Sean.

by Sean
(Milton Keynes, England)

I started visiting Hungary about 5 years ago. My first memory of hearing the Hungarian language is of my former work colleague talking on the phone, and I thought they were having trouble hearing the person they were talking to, because they kept saying (what I thought was) "again, again, again." I now know that they were saying "igen, igen, igen"!

Sometimes I don't know whether I am coming or going in Hungary, because Hungarians sometimes say "szia" for hello and "allo" for goodbye!

I have noticed that some internet translation programs struggle to translate Hungarian into English so I usually end up having to use a dictionary anyway.

I think that Hungarian is a very poetic language to listen to thanks to the vowel harmony.

I am finding it very hard to learn - I only know the very basics even after 5 years. I have a couple of Szekeres Adrien CDs; listening to those has helped me with the pronounciation. It does not help that my Hungarian work colleagues speak very good English and I do not practice my Hungarian as often as I should.