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Speaking Hungarian

The Hungarian Language Program contains 31 hours of audio, and two textbooks in PDF file format with 623 pages.

The Hungarian Language Program has been written with the aim of providing the student with a firm control of the basic structure of the spoken language and a vocabulary adequate for him to make limited practical use of both the spoken and written ,language in his travels, work and social obligations. In addition, "'the course should provide the learner a sound background for further development of fluency and proficiency in Hungarian.

The materials in each of the two volumes of the text are contained in twelve lessons or units. Each unit includes a set of basic sentences that are intended for memorization. These are in the form of conversations or dialogs focused on specific situations in which a person might find himself in Hungary. Notes to the basic sentences are added occasionally to provide additional background information on some cultural feature unfamiliar to Americans, or to clarify some special difficulty in vocabulary or idiom. Notes on pronunciation are included in each of the first seven units. Sound, stress and intonation features which have been found to be particularly troublesome for American students are here presented with explanations and a series of practice drills. The notes on grammar in each unit concentrate on those structural features illustrated in the basic sentences which are considered appropriate for analysis at a given stage in the course. The section after the grammatical explanations in each lesson provides for systematic and detailed practice of the new features comprising a particular unit. Specifically, the substitution drills are designed for exercise in the manipulation of forms through substitution of specific items in fixed sentence patterns. This practice is intended to build habits of association, so that in a given syntactic environment the appropriate grammatical form automatically comes to mind. A common type of substitution drill used in the drill sections is the transformation drill, in which the pattern sentence is changed from one grammatical or lexical category to another. variation drills provide for the manipulation of larger syntactic patterns. In each group a model sentence, underscored, serves as a guide. Associated with it are additional sentences incorporating the same syntactic frame but in which most of the individual word items have been replaced. vocabulary drills provide practice in the use of new words and also allow for manipulation of sentence elements, the particular form and arrangement of which depends upon their association with that vocabulary item. The manipulation of all these drills as presented in the units is carried out generally with the use of English equivalents. Specific translation drills are also provided, however. In general these exercises supplement the material of the basic dialog in the form of a narrative. In this way they provide content review of the basic sentences and practice in the transformation from active dialog to descriptive narration. The response drills are question-and-answer-type exercises on the situations of the basic dialogs but are also designed to develop the student's ability to give realistic answers to appropriate real-life situations. Conversation practice and additional situations in outline bridge the gap to free conversation.

Drills are recorded first for listening, then for familiarization through repetition, and finally for participation. During the participation step, when the student performs the required manipulation, his utterances are confirmed on the audio immediately following the space provided for his participation.

Drills are generally in two groups in any unit: a) variation drills on pattern sentences, which provide opportunities for the student to develop flexibility in the use of patterns already memorized, and b) grammar drills, which are intended to provide practice for the student in the operation of the patterns explained in the immediately preceding grammar notes.

About the Hungarian Language

Hungarian belongs to the Finno-Ugric language family, a group that includes both Finnish and Estonian, as well as several other lesser known languages. Although established in Europe for over a thousand years and thus subjected to the influence of Indo-European and Turkic languages, Hungarian or "Magyar" as it is known in Hungarian, has retained its Finnish-Ugric characteristics.

Hungarian is spoken by approximately 16 million people around the world. In addition to the 10 million speakers residing in Hungary, another two million speakers live in Transylvania or western Romania, and another four million are scattered mainly around Europe, North America and Australia.