Assimil Le hongrois sans peine

by Georges Kassaï, Thomas Szende

The Assimil method for teaching foreign languages is through the listening of audio cd's and the reading of an accompanying book, one side native language, one side foreign language. This method is focused on learning whole sentences, for an organic learning of the grammar. It begins with a long passive phase of only reading and listening, and eventually adds active exercises. Most books contain around 100 lessons, with the active phase starting on Lesson 50. The word Assimil comes from assimilation.
Several different series are published:
With Ease series, which teach basic rules of grammar and a vocabulary of 2000-3000 words;
Perfectionnement series, which teaches more advanced idiosyncrasies and idioms of the target language;
Business series, which focuses on vocabulary related to international business;
Idioms series, which teaches common idioms

Genres: Hungarian Literature

456 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1990

Reviews

[И~N · Rating 4 out of 5]

Szerintem nagyon jó volt a könyv. Sok és érdekes mondatakot lehet találkozni.
Az történetek is nagyon érdekesek, gyakran nevetettem azokkal.
A könyvban van kiscit egy magyar-német szótár és nyelvtani táblák, aki nagyon hasznosak. Sajnos, nincs német-magyar szótár, aki is nagyon hasznos volna lenne a tanulóknak.
Végre, a magyar nyelv tanulása mindig legjobb jön egy barátokkal, aki magyarul beszél és mindig kész segíteni.
*

Meiner Meinung nach, dieses Buch ist sehr gut. Man kann viele und interessante Phrasen finden. Die Geschichten sind auch sehr interessant, ich hab mich sehr häufig mit ihnen gelacht.
Es gibt ein kleines Ungarisch-Deutsch Wörterbuch und auch einen grammatikalischen Anhang mit sehr nützlichen Tabellen. Leider, gibt es kein Deutsch-Ungarisch Wörterbuch, das auch sehr nützlich für die Lernende sein konnte.
Am Ende, das Lernen von der ungarischen Sprache geht immer besser mit einem Freund, der die Sprache spricht und immer zu Hilfe bereit ist.

[Ferenc · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you like learning languages through readings rather than grammar drills then you will like this book.

The book basically consists of a large number of shorter reading passages, each is followed by a set of exercises - building sentences and translations. New grammar concepts are explained as you come across them in the readings.
It doesn't have extensive grammar drills, the book relies mainly on learning the grammar through readings. There are grammar summaries every 10th reading. I would argue that the book covers more than just the basics, certainly much more than both Colloquial and Teach Yourself which I have also used.

The book was very fun to work with because it is written with humor and doesn't feel like an academic textbook, and you will learn a very large number of vocabulary and authentic expressions. You can learn Hungarian well with this 'learning through reading'-method but you will have to revise very often.

[Pietro Striano · Rating 2 out of 5]

Final score 2,5 stars.

Here I am with a review of Le Hongrois by Assimil.
I always thought that the community has been too extreme in both cases, the hardcore Assimil fan base and the neglecting one I think the reality is in the middle, and each Assimil course is a story on its own according to:
Your native language.
How much do you want to study the language?

Assimil is a good starting point for a casual fan of certain languages as it keeps you busy for 30-45 minutes according to how you use it of course. It is not the best, it is not the worst.
Needless to introduce the Method, everybody who studied a language knows it.
I decided to keep up - as a guilty pleasure -, Hungarian, a language that is so far from French and this is the main problem of course honestly.

Hungarian is a language that has nothing in common with French and I perceived that Assimil works better if you study related languages.
For example, if you speak Spanish and want to study Portuguese, Assimil definitively will teach you the understanding of the language. If you speak native English, definitively Dutch and Norwegian will be more suitable.

The main problem with Assimil is this one: you need to have a target language that is more or less near your native (or L2, L3 as in my case).

Let’s take an example, in the famous active phase of Assimil (after lesson 50) in which you go back and do a reverse translation I had to face insane difficulties as Hungarian, as mentioned, has nothing in common with basically anything so even a simple translation will become a nightmare.
For example, the sentence Ce matin (This morning), which is something kinda easy even if you try in English, becomes a nightmare, intuition told me: Ez (Ce) reggel (matin), and well it is a mistake as the correct one is Ma (today) reggel (morning), so on the reverse side, Assimil is not only useless but infuriating for the non-french related languages, or English, or Italian or whatever.
Imagine now to have the same for faraway languages such as Chinese, Japanese, and so on.

Now, of course, I am not telling you to not study Persian based on the French or English book but is important to be aware that it is not the easiest task and you need to integrate.

Assimil - like most books for learning languages -, needs an implementation of various appendixes, in my case (I still have not finished my Assimil), I implemented with
Duolingo
Teach yourself Hungarian
Itt Magyarorszag (with a tutor, in this case, my colleague)

But if you are alone, I suggest you stick to ASSIMIL and Duolingo, after that pick up another book, and if you really want to learn a Language the grammar is important, do not believe all that bullshit about not learning grammar. It is the bone for a boost of it.

The claim of B2 level is fake and they could even be sued for such assumption, even though the material exposed reaches a B2 level.
Halfway into it, do I speak Hungarian?
Not at all but I have a good foundation to start to have a tutor on Italki and be guided through every simple story.

So 2,5 stars.