Hungarian 103

Magyar 103
Spring Quarter 2005
Tuesday, Thursday 5:30-7:30pm

Instructor:
Dr. Riskó Ági
Telefon: 447-8528
E-mail: risko.1@osu.edu
Office: 413 Hagerty Hall; Hours: T 4:30pm-5:30pm and by app't

Welcome back to even more Hungarian!

Course objectives:

Hungarian 103 is a lower intermediate level language course, the continuation of Hungarian 102, and represents the third stage of the basic introduction to Magyar language. As so far, we will continue the simultaneous development of the four basic language skills, but on a higher level, with increased emphasis on speaking and real-life situations. Class discussion will take place more and more in Hungarian and will focus on the materials covered in class and assigned as homework. Free conversation and original compositions will be increasingly encouraged in conjunction with active vocabulary building. In addition to grammar review, we will continue to expand the range of grammatical structures, which we will practice and apply in various contexts. We will learn new ways of idiomatic expression and practice them in pair- and group activities. Written and oral homework will be assigned on a regular basis and students will be expected to start writing compositions. We will continue building your active vocabulary to enable you to express yourself in Hungarian in a larger variety of contexts and topics. Some cultural information will also be included to complement the linguistic aspects of the language.

Course materials:

Textbook:
Erdös József, Prileszky Csilla. Halló, itt Magyarország! Magyar nyelvkönyv külföldieknek I-II. 4th edition. Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1997.

Grammar book (recommended): Törkenczy, Miklós. Hungarian Verbs and Essentials of Grammar. A Practical Guide to the Mastery of Hungarian. Budapest: Corvina, 1997.

Audio Tapes:
The textbook is accompanied by two cassette tapes, which contain the recording of all the dialogs and some of the oral exercises. I encourage you to take maximum advantage of this additional listening opportunity.

Other materials:
A packet for each chapter with grammar explanations and exercises will be available on Carmen.

Course requirements:

1. Participation and homework assignments
Since class work is an essential part of the course, and since our class only meets twice a week, regular attendance is absolutely necessary for the successful completion of the course. Regular, conscientious preparation for each class meeting is essential for steady progress and good performance. Since this is a five credit hour course, you should expect to spend a minimum of TEN (10) hours each week in addition to class time. You will be expected to participate actively during class, voluntarily answer questions and show interest and enthusiasm in order to get a good participation grade.

2. Quizzes
There will be a total of 10 quizzes covering not only vocabulary, but also grammar and idiomatic structures. While their focus will be the current material, they will be comprehensive, covering material studied since 101. There will be no make-ups on these quizzes, but only the 8 highest scores will be counted toward your final grade.

3. Essay
You will be expected to hand in one essay by the last day of class, which is June 2. The essay must be 2 typed double-spaced pages in length. You can either choose from the following topics or write about a topic of your own choice:

1. Egy egészen különlegesen jó napom
2. Egy magyarországi látogatásom
3. Mit csináltam a tavaszi szünetben
4. Egy hétvége a magyar barátommal
5. A tavaly nyári szabadságom

4. Final exam
There will be a comprehensive oral final exam at the end of the quarter.

Grading:
Class participation	40%
Quizzes	25%
Essay	10%
Final exam	25%

Grades will be assigned based on the following scale:
93–100	A	80–82	B–	68–69	D+
90–92	A–	78–79	C+	63–67	D
88–89	B+	73–77	C	below 63	E
83–87	B	70–72	C–

Reminder:

While I will certainly do my best to help you achieve your goals this quarter, it is mostly up to you how much progress you will be making. Set yourself goals and stick with them. As I said before, devote some time to Hungarian every day of the week. Regular work can do miracles. Whether it is vocabulary review, grammar exercises, listening to the tape, copying a passage out of the book, or even talking to yourself (nothing wrong with that!), every little bit makes a difference and will help you become more confident in expressing yourself in Hungarian. If you are so inclined, you can even start writing a diary in Hungarian - and present it for extra credit at the end of the quarter. It doesn't have to be anything elaborate, just a few sentences each day about what you did, where you went, whom you met, etc. Feel free to call me if you would like to chat a little in Hungarian. I will be delighted! Make an effort to keep previously covered vocabulary as fresh in your mind as possible. A good way to achieve this is to combine the vocabulary lists into one big file, make a printout and flip through it as often as possible. For instance, you can review words starting with certain letters on different days.

Don't forget to ask me if you notice that something is not quite clear. It is much easier to fix small problems before they grow into major obstacles. The longer you shove questions under the carpet, the bigger they tend to become. Call or e-mail me with your questions and use my office hours for extra practice and tutoring.

A word on essay writing:

When writing the essay, make sure it tells a story and is a coherent whole. Don't forget to write an introduction and a conclusion as well. First, create an outline of what you want to write about. Collect ideas and relevant vocabulary. While you may feel that you need to look up several words in the dictionary, try to resist the temptation and make an attempt to stick to familiar vocabulary, as much as possible. As you well know, Hungarian words have a habit of behaving in irregular ways, which is often not indicated in the dictionary. Using much unfamiliar vocabulary will automatically, without even trying, set you up for mistakes. As a second step, try formulating your ideas in complete sentences. Important: try to avoid writing out your essay in English first and then trying to translate it into Hungarian. I can guarantee you that neither you nor I will not be happy with the outcome. The idea with this essay is that it should help you get into and stay in a mindset where you are actually trying to think in Hungarian. Writing the essay in English first would make this impossible. Keep going back to your first draft and refine it by adding to or taking away from it. Combine simple sentences into longer and more sophisticated ones by using conjunctions. Avoid monotony of style by using different types of sentence structures. Remember, in Hungarian you can shift the focus and emphasis in your sentence by rearranging word order. Make good use of this potential. Give it your best effort. You should have your essay just about completed by May 19 when the draft is due to hand in. I will read your essay and mark the mistakes, which you will then need to think about and correct by the final deadline of June 2. The last step should be proofreading and making the final corrections. Kész van a fogalmazás!

Nagyon kellemes tavaszi negyedévet kívánok Neked és további örömöket a magyar tanulásban!