I Would Learn Hungarian
2010.01.28One might want to learn Hungarian for a number of reasons. A permanent stay here as a student or because of a boyfriend, girlfriend, business interest or mere curiosity about the country. As motivations vary, needs might also differ: a Hungarian teacher who dictates an intense pace, a course that keeps an eye on business language, or an online course to develop written language use. What follows is a number of addresses, opportunities and some information we collected to make the first steps towards learning Hungarian easier.
Language schools, private teachers
More than fifty organisations offer their services nationwide for those who wish to learn in an organised setting, and the number of Hungarian teachers can be many times this number. Naturally, people in the capital city have the widest range of opportunities to choose from, and differences in prices are also biggest here.
The latter differ by language school based on the standards of the school and the size of the group. The average price is between 800 and 3000 HUF, and courses lasting several months cost at least 50-60 000 HUF, but they are can be as much as 100-300 000 HUF in more expensive places. Naturally, prices with private teachers are much higher, the average teaching hour costs 2000-3000 HUF.
Below is a minor and naturally incomplete list of the variety of language schools and places to find private teachers in Budapest. With a few exceptions, the language of instruction in the mentioned schools is English.
Online language learning
Online language learning might be a solution for people who cannot find time for regular language courses, or cannot spare money for learning a language. There are several homepages on the Internet helping students with texts and audio materials, some of them offered free of charge. Naturally, methods and elaborateness are of a wide variety on online language teaching surfaces, so it is worth trying several of them in order to find the one that is most suitable for you.
It is undoubtedly worth including an online dictionary among our Internet favourites, whether it is the translator of google.hu or the SZTAKI dictionary. The Verb Calculator is an interesting unique program that helps navigate in the quite complicated conjugation of Hungarian verbs. The few online surfaces listed below have contents planned to answer a variety of needs: they include language-centered pages with tables and exercises, as well as ones aiming to extend the vocabulary of users. The intermediary language of these pages is English.
| Hungarian lesson | Learning Hungarian |
| Hungarian lessons | Online surface not linked to a school |
Summer universities, not just in summer
Participants of the Summer University of Debrecen or the joint summer university of the Balassi Institute and the Kodolányi János College will not only acquire language skills but will also gain an insight into wider aspects of Hungarian culture, and despite their names, the courses can be completed any time of the year. The Summer University of Debrecen launches intensive two-week courses at three sites (in Debrecen, Budapest and Sopron) in autumn, winter and spring, giving an overview of Hungarian literature, linguistics, history, ethnography and general knowledge of the country. As some six hundred students apply to the courses from thirty to forty countries each year, the summer courses also offer Hungarian taught with French, Italian, Finnish and Japanese as the intermediary languages. In the rest of the year, classes are held in German and English, and, naturally, Hungarian. At the end of the course, students can take a free written examination offered by the summer university, and receive an official certificate of this, which is honoured by some foreign universities with extra credit points.
The Balassi Institute is launching similar courses of ten to fifteen weeks: students can practice the Hungarian language in groups of 5-12, with a varying number of teaching hours, and they can participate in the popular science lectures and cultural programs held in the institute. In addition to the language courses, students can also attend lectures in Hungarology in the summer, where they learn about the history of Hungary and the country's unique situation in Eastern and Central Europe, its music and fine arts, as well as its gastronomy and wine culture.
