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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Mafouz Diglot Groupie Spain Joined 5325 days ago 56 posts - 64 votes  Speaks: Spanish*, English Studies: German, Japanese, French | Message 1 of 3 28 April 2010 at 3:12am | IP Logged | ||
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Hi all,
I have the silly idea of starting with hungarian. I am testing it and seems quite obscure (at least for somebody without previous knowledge of the language). I do have the FSI, Pimsleur and colloquial methods localized, and I was wondering... How is the experience? How many time to have BASIC conversations? (I mean, should I expect YEARS before comunication is possible?) Cultural production in hungarian is interesting enough to maintain a lifelong interest? (I mean, living outside hungary) ... Thanks to all!! Edited by Mafouz on 28 April 2010 at 4:26am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Chung Diglot Senior Member Joined 7156 days ago 4228 posts - 8259 votes 20 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish | Message 2 of 3 28 April 2010 at 4:42am | IP Logged | ||
The experience can be very good. If you're familiar only with languages from the Romance or Germanic families, getting acquainted with Hungarian will open your linguistic mind and make you realize that not all languages require a verb for "to have", grammatical gender, prepositions, over a dozen tenses or rigid word order to function. It'll also present to your mind a different way for considering direct objects by using verb conjugations which give a clue about the definiteness of relevant direct objects. The time required to attain the ability to have basic conversations can vary depending on your learning methods and resources. It also depends on how you define "basic". It took me about a year of rather haphazard independent study as a high school student to reach a high-beginner's ability (i.e. I could introduce myself, ask questions about concrete matters (e.g. "Would you like a drink?"), talk a little bit about my background or simple topics like my daily routine or primal needs (e.g. "I'm tired. I'm going to bed now. Good night!"). If you're older with a bit more money and discipline and better access to materials, you should then be able to take less time to achieve basic knowledge of Hungarian than I did as a high-school student (I estimate now that I'm at the intermediate level) When I began learning Hungarian, the internet (let alone the free FSI Hungarian Basic Course) was something almost mystical and only in dial-up for ordinary people. I had to make do with the public library's copy of "Colloquial Hungarian" and whatever Hungarian dictionaries that weren't already on loan. Hungarian culture may or may not appeal to you. No one here can truly tell how you''ll take to it or for how long the culture will appeal to you. For my part I've been quite interested in Hungarian culture for many years, and that interest was not only strong enough to provide incentive to delve deeper into "boring" aspects of the language (i.e. lots of grammar) but it has also enticed me to visit Hungary several times, buy even more CDs of Hungarian music and make several Hungarian friends. If you want some information about Hungarian for a prospective learner, then take a look at the Hungarian profile in the sub-forum "Collaborative Writing". The link to the profile is: how-to-learn-any-language.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=614& PN=1 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Mafouz Diglot Groupie Spain Joined 5325 days ago 56 posts - 64 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English Studies: German, Japanese, French | Message 3 of 3 30 April 2010 at 12:16am | IP Logged | ||
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Thank you very much, Chung. This is exactly the kind of information I was seeking. I will keep a log in case I decide to go ahead ;)
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