Slightly OT - Learning english

[The Natural Philosopher]

BBC world service.

[The Natural Philosopher]

BARF!

[clot]

No problem. T'was a thought that still might have some validity. The Finns are outward looking and philanthropic. I would not be surprised if someone there hasn't addressed this!

[geoff]

He's just started working for me here, he's good at what he does, but , no English. I have another Hungarian working for me and there is a hungarian community around here, that's not important. What is important is that he picks up enough english to be able to communicate, which is not so easy as he's over 50 .

All the English courses around here are filled up for the foreseeable future with Poles, I'm just looking for an online resource to lead him by the hand. Whether English is a difficult language or not, that Hungarian is close to Finish is irrelevant, at the end of the day he has to learn some english

Somewhere I have an excellent book called "grund und aufbauwortschatz" which is a progressive vocabulary (i.e. it has analysed word frequency), but I have no idea where it's got to

[clot]

At one stage in the past, not that long ago, I understand that they had to learn Finnis, Swedish and Russian.

[Andy Hall]

I wonder if any of the local colleges have English evening classes.......

To survive, I guess that he has to learn English on the every day and conversational level, and then on the written level enough to be able to handle officialdom.

[Andy Champ]

Well lets see:

It was the language of "The empire on which the sun never sets". That was true BTW; the British Empire was far enough around the globe it was always light somewhere.

It is the language of the USA, the richest country in the world.

It is the official language (c/o the Empire) of the biggest democracy (India)

And while it's very difficult to get right, English she mangled can be and understood, yes? (And often is on this very group!)

Thinks. Hungarian Dictionary. "My hovercraft is full of eels".

(You'll have to ignore the Spanish subtitles, this was the only full length version.)

Andy

[geoff]

I looked there, its not grass roots enough

Not yet

[Simon Stroud]

Get him to start with ...

A légpárnás hajóm tele van angolnákkal

... as recommended by Monty Python.

Regards, Simon.

[Steve Firth]

Oh yes, that's another one. Like English there are multiple words for the same thing.

[Rumble]

Yes, I think you just add an apostrophe and s, don't you?

shed's, saw's, drill's, screwdriver's, etc.

[geoff]

full of Poles for the foreseeable future ...

[Steve Firth]

Yebbut then you learn to whistle at the end of every sentence, and to make a weird whining noise between every word.

[Steve Firth]

[Andy Hall]

Yes it was like that. However, not all that many Finns speak Russian now or at least want to admit to it.

As to your comment about their being philanthropic, I think that's true. They generally describe themselves to me as being humble and shy. That's until after a few vodkas.

Even so, I think they have a different starting point to Hungary and a different recent history, where recent means post WW2.

[Andy Hall]

Oh dear. Then I think next option is to get him to look on some Hungarian web sites for means to learn English. That must exist. It certainly does in the other EU accession states, even those like Romania where people are less likely culturally to come to the UK.

[Andy Hall]

True, but I don't think that that was what was meant - more like it would last for ever.

Even more hmm...

That's true but also true of most languages. I reckon that in any of the latin or germanic languages I can usually have a reasonable sense of what's being said because I know enough of the generic words and it's reckoned that in most cases getting one word in about 5 is enough. Plus there is body language of different kinds.

Finnish has been mentioned a couple of times. That is difficult because it is not related to latin/germanic and has its own words for most things. There is virtually zero body language and long silences in the middle of conversations.

[Andy Hall]

OK, different with the rest of the picture. Given that you've exhausted most of the obvious things, ISTM that the next place is to look for English courses on Hungarian sites - perhaps audio as well as written? Could the other person help him find them?

[Andy Hall]

Not any more. It's on the net.

Although the announcers still have public school names like Tarquin etc.

[Peter Twydell]

It started with the greengrocers (potato's, tomato's), but has spread like a rash. Our local florist has a sign in the window, badly printed and put together from A4 sheets, stating that they are now open on Wednesday's.