Buda Baby: Language

Student Life

Tue, 15 May 2007 17:49:27 GMT

If it seems like I am writing about my language class a lot lately it is because it is fairly all-absorbing. I've even been dreaming in Hungarian this week, dreams of doing my homework! I also dreamed that I went on a tour of the Everglades, and the tour guide was none other than the Hungarian Prime Minister.

I run into people - foreigners - in Budapest from time to time who speak perfect Hungarian. Some are Americans who came to Hungary to study, and decided to stay by hook or by crook. Some came here from other European countries to start a business. Some are from far off places, like India, the Philippines, or China. I even know an American who has corrected Zoli's "rusty Hungarian!" So, I have some hope that I will be able to do speak this crazy language too.

Still, it is daunting. Hungarian is related to Finnish and to Estonian, so familiarity with Germanic or Romance languages offers no help. Vowels have accents and dots and double accents and double dots over them. "Cs" is a letter, as are "Gy," "Sz, "Dz," "Dzs," "Ty," and "Zs." There are proper names like Gergely that have no known equivalent anywhere else in the world. And the grammar... you can tack on all kinds of suffixes and make compound words and whatnot, so words can become dozens of letters long. There is a word in Hungarian that has more than 200 letters! I'm not going to type it here.

I have to mention something about my "dull" teacher whom I talked about yesterday. She is not only dull, but she can also be rather rude. For example, if we are practicing something in class and someone says that they don't understand, she shrieks "What do you mean you don't understand? It is there in the book!" Then she will keep saying "It is there! It is there!" until the student crumples in defeat. But today, she really shocked me. We learned two ways to ask about time: Hány óra van? (What time is it?) and Mikor? Hány órakor? (When? At what time?) Depending on the way the question is phrased, you need to use different grammar to answer. To answer hány óra van, you could say nyolc óra van. To answer mikor or hány órakor, you could say nyolckor. I asked the question whether you needed to add van to answer mikor, like nyolckor van. Evidently this pissed of Miss Freaky-Freak, because she shrilly said to me, whacking the whiteboard with her hand, "Do you see it there?" Uh, no... that's why I am asking, and thanks for being rude! I know it was confusing to others as well, because I could understand the Swiss and German women conversing about it too.

Tomorrow we have the jó tanár, or the good teacher. Today we had the rossz tanár, or bad teacher. It makes a huge difference!

Hungarian Class

Mon, 14 May 2007 17:46:07 GMT

Whew! I now have one week and one day of Hungarian lessons under my belt, with 14 more to go. The intensive class that I am taking meets for three-and-a-quarter hours per week day, and my mind is really being stretched. I feel I am doing "ok" in the class, though I would like to have a better understanding of what I am doing. I get a lot of things right, but each answer feels like a guess.

I am really glad that I am taking an intensive class, though. Before I signed up, I was considering hiring a private teacher. I found one online who seems to have a fun approach; she holds her lessons in cafes, in markets, etc. so it seems like you learn Hungarian from a more practical perspective.

My class is practical in that we are learning things like how to buy foods at a market, and how to answer questions such as "what district do you live in," and how to describe how we get home from class (e.g., I go home on the bus). However, we are also expending a lot of brainpower learning grammar, spelling, and sentence structure. The experience so far is humbling, frustrating, and exhausting, but I also leave each class and complete each homework assignment with a real sense of accomplishment.

We have two instructors who switch days. One of the teachers, Alica (pronounced uh-leets-suh), is great. She speaks almost no English in class, and rather uses her innate sense of drama to teach us new words and grammar. Her classes are both entertaining and highly interactive, and she has lots of creative exercises to help us out. The other teacher is a bit dull by comparison, teaching much more by the book. I also think Alica is much better at gauging how well the different students understand something, not moving on until we all have the hang of it.

I am the only person in our class who speaks just one language. Other people know Spanish, English, German, Swiss German, French, Italian, Japanese, Russian, and a little Korean. If I have one educational regret, it is not learning a language when I was young. Latin does not count (but it has proved helpful from time to time).

Back to School

Tue, 08 May 2007 05:48:33 GMT

You know how Garfield the Cat doesn't do Mondays? Well, I don't do mornings, at least not very well. So what I am doing up this early getting ready to go to an intensive Hungarian class is anyone's guess. For the next four weeks, I will be spending the first three plus hours of my day trying to learn this crazy language. That is, if I can keep my eyes open!

Wordplay

Thu, 22 Feb 2007 09:58:20 GMT

He's Doing What?!?!

Yes, I have the sense of humor of a 12-year-old boy. Last night Zoli and I were in the hypermarket and I was in the aisle with the soaps and body gels and started cracking up as I remembered something I heard in Vienna. We were all sitting around the table waiting for Chris to join us, and his mom asked where Chris was. His brother answered, "Douching." Luckily I knew that this meant showering/washing himself, otherwise I would have wondered at this physiological trick! (Chris, are you feeling "not so fresh?")

I Think She's Turning Japanese, I Think She's Turning Japanese, I Really Think So

Growing up, my mom and others on her side of the family would say "ah-so" to mean "I understand" or similar. I always thought they were imitating Japanese people, and would mentally imagine an elderly Japanese man bowing his head, saying "ah-so!" in a burst of enlightenment.

I was jarred back to my childhood by Chris's mom, who says "ah-so" a LOT. It turns out this is a German word, which would explain why my German side of the family all said it! Live and learn...

They Feed the Kid Mice?!?!

The family and its visitors are sitting around the table eating lunch. It is cloudy outside, and the dining room is dimly lit, but it is cozy inside. Conversation is steady and animated. Somewhat out of the blue, Gertrude says:

GERTRUDE: Kiara (sp?) [Her granddaugher, sitting in her high chair across the table] loves eating mice.

MOLLY: [Swallowing a little bit of throw-up, sputtering] WHAT?!?!

CHRIS: CORN!

ZOLI: Oh!!! Mais! Not mice!

FAMILY: [In unison] Mais! Mice! Mais! Ha! Ha! Ha!