Why I Spoke Hungarian Before I Felt Ready
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Rather than write a long post about a topic that I have covered in various forms before, I'll make this short.
The 2010 video above shows me speaking Hungarian with Bálint Kőrösi, who translated my Language Hacking Guide into Hungarian. At that point, I had lived in Budapest for two months and had done about five hours of study before arriving. This was a two-month mission rather than a three-month one.
The result of that short period was that I could have conversations in Hungarian as I had initially aimed for. During the mission, I spoke only Hungarian with most of my friends in Budapest and got to know people and the city through the language.
Mission complete.
I wrote more about the full Budapest experience elsewhere in the Hungarian mission series.
You will notice that I was not speaking fluently. I made mistakes, hesitated and used basic vocabulary. I was not trying to impress anyone with my Hungarian. Impressing people is not what I'm doing this for. My immediate aim was effective communication, followed by continued improvement.
That level was not where I wanted to stay, but it was useful evidence after a few weeks. Speaking often gave me chances to notice gaps and learn from mistakes. If you wait for error-free speech before trying a conversation, you delay the feedback that conversation can provide. Mistakes are not the goal, but they are a normal part of using a language while you improve.
Practice does not make speech perfect overnight, but it gives you something concrete to improve. Start speaking before you feel completely ready.
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