Homogenik Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4817 days ago 314 posts - 407 votes Speaks: French*, English Studies: Polish, Mandarin
| Message 33 of 108 22 March 2012 at 8:53pm | IP Logged |
Mooby wrote:
Anki = 2154
Most Annoying Word of the Week Award
This dubious honour has to go to kieszeń which means 'pocket'. For some reason I spell it wrong
everytime! Or if spell it correctly I get the plural wrong. It's been leeched from Anki at least once! |
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Maybe it's time for a kieszeń themed text then, that could make it stick.
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Mooby Senior Member Scotland Joined 6098 days ago 707 posts - 1220 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Polish
| Message 34 of 108 28 March 2012 at 10:37am | IP Logged |
Anki = 2334
Hours Studied = 11 (Total: 159)
Another quiet week, and a quick entry because I need to get ready to go to the cinema. I'm going to watch W ciemności or 'In Darkness', a film about a Polish sewage worker hiding Jews during the Second World War. I'm looking forward to testing my listening skills, which have improved a little having now watched 74 episodes of Samo Życie.
Words of the Week
Gadać - 'to gab, go on about, blather, babble, chat'.
Bieżący - 'current, running' e.g a current account.
W ciąży - 'pregnant'.
Ciężar - 'weight, burden, load' (heavy object)
Phrase of the Week
Nie ma za co - 'You're welcome' / 'Don't mention it'.
Geek Statistics of the Year
Just checked my Anki stats and discovered that:
I have made a staggering 57272 reviews.
I have spent a total of 7.32 days reviewing since the deck was created a year ago.
I got 93.9% mature cards correct.
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Mooby Senior Member Scotland Joined 6098 days ago 707 posts - 1220 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Polish
| Message 35 of 108 29 March 2012 at 12:17pm | IP Logged |
I saw the film (mentioned above) last night. A lot of it takes place, as the name of the film implies, in darkness. This, along with the fast delivery, muffled sounds and reverberations, made listening to the speech difficult. I picked up a few words and phrases that were new such as do dna ! = 'bottoms up / cheers' when drinking.
I recognised the leading actor Robert Więckiewicz because he starred in the TV soap I'm currently watching, Samo Życie, in which he plays a security guard.
As a side note, we had a meal at a Turkish restaurant afterwards and I got chatting to the staff. One was a waitress from Hungary, another a waiter from Lithuania. Both spoke excellent English and understood us perfectly, even in the noisy environs of the restaurant. I was impressed, and jealous! So young too. It's motivated me to use my limited Polish 'in the real world', to get out there and talk, make mistakes, get embarrassed but ultimately develop. Staying in the calm, cloistered womb of my study for too long will stunt my conversational ability and confidence.
Another Handy Expression
Wszystko jedno - 'it doesn't matter' / 'it's all the same'. Add 'mi' to this and we get:
Wszystko mi jedno - 'I'm easy' / 'I don't mind' / I'm not bothered either way'. Although I'm not sure, but these two expressions seem interchangeable.
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Mooby Senior Member Scotland Joined 6098 days ago 707 posts - 1220 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Polish
| Message 36 of 108 01 April 2012 at 1:05pm | IP Logged |
Yesterday, one of my students recommended busuu, a language learning site. So I checked it out and found it worth joining.
Does anyone else use it?
Like Lang-8 you can write, correct other learner's writing and receive corrections. But there are plenty of exercises and tests organised from A1 to B2 (and maybe beyond). You learn vocabulary in context, through listening, reading, writing and visualising. There are audible example phrases and short sentences to help with pronunciation.
As part of your progress from lesson to lesson, you have to write something, and share it with other members. I was amazed that within just 5 minutes I was getting feedback from members in Poland.
It's all very interactive, incentivised (collect stars, berries, awards) and you can chart your progress clearly. It would take about 180 hours, apparently, to complete a course, so there's no lack of material.
The other nice thing is that you can have a little taste of other languages, without full committment, to see if you like them.
At the moment it's making a nice addition to my other routines. I should add that I'm on a 7 day trial and that to get all the features you have to pay a small amount. [EDIT]: I'd have to pay 64 euros for 12 months membership. That's about 53 pounds...I'm going to have to chew it over].
Edited by Mooby on 01 April 2012 at 1:49pm
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Mooby Senior Member Scotland Joined 6098 days ago 707 posts - 1220 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Polish
| Message 37 of 108 01 April 2012 at 8:12pm | IP Logged |
I've spent much of the day on busuu, while I still have the free trial period.
I could have started at A2 or higher, but I'm actually blasting through the A1 course and getting quite a few useful expressions out of it. Plus pronunciation practice, and writing practice (I'm amazed to get 4 or 5 people correcting me within minutes...even seconds...is the whole world on this thing!?).
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Mooby Senior Member Scotland Joined 6098 days ago 707 posts - 1220 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Polish
| Message 38 of 108 17 April 2012 at 2:31pm | IP Logged |
Anki = 2444
Hours Studied = 27 (Total: 186)
With other committments, I've not studied much over the past couple of weeks, and have lost momentum. Momentum is so important. Once I'm in a regular way, my mental stamina is great and my apetite for study increases.
I always get stirred up after seeing my conversation partner, so yesterday was a real boost. I managed conversation for over an hour, admittedly resorting to English when my brain simply froze solid. My partner lets me ramble on without too much interjection, so while my fluency improves noticeably during the session, I'm less sure about accuracy. Because she usually understands me, I think she lets the many grammatical flaws pass. If she were to correct every little thing, the constant pauses would inhibit flow. Next time, I think I'll suggest two excercises: firstly, a ten or fifteen minute 'warm-up' in which I can get flowing, then a longer period of talk-and-review focussing on common errors.
Anyway, it's got me rolling again. I managed two more episodes of Samo Życie this morning (now completed 80) and got the jist of what people were saying.
Having procrastinated too long, I'm making a start on the Dative Case this week and will do the relevent chapters and exercises in 'Basic Polish' by Dana Bielec this week.
Words of the Fortnight
Jednocześnie - 'simultaneously' / 'at the same time'
Kwilić - 'to whimper' (like a child) / 'to mewl', 'to wail'.
Skomleć - 'to whimper' (like a dog) / 'to whine', 'to yelp'.
Przestępstwo - 'crime'
Opakowanie - 'packet / packaging' / 'container'
Zatłoczony - 'crowded' e.g the cafe was hot and crowded.
Bałwan - 'snowman'
Tęcza - 'rainbow'
Tak trzymać ! - 'well done!' / 'keep it up!'
Polish Artist
I quite like the work by the painter Sławomir Kuszczak.
Edited by Mooby on 19 April 2012 at 11:21pm
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tozick Diglot Groupie Poland Joined 6355 days ago 44 posts - 69 votes Speaks: Polish*, English
| Message 39 of 108 19 April 2012 at 10:31pm | IP Logged |
If you want some more practice feel free to drop me a PM and I'll gladly have a chat on skype or something of the kind and you can 'ramble' on about anything you want and I'll just give you some kind of analysis of the mistakes you may make afterwards or just try to correct you on the fly or in any other way that you may want.
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Gosiak Triglot Senior Member Poland Joined 5119 days ago 241 posts - 361 votes Speaks: Polish*, English, German Studies: Norwegian, Welsh
| Message 40 of 108 19 April 2012 at 11:01pm | IP Logged |
Hey
I'll add my comments to your new words.
kwilić - this one is outdated. I do not recall the last time I heard it but you may encounter it in various oldish or poetic texts. People say 'płacze' instead.
It should be 'zatłoczony'.
'Bałwan' can be used as a derogative term describing somebody that is stupid. "Ty bałwanie!" (You fool!). It's not very offensive. I would give it a 3 on a scale of offensiveness that has 10 levels.
A general term for 'crime' (as a social phenomenon) is 'zbrodnia' -> city of crime - miasto zbrodni
Żubry do boju!
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