Lesson 10 is finally here! Thanks for the long wait, everyone. This lesson’s dialogue relates an actual situation that happened to us recently, so there’s a lot of authenticity to it (unfortunately). Also, we have a review of the previous lesson’s material, listener questions, and Györgyi recites from the great Hungarian poet János Arany!
See below for the script for this lesson’s material and the new vocabulary. Try and memorize as much as possible so you’ll be ready for the review next time.
Feel free to ask us if you have any questions about this lesson or Hungarian in general, or just to let us know what you think of our podcast. Just leave a comment on this post or on any other one. Thanks for listening!
Answers to last lesson’s quiz question: Duna, Tisza, Dráva, Száva are four rivers that ran through pre-war Hungary.
A copy of János Arany’s epic poem, “A Walesi Bárdok” in both English and Hungarian can be found here.
Music: Once again we bring you music from the brilliant Budapest-based Mookie Brando and the Second Cousins, “There Are Days.” Thanks so much to Mookie and his Cousins 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 10. Download both of them below, and thanks for listening!
I heard some questions about the Hungarian alphabet and sentence syntax. Take a look at the Foreign Service Institute’s Language Course for Hungarian:
http://www.fsi-language-courses.com/Hungarian.aspx
Click on student text to bring up a pdf coursebook. More importantly you have all the audio files that accompany the text book on the website.
Starting on page 7 of Unit 1 (page 19 of the pdf file) they talk about the Hungarian alphabet,
page 8 (pdf20), page 27 (pdf39), vowel pronunciation,
page 9 (pdf21) consonants groups: cs, gy, ly, ny, sz, ty, zs
For word order/syntax/position, look at pages 10 (pdf22), p33(pdf45), 72 (pdf84), 73 (pdf85), 118 (pdf130)
Another difficult aspect of pronunciation is word stress versus vowel length. In English we usually do both together making the stressed syllable loud AND long, but in Hungarian those are two separate things. You can see some English examples on this site: http://www.espindle.org/fun_facts.html
Anyone who has learned Spanish recognizes the importance of stress for words like potato/dad (papa/papá) and I speak/he she spoke (hablo/habló).
For Hungarian examples of stress look at page 49 of Unit 3 (pdf61).
The intonation (page 50/pdf62) is also important for understanding the main focus of sentences and questions in Hungarian. For example: JOHN is tired versus John is TIRED or Is JOHN tired? versus Is John TIRED? Listen to the intonation drill on page 58-60 (pdf70-72).
Hungarian alphabet:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=JwtwZTRDvYI
Szia Steve
Szia Györgyi
Sziasztok !
̩n vagyok РJohn (Walesi John)!
Walesi vagyok pedig Svà jcban lakom, Zurichben!
Közönöm szives fà radozà sà t.
Nagyon Közönöm !!!!
John
A quick note to thank you, Steve and Györgyi, for your excellent podcasts. I listened to lessons 1-6 before a recent trip to Budapest. Most of the Hungarians responded in English to my halting attempts at Hungarian, but they always appreciated a “jó napot” or a “köszönöm szépen” in their own language. I think they were surprised and delighted that someone knew even that much!
What I really liked about the podcasts was that it allowed me to have some understanding of what people were saying, even if I couldn’t respond very well. For example, I attended a production of “Az Operaház Fantomja” at the Madach Theatre. When I went to pick up my ticket, the woman at the box office couldn’t find it and had to call someone else to help her. I could understand that she was apologizing (bocsánat), that she couldn’t find the ticket (jegy), and that she knew I was a foreigner (külföldi). These few words picked out of the conversation really helped me get a grounding as to what was going on.
Finally, Györgyi had mentioned that men typically didn’t say “közsi.” I heard “közsi” used twice, both times by men. Just a fluke?
First of all, I’d like to say thank you for these wonderful podcasts! I’ve really enjoyed using them to learn the language.
I also just wanted to mention, for anyone who wants to supplement their learning, that a free, interactive Hungarian course is starting up at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/hungarian/. It seems like another good place to practice things learned in the podcasts, etc.
György & Steve,
First of all, thank you for this great podcast. My husband and I are about to move to Budapest at the end of August, and trying to learn a bit of the language in advance. We were wondering if you can suggest us a language school where we can learn Hungarian in Budapest. Also, we would like to know if saying “Mexikoi vagyok” is the proper form to say I’m Mexican?
All the best
Susana
Hello Steve and György,
Thank you so much for these podcasts. My girlfriend is Hungarian and I am Australian. I have been listening for a few weeks now and my Hungarian has improved dramatically. Thanks you for all your hard work, Its much appreciated!
Cheers
Kris
Jonathan – thanks for the excellent link to the Hungarian alphabet and as usual for the interesting information. I think you’re right about intonation and vowel length, but I was a little unclear about what your question was exactly…
John – nincs mit! Jól Ãrtád!
Katie – We’re really glad you found the material from the podcast useful on your trip. Thanks for the comment. As for “közsi,” I was surprised that Györgyi said that because I also seem to remember men saying it from time to time, although I think it does sound slightly feminine.
Evelyn – You’re welcome! And thanks for the Yahoo! group tip.
Susana – We’re glad you enjoy the podcast. As for language schools, it depends if you can spend the time and money to be a full time student or not. If you can, then the Balassi Bálint Institute might be the best choice. If you can only go to class a couple of times a week, there are lots of schools that offer Hungarian classes. Hungarian Language School and InterClub are two of the best known. Also I studied at Berlitz and they are excellent. I also highly recommend 2 or 4 weeks at the Debrecen Summer School. Yes, you are correct, “I’m Mexican” is “Mexikói vagyok.”
Kris – Thank you very much for the nice comment.
steven