How to Practice Hungarian Without Getting Overwhelmed?
Hi, I’m Szilvia, and I’m a certified in teaching Hungarian as a second language. I teach Hungarian in an original way and help learners to come up with their own unique plans.
While traditional teaching methods can be good up to a point, I believe relying only on that is not going to take you as far as you want to go.
I’ve studied Spanish both through materials on the Internet and private lessons.
However, I don’t find it effective to rely entirely on my weekly Spanish lessons. And as a teacher I know that one lesson a week doesn’t matter, what matters is what you do during the week. In other words, the most important thing is consistency.
So apart from learning at school and through courses, I decided to create my personal study routine.
But I was struggling...
Whenever I sat down at my desk, I kept thinking “What should I study today? Should I study a little bit of grammar? But what grammar? Should I learn some vocabulary? But what kind and how much?
No one told me specifically what to study, which material to choose, or to design a study plan effectively.
After finishing university, I found myself lost. All of a sudden, no one was there to tell me what to study. I never actually learned, how to study on my own.
I have time to study, but study what? There are too many materials and videos on the Internet, and I don’t know what to choose based on my current level…
Everywhere I turned, all I got was “Well, you just have to try and find what works for you.” But how?
Where should I start? How do I know what things I should try?
Knowing I had to get out of this cycle, I created my own plan...
For Reading, I bought books and looked for short stories online.
For Writing, I wrote short texts each week about a certain topic. My Spanish language exchange partner corrected it for me and pointed out my mistakes so that I could improve.
For Listening, I used podcasts to strengthen my comprehension skills.
For Speaking, I joined conversation clubs and found someone to practice speaking Spanish with.
Seems like I was doing pretty well, right?…
But actually, I wasn’t.
For Reading: there were too many reading exercises on the Internet. I usually ended up with one that was either too easy or too hard for me. I also felt pressured to finish a book I didn’t even like. It was a huge waste of time.
For Writing and Speaking, my partner was not always available to proofread my writing and practice speaking with me. It’d have to wait for days, even weeks, and it was really demotivating.
For Listening, the podcasts labelled “beginner-friendly” were half an hour to an hour long. That was too much for me. They didn’t even have transcripts, so when I missed something I needed to replay it again and again. It was so frustrating.
I thought I was doing well, but I wasn’t. I couldn’t focus on the actual practicing.
There were tons of materials and opportunities, but nothing seemed to suit me.
I do NOT want the same thing happen to you, so I designed my own membership program:
I spent the last 4 years trying to unlearn everything that had been programmed into my brain in school about learning and about traditional teaching methods. I’ve been researching and started to create my own materials for Hungarian learners.
My materials are tailored to your level, that way if you’re a beginner, you won’t have to listen to an hour-long podcast for natives. Even if you’re an advanced learner, listening to podcasts and videos made for native speakers can be very overwhelming.
I cannot emphasize how important it is to choose the right material to learn from – the one that suits you. And here, you’ll get that opportunity, and you get to pick what to practice.
This would save you tons of time researching the right materials and exercises.
I’ve been there before. I am also a language learner like you and I’ve experienced all the frustration when studying.
I wish I knew the key wasn’t buying every text book, memorising vocabulary and studying grammar tables.
These materials are the answers to all of my questions back then, and I wish someone also provided me these.
You will love this membership if...
- you want to practice more but you’re stuck and frustrated and you don’t know what to learn from
- what you’ve found online is either too easy or too difficult and you want something that suits your level
- you want to learn colloquial Hungarian for everyday life, for talking with family and friends
- you are at least level A2 (or if you’re below but you enjoy learning from authentic material using audio and text, you are more than welcome here!)
- you are looking for material about exciting topics what people actually talk about and had enough of reading about the differences between city and countryside
- you are ready to create a new routine you can stick to
You will probably not if...
- you are a total beginner or you can’t form simple sentences on your own yet
- you don’t want to dedicate time 3-4 times a week for learning Hungarian
- you are looking for a traditional language course
- you only want to learn descriptive grammar
Benefits of the membership
Saves you a LOT of time
Finding comprehensible and enjoyable content for learning Hungarian online is almost mission impossible. With this membership everything you need will be provided based on levels.
Budget-friendly
You won’t even recognize the monthly charged few dollars compared to an expensive text book you might not even find enjoyable to use after purchasing.
Study-guide included
Your self-study material comes with a guide giving you ideas on how to efficiently use it. You will have everything in hand for creating a personalised, sustainable study routine.
Meet other learners
You will meet other Hungarian learners from all over the world on our monthly meetings. Some members from the same city already met in real life and became friends.
By levels
Even if you manage to find good content for learning Hungarian online, it might not be tailored to your level. This membership offers material based on levels.
Practice all four skills
You will have a chance to practice reading, writing, listening and speaking with the right amount of input and output.
Introducing the materials and services
PODCAST TRANSCRIPTION
- elementary, intermediate and advanced level (A1+ – B2)
- good for simple practice when you just want to listen to something
- good for purposeful practice when you want to work on progress using the transcript
- 8-20 minute long episodes – not too long for analyzing the text but you can break it down to shorter parts too
- exciting topics you’ll enjoy listening to
- useful colloquial and slang vocabulary
SHORT TEXT WITH AUDIO – 3 LEVELS
- half a page long text in three levels (A2, B1, B2) with a vocabulary list and audio
- good for purposeful practice for analyzing sentence structure
- good for days when you don’t feel like working through a whole podcast transcription
TEXT CORRECTION
You can choose a package with text correction and I’ll correct your half a page long text you have to write in a Google Document about the current topic I give you. I also leave personal and grammar notes. (And I’ll make sure to give you a sticker too because your time and effort spent learning Hungarian is always appreciated:)
GROUP CONVERSATION
- monthly group meeting – two groups: A2-B1 / B1-B2
- The main goal of the meetings is to have this amazing feeling of connecting with people through Hungarian language. Here you’ll have the chance to talk with people at the same level as you.
- You get the questions a 6 days in advance so you have time to prepare your answers.
- You can also improvise and see how different it is from when you prepare.
VLOG VIDEOS WITH HU-EN SUBTITLES
- 5-12 minute long videos
- stories about my personal life
- you can chat with me in the comments
- you can listen to real spoken Hungarian
Members said
Choose your membership here
Kolbász
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short text in 3 levels with audio
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vlog videos with subtitles
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close friends list on Instagram
Vizsla
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all Kolbász services
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all podcast transcriptions
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monthly Zoom meeting
Turul
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all Kolbász services
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all Vizsla services
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monthly text correction
It's time to let yourself be the Hungarian learner you've always wanted to be
Join more than 200 members and break out of that cycle of irregular bursts of learning and guilt trip that doesn’t take you anywhere. Take your progress into your own hands.
Are you ready to be that Hungarian learner?
FAQ
This membership program wasn't designed for complete beginners.
This membership offers material from level A2 (pre-intermediate) to level B2 (upper-intermediate). If you're familiar with conjugation in present and past tense, you can already benefit from this membership.
I post a Google document link on Patreon. You'll get an e-mail notification about it titled 'given month's Zoom meeting'. You'll find the Zoom link in that document, along with the questions we're going to talk about.
We meet once a month on a Sunday. Most of the time it'll be the third Sunday of the month, but it can change. I'll send out the link and topic 6 days in advance, that's how you'll know which Sunday. The time never changes, it's always 6pm-7pm for level A2-B1, 7pm-8pm for level B1-B2 Budapest time.
No. There are two groups at different times. One is level A2-B1 (pre-intermediate), the other one is B1-B2 (upper-intermediate). I send out questions six days in advance before the meeting and you can practice your answers if you want. The learners in your group will be in the same situation as you, you can comfortably speak with them at your level.