Hungarian Basic $25 off CD version, Levels 1 and 2! | $50 both levels! This two level course provides introductory materials in modern spoken Hungarian, and has been written with the aim of providing learners with a firm control of the basic structure of the spoken language, and a vocabulary adequate to make practical use of spoken and written language in their travels, work and social obligations. In addition, the course should provide the learner a sound background for further development in fluency and proficiency in Hungarian. The course is divided into two levels: Level One comes with 24 CDs and a book; Level Two 26 CDs and a book. And now Hungarian Level One is available in a Digital Edition on CD-ROM, with the recordings in MP3 audio files and the text in PDF format!
Hungarian Basic | Course Outline | Contents of: Hungarian 1 | Hungarian 2
The Hungarian Basic Course has been written with the aim of providing learners with a firm control of the basic structure of the spoken language, and a vocabulary adequate to make practical use of spoken and written language in their travels, work and social obligations. In addition, the course should provide the learner a sound background for further development in fluency and proficiency in Hungarian. The course is divided into two levels: Level One comes with 24 tapes or CDs and a book; Level Two 26 tapes and a book. The CD version is new on FSI, and has digitally enhanced sound. And now Hungarian Level One is available in a Digital Edition on CD-ROM, with the recordings in MP3 audio files and the text in PDF format!
The ultimate goal of the course is to speak Hungarian accurately, fluently and easily. The text provides for the assimilation of all basic forms and patterns of the language by the guided imitation, memorization, and manipulation of a large number of sentences and by practice through confronting various common everyday situations. But actual living use of the language in free conversation is a necessary and essential adjunct - thus students are encouraged from the start to use the language in every way possible, above and beyond what is provided for in the text. Only by constant use of the skill they are learning can learners hope to master the language and retain it.
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 intended for memorization. These basic sentences come in the form of conversations or dialogs focusing on common situations persons might find themselves in Hungary. Notes on the Basic Sentences are added occasionally to provide additional background information on a 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 troublesome for American students are presented here 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 considered appropriate for analysis at this stage in the course. The section after the grammatical explanations in each lesson provides for systematic and detailed practice of the new features which compose a particular unit: for instance, 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 which is underscored serves as a guide. Associated with it are additional sentences that incorporate 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; their particular form and arrangement 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 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 students ability to give realistic answers to appropriate real-life situations. Conversation practice and additional situations in outline further progress in bridging the gap to free conversation.
