Note that this is a NON-CREDIT course!
Instructor: Dominic Spadance
e-mail: domspad 'at' umich 'dot' edu
Prerequisites: Babilon would be useful, however just curiosity and
motivation is all that's required.
Texts:
"Hungarian an Essential Grammar" by Carol Rounds, and an
English-Hungarian dictionary
Course description:
This course is based on the past experiences of BSMers* who decided to spend a good deal of time trying to learn Hungarian while they were here in Budapest. Their aim is to pass on the techniques they found most useful in this task and help connect students with Hungarians as speaking partners (where most of the learning takes place).In the classroom, we'll begin by carefully reading a few short stories and excerpts (e.g. Harry Potter) to help sort out the main grammatical concepts and expand our vocabulary. As questions come up, we'll look further into the logic behind some of the main constructions, especially the 'most important Hungarian grammar rule'. We'll also discuss techniques for retaining vocabulary and phrases.
In the other half of the classes we'll focus on speaking and listening in some common situations. We'll even create a few conversations dealing with everyday life in Budapest, and take a look at the common slang and 'Hunglish' phrases.
As mentioned before, the course also serves as a potential way to get connected with the language outside of the classroom, specifically with Hungarians looking to exchange languages. I hope to have everyone who's interested paired up with someone during the semester so they can meet on their own time if they want. If we can work it out, we'll also try going to a Punnany Massif concert or folk dancing event. I will also share some study material on Dropbox.
Rough schedule:
- Week 1: Developing a plan and sticking to it. Finding a Hungarian to talk to. Discussion of memory tricks and techniques for vocabulary and phrases. Start reading first short story. Handout: Pronunciation.
- Week 2: Continue first short story. Handout: Nouns and cases. Cseh Tamás or Punnany Massif song.
- Week 3: Continue first short story. Highlighting the most important/strange rule in Hungarian. Handout: the most important Hungarian grammar rule. Handout: Basic situations and conversations worth memorizing
- Week 4: Continue first short story. Handout: What you should know about Hungarian verbs. Revisiting daily situations to use Hungarian and planning our own conversations.
- Week 5: Finish and review first short story. Handout: Pronouns
- Week 6: Conversation practice.
- Week 7: Begin second short story. Handout: Adjectives. Ákos song.
- Week 8: Continue second short story. Watching children's show clip.
- Week 9: Continue second short story. Special grammatical topics of interest to students.
- Week 10- 12: Continue second short story. Special topics.
- Week 13: Hungarian slang and 'Hunglish'
*started by a great alum, Scott Kensell, who's currently living and working in Budapest for Prezi (a Hungarian company). Maybe you'll be lucky enough to meet him.