Pimsleur Hungarian Basic Course - Level 1 Lessons 1-10 CD: Learn to Speak and Understand Hungarian with Pimsleur Language Programs

I love Pimsleur learning CD's and give this 5 stars for being a great learning method. I have used their basic courses for at least 3 languages. However, I found Hungarian to be pretty darn tough to pronounce and to learn and I gave up. I even used Pimsleur for Croatian and didn't find it nearly as hard as Hungarian. Perhaps I was too tired to learn this? I kept it for the future but Hungarian is not my language of choice to learn...for now.

I'm delighted with virtually everything about this course. Pimsleur's pedagogy of carefully timed repetition is fascinating in its effectiveness, and I have a mental list of other languages I'm looking forward to trying with Pimsleur. The emphasis on aural learning from native speakers leapfrogs over many of the problems of other approaches, which may leave one tied to a phrasebook, or unable to make sense of actual pronunciation outside of a classroom. With Hungarian, the aural element is especially crucial for getting a handle on the vowels, and cognitively, the emphasis on recall rather than recognition (i.e., the lack of visual cues) helps the lesson "stick." The dialogue in this course is rather formal, but it seems prudent to err on the side of politeness in an unfamiliar setting. I got my best results when I did the same lesson twice in one day, first thing in the morning and then in the evening after work. Still, if it were up to me, I'd change up the vocabulary a little. Our speakers in the course sure spend a lot of time ordering wine and beer (fun bunch!), but you don't get all the names of the numbers in this set. More time on functional skills, days of the week, and so on, would be useful. But the bottom line is that the Hungarians I spoke my Pimsleur Hungarian with seemed genuinely impressed, and I understand quite a bit of spoken Hungarian now. I'm pleased enough that I've already lined up the next two Pimsleur Hungarian units, and look forward to continuing to learn.

I just returned from 2 weeks in Budapest. What I was looking for with Pimsleur's Basic Hungarian was "survival" Hungarian, and I did, in fact, survive. What Hungarian phrases I learned (excuse me, thank you, I'm sorry, good afternoon, do you speak English?, ordering a glass of wine, etc.) were easily understood by Hungarians, and I understood some of what was said to me. (Of course, understanding native speakers of a foreign language is always much more difficult than speaking a few phrases, because the native speakers don't limit themselves to the small survival vocabulary I've learned.) I found the learning process to be extremely effective. At the beginning of a lesson, you'd listen to a conversation in Hungarian, and by the end of the lesson you could actually understand it. You'd be reminded of phrases at just the right interval to reinforce them. So, what phrases I learned, I learned well. The next time I travel, I will definitely use Pimsleur's for whatever language I need. My only reason for rating it a 4 instead of a 5 was that I wished it had a few more survival phrases. Would have liked phrases like, where is the restroom?, may I have the check?, and how to order red wine (as opposed to just wine). Thankfully, I was able to learn those phrases from the relatives we were visiting. Given that it was only 5 hours of lessons, I think the coverage was reasonable. Next time, I might try a longer Pimsleur program.

Loved this course!! I'm dating a native Hungarian and this was my first attempt to try to understand her language. It's a great beginning tool, especially for the price and I would recommend it to anyone as a trial to see if progressing is for you. I have since bought the complete set since I did not feel that I had learned enough from just this intro.

This course is not very helpful if you are a complete beginner in Hungarian. The course keeps introducing more and more bizarre sounding words before one has the time to even absorb the previous ones. I listened to the first CD and it gave me a headache simply trying to keep up. I guess if one is ready to repeat every CD ten or twenty times one would begin to get a hold of the language. I found the Polish course much better in quality.

Great audio CD for beginners wanting to learn Hungarian. I am slowly learning.

Jo reggelt kivanok! I'll be making a return trip to Budapest soon (and hopefully many more times to come) and decided it was time to learn a bit of the language of my ancestors--pretty much anyone a tourist meets in a big city will know English but if you venture even to the outskirts or a small town you're not as likely to encounter English. It's true that it's not an easy language but on the recommendation of a friend I tried Pimsleur and it's really quite enjoyable, after a week I know some good words and phrases and will definitely continue on to the next level. I like learning to speak with the proper accent, but as others mention I really like to see what the words look like, so have been using an online Hungarian-English translator.

Of all the language CD's I have ever purchased (for Italian, Polish, Spanish), this one has the most unique, satisfying, and efficient procedure for learning. And at a great price! I find myself 'hearing' the speakers in my head long after listening, which never happened with the others. Plus this one doesn't insult your intelligence. A very good buy, and I imagine any language by this company would be superior.

I work with Hungarians and they have understood some of the words I have learnt from this - the problem is remembering the exact pronounciation but this is not any problem with the disk the tutorial explains how to say it exactly right by breaking each section down, even if i don't remember it exactly.

Very thorough. Uses a reliable technique & structure to ensure the words and phrases sticks in your mind and remembered. Csodálatos!

Hungarian is one of the hardest languages in the world to learn. This method of learning makes it a lot easier to pick up some of the basics. The Hungarians I spoke to were impressed. I would recommend this course.

excellent

Not the best language aid