Lesson 6 presents some very useful phrases for the traveler to Hungary! Have a listen and try to memorize as much as possible. This lesson’s dialogue isn’t as long as in previous lessons, so it shouldn’t be that hard to memorize it all.
We also discuss some Easter traditions in Hungary, and present the winner of last lesson’s challenge to continue the mineral water dialogue between the restaurant patron and her waiter.
Our music is again provided by the very talented Budapest-based Mookie Brando and the Second Cousins, who were kind enough to offer us their song “Angelina” for this podcast. Find out more about this excellent band here. Thanks so much to Mookie and his kin for allowing us to use their music on the podcast.
The PDF file below contains the written dialogue and vocabulary, and the MP3 file has the audio for Lesson 6. Download both of them below, and thanks for listening!
Telling time in Hungarian reminds me of telling time in German. 8:30 is half way to nine and 8:25 is five minutes to half way to nine. It looks like Hungarians say that 8:15 is a quarter of 9, 8:30 is half nine, and 8:45 is three-quarters of nine.
After learning this different way of telling time I at first didn’t understand my British colleagues when they said ‘half nine’. I wasn’t sure if they meant 8:30 or 9:30. For them ‘half nine’ means ‘half (past) nine’ – 9:30 and not 8:30 like in German or Hungarian.
The website magyarora.com has lots of exerices and activities for different levels. Here is one for telling time:
http://www.magyarora.com/lunchbreak/lunchbreak_ora.pdf
Pages 4 and 5 have the answers to exercises 1 and 2
Jonathan
Just wanted to say THANK YOU for this podcast. I really, really hope it continues. My mother and I are learning Hungarian together. She spoke Hungarian fluently when she was a small child, as my heritage on my mother’s side is 100% Hungarian … but it has been lost … now maybe we can gain it back.
Thanks again!
I have a couple of questions, and I wonder if you could shed some light on them.
What is the difference between “sajnálom” and “bocsánat?” So far I have heard them used interchangeably.
Also, I had previously learned the word “idÅ‘” in conjunction with the weather, e.g. “szép idÅ‘ van ma.” And here we have “Mennyi az idÅ‘?” used with time. My guess is that “idÅ‘” is used to mean something like “currently” and its meaning is contextual. Can you explain?
Keep up the good work!
Jonathan – you’re right about Hungarian time-telling, and it’s not that tough once you learn it. To this day, I still have to check myself when hearing the British “half 9,” because of the confusion with the Hungarian.
Matthew – we’re glad you’re enjoying our podcast. Thanks for your comment!
Tony –
1) sajnálom vs. bocsánat: “sajnálom” expresses personal regret for an unfortunate situation you caused or helped bring upon someone else. You can also use it to express sympathy with someone’s misfortune. It’s used for more serious cases than “bocsánat,” which is more like just saying “sorry” or “excuse me” for something like bumping into someone or stepping on their feet.
2) idÅ‘: there’s a very easy answer to this: the word “idÅ‘” can mean both “time” AND “weather.” I was going to mention this during the last lesson but decided against it in the end. So your example, “Szép idÅ‘ van ma,” means of course, “We have nice weather today.”
Now, “idÅ‘járás” is the official word that means “weather,” so it’s what you hear when you watch the weather forecast on TV, for example. But in day-to-day life, people don’t use “idÅ‘járás.” They shorten it to “idÅ‘” when talking about the weather.
These are both great questions though so I think we’ll talk about them on the next lesson. Cheers.
Hey! I just wanted to say thank you for this awesome podcast! I am going to be an exchange student to Hungary from this coming august to the following summer and i am trying to learn as quickly as possible. soo this has helped me so much with prounouncing the words in the books i have and i had never heard it spoken before i subscribed to you guys.. so thanks again!
Thank you so much Steve and Györgyi! We are all so fortunate to have this podcast to listen too. I think your way of teaching Hungarian is the best way and fun too! I’m a beginning student who wants to visit Hungary one day so I want to learn as much as I can! Köszönöm szépen!!
Sziasztok!
Thank you for the nice comments! I don’t get to check them very often,but when I do,they make my day! I am so happy – and surprised – to see that so many people are interested in Hungarian.I really appreciate your effort learning one of the hardest languages in the world! It’s easy for me,I was born Hungarian.But you guys are doing so well!Keep up the good work!I am learning Japanese at the moment and I know what it’s like to feel “Gosh,I will never be able to speak this language properly!”.But there is always a breakthrough to the next level.
“Hajrá,hajrá!”(=”go,go!” – we cheer athletes like this,too)
We will also keep trying to do our best.Now that I’m reading the comments I know that it is worth the hard work.New podcast is coming out soon! Thank you for listening to us!
Györgyi
P.S:I’m listening to Jazz+Az.This is a Hungarian band from the ’90s.Their music is great and the lyricist (Geszti Péter) is a genius! I recommend them to everybody,and if you are intermediate or advanced learner of Hungarian,listen to the brilliant lyrics!
Here is another resource that I’ve found that complements the podcasts well. http://www.fsi-language-courses.com/
The Foreign Service Institute of the US Government created a Hungarian language program back in 1962, and the people on this website have made the effort to make it available on the internet. The listening is very intuitive, first slow to learn the vocabulary, then a little faster, then finally at a conversational speed. There’s also a bilingual transcript to follow along.
And for some basic grammar explanations, here’s another website that has helped: http://www.personal.psu.edu/adr10/hungarian.html
I have been commuting to Hungary during the last 2 Years, and have been trying to learn the language. This is by far the best help I have found by far. My friends in Hungary will be impressed when I have completed the first 6 lessons. THANKYOU
Thank you so very much for your excellent work and instruction on the beautiful Hungarian language. I am looking forward to my first visit to Hungary which I hope will be soon. This program helps my confidence in learning the fundamentals of Hungarian. I look forward to additional podcasts…again, thank you!!!
Hi,
I’m totally surprised how many of you try to learn hungarian!!
I consider it the most annoying sounding language in Europe it makes German sound beautiful !!
Nevertheless I have to learn it and therefor I’m very grateful there are pages like that out there .
Thank you
I can’t believe I found this site! Just what I have been looking for. I love the part when go back and forth trying to translate the Hungarian into English. I am looking for something slightly more advanced. Can you recommend anything to me?
Thanks for the comment, Tamara. We’re currently thinking about how to add more advanced content into the podcast, or perhaps make an additional podcast that’s only in Hungarian. As for other Hungarian-learning podcasts, I think we’re the only one. If you can find any other good resources, please let us know!