I visited Budapest for the first time in 2017 during my summer tournament camp which was around 7 years ago. Now when I think about it does not seem to be a very long time ago, but 7 years is a long time indeed. I wish I started to learn Hungarian back then which means that by now I would be a fluent speaker. However, I have chosen a little bit more complicated path for myself - learning one of the toughest languages in the world during my senior year of college. If not now, then when? First, I downloaded Duolingo (by the way, I am on my 62nd day strike). In about a week I found myself the tutor on the Italki platform with whom I started to learn the basics of the language like the alphabet, vowels/consonants, grammar structure, types of verbs, etc. During the early beginning of my learning journey, I was struggling a lot with motivation because I simply forgot how tough, and time-consuming learning a new language can be.
My decision to get enrolled into both SDLC 105 and SDLC 110 gave me that extra motivation, and opportunity to include Hungarian learning into my schedule. I was lucky enough to find an exchange student from the UK who was born and raised in Hungary and, therefore, fluently speaks Hungarian. I meet with her every week at least twice a week, and sometimes we manage to schedule the third session depending on our schedules. As it says in my study plan/syllable, we use 2 MagyarOK books - one for grammar, and the second one for vocabulary and practice of communication skills with audio files. I have been working a lot on my own, doing homework, and finishing the rest of the assigned pages from the books for which we did not have time during our meetings. Before every class I text my community partner and let her know my progress on homework, share with her my questions, and the exercises I want to go through with her. I have been using a lot of flashcards and stickers with new vocabulary which I take with me and review on my way to classes. Also, my community partner suggested that I listen and translate to English some popular Hungarian songs that have a lot of new and useful vocabulary. I find these strategies very useful and effective in my learning experience. I feel that I already drastically expanded my vocabulary, and moved from zero level and not being able to say a word 2 months ago to some level of A1 and being able to participate in basic conversations. I am planning to maintain the same learning techniques, meet with my community partner, and do my homework, learning activities, and exercises from books with the same frequency.
Comments