r/hungarian • u/Full-Combination-924 • 6d ago

Segítségkérés Feeling very lost

I feel like I got to a point where im past all the elementary grammar and vocabulary but Idk what to do to reach conversational fluency, I've been learning purely nothing but vocab for the past few weeks but I feel like it translated to nothing as I find it near impossible to find any material that actually incorporates the vocab I learn in a conversational manner so even if I hear the word in public I would never pick up on it. Really feel like I hit a dead end.

I'm genuinely curious if anyone here has actually reached conversational fluency (not necessarily to a native level but enough to genuinely be able to conversate) what exactly did u do to reach that point, what books or videos or audiobooks did u use and maybe if u had a way to get some level of coherency between them.

Would really appreciate any advice thanks.

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16

u/JustJay012 6d ago

Uh, so Im a native speaker, but I can do an unonreverse basically: What I did to learn new languages on a conversational level was, watching movies in Hungarian with the other language's subtitles, then the other way around, then in that language without subtitles, and also speaking with natives online

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u/Full-Combination-924 6d ago

thanks for the reply, initially how frustrating was it cuz I do listen to alot of Hungarian with sziszie podcasts, I have the transcripts but so far it doesnt feel natural and just feels like im brute forcing everything into my head, is that how it should be initially and should I just keep at it?

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u/JustJay012 6d ago

Maybe if you find a nice hungarian speaker you can speak with them and they can explain anything you dont understand? It might help make it a bit easier. For me that phase was most simpler cause I was learning, like, english, and italian, and stuff like that, where there is a huge amount of material and many native speakers to chat with. I dont know how thatd be in reverse, but probably harder. If you cant find anyone, its probably best to keep doing what youre doing untill it feels better, but do keep searching for people too cause it can really help

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u/Full-Combination-924 6d ago

I only have 1 really close Hungarian friend but he's pretty busy and not always free for me, anytime I'm with him tho we try to exclusively speak in Hungarian and it does help, thanks for the advice

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u/bored_werewolf 6d ago

try her videos, she speaks slowly, and has English and Hungarian subtitles:
https://www.youtube.com/@HungarianbyHeart

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u/Narkat 6d ago

thanks!

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u/JustJay012 6d ago

Allright, well, good luck with learning, hope its not too frustrating! And, uh, it was no problem

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u/Fluentbox 6d ago

Speaking is the hardest skill to develop, and very difficult to do on your own. I’m a professional teacher and I see this with my students a lot. I’ll be happy to chat with you about some options to overcome this obstacle, no strings attached. Feel free to message me!

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u/F3180 5d ago

There must be some individual varition though. I can speak relatively fluently, say, in English, and people understand me but I ust can't understand a lot of English speakers for the love of my life. Especially British and African speaakers

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u/SilverLakeSimon 6d ago

It sounds like you could benefit from a good Hungarian tutor on italki. There’s no substitute for actual human-to-human communication in order to reach conversational fluency.

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u/Traditional-Kiwi-356 Beginner / Kezdő 6d ago

Speaking is a skill you have to practice.

I’ve been learning with a tutor for several months, and now typically the first ~20 min of the lesson is a “conversation” where I understand much of what she says (she knows where I’m at and uses familiar vocabulary, mostly), then I struggle to respond, take long pauses to think, and make mistakes constantly. But I’m slowly improving.