Colloquial Hungarian (Colloquial Series)

Rating:
Summary: Colloquial Hungarian by Jerry Payne
Review: I think this book is great. However, the complexity of Hungarian requires a LOT of study, and hence, I recommend you get the cassette with it, and play it over and over and over and over again until the pronunciation exercises and first two dialogues make you sick. Once you have done this, the material in the book is much clearer, and like the other reviewer said, allows you to learn and get into Hungarian very quickly. Stuff I learnt in chapters 1 and 2 of this book I use regularly in Hungary and it seems to work! Be prepared for two months of vowel sound learning though - not a fault of the book, but the fact that Hungarian is very hard to pronounce, learn and understand - but nothing ventured...I do it for fun and I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to start - the dialogues are also funny, though I don't think anyone says "elvtars" in Hungary anymore - making this slightly outdated, but very enjoyable!!

Rating:
Summary: It moves along too fast, but it's at least something
Review: Routledge's COLLOQUIAL HUNGARIAN offers just what its title suggests, a presentation of everyday spoken Hungarian. However, it's not the best course on the market.

Any attempt to teach oneself such a complex language as Hungarian is going to require several textbooks, as a variety of approaches to aspects of the language help avoid confusion. COLLOQUIAL HUNGARIAN certainly deserves a place among one's materials, but it is not fit to be the primary source.

COLLOQUIAL HUNGARIAN moves along too quickly and is very difficult to keep up with. I find a single one of its lessons offers enough information for three units in other textbooks. As a result, one should use COLLOQUIAL HUNGARIAN as reinforcement and a reference after learning the concepts in another textbook. The cassettes offer useful further listening practice.

As a primary textbook, I recommend TEACH YOURSELF HUNGARIAN. While it's not too great, COLLOQUIAL HUNGARIAN does have a role and for Hungarian self-taught I would suggest getting it (with the cassettes!)

Rating:
Summary: A good introductory book to get you started.
Review: The book starts with pronunciation exercises, and then consists of a series of lessons, each of which simulates a common scenario setting (restaurants, gas station, etc). It presents new vocabulary and a few grammatical rules along the way. It makes for easy reading, and along with the tape can get you started easily into the language. However, if you want something more than "survival hungarian", you will need to go on to an intermediate book. The learnings from this book will not allow you to have a full conversation, but only to interact as a tourist in Hungary.