Customer Reviews

In-Flight Hungarian: Learn Before You Land (English and Hungarian Edition)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

As some of the other reviewers noted, Hungarian is a unique language. It is not related to the other Central European languages, it is not derived from Latin. Heck, it isn't Indo-European.
This is important when considering what to buy when trying to learn the language in that it means: 1. you are not going to recognize individual words because they are not similar to the same word in French, Italian, Spanish, German or English and 2. you are not going to be familiar with the vowel or the consonants. There are sounds unknown to English in Hungarian.
So why am I babbling on about this? One of the first phrase this ill-thought teaching method tries to teach you is " I don't speak Hungarian very well". Or Nem nagyam beszelek magyarul. They say it once (at normal speaking rate!), give you time to register just how completely unprepared you are to repeat what you just heard and then they move on to the next phrase. I kid thee not. I would bet that sometimes as they were recording this stuff they found it hard not to laugh.
The third section does cover numbers and is probably the most useful section of the CD. One word at a time when learning this unique language is about right. I have a Hungarian neighbor and when she (w/ infinite patience) tries to teach me words, I usually require three or four attempts to get them right.
They are no sections devoted to individual pronouns, verbs, etc. There are sections (like the one on restaurants) where they give you individual words like plate, etc. Those are useful. The book is a necessity the first few times you listen to each section. The phonetic pronunciations are essential and help you to pick up on things like the Hungarian tendency to stress the first syllable. And the book helps you to pick up on individual words.
I guess that what I am saying is that this is not necessarily a bad product. It is certainly not what I would recommend to anyone that needs a quick intro to this language. When I find that product, I will review it.

20 page booklet, accompanied with a CD. This booklet contains the basic essential words/phrases you'll need to communicate, but I wish they had some more.
The CD is ok, but the Hungarian prases are being said a bit too fast, as such quite often you miss it, though, looking at the booklet at the same time can help a lot.
Overall, if you go to Hungary, this set (booklet & CD) can help you communicate using basic words. And the price is fair also.

Lousy: for example, they quickly give you the pronounciation (only once) and do not leave adequate time for you to consider what was just pronounced. THIS IS ESPECIALLY IMPORTANT FOR HUNGARIAN BECAUSE IT IS A VERY UNIQUE LANGUAGE.

I have tried othr In-flight languages and find them barely acceptable. If you already knew most of the words...they may be able to help you pronounce them...BUT only if the example was repeated a couple of times before going to the next word.

I had a business trip to Hungary in June 2005. I was there for 2 weeks and In-Flight Hungarian : Learn Before You Land was a huge help.

It's great! I learned quite a few Hungarian words in just a few days.

I wouldn't call this "in flight" learning,due to the massive retention needed. It's best to get this early and play it over and over. You will gather what you are looking for and move on.
After traveling to Budapest, we found that very little other than Thank you, good morning, good day is needed. It's a courtesy to learn some of the language when traveling, but generally most of the younger generation and the hotels, shops, and tourist attractions have English speakers.

I bought this before a trip to Hungary. Will this teach you to speak Hungarian fluently? Not at all. But that's not what it's about. It's for the tourist who has a few hours to dedicate to learning basic phrases that help them get around. I was able to pick it up fairly well, and was able to get around Budapest with it's help. I kept the little booklet that came with it in my back pocket, and that was a huge help too.
If you want to learn to speak fluently, buy a more comprehensive, more expensive product. If you are going to Hungary on a business trip or for a vacation, buy this!
After buying and using "Living Language in flight Hungarian", I bought the one for Italian before I went to Rome.

Overall, this taught me the rudimentary basics of survival Hungarian well. Locals in Budapest understood me pretty well, and didn't roll their eyes too much. :-) Thus, the high star rating. I did not give it five stars because I felt there was not enough repetition. This was easily solved by liberal use of the 'rewind' button on my iPod, though. (I downloaded the cds to my iPod before my trip.) Here are a couple comments and suggestions, in no particular order:
- Definitely start listening and learning before your flight. One transatlantic flight would never have been enough for me, personally.
- Before trying to learn some Hungarian, you must recognize how unique it is and how utterly unrelated it is to any Indo-European languages you may know.
- The phrasebook is very handy; I kept it in my pocket and used it frequently.

Hope this helps someone. Have a great time in beautiful Hungary!

I wouldn't wait for the flight, but I listened to these tapes for a couple of months on my commute before going to Hungary and it was very helpful. Some suggestions. It would be more helpful if you begin not just by listening, but by sitting down with the book and getting used to the written word. Then once familiar, listening can be more fruitful. I managed to master a few important phrases like Hello, yes, no, I don't speak Hungarian, do you speak English, excuse me, how much, where is.. and sorry. But if I could do it again, I would have made a more concerted effort to learn my numbers (at least to 5) and as much of the CD as possible. It is only one CD, but it covers a lot of material. I believe that if you memorized everything in the CD, you would do very well. Keep in mind that there is a fair amount of English used in Hungary, it seems to be the common language between all non-English tourists, but it helps to learn a little Magyar, and I wholeheartedly recommend this CD.

I'm planning to visit Hungary, and bought this to learn a few words and phrases for communication with the locals. Hungarian isn't an easy language, but I listen to the cd in the car on the way to work and am slowly picking it up. I like the fact that they include a small booklet that lists all the material covered in the cd (includes phonetics).

If you want to learn some of the basics, but not the grammar, this is a great way to do it. One piece of advice though: Unless you are a genius that can memorize words and pronunciations after one hearing, it will take several listenings to begin to learn the words.