Thursday, July 16, 2015

To Hungary and Back Already

I looked back and see that it has been over two months since I posted anything. In that time I have continued to work with  Memrise and  Colloquial Hungarian to increase my vocabulary.

We returned to Hungary briefly on June 27th to visit friends in Szolnok. When we got together we primarily spoke in English since there were  six of us but our friends would make small comments to me or ask me how I would say something in Hungarian so it was a bit of practice. When we weren't together I was able to tackle the language a bit at their local market. Not too much English there and as in the past the residents were patient and helped me along.

We left Hungary on the 28th, driving to Croatia. Along the way I was able to figure out what road signs meant to keep me occupied. We stopped to eat in Somogy Megye (Somogy county). I was all set to speak some Hungarian and the server comes out speaking German... What? My family comes from this county so I knew there were many German speaking residents, but I wasn't ready for this. Her second language? English of course. Oh well, eat and go.

We returned to Budapest on July 1st. We stay outside of the "tourist area" so while some speak English, the residents start out the conversations in Hungarian. In flea markets I found myself asking for prices and negotiating them and asking how old items were.  It was fun to become the "center of attention" when my traveling companions were trying to communicate in English and leaned on my Hungarian.

Probably the best part of this stay in Budapest was the two hours sitting with two native speakers. This had been arranged through an online friend. I was able to make mistakes without being nervous about doing so and was able to help them with their English. Explaining "can" and "may" was a bit challenging.  They also took me to some book shops in Budapest to get more study materials. I'll post more about these later. Until then...

Sziasztok!