Colloquial Hungarian: The Complete Course for Beginners (Colloquial Series (Book Only))
by Carol H. Rounds
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List Price: $26.95
Our Price: $17.72
Your Save: $ 9.23 ( 34% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Routledge
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 494.51182421
EAN: 9780415242561
ISBN: 0415242568
Label: Routledge
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 336
Publication Date: 2003-01
Publisher: Routledge
Studio: Routledge
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: only half the book is good
Comment: Up until chapter 8 the book is actually very good, which is why I don't give it just one star, so half the book usable.
However, as from chapter 8 it suddenly becomes a completely different book:
- the grammar is dreadfully and lazily explained as they just list a whole bunch of cases, pronoun changes etc. for you to memorize from lists, usually without examples and exercises
- each chapter suddenly wants the learner to memorize around 80 new words, which completely changes the reader's learning pace, as it is significantly slowed down and you have spend weeks on a single 20 page chapter, whereas before you could complete a chapter in one week
It is as if the authors realized they were running out of time and decided to cram as much as possible into the reminding chapters of the book. Absolutely shameful.
I have enough experience with languages to make the claim that, with Hungarian, the crucial part is getting a grip on the grammar - everything else, vocabulary and pronunciation, is simple in comparison.
So when you start with Hungarian it is crucial that you get a book that explains the grammar very clearly and at a decent pace so that you can assimilate it well.
If you have alot of time on your hands and alot of patience, by all means, get Colloquial, it is very thorough in what it covers.
But if you want to learn basic Hungarian in a more reasonable time-frame and avoid frustration, then don't get this book.
A book I can recommend if you want to learn the grammar more clearly, and the basics of the language in a decent time-range, is Pontifex' book Teach Yourself Hungarian:
Teach Yourself Hungarian Complete Course Audiopack
I found it much more accommodating as a beginner.
It doesn't cover the grammar as extensively as Colloquial, so there is a trade-off between user-friendliness and knowledge of grammar.
It is your choice which you prefer:
learn the basics quickly & easily vs. slowly but thoroughly.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Good, but not for a total novice.
Comment:
This is a great beginner's book, but not a novice's book. Its teaching is clear and the examples are excellent. Despite claiming to be for beginners, it starts at a little higher level than does Pontifex's book, and goes a little further. As a complete novice you may, therefore, wish to read Pentifex's book first. For example, this book goes as far as detailing the hat/het and the at/tat/et/tet grammars. The grammar does not go as far as Whitney's 1964 gem.
The book gives complete translations for the readings in the first 3 or 4 chapters, after which the pace is stepped-up considerably and no translations are given. The exercises are not as many or as varied in style as Pontifex's.
The quality of the explanation of concepts is second-to-none, but like many other books this suffers from giving a reading that introduces a new concept before that concept is explained. I personally don't like this style, as it may leave the read going around in circles trying to understand (or trying to remember their non-existent understanding of) the grammar. It also suffers from introducing words that exemplify a concept but are not particularly useful in everyday (NB. "Colloquial Hungarian") conversation, such as "parrot".
After the readings a useful, alphabetical glossary is given, but like so many other books it assumes that the reader has a perfect memory and does not remind him of words mentioned in previous glossaries. This means that lots of flicking to the dictionary is necessary for those with imperfect (or otherwise full) minds.
At the end is a good dictionary (but unlike Whitney's dictionary it is not integrated with an index), full conjugation tables of the big seven irregular verbs, tables of examples of irregular (e.g. vowel-dropping) nouns in various cases, etc.
The book has optional audio CDs but I do not own these.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A legjóbb könyv magyarul!
Comment: This book, as I said earlier, is the best small, self study book to learn Hungarian from. My grandparents are from Hungary, and my mother speaks it, so I had the advantage of having a native speaker to practice what I learned with. The grammar in this book is given in very simple, bitesized, easily digestible tidbits. They are small enough to tuck into your memory and then remember it at the needed moment.
This book also has many real life example, such as poems, songs etc. These help, because they give a sense of how the language REALLY is, outside the context of obviously artificial dialouges.
I would like to be fair and put one drawback to this book. The the truth is I can't think of one. This book is a truly marvelous addition to the effort to learn such a unique and sometimes difficult language.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Goooood, but could be a little more practical
Comment: I've got to admit, the book is great, the text is follow-able after listening to the dialogs a couple of times, but it could have been a little more conversational, implementing more basic expressions, and the grammar could be more thoroughly organized.
As with the Routledge series, they're not very big on extra dialog material (those without previous knowledge of the language are somewhat at a loss) as for two CD's could hold a lot more spoken dialog than they do.
The conversations were fun and upbeat and the book itself is very well written, only flaw is that it could have been a little more "basic".
Customer Rating:
Summary: Colloquial Hungarian
Comment: I have really enjoyed using this text and the accompanying CDs. It does move very quickly, but it makes Hungarian much easier to learn than I had anticipated! I am using this book in conjunction with instruction by a tutor; I'm not sure how well a beginner would do without some additional assistance.
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Editorial Reviews:
|
Customer Rating:
Summary: only half the book is good
Comment: Up until chapter 8 the book is actually very good, which is why I don't give it just one star, so half the book usable.
However, as from chapter 8 it suddenly becomes a completely different book:
- the grammar is dreadfully and lazily explained as they just list a whole bunch of cases, pronoun changes etc. for you to memorize from lists, usually without examples and exercises
- each chapter suddenly wants the learner to memorize around 80 new words, which completely changes the reader's learning pace, as it is significantly slowed down and you have spend weeks on a single 20 page chapter, whereas before you could complete a chapter in one week
It is as if the authors realized they were running out of time and decided to cram as much as possible into the reminding chapters of the book. Absolutely shameful.
I have enough experience with languages to make the claim that, with Hungarian, the crucial part is getting a grip on the grammar - everything else, vocabulary and pronunciation, is simple in comparison.
So when you start with Hungarian it is crucial that you get a book that explains the grammar very clearly and at a decent pace so that you can assimilate it well.
If you have alot of time on your hands and alot of patience, by all means, get Colloquial, it is very thorough in what it covers.
But if you want to learn basic Hungarian in a more reasonable time-frame and avoid frustration, then don't get this book.
A book I can recommend if you want to learn the grammar more clearly, and the basics of the language in a decent time-range, is Pontifex' book Teach Yourself Hungarian:
Teach Yourself Hungarian Complete Course Audiopack
I found it much more accommodating as a beginner.
It doesn't cover the grammar as extensively as Colloquial, so there is a trade-off between user-friendliness and knowledge of grammar.
It is your choice which you prefer:
learn the basics quickly & easily vs. slowly but thoroughly.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Good, but not for a total novice.
Comment:
This is a great beginner's book, but not a novice's book. Its teaching is clear and the examples are excellent. Despite claiming to be for beginners, it starts at a little higher level than does Pontifex's book, and goes a little further. As a complete novice you may, therefore, wish to read Pentifex's book first. For example, this book goes as far as detailing the hat/het and the at/tat/et/tet grammars. The grammar does not go as far as Whitney's 1964 gem.
The book gives complete translations for the readings in the first 3 or 4 chapters, after which the pace is stepped-up considerably and no translations are given. The exercises are not as many or as varied in style as Pontifex's.
The quality of the explanation of concepts is second-to-none, but like many other books this suffers from giving a reading that introduces a new concept before that concept is explained. I personally don't like this style, as it may leave the read going around in circles trying to understand (or trying to remember their non-existent understanding of) the grammar. It also suffers from introducing words that exemplify a concept but are not particularly useful in everyday (NB. "Colloquial Hungarian") conversation, such as "parrot".
After the readings a useful, alphabetical glossary is given, but like so many other books it assumes that the reader has a perfect memory and does not remind him of words mentioned in previous glossaries. This means that lots of flicking to the dictionary is necessary for those with imperfect (or otherwise full) minds.
At the end is a good dictionary (but unlike Whitney's dictionary it is not integrated with an index), full conjugation tables of the big seven irregular verbs, tables of examples of irregular (e.g. vowel-dropping) nouns in various cases, etc.
The book has optional audio CDs but I do not own these.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A legjóbb könyv magyarul!
Comment: This book, as I said earlier, is the best small, self study book to learn Hungarian from. My grandparents are from Hungary, and my mother speaks it, so I had the advantage of having a native speaker to practice what I learned with. The grammar in this book is given in very simple, bitesized, easily digestible tidbits. They are small enough to tuck into your memory and then remember it at the needed moment.
This book also has many real life example, such as poems, songs etc. These help, because they give a sense of how the language REALLY is, outside the context of obviously artificial dialouges.
I would like to be fair and put one drawback to this book. The the truth is I can't think of one. This book is a truly marvelous addition to the effort to learn such a unique and sometimes difficult language.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Goooood, but could be a little more practical
Comment: I've got to admit, the book is great, the text is follow-able after listening to the dialogs a couple of times, but it could have been a little more conversational, implementing more basic expressions, and the grammar could be more thoroughly organized.
As with the Routledge series, they're not very big on extra dialog material (those without previous knowledge of the language are somewhat at a loss) as for two CD's could hold a lot more spoken dialog than they do.
The conversations were fun and upbeat and the book itself is very well written, only flaw is that it could have been a little more "basic".
Customer Rating:
Summary: Colloquial Hungarian
Comment: I have really enjoyed using this text and the accompanying CDs. It does move very quickly, but it makes Hungarian much easier to learn than I had anticipated! I am using this book in conjunction with instruction by a tutor; I'm not sure how well a beginner would do without some additional assistance.
Colloquial Hungarian is a user-friendly guide to the basic grammar of contemporary Hungarian. Through dialogues and narratives of modern, every-day situations, the novice learner of Hungarian is led step-by-step through the intricacies of this very different and exciting language. Students will learn to speak about a variety of topics-including travel, shopping, sight-seeing, family, business, free-time, illness, love-as well as learn the different social registers of communication. The dialogues and situations are fresh, lively and realistic; the presentation of grammar is clear and direct. Each chapter presents approximately three dialogues (or the equivalent) that systematically introduce new situations with appropriate necessary vocabulary in both formal and informal settings. New grammatical constructions are introduced incrementally with each new dialogue, while at the same time re-enforcing the material learned previously. An introduction to life in Hungary is simultaneously provided through both the dialogues and cultural notes provided in each chapter. Thus while learning the language, the student is exposed to some exemplary Hungarian poetry and prose as well as historical notes and information on other cultural specialties of Hungary: dance, music, cuisine. The appendices containing irregular verb forms, noun classes and full noun paradigms also serve as a handy reference guide.
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