The structure of a Hungarian course
I introduce Hungarian courses with the individualities of the language (agglutinating, i.e. several suffixes are "stuck together").
Then we pronounce the Hungarian sounds. We do phonetic exercises and listen to texts on CDs, which we discuss and solve the corresponding tasks.
It is impossible to imagine a Hungarian course without intonation and vocal harmony practice.
For the speaker to find his way around it is important that we distinguish between polite and informal language (magázás and tegezés).
Users of Indo-European languages find the use of the accusative case difficult, because it is missing from English, for example, and is accomplished in German with the declination of the nomina (whereby only the masculine has an extra accusative case). The accusative also needs to be practiced in relation to persons.
The genitive is also difficult (there are four suffixes), place and time determinations are also formed with suffixes.
I start almost every session with phonetic exercises and / or with a spontaneous conversation (where do you come from, what's new).
Sometimes I give up a short essay so that the learner gets the right questions.
We vary the tenses regularly.
Then you can start the exercise of self-expression: Picture descriptions are required.
Those who attend the Hungarian course as preparation for a language exam should practice listening comprehension; we test the understanding of a text from CD or from reading.
Larger grammatical units are concluded with summaries or tests.
In the Intermediate level, the next steps are the irregular cases of conjugation, and difficult sections, such as the continuation of the verb modes, e.g. the conjunction in the imperative, the subjunctive, the past tense of all, the looping of the indefinite and certain conjugation until safe handling.
Then we expand the vocabulary with dialogues from the professional everyday life and more regional studies.
We play telephone conversations and write a formally correct letter.
The modifying role of the prefixes can lead to misunderstandings. For German and English native speakers, however, this is not a problem since the use of prefixes is similar.
The vocabulary can be deepened at this point with the transferred meanings of the words (e.g. valaki kiborul), as well as with phrases (e.g. beadja a kulcsot) and slang.
When translating literary works and films, Hungarian translators come up with a lot - without these extras, most readings would sound boring to Hungarian ears. Countless linguistic twists have their origins in film translations.
In the advanced section of my courses I have many newspaper articles read and their content told. Deeper urban and regional studies, cultural knowledge and expressions of the people's mentality round off the Hungarian course.
What is our course?
Where do we go? The word course is from the Latin cursus, which means 'the run, the track'. At the first meeting we declare goals, which give the course a direction. There are two basic reasons why students choose a Hungarian course:
1) They want to get to know the culture better, are enthusiastic language learners and/or need the language privately.
2. They work in Hungary and need the language in your daily work.
I often get to hear: "I do understand a lot... only I can't react to it." Authentic speakers not only speak too fast, they tend also to neglect clear articulation. In order to avoid misunderstandings, to choose the right tone, one should play through the standard themes of the book in as many different ways as possible, with as many types of interaction as possible, especially with the different variants of the questions.
Special vocabulary in business or technical language courses should only be built on solid foundations - at least intermediate knowledge. This is usually accompanied by a considerable increase in vocabulary and phraseology.
After learning the grammar and a vocabulary of about 1000 words, one should definitely get to know the means of linguistic economy. Phraseology is the royal discipline of language learning. Phraseologies - or idioms - are word bindings based on comparisons. Many phraseologies (or idioms) are typical for the whole culture, but there are also national ones. The use of these images, which are still understandable today, awakens the feeling of our counterpart that we know his culture - which creates congeniality.
