Perhaps I’ll have better luck with the ‘Teach Yourself’ method, than I did last year when I signed up for a class. There’s something unpleasant about sitting in classrooms weekends after teaching in classrooms during week. Dropped out after just one session. Good news is > I haven’t given up. I’ve hatched a new plan. Here it is:
I’ll teach myself Complete Hungarian– the speaking, listening, reading, and writing package by Zsuzsa Pontifex. It comes with a 450-page book, two audio CD’s (MP3 compatible), and additional online content.
According to my calculations, here’s the time it will take:
Working through the book at a rate of 1/2 a page per day, on average, I figure it will take about 3 years to learn survival Hungarian. That’s what I’ll shoot for. I think it’s doable. And I’ll get the ball rolling as soon as I hop on a plane destined for Hungary next month.
I like the idea of becoming proficient in one of my ancestors’ many languages. That aside, I love the sound of the Hungarian language itself. It’s beautiful; unusual; mysterious. As far as languages go, it’s sexy.
I want to chat in Hungarian with Hungarian Facebook friends, and correspond with them in their language over e-mail. I want to make sense of Hungarian TV and movies and newspapers and books. I want to speak Hungarian when I’m visiting Hungary. And I want greater insight into Hungarian culture–cultural meanings are embedded in language, so learning the language is the best way to do it.
That is so awesome. I feel the same way, only my travel is through time into Middle & Old English. Though I find knowing some French incredibly helpful with that journey.
Middle and Old English? Very cool. How much time do you spend at it? How do you structure that time over the course of, well, time? Any and all tips are more than welcome:-) Thanks for stopping by, graystone!
awww you should take me with you to Hungary too to learn Hungarian hehehehe jk
better yet,
better to learn the Bible after what happened to Japan.
there’s more down the road..
*wink*
V.,
The events in Japan are certainly devastating …
As for Hungary > Sorry to say, there’s no room for you in my luggage ~
no problemo
i can fit in a luggage any size big or small and travel with you hahahah
thats if you throw everything out (clothes and etc)hehehehehe jk
*wink*
Dear K.
the time is near after Japan..
not joking + don’t want to bring fear
trust me on this…
you’re wonderful and soo finnee lol
Buena suerte Karyn! Hungarian’s all Greek to me!
Hi Rose,
Greek is all Spanish to me, Spanish is Russian, Russian is Ukrainian, and Ukrainian is Polish …
I’ll have to look up the meaning of ‘Buena suerte’. Please wait just a moment …
Ahhh …Thank-you:-) I see that it means “Good luck”!
I will/can certainly use it ~
Karyn,
It is impressive to commit to learning a new language. Good for you. The lure of being in Hungary should do wonders for motivation.
I tried French at university and after three years made my own complete sentence. That was about it. Ok, maybe I was not as motivated as you are. I had such poor success with French and I think it was because I was so in love with English. Ironically, so many people come to me and ask me if I am French, assume I speak French.
(I still try to keep up my spoken Bulgarian) but I do not think I will be writing poetry in it. Translating from English into Bulgarian is a lot more challenging for me than the other way around. But doing that kind of translation brought back an appreciation for the Bulgarian language all over again. Like forming a new relationship with it.
Good luck. (In Bulgarian we do not cross out fingers, we squeeze our thumbs for good luck.)
PS. that last comment was by me, daniela. I forgot I was updating the Federation of BC writers blog, and showed up as “bcwritersupcomingevents”. Then I thought: who is this person? Did I not just write this post. ok, never mind what I thought. :-))
Hi Daniela! As I was reading the first post I suspected you were the author as soon the word ‘Bulgarian’ came up :-) As for French, I had about as much luck with it in school as you did at university. For whatever reason, it didn’t really capture my imagination the way Hungarian does. Perhaps that has something to do with being ‘forced’ to take French starting in Grade 7. I didn’t feel that sense of being motivated to unravel a mystery; to unlock the key to a puzzle. That’s how I feel now. We’ll see how it goes :-) In keeping with Bulgarian tradition, I’ll squeeze my thumbs (a lot) ~