When the topic of the Hungarian language comes up, perhaps the most common impression one hears is that it sounds really difficult. Obviously, we think of it differently as native speakers, but from time to time, it is useful to recall how unique the language we speak is.
We have repeatedly reported on how various sources consider the Hungarian language complex and extraordinary. For instance, according to English (American) native speakers, Hungarian is a foreign language of almost nuclear difficulty. As FSI reports, one must study Hungarian for one year, putting everything else aside in order to acquire the language.
A few years ago, language teachers were asked about the difficulties that, for example, English, German and French students have with the Hungarian language. What are the most significant challenges? In what terms is Hungarian different?
Every language is beautiful and unique, although some are more complicated than others for foreigners to learn, even on a basic level. Hungarian is definitely one of them. The following video is here to prove it:
These relentless silly articles about the difficulties encountered learning the Hungarian language fail to take into account one very important factor. The level of difficulty is measured by the difficulty a native English speaker (US or British) has learning a language. People with other native languages encounter different levels of difficulty with other languages. An easy example is that Hungarian is not so difficult for someone who is Finnish. Likewise, if someone has studied Latin at school, the extensive use of verb endings and the relative absence of the use of pronouns in Hungarian is not especially problematic. Something else that is disingenuous is the idea that the Hungarian alphabet has 44 letters. Combinations of letters to make a consistent sound such as gy, sz and zs are in fact classified as digraphs, not letters. If this incorrect ‘alphabet’ notion were to be applied to English then the English alphabet would be expanded to include combinations such as th, ch, ph, sh and ng to name but a few. Finally, in my 60 years I have only ever met 2 Hungarians (of the many thousands of Hungarians that I have met) who are genuinely fluent in English and totally accurate in their pronunciation, thus it seems that English is not so easy to learn either.
I do not know if Hungarian is harder to learn than other foreign tongues. I guess that depends on where the learner comes from.
What I do know for sure is that it is not the only language that uses agglutinations, it is not the only one which does not follow the subject-verb-object order, it is not the only one with ü, ő etc…
I think that learning a foreign language is always hard, regardless of the language.
The hungarian language is difficult for the Europeans because it is an ASIATIC LANGUAGE unrelated to the European languages. The most similar languages to Hungarian are the khanty and mansi languages from Siberia (the true homeland of the hungarians).
We were three students from Sudan and one from Nigeria, coincidentally chosen in an experiment to learn the basics of Hungarian in a 4- 5 months, in May 1962, that could allow us to join university in September same year. Three of us native Arabic speakers besides we enjoyed a good standard of English. Our fellow student had a good command of English and a speaker of a native Nigerian language. The course was intensive carried out by a very sympathetic, yet serious Hungarian teacher . I must say English had very little to do with the teaching. It was purely Hungarian. I doubted even if he knew English. The final assessment of the course experiment was judged to be very good. We all managed to join university, two the medical and two engineering and graduated with good result. Of course, later living in a student hostel with Hungarian students in one room was quite helpful in proceeding with our improving the language standard. For me personally, I found a great help, by sheer accident, from my girl friend who happened to be a Hungarian literature student. Feeling my love for literature in general and poetry in particular, she introduced and read to me all Hungarian poets, classic and modern. Hence my love for many of them Josef Attila, Ady Endre, Pettofi, K Dezso etc. I still, up to this day, read them especially my favourite Josef Attila, whose poetry I find so exhilarating and mesmerizing to read in his selective language. This is definitely associated with his tragic life story as a talented kid taken care of by a hardworking washerwoman under abject conditions. Prior to Hungarian, I studied Serbo-Croatian for a year in Belgrade. My personal opinion Hungarian is not more difficult to learn than any other language on earth. The grammar is rather unique, but almost the same degree as with any other language. It’s only the desire. perseverance and teacher especially if you love the country, the people, the culture and Budapest with its monuments, Margit sziget, Var, Bridges lively markets, lovely streets, trams, plazas, sculpture, galleries, theatres, operas bars, cafes, restaurants, Magyar folklore songs and last the easy-going company of its gracious citizens.
két új kék kerék szeretném
Laziness is the biggest problem. It took me 5 years to want to learn it, and another 5 years to speak it. But when you do speak it doors open up. There are alot of ‘k’s’ though. Lol!
I am of Hungarian heritage but I have not been to Hungary yet my family moved to Brazil after the first war in the nineteen twenties i now live on the gold coast Australia I can speak Hungarian but not like a Hungarian who lives in Hungary every time I hear someone speak the language it’s strange to my ears so different from other languages I can’t read or write it just very complex like no other language .