Pimsleur and Hungarian Study

In reference to my article from Friday, I have been studying the Hungarian language. I did this primarily after browsing through my local public library's on-line catalog under the topic of "Pimsleur" and, seeing a Basic Pimsleur being offered in Hungarian, decided to put it on hold and check it out. Why Pimsleur and why Hungarian?

It is very easy for me to find textbooks, phrasebooks, grammars, and dictionaries for foreign languages, both in bookstores and on the Internet (although strangely they are scarce in my library). I also have easy access to fluently spoken languages on the Net via its international radio and television programs. But what I am lacking is a gradual, step-by-step type of program that introduces me to the sounds and structure of an unfamiliar foreign language so that the part of my brain that processes audio can learn it. Pimsleur is completely audio-based (and inexpensive, compared with Rosetta Stone), so it seemed to be a good place to start. The lessons were presented in a programmed-teaching format, reinforcing concepts by continual review within the lessons as they progressed. As for Hungarian, this is a language of which I am pretty completely ignorant; it also bears little or no resemblance with any others (except for Finnish, Estonian, and a couple of minor languages in Asiatic Russia).

I followed the Pimsleur program and went through each lesson, one per day, until I had completed the final, tenth lesson, on this level (they provide higher levels,too). It worked for me as an introduction to Hungarian, enabling me to now be able to read unfamiliar Hungarian words and know how they are supposed to sound. I also learned some basic vocabulary and a smidgeon of grammar. But I'm not foolish enough to believe that I am have now mastered Hungarian with my ten lessons any more than humankind has mastered the moon just because they landed on it a few times.

I could spend some dough and go through the more advanced levels of Hungarian that Pimsleur offers (but which my library doesn't). But I think I know enough now that I recognize that the next steps to mastering Hungarian involve extensive reading, voracious vocabulary build-up, and practice in picking out familiar words and phrases from fluent speakers glinted from those radio and TV Internet stations.

I recommend Pimsleur as a good introduction to the sounds of another language and to get one's ears attuned to its flow. It's relatively cheap, and even cheaper if it is available at the public library! But I wouldn't harbor any delusions of attaining any degree of fluency just because I completed its program (or a part thereof).

Now I've been introduced to Hungarian. I bought the paperback textbook Teach Yourself Hungarian, which promises to greatly enrich my vocabulary for this pretty cool language. I have already watched television from Hungary on my computer and, yes, those casually fluent native Hungarian speakers all seem like superhuman geniuses to me. The experiment continues!