Dialogue

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Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
Simone: Hi everyone, Simone here! This is Absolute Beginner, Season 1, Lesson 3: Getting Formal in Hungarian.
Gergo: And I am Gergo. Sziasztok!
Simone: In this lesson we’re going to learn how to greet someone in a formal situation.
Gergo: That’s right, we are going formal. The conversation takes place in Anne’s future office.
Simone: It is between Anne and her boss, Mr. Szabó..
Gergo: Since Mr. Szabó is her new boss, they are using the formal speech.
Simone: OK, Listen carefully everyone.

Lesson conversation
Anne: Jó napot kívánok!
Szabó úr: Jó napot, kisasszony. Hogy van?
Anne: Jól vagyok, köszönöm. És ön?
Szabó úr: Én is, köszönöm szépen. Foglaljon helyet.
Anne: Köszönöm.
English Host: Let's listen to the conversation one time slowly.
Anne: Jó napot kívánok!
Szabó úr: Jó napot, kisasszony. Hogy van?
Anne: Jól vagyok, köszönöm. És ön?
Szabó úr: Én is, köszönöm szépen. Foglaljon helyet.
Anne: Köszönöm.
With Translation
Anne: Jó napot kívánok!
Anne: “Good afternoon!”
Szabó úr: Jó napot, kisasszony. Hogy van?
Mr. Szabó: “Good afternoon, miss! How are you?”
Anne: Jól vagyok, köszönöm. És ön?
Anne: “I’m fine, thank you. How about you?”
Szabó úr: Én is, köszönöm szépen. Foglaljon helyet.
Szabó úr: “Me too, thank you very much. Please take a seat.”
Anne: Köszönöm.
Anne: “Thank you.”
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
Simone: So this gentleman Anne is talking to is her new boss, right?
Gergo: That's right. Szabó úr, or “Mister Szabó,” is the boss at the language school Anne is going to work for.
Simone: They used a whole new set of greetings today. This is because it's a formal situation.
Gergo: Yes. The basic situations where formal language is used are when someone is visibly much older than you are, when someone is your superior, or when you don’t know someone, like a store clerk. This last one is used noticeably less, however.
Simone: That means you can say “hi” to store clerks, but not your boss.
Gergo: Yes, most of the time. When you are in doubt, wait for them to greet you first then adapt to that. We’ll talk about this more in detail soon.
Simone: All right, shall we get to it now?
Gergo: One more thing that I want to tell our listeners. Hungarian people will be ecstatic that you even try learning Hungarian and dare speaking it to locals. Absolutely nothing happens if you screw up the conjugations.
Simone: That is reassuring.
VOCAB LIST
Simone: Now let’s take a look at the phrases and expressions of this lesson.
Gergo: Jó napot kívánok!
Simone: “Good afternoon!”
Gergo: Jó napot kívánok!
Gergo: Jó napot kívánok!
Gergo: jó
Simone: “good”
Gergo: jó
Gergo: jó
Gergo: kisasszony
Simone: “miss”
Gergo: kisasszony
Gergo: kisasszony
Gergo: nap
Simone: “day”
Gergo: nap
Gergo: nap
Gergo: kíván
Simone: “wish”
Gergo: kíván
Gergo: kíván
Gergo: van
Simone: “he/she/it is” or “you are (formal)”
Gergo: van
Gergo: van
Gergo: jól
Simone: “well”
Gergo: jól
Gergo: jól
Gergo: köszönöm
Simone: “thank you”
Gergo: köszönöm
Gergo: köszönöm
Gergo: és
Simone: “and”
Gergo: és
Gergo: és
Gergo: ön
Simone: “you” (formal)
Gergo: ön
Gergo: ön
Gergo: szépen
Simone: “very much” “nicely”
Gergo: szépen
Gergo: szépen
Gergo: Foglaljon helyet!
Simone: “Take a seat.”
Gergo: Foglaljon helyet!
Gergo: Foglaljon helyet!
KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES
Simone: OK, let`s take a look at some of the words and phrases for this lesson.
Gergo: For sure. The first sentence was Jó napot kívánok.
{pause}
Gergo: Jó napot kívánok.
Simone: This is a very polite way to say “Good afternoon.”
Gergo: The first two words, jó napot means “good day”. This is actually already enough to say “Good afternoon”.
Simone: Yes, we will see and hear this shorter form a lot.
Gergo: Right. But this time, since Anne is meeting her boss for the first time, she added kívánok, or “I wish” to sound even more polite. Jó napot kívánok. Very polite.
Simone: And the reply was?
Gergo: Jó napot, kisasszony.
{pause}
Gergo: Jó napot, kisasszony.
Simone: “Good afternoon, miss.”
Gergo: Yes, we have jó napot again, than the word kisasszony, which means “miss”.
Simone: All right, what is the next sentence?
Gergo: Hogy van? Hogy van?
Simone: “How are you?”
Gergo: Then we have: Yes, but it is formal this time.
Simone: Kind of like “how are you sir?”
Gergo: Yes, but politeness is expressed even without the word “sir”.
Simone: All right, how do I answer? Please repeat.
Gergo: Jól vagyok, köszönöm.
{pause}
Gergo: Jól vagyok, köszönöm. Yes, jól is “well”, and vagyok is “I am”, as you may remember.
Simone: And it is high time we learned the word for “thank you”.
Gergo: Köszönöm.
{pause}
Gergo: Köszönöm.
Simone: Yes, naturally you hear this a lot. So she goes on to say...
Gergo: És ön? És ön?
Simone: Literally: “and you?”.
Gergo: Right, but this time “you” is formal. Ön. Ön.
Simone: All right, go on.
Gergo: Én is, köszönöm szépen. Én is, köszönöm szépen.
Simone: Én is means “me too”, right?
Gergo: Right, good job. Köszönöm szépen is like köszönöm, but even more elaborate. Köszönöm szépen. Köszönöm szépen.
Simone: What is szépen here?
Gergo: Szépen originally means “beautifully, nicely”, but here you can just say, “very much”.
Simone: OK, finally we had “take a seat, please”.
Gergo: Foglaljon helyet.
{pause}
Gergo: Foglaljon helyet. Something like “take a place”, but the suffixes imply a polite request, so there isn’t actually a “please” here, only covertly.
Simone: That does it for the dialogue. Now it's time for a bit of grammar, everyone.
Gergo: Definitely.

Lesson focus
Simone: So, Gergo, what’s the grammar point for today?
Gergo: This time, we’ll spend some time talking about the whole issue of politeness.
Simone: All right, but be considerate. Spare us all the technical lingo.
Gergo: Don’t worry, it’ll be as painless as possible.
Simone: OK, so in a nutshell, what’s the deal here?
Gergo: Hungarian has a complicated system of using the right form when trying to be polite. Luckily, you don’t have to know the whole thing just yet, only the first step.
Simone: Give us an example.
Gergo: We’ll use the last lesson’s material again. You remember how we said: “Are you a teacher?”.
Simone: Tanár vagy?
Gergo: Good. Now say: “Is he a teacher?”.
Simone: Ő tanár? I remember this: no verb, just a pronoun and the noun.
Gergo: Exactly. Now, if you want to be polite, you use third person conjugation and/or pattern with a second person pronoun, which is similar to “thee” in English. A polite you, essentially.
Simone: So say it please, Gergo. “Are you a teacher?” - formal.
Gergo: Ön tanár? Ön tanár?
Simone: “Are you a teacher?” - formal. Now what was the sentence in the dialogue?
Gergo: Hogy van? “How are you?”
Simone: Van means “he is” in this dialogue, right?
Gergo: Yes, hogy – “how?” and van – “he is”.
Simone: But it is aimed at the other person, right?
Gergo: Exactly, it is third person used in place of a second person verb form.
Simone: Is it always like this?
Gergo: Yes. Polite “you” equals “he/she” And of course all the conjugation, verb endings and whatnot that comes with the third person.
Simone: All right, a couple more examples please.
Gergo: Olasz vagy? Olasz vagy?
Simone: “Are you Italian?” - informal.
Gergo: Ön olasz? Ön olasz?
Simone: “Are you Italian?” - formal.
Gergo: This pronoun, ön, actually serves as a tool to distance yourself from the other person. It implies no personal connection beyond what your social role is.
Simone: Isn’t it a bit cold?
Gergo: Well, people who work together all the time very quickly go to tegeződés, which in Hungarian means “using the informal language.”
Simone: Yes, it is like a celebration of abandoning cumbersome language, which, if I recall correctly, involves a lot of booze.
Gergo: Yes, it does, quite often. Well, I think we did good today.
Simone: Just a question though. If I mess up...?
Gergo: No problem. Like I said, Hungarians will be extremely happy just to see you trying to speak their language. So don’t worry, just start talking.
Simone: And that is today’s PSA. Thanks, Gergo.
Gergo: So until next time...
Simone: Bye!
Gergo: Sziasztok.

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