Let’s Learn Hungarian!

Survival Lesson 2 is here! Our survival lessons are designed for short-term visitors to Hungary to help them get around with basic phrases while in the country. Györgyi has left for Hungary and I’m currently in the US, so unfortunately this lesson is just me! The good news is, once Györgyi and I are reunited, we’ll redo this survival lesson together and I’ll erase the solo one from the server, so only the one with both of us will remain. Györgyi and I will also continue our regular lesson format once we meet up again in late September.

Please let us know what you think of the survival lessons and give us an idea of what you would like to see in the next one. As always, we welcome your feedback in general and questions about the Hungarian language. Just leave a comment anywhere on http://www.letslearnhungarian.net and we’ll be sure to get it.

Music: Curtis Maranda, “Crystal Night.” Thanks once again to Curtis for again allowing us to use his music on the podcast. Please check out more about Curtis by going to: http://www.curtismaranda.com/

Download Survival Lesson 2 here (MP3 audio, 10:45)

Vocabulary for Survival Lesson 2 (formal speech):

Duna - the Danube (river)

Hol van a Duna? - Where’s the Danube?

jobbra - to the right

balra - to the left

Kérek szépen… - I would like…

Kérek szépen egy kávét tejjel. - I would like coffee with milk.

Kérek szépen egy teát tejjel. - I would like tea with milk.

Kérek szépen egy teát cukorral. - I would like tea with sugar.

Kérek szépen egy szénsavas ásványvizet. - I would like mineral water with gas.

Kérek szépen egy szénsavmentes ásványvizet. - I would like mineral water without gas.

Fizetni szeretnék. - I’d like to pay.

Kérem, segítsen! - Please help me!

Nem beszélek magyarul. - I don’t speak Hungarian.

Csak egy kicsit tudok magyarul. - I only know a little Hungarian.

Nem értek magyarul. - I don’t understand Hungarian.

Beszél angolul? - Do you speak English?

Beszél németül? - Do you speak German?

egy - one

kettő - two

három - three

négy - four

öt - five

hat - six

hét - seven

nyolc - eight

kilenc - nine

tíz - ten

Sziasztok!

Thanks for all of the recent feedback we’ve gotten from so many of you. Györgyi and I love to read your comments and hear how you are using the language and enjoying the podcast. It’s also very motivating for us, so please keep it up! I apologize for not responding to your comments and emails lately, but we’ve been real busy with our upcoming move back to Hungary. Györgyi has already moved back, and I’ll go myself in September.

As for the podcast, I was hoping to get one more with Györgyi done before she left, but it didn’t work out. I would like to continue the podcast though, so perhaps I’ll do a few survival lessons solo until I see her again.

Well thanks for listening everyone, and again if you have anything to say, we’d love to hear it.

Minden jót,
Steven

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.”  Find out more about Mookie and his excellent band by going to http://www.mookiebrando.com/ Thanks so much to Mookie and his Cousins for allowing us to use their music on the podcast.

Download Lesson 10 here (MP3 audio, 30:00)

Dialogue for Lesson 10 (informal speech):

Györgyi:  Szia, én vagyok.

Steven:  Szia, minden rendben?

Györgyi: Hát, nem, sajnos.  Baj van.  Nem megy a kocsi.

Steven:  Nem megy a kocsi?  Jól vagy?

Györgyi: Igen, jól vagyok.  De a kocsi nem működik.

Steven:  Hol vagy most?

Györgyi: Az úton.  Vagyis, a sztrádán.

Steven:  A sztrádán?  Hűha.

Györgyi: Légyszi, segíts!

Steven:  Jó… na, most meg a mobil nem működik.  Lemerült.

Dialogue for Lesson 10 (English translation):

Györgyi:  Hey, it’s me.

Steven:  Hi, is everything ok?

Györgyi: Well, no, unfortunately.  There’s a problem.  The car isn’t moving.

Steven:  The car isn’t moving?  Are you ok?

Györgyi: Yeah, I’m fine.  But the car isn’t working.

Steven:  Where are you now?

Györgyi: On the road.  That is, the expressway.

Steven:  On the expressway?  Oh boy.

Györgyi: Help me, please?

Steven:  All right… uh oh, now the cell phone doesn’t work.  The battery’s dead.

Vocabulary for Lesson 10:

walesi - Welsh

Walesi vagyok. - I’m Welsh.

én vagyok - it’s me

baj - problem

Baj van. - There’s a problem.

megy - going, moving

nem megy - not going, not moving

működik - working

nem működik - not working

út - road

az úton - on the road

vagyis - that is…, I mean…

sztráda - expressway, highway

a sztrádán - on the expressway

hűha - oh boy!

légyszi - please (informal)

segíts - help me! (informal)

Legyen szíves, segítsen! - Help me, please! (formal)

Kérem, segítsen! - Help me, please! (formal)

mobil, mobiltelefon - mobile phone, cell phone

lemerült - the battery’s dead

Csináljak egy képet rólad? - Shall I take a photo of you? (informal, said to one person only)

Hello all,

The next lesson is being prepared and will be out in a few days. Until then, enjoy this lovely song by the Hungarian rock band Kimnowak, “Gyémánt” (”Diamond”). It’s been played to death on Hungarian radio, but still I find it haunting and tender. Lead singer Péter Novák is the key to the song’s beauty.

We’re getting into the action on Twitter a little late, but hey, “jobb későn, mint soha.”  (I should check with Györgyi as to whether that’s an actual Hungarian expression or not.)

We’ve just set up a new Twitter account of our own, which we’d like to update regularly with posts in English and Hungarian, plus a “Word of the Day” feature that I’d like to update everyday that I have access to a PC and Internet connection.

We’re actually in the process of moving over here at Let’s Learn Hungarian HQ and the Internet will be turned off in a few weeks, so this really isn’t the best time to start doing this.  Still, I’ll keep it up for as long as I can, then resume when I have net access again.

If you’ve got a Twitter account, feel free to follow us and ask questions about the language or Hungary.  We’ll do our best to answer.

Steven

p.s. We hope to have a new lesson out this week!

Hi folks,

I’ve finally finished Arthur Phillips’ excellent novel about expatriates in Budapest, the oddly-titled Prague (2002), and recommend it to everyone who loves Budapest, or just loves great prose and a well-told story. Prague follows five young expatriates who move to Budapest in 1990 for various reasons and discover themselves through their relationships with each other and with a newly-democratized Hungary. It sounds like a well-trod literary path, but Phillips gives it a fresh spin with crisp, insightful writing.

Phillips himself lived in Budapest for a few years in the early ’90s, and his love for the city shows. In fact, I think that he romanticizes the capital so much that he makes it out to be more funky and bohemian than it really deserves, while mostly ignoring the difficult aspects of living in an immediate post-Communist society. But since one of the book’s major themes appears to be nostalgia and how we remember the past (the obsession of one character in particular) perhaps this positive glow of Hungary circa 1990 was slyly intentional on Phillips’ part.

I found the stories and characters inhabiting this book familiar to me as an 1990s expatriate in Budapest myself, although I arrived to the city a few years after Phillips did. And more than just a story about expatriates, the book’s standout section describes the past 150 years of Hungarian history through a clever and fascinating tale of one family over several generations. I also found his observations about Hungarians and the “national character” to be pretty close to the mark (and so did Györgyi, surprisingly).

Well, if you’ve read Prague, please leave us your thoughts here. Our next book review will be another Hungarian-related novel, but this time by a Brazilian! To be continued…

steven

We introduce a new format to our podcast this time - the Survival Lesson! It’s designed for short-term visitors to Hungary to help them manage while in the country. We hope you like this format, which will be offered occasionally throughout the summer. The next lesson will continue with Lesson 10 in the regular format that we’ve used until now. Enjoy!

Please let us know what you think of the survival lessons and give us an idea of what you would like to see in the next one. As always, we welcome your feedback in general and questions about the Hungarian language.

Music: Curtis Maranda, “Playtime.” Thanks to Curtis for again allowing us to use his music on the podcast. You can find out more about Curtis by going to http://www.curtismaranda.com/

Download Survival Lesson 1 here (MP3 audio, 17:48)

Vocabulary for Survival Lesson 1 (informal speech):

Jó reggelt - Good morning

Jó napot - Good afternoon

Jó estét - Good evening

Jó éjszakat - Good night

Köszönöm - Thank you

Köszönöm szépen - Thank you very much

Bocsánat - Excuse me

Ezt, kérem. - I would like this.

Egészségedre! - Cheers!

Segítség! - Help!

tolvaj - thief

Hol van a…? - Where’s the…?

Hol van a WC? - Where’s the toilet?

Hagyj békén! - Leave me alone!

Viszontlátásra! - Goodbye!

Viszlát! - Bye!

Lesson 9 introduces a new native speaker to our podcast - Milán! Milán has a great voice for podcasting and we’re really pleased to have his assistance for this lesson. Hopefully we’ll have him on the podcast again and get the chance to know him a bit more.

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!

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

Download Lesson 9 here (MP3 audio, 29:21)

Dialogue for Lesson 9 (informal speech):

Jennifer: De jó ez a kép!

Balázs: Igen. Az Szentendre.

Jennifer: Szentendre? Hol van Szentendre?

Balázs: Nincs messze. Innen harminc kilóméter.

Jennifer: Hmmmm, következő kép… Ki ő?

Balázs: Ő? Csak egy barát.

Jennifer: Nem inkább egy barátnő??!?!??!

Balázs: Uhhhhhhh……..

Dialogue for Lesson 9 (English translation):

Jennifer: What a great picture!

Balázs: Yes, that’s Szentendre.

Jennifer: Szentendre? Where’s Szentendre?

Balázs: It’s not far. Thirty kilometers from here.

Jennifer: Hmmmm, next picture… Who’s she?

Balázs: Her? Just a friend.

Jennifer: Don’t you mean a girlfriend??!?!??!

Balázs: Uhhhhhhh……..

Vocabulary for Lesson 9:

Hogy hívnak? - What’s your name? (informal)

Honnan jöttél? - Where are you from? (informal)

Budapestről jöttem. - I’m from Budapest.

Amerikából jöttem. - I’m from America.

svéd - Swedish

Svéd vagyok. - I’m Swedish.

tizenhárom - thirteen

tizennégy - fourteen

tizenöt - fifteen

De jó… - What a great…, What a nice…

De jó! - How great! How wonderful!

kép - picture

Szentendre - small town on the Danube north of Budapest

hol - where

Hol van… - Where is…?

Hol van a WC? - Where’s the toilet?

messze - far

Nincs messze. - It’s not far.

Messze van. - It’s far.

innen - from here

harminc - thirty

kilóméter - kilometer, kilometers

kétezer - two thousand

háromezer - three thousand

négyezer - four thousand

ötezer - five thousand

hatezer - six thousand

következő - next

ki - who

ő - he, she

barát - friend, boyfriend

Ő a barátom. - He’s my boyfriend.

inkább - rather, instead (of)

barátnő - girlfriend

lelkes tanuló - avid learner

Indiai vagyok. - I’m Indian.

Örülök, hogy találkoztunk. - Nice to meet you.

Szeretjük a lányotokat. - We love your daughter. (informal)

Szeretjük a lányukat. - We love your daughter. (formal)

Szép szemed van. - You have nice eyes. (informal)

Szexis szemed van. - You have sexy eyes. (Sounds a little ridiculous!)

Hajrá! - Do your best! Good luck!

Funny phrase of the week:

Darázs fészek, darázs fészek, de nem is ember, aki nem részeg!

Wasp’s nest, wasp’s nest, but you’re not a person unless you’re drunk!

!!SPECIAL CONTEST!!

What do these four words mean? How are they connected? Write us if you think you know!

“Duna, Tisza, Dráva, Száva”

Thanks for listening!!

Ok, I’ll admit it - I like Speak. It’s easy to laugh at the guy and his 2003 song that became a YouTube sensation, “Stop the War,” but I respect anybody who’s earnest and authentic, and he definitely comes off as that.

Uncle Drew of the excellent Budacast podcast tracked down the elusive Speak (otherwise known as Tamás Deák) and interviewed the man himself for CBC Radio’s “Search Engine” show. Link here.

And if you’re one of the few who hasn’t yet seen the most awesome video for “Stop the War” (or can’t wait to see it again), we present it here:

p.s. NEW HUNGARIAN LESSON OUT IN A FEW DAYS! (Sorry for the delay, folks… )

If you didn’t already know, last.fm has a quite a large selection of Hungarian music, which plays on your PC in an apparent random order, mixing musical genres and styles. And if you don’t like a particular song, just a click will bring up the next song in line.

The thing I like best about last.fm is that they offer some information about each musical artist they play and how to find out more about them. Actually, I’ve mostly stopped listening to online internet radio since discovering last.fm.

Enjoy!

Link to the Hungarian channel.