|
 |
Step-by-Step Hungarian by Péter Durst | ||
Tags: Hungarian | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| RVFA Diglot Newbie Sweden Joined 4970 days ago 13 posts - 29 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: Mandarin, Japanese, Korean, Hungarian | Message 1 of 2 21 November 2010 at 3:35pm | IP Logged |
|
I just want mention a book-series for Hungarian that I can't recall having been mentioned in this forum, it is called 'Hungarian Step-by-Step' or 'Lépésenként Magyarul' and is written by Péter Durst.
Information about the series can be found on: Lépésenként Magyarul This website also has links to where you can buy the series. More information about it in English: Lépésenként Magyarul I came across the first book in the series by luck when I was in Hungary two years ago and was happy, to say the least, to finally find an actual university textbook-series for Hungarian. I believe the series are used at Szeged University in Hungary to teach Hungarian to foreign students. First of all there are three books in the series taking you from beginner's to advanced level, the first two are plain textbooks but the last one is a small advanced grammar workbook. There are also accompanying audio CD's for the books, as well as DVD's with a number of relevant short-films in Hungarian. Finally there is a large grammar book which is available in five languages: Hungarian, English, German, Italian and Finnish. The grammar book covers all three levels: beginner's to advanced. So if you decide to get the grammar book make sure you order the one in the language you need, you don't want to mistakenly order the Italian version if you can't read Italian. I have only used the textbooks and the grammar book so I can't comment on the audio and dvd-material. All of the textbooks are in Hungarian, there is no English in them whatsoever. All instructions and exercises are in Hungarian. Because of this there is no glossary in any of the books, which means that you have to use your own dictionary and make your own glossary lists as you progress through the chapters. Honestly this is not really a problem, it only taks 30 mminutes or so to make one for each chapter. Also, there is no chapter on pronunciation so you need to know that beforehand. Again, that is not a serious problem as there are many sites that can give you good introduction to Hungarian pronunciation. The textbooks themselves do not explain the grammar, at most they have grammar boxes where you can see what you are supposed to do. Instead, when grammatical concepts are introduced in the books they give you the corresponding pages/sections in the grammarbook where you will find the actual explanations. So you need to have the grammarbook. The exercises in the textbooks are the most comprehensive I have come across. Each chapter contains some form of reading exercises - dialogues, articles, etc. - then some questions on them. After this some grammatical concept is typically introduced, followed by a large number of exercises on the grammar. What I realy liked about the exercises is that they make you think, they are not robotic drill-stuff, they will challenge you to think about what you are doing. There are also a couple of listening exercises, but I would say that 2/3 of the exercises you can do without the audio. There's a few partner exercises but these are guided so you can do them by yourself too. There are also writing exercises where you have to write shorter passages or stories, sometimes based on a given number of pictures. So on the whole I have to say the books are strongly geared towards self-study. The only downside is that corrections for the exercises are not given. The grammarbook is set up like a reference-book, not a study/work-book, it contains the grammar that the textbooks refer to in their chapters. My only problem is that the book can be rather technical at times, the writing style is similar to Törkenczy's grammar book 'Hungarian: Verbs & Essentials of Grammar'. I had to read trough the explanations and the examples a few times to understand what the author meant. I wrote the grammar down in my own words afterwards, this helped quite a bit. The grammar book is very elaborate, you will not get short answers from it, for good or bad. This leaves me to mention the presentation. The books are visually very nice to work with and the editing is very good, I can't remember seeing any typos in any of the books. They use cartoonish contemporary drawings as well as a few photographs here and there. The books are geared towards practical modern communication. In the first book you will learn usual stuff like foods, directions, telling time etc. as well as key concepts like past-tense conjugations. In the second book you will learn more about expressing your thoughts and opinions, and the third book feels aimed at understanding the more technical grammar used in Hungarian literature. So the series has a few flaws: no chapters on pronunciation, corrections for the exercises are not given, the grammar book can be rather technical. However, considering that so few books like these exist they are an acceptable trade-off. I ordered some of the books through the Hungarian online store Líra:Líra Other Hungarian online stores probably have them too, but all of them, including Líra are only in Hungarian so you need someone who knows Hungarian to help you order them, or use a good dictionary. They work pretty much in the same way as Amazon, just basic navigation skills :-). I will write down the ISBN numbers anyway for your reference: The Grammar Book:'Hungarian Grammar - Not Only for Hungarians' by Valéria M. Korchmáros, ISBN-10: 963-482-802-7 (this is the English version !) Textbook1: 'Hungarian: Step By Step (Lépésenként Magyarul) 1' by Durst Péter, ISBN-10: 963-06-1527-4 Note: in addition it may also say 'Első Lépés - Magyar nyelvkönyv kezdőknek' on the sellers' webpages. Textbook2: 'Hungarian: Step By Step (Lépésenként Magyarul) 2' by Durst Péter, ISBN-10: 963-482-780-2 Note: in addition it may also say 'Második Lépés - Magyar nyelvkönyv középhaladóknak' on the sellers' webpages. Textbook3: 'Hungarian: Step By Step (Lépésenként Magyarul) Nyelvtani feladatok haladóknak' by Durst Péter, ISBN-10:963-482-556-7 Publisher: the Hungarian Studies Center of the University of Szeged. 6726 Szeged, Tisza L. krt. 103. Tel./Fax: 62/420-894 E-mail: hstud@hstud.u-szeged.hun Edited by RVFA on 21 November 2010 at 3:40pm 7 persons have voted this message useful | |
| PolyglotNZ Pentaglot Groupie New ZealandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5992 days ago 71 posts - 91 votes  Speaks: Spanish*, EnglishC2, German, Mandarin, Japanese Studies: Polish, Swedish, Hungarian, Russian | Message 2 of 2 20 December 2010 at 5:30pm | IP Logged |
|
Szia, RVFA!
Miért magyarul tanulsz? Kíváncsi vagyok! (^_^) What other Hungarian textbooks do you have? I have Lépésenként Magyarul I, Halló, itt Magyarország I & II and Hungarolingua I, II & III. I also have the TY Hungarian and Colloquial Hunguarian. I agree with you and Lépésenként Magyarul has a lot of good points. However, it is not my favourite book. I still prefer Hungarolingua, the quality of the video is better and it has way more audio material. Halló, itt Magyarország is also pretty good. It has no video and the audio is limited, but the dialogues are engaging and when I studied it, it felt like I was making huge progress very quickly, it could've been my imagination though. Anyway, good to see other Hungarian learners out there and please share a bit of your experience learning the language and your books. Cheers! 1 person has voted this message useful |
If you wish to post a reply to this topic you must first login. If you are not already registered you must first register
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
