Let's Learn Hungarian!

Fun lessons with Steve and Györgyi

  • Audio lessons
  • Learning resources
  • Premium materials
  • About us
  • Contact us
  • Policies
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
You are here: Home / Archives for language learning

Movie dialogue: “Csocsó, avagy éljen május 1-je!”

May 1, 2017 By Let's Learn Hungarian!

Happy May 1 everyone! Today is a public holiday here in Hungary, and to celebrate, we’re going to show you two short clips from the 2001 Hungarian comedy, “Csocsó, avagy éljen május 1-je!” (“Csocsó, or Long Live May 1!”). The movie can be viewed in its entirety here.

Gusztáv “Csocsó” Csomai, played by Róbert Koltai in the type of nutty comedic role that he always excels at, is a fun-loving Russian teacher (who doesn’t actually know much Russian) in 1952 Hungary.

Watch the following two clips and see if you can answer the questions that relate to the dialogue. The answers to the questions, a transcript of the dialogue and English translation are all below.

Also, leave a comment below if you have any questions for us about this, or anything else to share!

Clip 1:

Csocsó, who is nursing a bad hangover after carousing last night, has been summoned by the boss and has a short conversation with Ági, the secretary. Csocsó is coaching the local soccer team, and Ági asks him a question about it.

Questions:
1. Why does the boss want to talk to Csocsó?
2. What does the secretary want to know from Csocsó?
3. How does Csocsó respond to her?

Clip 2:

The meeting with the boss does not go well (Csocsó walks in asking for a beer), and Gubinyi (Sándor Gáspár) from the ÁVH secret police force asks Csocsó a serious question.

Questions:
1. What does Gubinyi ask Csocsó?
2. What does Csocsó say?

[Read more…]

Filed Under: movies Tagged With: dialogue, language learning

Advanced Lesson 1 – Magyarország és a magyarok

December 5, 2014 By Let's Learn Hungarian!

With this installment of the podcast, we bring you our first Advanced Lesson! In this lesson, Györgyi talks about Hungary, and tells you a little about the people who live there, all in Hungarian. Don’t worry, we also have the English translation in our lesson notes.

Using this material:
Try to repeat everything she says, even if you don’t understand everything completely. One useful technique to try (as we discuss in the podcast) is called shadowing. You can see one proponent of shadowing, Dr. Alexander Arguelles, in this video.

What do you think of our first advanced lesson? Leave us a comment below telling us, and thanks for listening!

Music: Nomada, “Aven le Roma.” Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Hungary License. Available at remix.creativecommons.hu.

The PDF file below contains the written transcript in both Hungarian and English, and the MP3 file has the audio for Advanced Lesson 1. Download both of them below, or subscribe on iTunes.

Advanced Lesson 1 notes (PDF)

http://media.blubrry.com/letslearnhungarian/p/www.letslearnhungarian.net/podcast/advancedlesson1.mp3

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Filed Under: Podcast Tagged With: advanced lesson, Hungarian, Hungary, language learning, learning, magyar, magyarul, tanulás

Watch: the movie “Moszkva tér”

November 20, 2014 By Let's Learn Hungarian!

In the last podcast, Györgyi gave an enthusiastic recommendation for the 2001 Hungarian film “Moszkva tér” (Moscow Square), which is set in Budapest in 1989 and gives a retro look back at the city at that time.

The city, of course, has changed so much since then. As we mentioned in the podcast, even Moszkva tér itself is now called Széll Kálmán tér.

The entire film is online, alas without English subtitles, but still it’s a good way of getting a feel of the Hungarian language. See how much you can understand!
 

Filed Under: Other Tagged With: Hungarian, Hungarian film, language learning, moszkva ter

Hungarian idiom of the week: szedd a lábad

November 18, 2014 By Let's Learn Hungarian!

For this week, I’ve chosen another fairly common idiom:

move your feet

szedd a lábad! (get moving)

It’s in informal Hungarian speech, and we use it to motivate somebody to get up and get moving!

Usage:

Siessünk, szedd a lábad! – Hurry up, get moving!

 Try it out on someone you’d like to motivate into action!

Filed Under: language learning Tagged With: Hungarian, idiom, language learning, szedd a labad

A note to our dear Hungarian listeners…

May 12, 2008 By Let's Learn Hungarian!

Today I noticed a post about language learning podcasts in the Hungarian site Webisztán. It was basically about how many free language learning podcasts are available, and the author’s desire to continue learning Italian through podcasts.

But in the comments section we were obliquely referenced.  The first comment was innocuous enough:

grabog 2008.05.11. 20:18:11
Belehallgattam a magyarba. Hát, érdekes. 🙂
(I listened to the Hungarian. Interesting.)

But the next comment also caught my eye:

richard4tus 2008.05.12. 04:37:56
ezt a podcastot már én is próbáltam, de eltántorított az elképesztő angol akcentus…
(I also tried this podcast, but the horrid English accent sent me reeling.)

Apparently he means me and my accent in Hungarian.

First of all, I apologize for butchering the Hungarian language. I probably do have a strong accent. Györgyi’s used to it by now, but I imagine that other native speakers might not be so impressed.

Second, it should go without saying, but it’s worth stating openly:  DO NOT IMITATE MY SPEECH PATTERNS.  Györgyi is the native speaker, and you should repeat after what she says ONLY. I’m only here so that she doesn’t sound lonely speaking by herself, and because a dialogue needs at least two people. 

If there was another Hungarian speaker near us, we would gladly co-opt that person into our podcast and get me out of the way.  Hopefully we’ll be able to get another native speaker on soon so you can hear two native speakers talking and imitate their speech patterns properly.  Until we can do that, I ask for the native speakers’ understanding and tolerance with my tört magyar!

—steven

Filed Under: Other Tagged With: Hungarian, Hungary, language learning, magyar, tanulás

  • 1
  • 2
  • Next Page »

Newsletter Subscription

Subscribe to our newsletter!

Privacy Policy

Recent Posts

  • Beginning Hungarian – mystery business
  • Reader question: “két” or “kettő?”
  • Hungarian shopping: What kind of cookie is this?
  • Spice up your cell phone with these Hungarian language messages!
  • Beginning Hungarian: “Kérjük csengessenek!”

Copyright © 2021 · LetsLearnHungarian.net

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.Accept Read More
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled

Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.

Non-necessary

Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.