Hungarize

10 simple ideas that you can easily build into your daily practice

In our previous blog post (you can read it here) we have shown you 5+1 tips on building a habit. We highlighted that daily learning does not necessarily have to mean language lessons and worksheets; the point is to do something, anything with the language as often as possible.

Now we would like to give you some simple ideas that you can easily build into your daily practice.

Try to think in Hungarian; at the beginning of the day try to think about your to do list in Hungarian (Ma délután 5-kor fogorvoshoz megyek.), or at the end of the day, summarize what you did that day (Ma fogorvosnál voltam. Nem is volt nagyon rossz. Csak egy kicsi drága volt.).

Try narrating what you are doing (Nincs itthon tej. Elmegyek a boltba és veszek tejet.) or what you are seeing (Ott sétál egy kutya! Nagyon cuki!).

If you like journaling, write your daily journal entry (or a part of it) in Hungarian.

Designate a movie-night once a week when you watch films in Hungarian with English subtitles, or if you are at a more advanced level, in Hungarian with Hungarian subtitles.

Listen to Hungarian songs and read their lyrics or find a karaoke version – you can also try to sing along. 🙂 Check the meaning of some words and expressions that have caught your attention.

If you live in Hugnary, keep your eyes open on the streets: read the advertisements (A legkisebb is számít – Tesco), signs (Napi ajánlat: tyúkhúsleves 500.-), etc.

Keep your ears open on the streets: listen to announcements (A következő megálló: Kálvin tér), how people address each other (Elnézést, szabad ez a hely?).

Watch videos about your topics of interest in Hungarian: do you like cooking? Watch cooking videos in Hungarian. Do you do yoga? Find Hungarian yoga videos.

Take advantage of each and every opportunity to interact with natives, whether in person or in a message. What you CAN say in Hungarian, DO say it in Hungarian. Even if it is just the word “Elnézést.”

10.

Find resources that motivate you and use them regularly. You can find a collection of resources for learning Hungarian here: https://padlet.com/hungarize/Resources

In our Daily Dose of Hungarian project we provide daily practice opportunities in small, digestible doses. Just open the Patreon app on your phone and see what we have for you today. 🙂

Daily Dose of Hungarian

5+1 tips to make learning Hungarian a habit

🇬🇧 Do you ever feel that you will never learn Hungarian? Or that your progress is painfully slow? Or that you are stuck? Or that although you would really like to speak Hungarian, you just feel it’s a pain in the neck?

Try making learning Hungarian a daily habit.

Why? Habits drive our behaviour in powerful ways. You never have to gather the motivation to brush your teeth before going to bed: it’s a habit which means it’s automatic. When you build language practice into your habits, you automate your learning without much effort.

In the first part of our article series about making language learning a habit we will give you 5+1 tips on building habits.

Set realistic goals

This one is the most important advice in habit formation. If you set unrealistic goals that you cannot achieve, you will become demotivated. On the other hand, setting realistic goals that you can achieve every day will boost your motivation. So instead of saying “I will work on Hungarian every day for at least an hour”, say “I will spend at least 10 minutes with Hungarian every day”.

If you would like to get 50 simple, 10-15-minute task ideas you can easily build into your daily routine, join our 7-day skills development challenge:

Join the 7-day challenge

Start simple

Learning does not necessarily have to mean language lessons or an endless amount of worksheets. The point is simply to do something, ANYTHING with the language as often as possible. So instead of saying “I will fill in 1 page in my grammar workbook.”, say “I will do something with Hungarian every day”. You can, for example, listen to a Hungarian song with lyrics, you can send a video message in Hungarian to a Hungarian friend, you can watch a YouTube video in Hungarian about your hobby – anything.

Commit to 30 days

Research says it takes 3 to 4 weeks to form a habit. So, following the first two tips, try to commit for 30 days and you’ll see that it will be easier and easier towards the end of that first month.

Find a cue

Experts say that finding a cue (such as a specific time or place) can help you form habits more easily. For example you can try to connect “learning” (but as we’ve mentioned above, this does not strictly mean learning) with your morning coffee. Watch 5 minutes from a sitcom in Hungarian, read a couple of lines in Hungarian, jot down 1-2 new words etc. You can also connect learning with a place, e.g. when you are using public transport, you may check your favorite language teaching accounts on social media, or listen to podcasts in Hungarian. (We’ll give you more ideas in the next article.)

Allow yourself to be imperfect

Forming a habit is definitely not easy. Do your best to stick to your (realistic!) goals for the first 30 days, but if you “fail” one day, don’t be too harsh on yourself, do not get discouraged. Plan something really easy for the following days (e.g. listen to a song and read its lyrics, learn two new words) to help you get back on track.

Track your progress

You can also download a habit tracker app to help you form a habit, or if you like bullet journalling, you can draw a tracker for yourself. Just enter “5/10 mins of Hungarian” or “do something with Hungarian” and track your progress. What’s the longest streak you can achieve?

If you’d like to read some more about habit formation, here‘s a very interesting article.

We have started our Daily Dose of Hungarian project to help you make learning Hungarian a habit. We provide daily practice opportunities in small, digestible doses. Join us if you like the idea. 🙂

Daily Dose of Hungarian

🇭🇺 Érezted már úgy, hogy soha nem fogsz megtanulni magyarul? Vagy hogy fájdalmasan lassan haladsz? Vagy hogy megrekedtél? Vagy hogy bár nagyon szeretnél magyarul beszélni, úgy érzed, kínszenvedés a tanulás?

Próbáld meg a magyar nyelvtanulást mindennapos szokássá tenni.

Miért? A szokások erősen befolyásolják a viselkedésünket. Soha nem kell motivációt gyűjtenünk ahhoz, hogy lefekvés előtt fogat mossunk: ez egy szokás, ami azt jelenti, hogy automatikusan történik. Ha a nyelvgyakorlást beépíted a szokásaidba, akkor a tanulást automatizálod, különösebb erőfeszítés nélkül.

A nyelvtanulás szokássá tételéről szóló cikksorozatunk első részében 5+1 tippet adunk a szokások kialakításához.

Legyenek realisztikus céljaid!

Ez a legfontosabb tanács a szokások kialakításában. Ha olyan irreális célokat tűzöl ki, amelyeket nem tudsz elérni, akkor demotivált leszel. Ha viszont olyan reális célokat tűzöl ki, amelyeket mindennap el tudsz érni, az fokozza a motivációdat. Tehát ahelyett, hogy azt mondanád, hogy “mindennap legalább egy órát fogok magyarul dolgozni”, mondd azt, hogy “mindennap legalább 10 percet fogok a magyarral foglalkozni”.

Ha szeretnél kapni 50 darab 10-15 perces feladatötletet, amit könnyen beépíthetsz a mindennapjaidba, csatlakozz a 7 napos kihívásunkhoz:

7 napos készségfejlesztő kihívás

Kezdd egyszerűen!

A tanulásnak nem feltétlenül kell nyelvórákat vagy végtelen mennyiségű feladatlapot jelentenie. A lényeg egyszerűen az, hogy a lehető leggyakrabban csináljunk valamit, BÁRMIT a nyelvvel. Tehát ahelyett, hogy azt mondanád, hogy “kitöltök 1 oldalt a nyelvtani munkafüzetemben.”, mondd azt, hogy “mindennap csinálok valamit a magyar nyelvvel”. Például meghallgathatsz egy magyar dalt dalszöveggel, küldhetsz egy videóüzenetet magyarul egy magyar barátodnak, nézhetsz egy magyar videót YouTube-on egy hobbiddal kapcsolatban.

Köteleződj el 30 napra!

A kutatások szerint 3-4 hétbe telik, mire kialakul egy szokás. Tehát az első két tippet követve próbálj meg 30 napig elköteleződni, és meglátod, hogy az első hónap vége felé egyre könnyebb lesz.

Találj egy támpontot!

A szakértők szerint egy támpont (például egy adott időpont vagy hely) megtalálása segíthet abban, hogy könnyebben kialakuljanak a szokások. Például megpróbálhatod a “tanulást” (de mint fentebb említettük, ez nem szigorúan tanulást jelent) a reggeli kávéhoz kötni. Nézz meg 5 percet egy sorozatból magyarul, olvass fel pár sort magyarul, jegyezz le 1-2 új szót stb. A tanulást egy helyhez is kötheted, például amikor tömegközlekedsz, megnézheted a kedvenc nyelvoktatós oldalaidat a közösségi médián, vagy magyar nyelvű podcastokat hallgathatsz. (A következő cikkünkben további ötleteket adunk.)

Legyél magaddal elnéző!

Egy szokás kialakítása egyáltalán nem könnyű. Az első 30 napban igyekezz ragaszkodni a (reális!) céljaidhoz, de ha egy nap “kudarcot vallasz”, ne légy túl szigorú magaddal, ne csüggedj! A következő napokra tervezz valami igazán könnyű dolgot (pl. hallgass meg egy dalt és olvasd el a szövegét, tanulj meg két új szót), ami segít visszalendíteni.

Kövesd a haladást!

Letölthetsz egy szokáskövető alkalmazást is, amely segít a szokások kialakításában, vagy ha szereted a bullet journalt, akkor rajzolhatsz magadnak egy szokáskövetőt. Csak írd be, hogy “5/10 perc magyar” vagy “csinálj valamit magyarul”, és kövesd a haladásodat. Mi a leghosszabb sorozat, amit el tudsz érni?

Ha szeretnél még többet olvasni a szokások kialakulásáról, itt egy nagyon érdekes cikk.

Azért indítottuk a Daily Dose of Hungarian projektünket, hogy segítsünk a magyartanulást szokássá tenni. Kis, könnyen emészthető adagokban biztosítunk napi gyakorlási lehetőséget. Csatlakozz hozzánk, ha tetszik az ötlet 🙂 .

Daily Dose of Hungarian

Finding dialogues for learning Hungarian

In the first part of our article series, The power of dialogues, we’ve shown you why dialogues are an incredibly useful tool to improve your Hungarian, and in the second part, 18 tips to make the most out of dialogues, we’ve given you some ideas on how to work with dialogues. In the last part of our first article series with study tips, we’ll show you some resources where you can find dialogues.

Hungarize

In our main project, Daily Dose of Hungarian, we share one short dialogue every weekday with audio, transcript, translation, word list, comprehension-check task, gap-filling task, a study note and a discussion question.

The dialogues resemble real-life conversations, they are not simplified, but with the transcript and translation even lower-level learners can benefit a lot from these dialogues. Besides picking up words, phrases and sentences from the dialogues, you can improve all four skills: listen to the dialogue, read the transcript or our answer to the discussion question, write a comment, and send us a voice or video message.

You don’t have to waste time searching for dialogues – just download the Patreon app and check out our dialogue of the day. 🙂

Get your daily dialogue

Magyar Hangtár

You can find a huge amount of recordings on the website of Humboldt University in Berlin. There are monologues and dialogues as well, and most of them come with a script, word list and tasks. The quality is great, the topics are interesting, but be prepared that the recordings are long. This is absolutely not a disadvantage, but you’ll need more time to work with these recordings.

Magyar Hangtár

MagyarOK

You can find a bunch of great dialogues in the MagyarOK coursebook series, and you can find their audio on their website. MagyarOK has a YouTube channel, too, where you can find some videos with short dialogues as well.

Website

YouTube

Other coursebooks

As we have mentioned in the first part of our article series, using dialogues in coursebooks is not a new invention, so you can take any Hungarian coursebook to find dialogues. Besides MagyarOK, Lépésenként magyarul is also a popular Hungarian coursebook with lots of dialogues.

Lépésenként magyarul

Other coursebooks

Movies with subtitles

Dialogues from movies are also an excellent resource for learning. If you watch Hungarian movies with Hungarian subtitles, you can be sure that the script is good; if, however, you watch an English-speaking or a dubbed film with Hungarian subtitles you need to be careful. On the one hand, the translation is not always literal , and on the other hand, not all translators are equally good, and in many cases the dubbing and the subtitle were translated by two different translators, so they might not use the same words.

We hope you liked our first article series with learning tips. We are planning to write some more articles like these, so stay tuned. 🤗

Would you like to get the extended article in the form of a 39-page-long Study Guide? If you like our work and you’d like to support us, and get a Daily Dose of Hungarian in exchange (like a dialogue every day), join us on Patreon and get the Study Guide as a welcome gift:

Study Guide

18 tips to make the most out of dialogues

In the first part of our article series (here) we told you why dialogues are an incredibly powerful tool to boost your Hungarian. In this article we are showing you 18 tips on how to make the most out of dialogues.

Let’s see another dialogue that we have written to teach the word “hív”.
You can listen to it here:

Listen to the dialogue

First, listen to the dialogue without reading the script. For the first listening, try to get a gist of the dialogue: who are talking? Where are they? What is the topic?

Apa és lánya. – Dad and daughter.
Otthon vannak. – They are at home.
Telefonhívás. – Phone call.

For the second or third listening, try to collect more information about the context. Listen to the dialogue as many times as you want.

Késő van. – It’s late.
Egy fiú telefonál. – A boy is calling.
Az apa nem tudja, ki telefonál. – The dad does not know who’s calling.

As you are listening, you can scribble down words that you understand. This is not only a good way to sharpen your ears, but it also improves spelling, and you can do it even if you are a complete beginner.

Telefon, tényleg, ki, én, tud, minden, holnap, csak, este, 11

If you are an intermediate/advanced learner, you can try to write down the words that you DON’T understand and check the spelling and meaning later.

Osztálytás?* Haggyámár?*
(*osztálytárs, hagyjál már)

You can also try to write down the whole dialogue, or at least some sentences, and check the spelling later on.

– Sári! Csörög a telefonod!
– Ténleg*? Ki hív ilyen késön*?
(*tényleg, későn)

After you have listened to the dialogue a couple of times without reading the script, listen to the dialogue AND read the script at the same time, as many times as you wish. Check if your assumptions and notes were correct.

Sáááááári! Csörög a telefonod!
Tényleg? Ki hív ilyen későn?
Hát, azt én is szeretném tudni.
Ah, már megint Feri.
Mostanában mindennap hív…
Majd visszahívom holnap.
Ki az a Feri? A barátod?
Csak egy osztálytársam.
Aki mindennap hív?
Még este 11-kor is?
Jaj, apa, hagyjál már!

Sáááááári! Your phone is ringing!
Really? Who is calling so late?
Well, I would also like to know that.
Agh, it’s Feri again.
Nowadays he calls me every day…
I’ll call him back tomorrow.
Who is Feri? Your boyfriend?
He’s just a classmate (of mine).
Who calls you every day?
Even at 11 o’clock at night?
Oh, Dad, leave me alone.

In case you don’t have the audio of the dialogue, just the script: first just skim through the text and get a general picture of the context before diving into the details.

And now it’s time to take a closer look at the text. Take a pen and a notebook, open a document or create a Quizlet / Anki / Memrise set to organize your notes.

You can focus on new words. First, try to get the meaning from the context and then check the translation to see if your assumptions were right. (If there’s no translation provided, consult a dictionary.)

csörög = to ring
mostanában = nowadays
osztálytárs = classmate
hagy = to leave

NOTE: You don’t need to learn all the new words. Learn the ones that you really need and would like to know.

10.

You might find words that are already part of your vocabulary, but not in the same meaning, or you haven’t seen it in this context. Make notes about these, too.

Hmm, I know “még”, it means “yet”. But it does not make sense here. Oh, so it means “even” as well?

I know “hagy”, it means “to leave”. “Hagyjál már!” is “Leave me alone!”? Cool!

11.

Learning new words is not enough; learning expressions is just as important as the words themselves.

csörög a telefon = the phone is ringing
már megint = (once) again
Hagyjál már! = Leave me alone!

12.

You can just as well note down and memorize full sentences that you think will be useful for you in the future.

Hát, azt én is szeretném tudni. = Well, I would also like to know that.
Majd visszahívom holnap. = I’ll call him back tomorrow.

13.

You may also focus on grammar: try to find patterns, rules that you are already familiar with.

Ah, yes, here are some examples for the possessive. “A telefonod – your phone, a barátod – your boyfriend”. Oh, I always forget to use the definite article with the possessive, but here it is, they indeed use it like this.

14.

Then you may concentrate on items that you don’t know yet. You may try to figure out the rules by yourself, but if you want to make sure you really get the meaning and the rule right, make a note and consult your teacher on your next lesson. (You may try to ask a native speaker as well, but they can’t always explain the rules. 🙂 )

Wait a minute… Why is it “csak EGY osztálytársam”? Why not “csak AZ osztálytársam?” Oh, the translation says “a classmate of mine”. So then “just a friend of mine” would be “csak EGY barátom”? I’ll ask my teacher next time.

15.

Pay attention to fillers and interjections; these tiny words are inevitable parts of casual speech.

Hát, Ah, Jaj

16.

Okay, now you have listened to the audio, read the script, focused on the details – what else can you do? If you like translating, you can test yourself: take the Hungarian script and translate it to your language, or if the English (or other) translation is provided, try to translate that back to Hungarian. If your version is not exactly the same as the original, but you feel that your translation is right as well, consult your teacher.

17.

You can improve your pronunciation with dialogues: you can stop the recording sentence by sentence and repeat what you’ve heard, or you may echo one role or the other and “act out” the dialogue along with the audio recording. You may as well record yourself saying the sentences and compare the two recordings.

18.

Last, but not least, you can come up with your own text/sentences based on the dialogue:

Sajnos túl sokszor csörög a telefonom. = Unfortunately my phone rings too many times.
Engem senki nem hív este 11-kor. = Nobody calls me at 11 at night.
Nem beszélek mindennap senkivel. = I don’t talk with anybody every day.

IMPORTANT: never memorize a sentence or expression that you wrote by yourself and was not checked by your teacher or at least a native. However, feel free to use these expressions when you talk to natives and ask them if it’s correct.

Get a free, printable, 1-page-long summary of the tips here:

Printable summary

Would you like to test these tips with another dialogue? Join us in our Daily Dose of Hungarian project and get one dialogue every weekday. 🙂

Daily Dose of Hungarian

If you would like to read the whole, extended article in our Study Guide, consider joining us on Patreon and download the Study Guide from here:

Study Guide (for Patrons)

The power of dialogues

If you are learning a foreign language, then you must have come across many dialogues on your language learning journey. Language learning methodology has changed tremendously during the past decades; however, you can find dialogues in almost every coursebook, no matter when they were published. Why are dialogues so important? The answer is easy: your ultimate aim with learning a language is to be able to communicate in that language. And what best resembles this goal? Dialogues.

Listening to and reading dialogues is an incredibly powerful tool in boosting your language skills. In this article series we’ll give you some tips on how to make the most out of dialogues, and we’ll give you some ideas where you can find Hungarian dialogues.

But before we get into the tips and tricks part, let’s have a look at some dialogues.

– Van szemüveged?
– Nincs szemüvegem. És neked?
– Nekem sincs szemüvegem.
– Tamásnak van szemüvege?
– Igen, neki van szemüvege.

-Do you have glasses?
– I don’t have glasses. And you?
– I don’t have glasses either.
– Does Tamás have glasses?
– Yes, he has glasses.

This dialogue is not actually a real dialogue; it uses simple drills to practice grammar (in this case, the possessive structure). Modern textbooks tend to use less and less of these kinds of dialogues and try to aim for natural language use, but you might come across dialogues like that. They are not necessarily bad, but you need to keep in mind that the main purpose of these artificial dialogues is to drill a pattern, and not to imitate real-life conversations.

– Miért nézel így?
– Nem is tudom. Valami furcsa rajtad.
– Ez így igaz. Gondolkozz!
– Nincs szemüveged?
– Soha nem is volt szemüvegem.
– Barna a hajad.
– Mindig is barna volt a hajam. De közel jársz.
– Á, rövid a hajad!
– Bravó! Tegnap voltam fodrásznál. Ah, pasik…

– Why are you looking at me like this?
– I don’t know. There’s something strange on you.
– That’s true. Think.
– You don’t have glasses.
– I have never had glasses.
– Your hair is brown.
– I have always had brown hair. But you’re getting close.
– Ah, your hair is short!
– Congrats! I was at the hairdresser’s yesterday. Ah, guys…

This dialogue also presents lots of possessive structures (though at a little bit higher level, as it contains past tense as well), but in a casual way, that you can hear in real life.

While with the first dialogue you cannot really do a lot (only learn the pattern and drill), the second one gives you loads of opportunities to improve your Hungarian, even if you are at an elementary level and you only have a surface level understanding of what’s being said.

In our Daily Dose of Hungarian project we share one short dialogue every weekday that resemble real-life conversation. Learn vocabulary, expressions, and grammar from dialogues! 🙂

Daily Dose of Hungarian

#stayathome language challenge

In these difficult times we all need something that helps us ease our concerns and uncertainty. We thought it would be great to create a daily challenge to take your mind off the current epidemic and at the same time get you closer to your language goals.

Feel free to download and share the pictures with your language learner friends. Keep safe, stay home and learn Hungarian with us. 🙂

Barbi & Laci from Hungarize
Sziszi from Hungarian with Sziszi

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4

Week 5

Resources for learning Hungarian

We thought it would be useful to collect all resources for learning Hungarian in one place; feel free to add your favorite resources. 🙂

Scroll left and right to see the different categories, and scroll up and down to see the items in the selected category. Click on the plus button at the bottom of a category to add a new resource.