Christmas Time Off

[TGAOTU]

learning a foreign language is one of the best ways to exercise the mind. You may have to eat your words when the Hungarian and Lithuanian economies overtake the UK

You're getting truck drivers from there too?

[hyperD]

learning a foreign language is one of the best ways to exercise the mind. You may have to eat your words when the Hungarian and Lithuanian economies overtake the UK

I can categorically say that Hungarian is an absolute bugg*r to learn.

The most confusing thing is that while we have one word for say "restaurant" they use a bunch of suffixes and prefixes to describe that word in different contexts. Into the restaurant, at the restaurant, going to the restaurant, coming from the restaurant... and no personal pronouns.

At least I can say basic sentences now. And obviously lots of rude swearwords.

[hyperD]

Yes, I just found out that even if you speak perfect Hungarian with a perfect accent, if your word order is wrong then you sound like a thick, uneducated local apparantly.

Well, the m-in-law finally picked up I had learnt some Hungarian and was suitably impressed. I started reading some of the local papers there and could pick up 1 word in 8 or so but as I started to understand the preffix/suffix nature of the language I could work out the context.

Still, as Francko says, only another 10 years to go...

Lovely snowy weather there though. Have put on a stone and sent my cholesterol levels through the roof.

[expat]

I can categorically say that Hungarian is an absolute bugg*r to learn.

The most confusing thing is that while we have one word for say "restaurant" they use a bunch of suffixes and prefixes to describe that word in different contexts. Into the restaurant, at the restaurant, going to the restaurant, coming from the restaurant... and no personal pronouns.

At least I can say basic sentences now. And obviously lots of rude swearwords.

The difference is illusory. You said it yourself: English has "intotherestaurant", "attherestaurant", "goingtothe restaurant", "comingfromtherestaurant". It just happens that in English we call the extra bits Prepositions and say they are separate words.

[hyperD]

The difference is illusory. You said it yourself: English has "intotherestaurant", "attherestaurant", "goingtothe restaurant", "comingfromtherestaurant". It just happens that in English we call the extra bits Prepositions and say they are separate words.

It would be illusory if the suffixes, prefixes and the entire root word don't change!

However, they do on virtually all words and contextes. It follows a sort of vowel harmony but there are plenty of exceptions.

Helpfully, my tutor said "you just kind of pick it up as you go along". She also said that people who have been studying this for 3 years have problems with basic grammer and vowel harmony as it's so complex.