Learning Magyar (Hungarian)

June 1999

PassionFruit:

This is a difficult language for us. It has only three tenses, but each one comes in two flavors, definite and indefinite. These don't really correspond to any classifications in any other languages I've ever studied, so the distinctions, though critical, are pretty baffling.

Words are dauntingly long. Like German, whenever you have some sequence of words that describes something you think you might talk about more than once, you make it into a single word, like "the little white house down the street with the dog that barks a lot." Also they use declensions rather than prepositions, so you stick these extra endings on the ends of nouns to show that the noun belongs to you and you are going towards it, or that it is inside or far away.

But native speakers seem to have gotten pretty sick of these long words, because they shorten them again too. There's a phrase you're supposed to say whenever you meet a senior lady, "I kiss your hand." But people have shortened it to "I kiss" or just "kiss." And goodbye went from "Viszontlatasra" to "Viszlat".

Hungarian uses the same phrase for greeting people and for leaving them. So we hear people say "hello!" right before they hang up their cell phones all the time. And salespeople say "hello" to you as you leave their shops.

We have enrolled in a 2-week intensive Hungarian class that starts in 2 weeks. It is taught exclusively in Hungarian.

I.:

Hungarian has 168 suffixes. Our intensive language class (which lasts 2 weeks and 3 days) has covered about 15 in a week. Yoiks. I can now construct many simple sentences: Én amerikai vagyok és én újsagirovagyok. Most itt Magyarorszag és Budapesten magyarul tanulok. (I'm American and and I am a journalist. Now I am in Hungary and I study Hungarian in Budapest.). Not too shabby eh? Now if I could only understand more...

When ever we say anything to a stranger and say it properly, they decide that we can speak Hungarian and they just bombard us with a flood of the language. My ear can not pick it up that fast. Also, I can recognize many of the root words, but not the suffix attached to them. So I might now that the sentence is about an apple, but I wouldn't know if it was about something on, in near, around, with or without apple

We started our language class, but no one can agree on how long it is supposed to last. Our receipt from the school says two weeks, but the teacher says her log shows 3 weeks and some students signed up for a 4-week course. Ah, Eastern Europe! The class is a real motley crew. We are the only Americans (surprising). There are 2 Canadians, 2 Russians, 1 Italian student, 1 woman from Taiwan and a few former Yugoslavs (Bosnian, Croatian and Slavs all in one room).

The war really has had an impact on the immigration patterns here. People seemed concerned at just how many Bosnians and Croats have moved here.

Anyway, the class should help, especially with pronunciation. Words like Gyongyos are not coming easy. It would help if we had our books and tapes, but they won't be ready for a week, so for now we struggle. By the way, for the uninitiated, gy is supposed to sound like du in during and oe is like the German oe and s is sh... so we get something like djoendjoesh. You try that 10 times and see if your mouth forgives you.