Hungarian, Comprehensive: Learn to Speak and Understand Hungarian with Pimsleur Language Programs [Audiobook] [Audio CD]

Pimsleur (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 25, 2008 | ISBN-10: 074356393X | ISBN-13: 978-0743563932 | Edition: Unabridged

Hungarian is spoken in Hungary and by the Hungarian minorities in 7 neighboring countries. The Hungarian name for the language is Magyar. Pimsleur's Hungarian teaches the "standard" Hungarian, which is based on the North-Eastern dialect spoken throughout Hungary.

The Pimsleur® Method: the easiest, fastest way to learn a new language. Completely portable, easily downloadable, and lots of fun. You’ll be speaking and understanding in no time flat! Hungarian, Comprehensive includes 15 hours of spoken language practice and one hour of reading instruction in thirty, 30-minute lessons.

• In the first 10 lessons, you’ll cover the basics: saying hello, asking for or giving information, scheduling a meal or a meeting, asking for or giving basic directions, and much more. You’ll be able to handle minimum courtesy requirements, understand much of what you hear, and be understood at a beginning level, but with near-native pronunciation skills.
• In the next 10 lessons, you’ll build on what you’ve learned. Expand your menu, increase your scheduling abilities from general to specific, start to deal with currency and exchanging money, refine your conversations and add over a hundred new vocabulary items. You’ll understand more of what you hear, and be able to participate with speech that is smoother and more confident.
• In the final 10 lessons, you’ll be speaking and understanding at an intermediate level. In this phase, more directions are given in the target language, which moves your learning to a whole new plane. Lessons include shopping, visiting friends, going to a restaurant, plans for the evening, car trips, and talking about family. You’ll be able to speak comfortably about things that happened in the past and make plans for the future.

Reading Lessons are included and begin in Lesson 11 to provide you with an introduction to reading Hungarian. These lessons, which total about one hour, are designed to teach you to sound out words with correct pronunciation and accent. A Reading Booklet to be used with the audio lessons is also included in PDF format

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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Dr. Paul Pimsleur devoted his life to language teaching and testing and was one of the world’s leading experts in applied linguistics. After years of experience and research, Dr. Pimsleur developed The Pimsleur Method based on two key principles:  the Principle of Anticipation and a scientific principle of memory training that he called “Graduated Interval Recall.”  This Method has been applied to the many levels and languages of the Pimsleur Programs.

Product Details

• Audio CD
• Publisher: Pimsleur; Unabridged edition (March 25, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 074356393X
• ISBN-13: 978-0743563932
• Product Dimensions: 13 x 11.4 x 2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #308,692 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #6 in Books > Education & Reference > Foreign Languages > Hungarian > Instruction

More About the Author

Dr. Paul Pimsleur (b. 1926, d. 1976) devoted his life to language teaching and testing and was one of the world's leading experts in applied linguistics. He was fluent in French, good in German, and had a working knowledge of Italian, Russian, Modern Greek, and Mandarin Chinese. After obtaining his Ph.D. in French and a Masters in Psychology from Columbia University, he taught French Phonetics and Linguistics at UCLA. He later became Professor of Romance Languages and Language Education, and Director of The Listening Center (a state-wide language lab) at Ohio State University; Professor of Education and Romance Languages at the State University of New York at Albany; and a Fulbright lecturer at the University of Heidelberg. He did research on the psychology of language learning and in 1969 was Section Head of Psychology of Second Language Learning at the International Congress of Applied Linguistics.

Dr. Pimsleur was a member of the American Association of Teachers of French (AATF), American Educational Research Association (AERA), Modern Language Association (MLA), and a founding member of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL).

His many books and articles revolutionized theories of language learning and teaching. After years of experience and research, Dr. Pimsleur developed a new method (The Pimsleur Method) that is based on two key principles: the Principle of Anticipation and a scientific principle of memory training that he called "Graduated Interval Recall." This Method has been applied to the many levels and languages of the "Pimsleur Programs."

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Better retention than you'd think!, October 5, 2010

By 

Jenny Chalek (Louisville, KY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hungarian, Comprehensive: Learn to Speak and Understand Hungarian with Pimsleur Language Programs (Audio CD)

I love the Pimsleur method of language learning. You do have to have patience with yourself - I repeated each lesson an average of four times before moving on to the next. But I found that when I got to the end of the series, then went back to earlier ones for review, I had no problem at all remembering every single thing that had been taught. It's kind of like, you don't think you're learning a lot, but what you do learn you learn *so* well that it absolutely sticks. The lessons get progressively harder, but if you don't "get" a lesson the first time, just play it over again until you do get most of it. Before moving on. It really does stick if you do this.

I found the fact that they only want you to do the "reading lessons" after unit 11 or later very odd at first - but then when I finally got to that point, I realized why. You had to get used to the way things were pronounced enough so your brain isn't "prejudiced" by subconsciously "Americanizing" the written words.

I only wish they would continue the series - apparently there is not enough demand to go past Comprehensive I at this time, and it's so hard to find Hungarian instruction. I would absolutely buy a Comprehensive II if they came out with one.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Difficult to know what is being said., October 3, 2010

By 

Eugene E. Brull (Redondo Beach, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Hungarian, Comprehensive: Learn to Speak and Understand Hungarian with Pimsleur Language Programs (Audio CD)

I find this teaching Hungarian lessons quite good - a hundred times better than just a book. Because they don't have a printed set of new words for each of the lessons, I find that it takes me listening & practicing each lesson once a day for about a week before I can catch on to what a word is. [It could take less time to do a lesson more than once a day, but each lesson is ½ hour & it is difficult to find the extra time.] I have to use a Hungarian-English dictionary. Though, spelled words don't help the pronunciation, I have found that what is being said & what I'm trying to repeat becomes more & more difficult as sentences with the new words gets me lost. Life would be a lot easier if the lessons had a vocabulary for the new words. The lessons do an excellent job of building pronounciation of words and do a very good way of building vocabularly when new lessons bring into play elements of previous lessons. I would really recommend this product!!! Part of the problem with catching onto new words is my lifelong difficulty with languages & their longer sentences are a little too fast for the words to register. No matter what I have said that is somewhat negative, by all means - BUY THIS PRODUCT!! A good dictionary is a learning aid which I personally need whereas others can get by w/o one.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pimsleur method for beginning Hungarian, October 27, 2009

By 

Jonathan D. Garrett "jonroz" (Lexington, KY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Hungarian, Comprehensive: Learn to Speak and Understand Hungarian with Pimsleur Language Programs (Audio CD)

This is a terrific product. My wife is Hungarian, she lived in Hungary until the age of 16, and she thinks it is excellent. The Pimsleur method is definitely an excellent method.