Saturday, April 01, 2006

JFK

Any minute now I'll be boarding MALEV Hungarian Airline's flight 91 to Budapest. The American Eagle flight from O'Hare was eventless.

I spent the last 6 hours waiting in the international terminal at JFK amid some British, some Spanish speakers and some Hungarian speakers among others. Now that I've passed through the security check and am waiting at the MALEV Air gate, there's a large representation of Hungarian speakers. I had one many approach me and ask me if I spoke Hungarian to which I said "no." He replied "nem, nem," Hungarian for "no, no."

I spent the flight from Chicago working on memorizing Hungarian numbers. Here're the English pronounciations from memory (stress is always on the first syllable):
1 - ej
2 - (two syllables, starts with 'k')
3 - hay-rahm
4 - nyej
5 - eeyoot
6 - hot
7 - hate
8 - nyahts
9 - (two syllables, ends in 'ts')
10 - teez
I'll keep working on them once I get on the plane from JFK. I should have them down shortly, then I'll start on the rest of the numbers to 100.

Let the adventure begin!

2 comments:

Cori said...

What happened to the pronunciations for 2 and 9?
This Hungarian language is crazy; I've checked out a tape of Hungarian phrases, in an effort to "keep up" with you, but I don't think I'll have much to say for quite a while.

Kristy said...

It's great you used the long flying time to start learning Hungarian! Looks like it'll be a fun language. Looking forward to experiencing Hungary vicariously through you and your blog.

KL