Sziasztok! Anyone could recommend me a good book in Hungarian for beginners? Is there any book with an english translation as well? Like, written in Hungarian and also in English to help me learn the language?
Köszönöm!
Szia!
I would recommend books that are easy to read because Dan Brown and Ken Follett can be very difficult to read in Hungarian.
At the beginning I would suggest you reading books like: little prince, diary of a wimpy kid or if you want to read something "Hungarian" than I would suggest you reading "Vuk" written by Fekete István (ohh and after you have read the book you can watch the movie :) it is known by all of the Hungarian, I suppose.
If you think you can talk about basic tpocs, and understand short texts (intermediate). I suggest you reading Harry Potter or if you have read it in all of the languages and you got bored with it I recommend you reading Agatha Christie's or John Green's book.
If you think you at an advanced level there are thousands of books and novels, I recommend you Csáth Géza's novel (they are quite strange and different) or Szabó Magda - Abigél is also a good one.
I hope I could help you help you :)
Szia!
I always read on my target language those books, what I've already loved and known. For example Harry Potter or The daVinci code.
I've already knew these books in my native language. I listen to the audiobook version while I read the written book so I can see the words and hear the pronunciation and feel the rhythm of my target language.
It's called extensive reading and listening -very interesting, how our mind works! Try it out!
If you have a favourite book I can try to find it in Hungarian, maybe with audiobook version. ;-)
Hi Laura,
As Ági commented earlier, reading a book you like and are familiar with is a good first option. The first novels I read in Hungarian were by Kurt Vonnegut the American author. He was a favourite author of mine. They were bi-lingual editions from Maecenas Kiadó, the first half of the book was Hungarian, the second half was English. It saved all that tiresome szótározni as you can just turn to the English section.
I think the very first Hungarian book I got any pleasure/satisfaction out of was a collection of short stories by Örkény István called Egyperces novellák. Each story is so short, you can have the satisfaction of finishing it in a relatively short time, even if you don't understand 100% of it. Plus they are fun - depending on your sense of humour. I believe you can get them in an English translation (look for "One Minute Stories").
Szerb Antal's A Pendragon legenda (set in Wales) and Utas és holdvilág (set in Italy) were recommended to me as the language use is relatively clear and they are regarded as literature. Both are available in English translation. For something more modern I enjoyed reading Dragomán György's A fehér király and Máglya. His work is available in many languages, perhaps even Spanish.
I didn't have much success with children's fiction, or youth fiction e.g. Fekete István.
After reading your first 10 books it gets easier! :)
Kitartás!
Eric
