Instructor(s):
Short Description of the Course:
At the beginning of the course the students get a brief survey of the origin and most essential typological characteristics of the Hungarian language. The teaching material covers the basic elements of Hungarian grammar: the sound-system and spelling; some elements of morphology; the elementary rules of constructing sentences. At the course the students acquire a basic vocabulary and a number of idiomatic phrases of colloquial Hungarian, and develop skills to enable them to communicate in everyday routine situations.
Culture is an organically integrated part of the course. There are several things we do throughout the semester to introduce the culture of the country to the students.
- A field trip in a big supermarket
This trip is closely connected to Unit 3 in the course book, which teaches food and shopping vocabulary and grammar. At the same time it gives an opportunity to discuss Hungarian people’s shopping and eating habits.
- A trip to an open-air museum outside Budapest
We visit a museum of traditional Hungarian architecture, customs, crafts and village life.
Apart from the above mentioned we always celebrate the holidays: Easter in the spring semester and Santa Claus and Christmas in the fall. In this way the students can have some insight into how Hungarians celebrate these international or typically Hungarian holidays. We learn songs and the vocabulary of the holidays.
The topic list of the course book covers the following:
- Greetings, introduce yourself
- Place of living (country, city, home)
- At the doctor’s
- Shopping for food
- Shopping for clothes
- Seasons and activities
- Free time
- Getting around town
- Sightseeing
These topics inevitably present the opportunity to discuss different aspects of Hungarian culture. Among other things we try to bring the topics close to our students by putting special emphasis on aspects that might be really interesting for young people. For example in connection with free time activities we include music and food festivals and so called ’ruin pubs’, which are very popular with young Hungarians.
Aim of the course:
The course is designed to make the students acquainted with the most basic elements of Hungarian grammar and vocabulary, and also prepare them to be successful in continuing their Hungarian studies on a higher level.
Prerequisites: –
Detailed Program and Class Schedule:
- An introduction into Hungarian phonetics; nominal sentences
- Copula, substantive verb; questions and negation
- Present tense forms of verbs, singular; postpositions, some adverbs
- The grammatical object/accusative; adverbs of place: Where?
- Numerals; adverbs of place: Where… to?
- Present tense forms of verbs, plural; the objective case of adjectives and numerals; adverbs of place: Where… from?
- The plural form of nouns and adjectives
Grammar summary; Written test
Method of instruction:
Means and ways of communicative language teaching
Coursebook:
Erdős József – Prileszky Csilla: Halló, itt Magyarország! I. Budapest, Akadémiai Kiadó 2000.
Supplementary material: Kaleidovox. Computer-aided exercises by Erdős József
Grading:
Grading is based on student performance in three areas: a) homework done regularly; b) performances at the classes; c) written test closing the course.
Instructors' bio:
Katalin Bakonyi Berényi is a language teacher in the Centre of Modern Languages at BME, since 1978; graduated from Kossuth Lajos University, qualification: teacher of Hungarian and English language and literature. Teaching activity: Hungarian as a foreign language to foreign students studying engineering in Hungarian or English; to Erasmus/Study Abroad exchange students; teaching general, technical and business English to Hungarian students; Hungarian literature and film courses to Erasmus/Study Abroad students. Publications on teaching Hungarian as a foreign language, the methodology of teaching languages and cultural topics; co-author of the Coursebook for Advanced Learners of Hungarian.
Márta Magasi graduated from Eötvös Lóránd University, Budapest in 1982 with a degree in Hungarian language and literature. She has been a teacher at BME in the Centre of Modern Languages for 14 years, where she teaches Hungarian language courses to foreign students studying engineering. In addition, she is involved in university language training programs abroad and in editing and writing university publications (e.g. Readings in Technical English; Language Tests for Foreign Students, etc.). Recently she has been working as a teacher and coordinator of language trainings for leading multinational companies.