An Interesting Language
Hungarian Just Because
There really aren’t a lot of compelling reasons for an American to study Hungarian, so why the fuck do it?
An estimated 13 million people speak Hungarian worldwide, and approximately 10 million of that total reside within Hungary itself. If you want to live there or spend a lot of time there, it’s indispensable, but otherwise it’s a language that just refuses to die.
So back to the original question: why study Hungarian???? I do simply because it’s fun. Do you really need another reason unless you are in a situation where you need it to function?
It’s Not the Easiest Language to Learn
The Foreign Service Institute of the United States Department of State places languages in 4 different categories based on the average learning difficulty they present to students whose primary language is English. Category I languages are the easiest and Category 4 are the most difficult. Hungarian falls into Category 3 (along with Greek, Russian, Tagalog, Thai and others).
That sounds a bit intimidating, but in reality you can start having simple conversations fairly quickly. Like any other language, it becomes more difficult as the content of tour conversation becomes more nuanced.
