enI keep learning Hungarian 4.5 months after having started. So far, so good. It started as a game: I'll download this app, study these few words and the lockdown may stop feeling so disheartening. Well, it worked. And I continue learning.
It hasn't stopped being sort of a game. I do follow a textbook, FSI's 2 volume course. Modern courses are outrageously expensive. But I also deviate from the course very often. I've only completed 6 lessons out of 24 because they don't engage me enough to go through the learning material quicker and because I don't want to "feel" I am studying. However, I do appreciate their value and I go back to the drills every time I lack focus. Also, I regularly go through the same lessons so they really stick.
What have I been doing since I posted my update on Hungarian last July? Where am I? Let's see.
GRAMMAR
I took a deep breath and dived into it. In particular, I studied and practised negated sentences, the 9 locative noun cases and some verb conjugations (present determinate, future and past tenses). I can't say I master them, but I do have some experience with them. I also played around with conditional conjugations, other modal verbs and possession, but I wouldn't say I know their rules yet.
I use a couple grammar books. Usually, I read one of them and try to understand what it says. I then make my own synthesis and practise the lesson. A few days afterwards I read about it in the second grammar book to reinforce my knowledge and fill in the gaps.
VOCABULARY
I first learnt short sentences and expressions to help me open conversations and comment on everyday topics. Sentences like "Kérem ismetelje meg", "Nemsokára itt van szombat", "Nos, mondja", "A vélemenyem szerint..." or "Mi a faszomat csinálsz?". That gave me a patina of (false) fluency.
Lately, I've been taking a different approach. Since I now know better grammar, I don't need to rely so much on pre-cooked chunks because I can create my own. It isn't proving as simple as that but that was my thought anyway. So I am now learning larger lists of short words. And I love the fact that Hungarian vocabulary seems very logical and that the most basic words are usually very short. I hope I can recognise many more by learning them.
READING
It still feels bloody hard. I managed to read three graded short stories. I will go back to it once my vocabulary improves a little. Because of my recent acquisition of large amounts of short words and the logic behind the language, I hope to recognise word formation patterns. My partner got me some novels but there's no way I can read them yet.
WRITING
I use Lang-8 every ten days or so. Although I make many mistakes, the message go through. Corrections helpsm me understand how to build sentences and how the word order affects their meaning.
LISTENING
I found a YouTube channel with hours of listening practice for beginners. Check this out as an example:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kmj6R2kBofQListening is also hard. I go through the videos in the channel as many times as I need to understand what's going on. Hungarians speak fast in YouTube, faster than face to face if you ask me, so I watch the videos at a reduced x0,75 speed. It usually does the trick.
PHONOLOGY
I brushed it up. Until a few weeks ago I mispronounced a few sounds (ly, sibilants before hard consonants).
SPEAKING
I am in the need for a speaking partner. I sometimes talk to my boyfriend but he wants to talk to me and not to my Hungariar-learner-me. Sometimes it goes well. Two days ago I had a good day and managed to hold a simple Hungarian conversation for some time. Yesterday, however, I couldn't distinguish between "unott" (bored) and "unalmas" (boring) and my boyfriend lost patience and switched to English. I don't want to drive him mad so I'll need to find a language partner. A couple of his friends are more patient with me because we never developed a relationship in English, but I don't see them often.
huA múlt héten volt egy problémám. Szabadságon voltam, mert a csadálomat meg akartom látogatni Spanyolországban. Az időjarás nem minden nap jó, de a szabadság nagyon szép. Az étel kítűnő, az emberek boldogok, és én nagyon elégedett voltam. Szükségem volt a barátoimmal és a családdal időre tölteni.
Londonban élek. Visszaérkezém után az első nap itt volt egy problémam. Nem volt hideg víz. Nos, nincs normális vízvezeték az lákasamban. Vezetékes víz helyett, a hazatetőn van kettő ciszterna vízzel. Egyik az enyém, és a másik a szomszédé. Mindkettő a lákasokat béreljük. A probléma nagy, mert fürödni nem tudtam. A fogokat mosni sem. A ciszternám nem működött, és a víz a lákasban forró volt, mert a hideg víz a ciszternában elfogyott.
A háziúr nem volt Londonban. Tehát, kellet valamit csinálni. A "tubus" a zuhanyról kaptam. A tubussal a vizet a ciszternából a szomsédé adtam, és a ciszternámba változtam. Nem túl, csak elég. Úgy tudtam a problémát rendez. Három nap múlva a háziúr a ciszternám rendezte.