Debrecen Summer School: 4-week summer course (18 July–14 August, 2004); intensive winter course (11–24 January, 2004); 2-week summer course (18–31 July, 2004); super-intensive spring course (23 May–6 June, 2004); 2-week intensive summer course (1–14 August, 2004); intensive autumn course (29 October–7 November, 2004. Debrecen Summer School is an independent institution of the University of Debrecen that is concerned with teaching Hungarian as a foreign language. Its aim is to provide its students with a thorough knowledge of both the Hungarian language and its culture. Unique among Hungary's similar language institutions, this summer school draws upon a great and long tradition. It was established in 1927 and has grown to become the biggest of the Hungarian summer schools. Every year more than 600 students from 30-40 countries are taught by 50 teachers, who are recognised experts in teaching Hungarian and foreign languages. Besides the traditional "Summer Language and Culture Course" there are other courses organised additionally: a two-week intensive course in January (80 lessons), a two-week super-intensive course in May (120 lessons) and a 9-day intensive course in October (70 lessons). Those who want to learn throughout the academic year can choose the full-semester courses. In the summer course there are lectures offered on Hungarian literature, linguistics, history, ethnography and culture both in Hungarian and foreign languages. The students do not simply learn Hungarian in their courses but they can also choose from several cultural programmes and entertainment. In the summer course there are numerous excursions, classical, rock and jazz concerts, folk song and folk dance learning, "Hungarian barbecue" and discos, etc.  Debrecen Summer School uses its own language teaching material, the Hungarolingua series, which meets the demands of our modern age variously with its content, its teaching methodology and its use of technology. This groundbreaking enterprise in the teaching of Hungarian as a foreign language remains unique, being the only one so far that covers all levels of language learners from beginner to advanced; and with the publication of this pioneering series was the first in Hungary that applied successful language teaching principles and methodologies. The office of the Summer School operates all round the year and is ready to serve you on any weekday. Courses: Hungarian language courses at the Debrecen Summer School: a 4-week summer course, a 2-week winter, spring and summer course and an autumn course. In spring and autumn we organise full-semester courses for foreigners temporarily or permanently living in Debrecen. We also offer one-to-one teaching for private individuals and special courses for firms and companies on request. At the lower levels English and German are used as intermediary languages on our autumn, winter, spring and summer intensive courses while on our Summer Course in Hungarian Language and Culture the intermediary languages at the lower levels are English, German, French, Italian, Finnish and Japanese. At the end of each course students can take the Summer School exam free of charge. The certificate is acknowledged as a credit by certain universities. A certificate of attendance is given to students who attend at least 70% of the classes. We offer Origo (ALTE) and ECL exams on our summer courses. These exam fees are not included in the course fees. For further information please visit www.itk.hu and www.ecl.hu. Courses from beginner to advanced level. Placement test on arrival. 45-minute classes. Course fees are included in the individual course descriptions. The scholarship granted by the Hungarian Ministry of Education covers the fees of the 60-lesson and 120-lesson summer courses exclusively. Teaching materials: the Hungarolingua series developed by the Debrecen Summer School. Classes start on the day following the placement test on each course. The first day of tuition is Monday on our winter, spring and summer courses, on the autumn course classes start on Saturday. Students are kindly asked to keep to the arrival schedule in order to take the placement test in time to enable the teachers to group students in the most suitable class. The exact times of arrival and departure are given in the individual course descriptions. If you are going to arrive or depart outside the given times please let the organisers know in advance. Teaching material: In 1991 the Debrecen Summer School published the first pieces of its own Hungarolingua teaching series in 1991. The structure of our courses is based on these up-to-date, monolingual books. The sets of Hungarolingua 1 and 2 - designed for beginners and intermediate students - each include a language a book, a workbook, video tapes and accompanying workbooks, phonetic tapes for students to master pronunciation and to help improve listening skills, a dictionary in four languages, tests and answer keys. A CD-ROM containing the first 6 units of Hungarolingua 1 was also published. Our Hungarolingua 3 set consists of a book, audiotapes, and a workbook. Since our teaching material is monolingual, Hungarolingua Grammatica, which covers Hungarian grammar in different languages, was primarily intended to give an overall summary of rules about Hungarian phonetics and phonology, morphology and syntax. This grammar reference should make it easier for our students to understand a language which is quite different from the Indo-European tongues. Hungarolingua Grammatica has been published in six languages - Hungarian, English, German, French, Italian and Estonian. The correct Hungarian pronunciation, intonation and rhythm can be achieved through our Hungarolingua Fonetika series, which is designed for native English, German, Italian and Finnish students. This series deal with many problematic aspects of these languages. Reading original Hungarian literature may be challenging even at the advanced levels. That is where Hungarolingua Klasszikusok can help with adaptations of well-known works by excellent Hungarian authors like Zsigmond Móricz, Ferenc Molnár and István Örkény. The multimedia version of Légy jó mindhalálig was published in 1997 and the adaptation of Pál utcai fiúk in 1998. Language classes - especially at the advanced levels - cannot be restricted to text reading and baffling grammar rules. Our Hungarolingua Gyakorlókönyvek series brings variety to the classroom. Nem csak novellák covers twenty short stories by contemporary Hungarian writers to help improve students' vocabulary, reading and grammatical skills. Fülelő provides students with an opportunity to develope their listening skills for everyday conversations. It also serves as an aid to the preparation for oral exams. Igéző sets out to help upper-intermediate and advanced students by providing exercises for practising Hungarian verbs with prefixes. In order to facilitate its use, the dictionary Igéző-szótár (Hungarian-English and Hungarian-German) has been published. By giving the foreign equivalents of each verb and phrase, it also enables students of lower levels to use Igéző. Szemezgető contains reading comprehension exercises at various levels. History: The Debrecen Summer School operated as an autonomous unit of the Lajos Kossuth University throughout the 1990s. On the initiative of university leadership Debrecen Summer School was transformed into a non-profit business organization (non-profit Ltd.). Its sole owner is the University of Debrecen, which oversees the quality of its activity and its compliance with financial regulations. As a legal person, Debrecen Summer School can more flexibly adjust to the market environment. In the summer of 2001 attendance at Debrecen Summer School's "Hungarian Language and Culture Course" reached the highest ever at 503 participants.  Our institution celebrated the 75th anniversary of its foundation by publishing a jubilee album 75 Years of the Debrecen Summer School and by convening a friendly meeting of former title holders who had contributed remarkably to Debrecen Summer School success as well as invited outstanding speakers in the 2002 summer programme.  Looking forward into the future, we can only predict that Hungary's accession to the EU will contribute to a sustained interest in the Hungarian language and culture, moreover, to an increased interest if the economic background is favourable. We endeavour to be prepared to meet the emerging new needs. News letter:  The Nyári Egyetem newsletter is published twice a year. It contains current news about the Summer School and Hungary, articles about our teachers, students, courses, new publications and about Debrecen in Hungarian, English and German. It can be downloaded in pdf format from the web of the University.