So some of you probably know that Erik studied Hungarian and Czech to be able to get around in Budapest and Prague. Some have asked how that's going! I'll keep it short.
First, how I studied:
-April/May: Daily 30-minute Pimsleur audio course for Czech. I recommend it; make sure you're somewhere nobody is going to mind you repeating "Where is the bathroom?" in a foreign language.
-May/June: Same thing, for Hungarian
See a problem here? Maybe not yet.
Problem was that my Czech got completely overwrritten by the Hungarian. Same phrases, vocabulary, etc throughout the course meant that there were serious namespace collisions and the only thing my brain could really do was a full over-write.
This was probably the best move as in Budapest I ran into many people that spoke no English and I was, generally, able to operate quite competently!
Turns out Hungarian is unrelated in any way to other Indo-European languages and this makes it "one of the more difficult" out there to learn. Due in part to this, those in Budapest that _did_ speak English were totally thrilled that I spoke Hungarian. They constantly asked why, and were grateful for the grand effort (despite mediocre results). But I remember particularly delighting the old lady from whom we ordered "Reetesh," doing it all in bad Hungarian. She was smiles the whole time.
In Czech, slightly different story. I desperately tried to re-learn Czech on the long (but pleasant) bus ride to Prague. It was not so successful. I am sometimes answering in Hungarian, much to everyone's incredible dismay.
Unlike the Hungarians and Chinese (who are always thrilled when outsiders speak their language), the Czechs seem at best indifferent and at worst quite annoyed with my Czech. Again, it is not as good, but I guess the Czech operate a bit more like the French on this matter.
But at the end of the day, English is pretty much ubiquitous in Prague, so resorting to it for more difficult conversations is just not a problem. If I had to choose being better at one language for the visit, Hungarian would definitely be it.
--Erik
First, how I studied:
-April/May: Daily 30-minute Pimsleur audio course for Czech. I recommend it; make sure you're somewhere nobody is going to mind you repeating "Where is the bathroom?" in a foreign language.
-May/June: Same thing, for Hungarian
See a problem here? Maybe not yet.
Problem was that my Czech got completely overwrritten by the Hungarian. Same phrases, vocabulary, etc throughout the course meant that there were serious namespace collisions and the only thing my brain could really do was a full over-write.
This was probably the best move as in Budapest I ran into many people that spoke no English and I was, generally, able to operate quite competently!
Turns out Hungarian is unrelated in any way to other Indo-European languages and this makes it "one of the more difficult" out there to learn. Due in part to this, those in Budapest that _did_ speak English were totally thrilled that I spoke Hungarian. They constantly asked why, and were grateful for the grand effort (despite mediocre results). But I remember particularly delighting the old lady from whom we ordered "Reetesh," doing it all in bad Hungarian. She was smiles the whole time.
In Czech, slightly different story. I desperately tried to re-learn Czech on the long (but pleasant) bus ride to Prague. It was not so successful. I am sometimes answering in Hungarian, much to everyone's incredible dismay.
Unlike the Hungarians and Chinese (who are always thrilled when outsiders speak their language), the Czechs seem at best indifferent and at worst quite annoyed with my Czech. Again, it is not as good, but I guess the Czech operate a bit more like the French on this matter.
But at the end of the day, English is pretty much ubiquitous in Prague, so resorting to it for more difficult conversations is just not a problem. If I had to choose being better at one language for the visit, Hungarian would definitely be it.
--Erik
1 comment:
Yeah, in Italy they tried to teach us a few words here and there, but whenever I tried, I would come up with French instead.
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