
maxval wrote:
Zgarbas wrote:
It's difficult because it makes no friggin sense.
Ok. So I have a sort of knack for languages. Not as in actually learning them, but I'm generally good at reproducing, getting the basics and stuff. Not useful in the long run but useful when just casually interacting with a language. I've been living in a Hungarian-filled area for nigh 3 year now and had my first interaction with it about 7 years ago. I get to hear it spoken a lot and get to interact with written signs and what not.
I spent about 3 weeks in Hungary, albeit mostly surrounded by tourists.
I can't even pronounce the most basic sounds. In fact, despite learning my first words over 7 years ago, I still cannot pronounce them. Whenever someone pronounces it back to show how I don't know how to pronounce it, I am unable to even feel the difference, not to mention re-enact it. After meeting hundreds of people with Hungarian names I still get confused by some that I had not interacted with.
Not that I've made put much effort into learning it, but seriously. Impossible language.
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When I watched for the 1st time in life Basque Television, I had the same feeling. :-)
It is very frustrating to watch the TV for 10 minutes and do not understand even a single word. It didnt happen to me with any other language before.
But the key is your remark about effort. Without effort noting can be done. |
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I had an easier time with Basque than with Hungarian though. Phonetically it makes much more sense(though the "x"s took a while to get used to), which helped.
1 person has voted this message useful
| maxval
Pentaglot
Senior Member
Bulgaria
maxval.co.nr
Joined 5074 days ago
852 posts - 1577 votes
Speaks: Hungarian*, Bulgarian, English, Spanish, Russian
Studies: Latin, Modern Hebrew
| Message 28 of 32 03 January 2012 at 8:38pm | IP Logged |
Zgarbas wrote:
maxval wrote:
Zgarbas wrote:
It's difficult because it makes no friggin sense.
Ok. So I have a sort of knack for languages. Not as in actually learning them, but I'm generally good at reproducing, getting the basics and stuff. Not useful in the long run but useful when just casually interacting with a language. I've been living in a Hungarian-filled area for nigh 3 year now and had my first interaction with it about 7 years ago. I get to hear it spoken a lot and get to interact with written signs and what not.
I spent about 3 weeks in Hungary, albeit mostly surrounded by tourists.
I can't even pronounce the most basic sounds. In fact, despite learning my first words over 7 years ago, I still cannot pronounce them. Whenever someone pronounces it back to show how I don't know how to pronounce it, I am unable to even feel the difference, not to mention re-enact it. After meeting hundreds of people with Hungarian names I still get confused by some that I had not interacted with.
Not that I've made put much effort into learning it, but seriously. Impossible language.
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When I watched for the 1st time in life Basque Television, I had the same feeling. :-)
It is very frustrating to watch the TV for 10 minutes and do not understand even a single word. It didnt happen to me with any other language before.
But the key is your remark about effort. Without effort noting can be done. |
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I had an easier time with Basque than with Hungarian though. Phonetically it makes much more sense(though the "x"s took a while to get used to), which helped. |
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Yes, it is practically the same phonetic system as Spanish. When I hear Basque speech, first I think it is Spanish. But after few seconds I realize I dont understand anything, so its not Spanish...
2 persons have voted this message useful
| Serpent
Octoglot
Senior Member
Russian Federation
serpent-849.livejour
Joined 6598 days ago
9753 posts - 15779 votes
4 sounds
Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese
Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish
| Message 29 of 32 05 January 2012 at 6:33am | IP Logged |
Chung wrote:
| I've seen another course that also tries to teach colloquial Finnish but tellingly it's all in Finnish. The implication is that students must already have a good grasp of standard Finnish before getting into colloquial language. |
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Missed the link. Yeah, it's a great one. I got it when I was at the intermediate level. It's a bit like a colloquial Finnish handbook, with explanations and example dialogues. Something like this or a book about the dialects (which would be too academic for the average learner) is definitely a must for reaching fluency.
and these posts on Hungarian make me sad.
1 person has voted this message useful
| liddytime
Pentaglot
Senior Member
United States
mainlymagyar.wordpre
Joined 6230 days ago
693 posts - 1328 votes
Speaks: English*, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Galician
Studies: Hungarian, Vietnamese, Modern Hebrew, Norwegian, Persian, Arabic (Written)
| Message 30 of 32 05 January 2012 at 3:39pm | IP Logged |
Serpent wrote:
...
and these posts on Hungarian make me sad. |
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How come?!
1 person has voted this message useful
| liddytime
Pentaglot
Senior Member
United States
mainlymagyar.wordpre
Joined 6230 days ago
693 posts - 1328 votes
Speaks: English*, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Galician
Studies: Hungarian, Vietnamese, Modern Hebrew, Norwegian, Persian, Arabic (Written)
| Message 31 of 32 05 January 2012 at 3:44pm | IP Logged |
tanya b wrote:
According to the British Foreign Service, Hungarian is ranked as the second highest in difficulty
after Basque. Hungarian is considered even more difficult than Mandarin.
I understand Hungarian has 24 cases. Is that why it is so difficult?
Just looking at the words, a Hungarian spelling bee probably wouldn't last more than a couple of minutes.
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tanya b, I just saw from your other thread that you taught yourself Russian to fluency! Russian was so much
harder for me than Hungarian - remembering all those cases and declensions and genders!
Give yourself 3 months with Hungarian. Use the FSI course (no snoozing!) and the Assimil course and I think the
method that you used for Russian should produce good results! If you can't stand it, hey, only 3 months in the
hole right? My bet is you will want to continue though :-)
1 person has voted this message useful
| Serpent
Octoglot
Senior Member
Russian Federation
serpent-849.livejour
Joined 6598 days ago
9753 posts - 15779 votes
4 sounds
Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese
Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish
| Message 32 of 32 05 January 2012 at 8:12pm | IP Logged |
liddytime wrote:
Serpent wrote:
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and these posts on Hungarian make me sad. |
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How come?! |
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i mean the posts saying it's a mess.
1 person has voted this message useful
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