Hungarian Foundation Programme
Intensive Hungarian Foundation Course
The Intensive Hungarian Foundation Course designed to anyone interested in the Hungarian language and culture is the ideal way to jump-start your future academic or professional life in Hungary. With a minimum of 800 contact hours guaranteed, the course can bring you up to speed in as little as two terms.
Divided into two terms, the aim of the course is to provide students with a system of tools allowing them to successfully manage communicational situations arising in the target language environment and enabling them to comprehend factual texts containing the basic structures of the language, in both reading and writing. The first term lasts for 18 working weeks (22*45 min classes per week organized into 11*90 minute slots), the second for 19 working weeks (22*45 min classes per week organized into 11*90 minute slots) (as detailed in the academic calendar for every term).
In the second term, students are provided with the full formal system of the Hungarian language. The course subjects, aimed at developing the various language skills, now concentrate on, among other things, independent written compositions and language use for expressing opinions. The reading program gradually leads from comprehending texts with the help of a dictionary up to the independent processing of texts. The latter subjects can be expanded by developing the basic vocabulary according to the students’ wishes into various study areas, such as history, literature, sociology.
Apart from the intensive language classes, the additional Hungarian cultural lectures give an overview of the main events in Hungarian history, Hungarian literature, linguistics, folklore, cultural history and sociology. These lectures are held in English.
This two-term program provides students with the necessary skills and knowledge that enables them to continue studies in Hungarian at a university level or to use Hungarian as an intermediary language at work.
Strength of program
The program is provided by the Department of Hungarian as a Foreign Language, which is the national centre for Hungarian teaching for foreigners and teacher training in Hungarian as a foreign language.
FIRST SEMESTER INTENSIVE COURSE
Communication
- Introducing oneself
- Countries, nationalities
- How old are you? How much? (numbers)
- Where is it? – Objects, people, buildings (names and types of buildings)
- Shopping in shops and at the market
- Ordering in restaurants, coffee shops, cafeteria (names of foods and drinks)
- What time is it? → time expressions
- At home
- From day to night → daily routine
- At what time?/When? → description of events
- How to get to…? → In the city (public transportation, getting information, ordering taxis)
- At the train station → at the cashier and on the train (main Hungarian cities)
- Family (members of the family, description of people)
- I like/I dislike
Grammar
- Conjugation of “to be” – nominal sentences
- indefinite conjugation (singular)
- definite conjugation
- postpositive constructions
- Where? To Where – answering locatives
- Plural of nouns
- indefinite conjugation (plural)
- From where? - answering locatives
- Verbal prefixes
- Possessive pronouns 1.
- Possessive pronouns 2.
- Habeo construction
- Definite conjugation 1.
- Definite conjugation 2.
- Revision
Course Material
- Durst Péter: Lépésenként magyarul. Első Lépés. Szegedi Tudományegyetem.
- Durst Péter, Péter Nóra: Lépésenként magyarul. Első lépés – Magyar nyelv kezdőknek. DVD. Szegedi Tudományegyetem, Hungarológiai Program.
- Szili Katalin et al.: A formától a használatig (Grammatikai gyakorlatok), ELTE, 2009.
SECOND SEMESTER INTENSIVE COURSE
Communication
- If I have some free time (free time activities, booking holidays, travelling)
- Having guests over (inviting people over, phrases)
- Being a tourist in Budapest and in other Hungarian cities (cities, sightseeing, how to spend time in a place)
- In the theatre, cinema, and in other facilities (inquiring about places, prices, buying tickets, understanding leaflets, expressing opinions)
- This happened... → past expressions
- Biography (talking about one’s life, editing a CV)
- I’m looking for a job... (jobs, basic skills, understanding job advertisements)
- Using Hungarian in everyday situation – at the post office, police station, car repairs, travel agencies)
- Asking and giving directions
- On the road in Hungary (description of the countryside, towns, booking holidays in Hungarian, understanding leaflets, expressing opinions)
- Jobs, working place, career (the working environment, work, opinions on different jobs)
- Looking for a job (future plans, describing one’s skills, understanding job advertisements, job interviews in Hungarian)
- Family gatherings
Grammar
- the habeo construction
- -t past tense conjugation
- “ott, -ett, -ött” type of past tense conjugation
- time expressions: -val, -vel ezelőtt; óta
- the comparative and superlative
- how?/in what way? – answering specifiers
- functions of the imperative (request, advice, order, instruction, etc)
- expressing objectives with affixes and clauses
- functions of the conditional
- pragmatics of the imperative and conditional
- conjugation of the infinitive
- adverbial participles
- co-ordination
- subordination 1.
- subordination 2.
- Revision
Course material
- Durst Péter, Péter Nóra: Lépésenként magyarul. Második lépés – Magyar nyelv haladóknak, DVD
- Durst Péter: Lépésenként magyarul. Nyelvtani gyakorlatok haladóknak. 2001.
- Durst Péter: Lépésenként magyarul. Második lépés – Magyar nyelv haladóknak. Szegedi Tudományegyetem, Hungarológiai Program.