Stop complaining and think of the Relatives.
I know how it is. You've lived here for a while and, well, you start to get blasé about conversing in magyar with your mates down at the local késdobáló - who wouldn't. You're starting to feel unfulfilled again, you're getting itchy feet? Well, just take the time to make the time and learn one of the relatives native tongues.
You can handle the agglutinative, vowel harmony, word order stuff and you're happy about the lack of gender. Well, there you go. You spent all that time developing a talent for knowing how to say something before you know what you want to say (which Hungarian word order seems to demand) then don't let it go to waste. Find an even more remote and tiny group of people to converse with like the Finns, Estonians, Udmurt or Mari. Hell, push the boat out try the Ostyaks.
And while you're doing your newly-turned-native best to complain about everything, think of the language relatives, because weather-wise they have got it much worse right now.
Finnish
You want to start with what you know? Ok, try the Finnish-Hungarian etymologies. And as soon as you've realised that that is really confusing, you should just move on to the Introduction to Finnish course. The actual language lessons start here.There's about 5.5 million Finnish people you'll be able to jaw with for your efforts. And if you have got use to the magyar way of things, you'll quickly find out how different the official Finnish is from the spoken form. The Finnish love to swear, so make sure you practice these too. And with only 5.5 million people you can use these words to express your indignation in shops and restaurants around the world with little fear of having a native overhear. What more incentive could you want?
You'll notice amongst those that the Hungarian 'persze' ('of course') is very close to the Finnish 'perse', meaning 'ass'. So, if you're in Helsinki, don't go stating the obvious.
The weather there is a tropical -1 to -3 degree C. Jealous.
Estonian
With Estonian you're down to about 1.1 million people. You can pick up some basic lingo such as words and phrases. Also, try the online dictionary, or ones of proverbs. There's a good academic resource, but a lot of the discussion and content is in Estonian, so it's a bit of chicken and egg problem. There are some resources, amongst which Timm's page is one of the better.There's a lot of good things to say about Estonians, their culture and their economy (they'll be getting the Euro in Jan. 2007, even with slightly rising inflation at present), but I'll save that for another day.
Truthfully, the best resources to learn the language are books and CDs.
Weatherwise, things are better here too! Only about 0 to -2 degrees C.
Cheremis/Mari
Would love to go there. Capital of the Republic of Mari-El is Yoshkar-Ola (â??Red Cityâ??) along the Volga river with a population of about 300,000. There are around 600,000 native speakers altogether, but this is an endandered language.There's not too much information online in English. What is tends to concentrate on getting yourself a Russian bride. Still some of these have reasonable (if general) background information. Neighbors of the Maris are the Udmurts and Chuvashes, both Finno-Ugric relatives.
The Mari language comes in two flavors, Meadow and Hill (well, some say there are 4, but...). The Meadow is the most common. Best source for learning the language on line is in Mari, Russian and Japanese.
There is an ideal opportunity this summer though. There will be a Summer School in the Mari language from July 2nd to the 19th, in Yoshkar-Ola. The cost will be 265 Euros covering tuition, food, dorm... Travelling time is about 16 hours from Moscow. Hell, I really want to go!!
Current weather conditions -27 to -29 degrees C. Not much wind though. Cosy.
The Rest
OK, so there aren't too many people to talk to with some of these languages, but you have to admit that spending any time with these people would make your existence a lot less meaningless and insignificant. You'd be able to bore every expat you ever meet again silly - and have good reason to. They would never be able to trump you with something better.Imagine the dinner parties: 'What, you did the round Asia thing', you'll be able to say. Hell, I've lived with the nganasans. More whale meat, anyone?
For all round general information there's a great site maintained by Estonians. There's also a Ugric Languages Congress that is held every 4 years, since 1992. So the next one is in 2008, get learning!!
And, so, I was a bit misleading about their current weather? I had to find something to hook you in.
