How I Started Learning Hungarian
New Year, New Language... 383 Words into Learning Hungarian
I grew up in a family where everyone on my mom’s side spoke Hungarian—my mom, grandma, great-grandma, and even my grandpa.
My maternal great-grandma was a Swabian from Sântana, Arad County, married to a Hungarian whose family was split between Turnu (now in Romania) and Battonya (in Hungary). This wasn’t unusual for a region close to the Hungarian border, although people tended to marry within their ethnic group. My grandpa, on the other hand, was Romanian, born and raised in Craidorolț, Satu Mare County, an area with a significant Hungarian population. Yet, I was the only one in the family who didn’t learn Hungarian—or the version of German spoken at home.
German wasn’t taught to me because my grandma and great-grandma mostly spoke the Swabian dialect rather than standard German, even though my great-grandma could effortlessly read old German novels in Gothic script well into her 80s and my grandma graduated from a German high school. And Hungarian, because it was spoken less often. In my case, my mom and dad focused on English from kindergarten, often speaking to me in English when I was little, encouraging my interest with plenty of children’s books in English that quickly became my favorites. Of course, the priority was also for me to master Romanian as perfectly as possible. German came later, starting with middle school, and finishing with a German high school degree. Afterward, I studied Spanish on my own for fun and dabbled in Italian, though I mostly spoke it as if it were Spanish.
However, some time ago, especially after digging through Hungarian databases to learn more about my maternal great-grandpa—who died as a prisoner of war in Russia during World War II—I felt the urge to learn Hungarian. Not only to make research easier but also to reconnect with a part of my heritage I felt I’d lost.
I know it’s unlikely I’ll ever learn enough Hungarian to do deep research! But any basic knowledge that helps refine my searches is welcome! And yes, with the rise of AI and tools like ChatGPT, any content in another language can be translated in seconds. But for me, it’s simply not enough to rely solely on such tools. Knowing even a few words in another language, greeting someone in their language—even if the conversation then switches to "universal" English—adds warmth and closeness to the dialogue, curiosity, and openness to another culture that no phone app can replace.
But it wasn’t easy to work up the courage to start learning such a challenging language—or to find good courses and materials. And yet, just the other day, I reached 30 days of learning Hungarian. About 15–30 minutes daily, using an English-Hungarian course on the Duolingo app. (I should mention this article isn’t meant to advertise the app; it’s just a recounting of how my first Hungarian lessons went.) In theory, I’ve learned 383 words, I can greet people politely, understand simple sentences, ask a few questions to get oriented, order some dishes at a restaurant, and vaguely understand the menu offerings.
At least for a beginner level, I can say that the course is very well-structured. Through listening, repeating, writing, and plenty of intuition, as well as rankings and little competitions, you can learn even more in 30 days than you might expect, with minimal time investment. It also helps to stick to your daily lessons, even when laziness strikes. On the other hand, if I thought Hungarian was hard to learn before, after these 30 days, I realize it’s much harder than I imagined. Way, way harder than German, which also has a reputation for being difficult! My musical ear, accustomed to Germanic and Romance languages, is struggling to adapt to the not entirely unfamiliar sounds of Finno-Ugric languages, so my intuition has failed me quite a few times.
What I do feel I’m missing, though, is a pencil and paper. You do learn to write with the app. And sure, you can install a Hungarian keyboard on your phone. But no matter what I do, I can’t shake the feeling that for solidifying words and phrases when learning a foreign language, writing by hand with a pencil on paper remains essential. Sure, the phone—our ever-present companion—helps, but nothing replaces handwriting. So I’m already preparing to review what I’ve learned, this time with pencil and paper. I’m also thinking about my next trip to visit our neighbors in Hungary, where I’ll stubbornly try to speak as much as I can Hungarian, no matter how clumsy or awkward it may sound.
I haven’t picked up any swear words yet—but there’s plenty of time for that this summer! Until then, I should theoretically finish the entire course available in the free version of Duolingo. I don’t know if the paid subscription offers more lessons, but I doubt it. I find the app extremely useful for reaching a nearly decent conversational level. But for anything beyond that, I think I’ll need a proper grammar textbook!
Here’s to more learning in the year ahead!
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The paid version of Duolingo doesn't provide additional lessons—it mainly removes ads, gives you unlimited hearts (which are used up when you make mistakes during lessons), and offers some personalized exercises.
Speaking as a Spanish course user here!