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Mooby’s TAC2013 - Team Żubr - Polish | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Mooby Senior Member Scotland Joined 6103 days ago 707 posts - 1220 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Polish | Message 73 of 134 04 June 2013 at 4:53pm | IP Logged |
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Hi Bakunin, yes - the intensity is worth it!
Or maybe I'm compensating my slow methods (and inefficiency) with a high volume of time! POLISH IS LIKE GOLD That is - gold extraction. Let's say that learning Polish to basic fluency is like making 1kg of gold. First, I must find the source(s) of gold. LISTENING This is like looking for gold in water, in the rivers. I have to pan for gold. For every gram of gold, I may have to pan many cubic metres of water. It's like passing 100's of hours of Polish through my ears to yield a moderate level of recognition, let alone comprehension. And 100's of more hours to cope with subtle meanings, idioms, rapid speech, accents and so on. I need to find the rivers that give a high yield, so it's no good listening to stuff that's way too advanced or specialised until I'm ready for it. READING Extensive reading is looking for nuggets on the shore. It involves a lot of walking up and down, just looking at the surface. For intensive reading, I need to get deep, and dig. This involves slow and intense drilling in the same area. Once I've got a few grams of gold, even if not the full 1kg, I can begin to refine it in the furnace which involves WRITING. I have the raw material, but it needs smelting. Writing let's me take my knowledge and iron out the impurities. I have to take each word in it's raw form and repeatedly test it, examine it, decline it, turn it over, stretch it. Then add a few more words and mix them, meld them, see how one word affects and changes the meaning of another word. My brain will be burning at 1500 degrees F. until finally the alchemy works, and a beautiful sentence appears! And now we come to SPEAKING, when the furnace has to burn hotter at 1850 degrees F. This extreme testing is required to cope with the pressure of unprepared speech, like when you're in a supermarket queue and you don't have the luxury of time. My brain may reach such temperatures for a short periods, but starts to freeze in longer periods or in unfamiliar circumstances. Eventually 1kg of pure Polish gold is formed. A living, breathing, inter-active skill that is worth far more to me than the inert yellow stuff I see in shop windows. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Mooby Senior Member Scotland Joined 6103 days ago 707 posts - 1220 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Polish | Message 74 of 134 15 June 2013 at 4:42pm | IP Logged |
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Anki = 3999
Hours Studied = 50 (Total: 602) I'm up to page 82 of Kroniki Kresu, by reading semi-extensively (checking new words only occasionally). Listened to lots of radio and TV and completed a few more pages of Colloquial Polish. In other words, the usual input-heavy routine. I did write a couple of short emails and had a reasonable conversation with Aga yesterday, subjects included: sunburn, films, heroes, poetry, food (we always talk about this, don't know why!), paragliding and schooltrips. One of the films we discussed was Potop ("The Deluge"). Watch the First Part - over two and half hours. Watch the famous sword fight - kmicic is only wounded and goes on to be a hero. In this scene he's taught a lesson by one of Poland's most famous fictional heroes, Michał Wołodyjowski Words of the Week Angażować się imper. - "to be engaged in", "to be involved in". Angelina is engaged in humanitarian aid ('Angelina angażuje się w pomoc humanitarną') Haust - "gulp", "swig" noun. He drank the whisky in one gulp ('wypił whisky jednym haustem') Edited by Mooby on 15 June 2013 at 4:47pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Mooby Senior Member Scotland Joined 6103 days ago 707 posts - 1220 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Polish | Message 75 of 134 26 June 2013 at 7:59pm | IP Logged |
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Anki = 4039
Hours Studied = 36 (Total:638) Now up to page 134 of Kroniki Kresu and over half-way. I have watched up to episode 236 of Samo Życie, the episodes are now 40 minutes instead of 25, so I have to concentrate for longer. I finished chapter 10 of Colloquial Polish (old edition). I was invited over to Grażyna's last weekend for a meal, and met a new Polish family. The wife is a dentist and speaks excellent English, the husband is in the building trade but his English is not so good - so I had a lot of conversation practise with him! Dorota joined us later, and we all chatted in Polish and English until midnight. Socialising is my main reason for learning Polish, so I was very pleased to have the oppurtunity to join in the discussions. Sentences were drawn out of me surprisingly easily (although not error free), especially after a glass of wine. But listening is still frustratingly incomplete, and I got left behind numerous times. Words of the Week Kapać imper. - "to drip" (fall in drops, trickle). Something was dripping from above ('coś kapało z góry') Głupawka - "horseplay" hilarity Rozdroże - "crossroads" fork in the road. I'm at a crossroads, I don't know what to do ('jestem na rozdrożu, nie wiem co zrobić') Opanowanie - "composure", "mastery", "self-control". See photo below: 
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| Mooby Senior Member Scotland Joined 6103 days ago 707 posts - 1220 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Polish | Message 76 of 134 13 July 2013 at 1:56pm | IP Logged |
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Anki = 4110
Hours Studied = 67 (Total: 705) It's been 2 weeks since my last post, and progress is steady. I'm on page 206 of Kroniki Kresu and have listened to Radio Trójka podcasts everday. My listening is noticeably better and the gap between word recognition and comprehension is getting shorter. When I concentrate I can almost feel my ears physically focussing on sound (if that's possible!). It's a bit like keeping my concentration one step ahead of the soundwave, in other words to be in full anticipation of what is coming next, and not getting bogged down in translation of what has already passed. It's an exhausting rollercoaster, and I mentally drift if the podcast is more than 15 minutes long. I finished chapter 11 of Colloquial Polish [1stED]. It was useful to review common prepositions and note the cases required. Take for example the preposition "na": When denoting movement: ACCUSTATIVE When static : LOCATIVE going there being there I'm going on holiday [jadę na urlop ] ;I'm on holiday [jestem na urlopie] I'm going to the beach [idę na plażę] ;I'm on the beach [jestem na plaży] Words of the Week Którędy - "which way". Which way must I go? ('którędy muszę iść?'). Which way is Gdańsk? ('któtędy na Gdańsk?') Toczyć imp. - "to roll", "to go on/carry on". He rolled the stone uphill ('toczył kamień pod górę'). Life goes on ('życie toczy się dalej') Na oślep - "blindly", "wildly", "at random". Edited by Mooby on 13 July 2013 at 2:09pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Mooby Senior Member Scotland Joined 6103 days ago 707 posts - 1220 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Polish | Message 77 of 134 11 August 2013 at 6:10pm | IP Logged |
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Anki = 4131
Hours Studied = 63 (Total: 768) I've struggled over the past 4 weeks to get much studying in, due to holidays, family issues and a general slump in motivation. My Anki reviews exceeded 1000 at one point, but I've managed to turn things round. I've finished Kroniki Kresu and have just started a Szklarski book Przygody Tomka Na Czarnym Lądzie. I've watched Samo Życie nearly everyday (I'm now up to episode 275) and listened to at least one radio podcast per day. I haven't done much intensive study or grammar, but I've recently picked up Colloquial Polish again and am mid-way through lesson 12. Phrase of the Week Nie da się ukryć... - "There's no denying..."/"There's no hiding the fact...". I heard the Polish tennis player, Agnieszka Radwanska, use this phrase in a post-match interview: 'There no denying, it was a tough match today' ('nie da się ukryć, to dziś był ciężki mecz') 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Bakunin Diglot Senior Member Switzerland outerkhmer.blogspot. Joined 5128 days ago 531 posts - 1126 votes Speaks: German*, Thai Studies: Khmer | Message 78 of 134 11 August 2013 at 7:21pm | IP Logged |
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Ah, Szklarski. Let me know how you like it :) I've got another two or three of the series lying around waiting to be read.
What podcasts are you currently listening to? Slump in motivation... I'm going through the same with my main language, Thai. Maybe the 3-5 hour regime we've been adhering to over the past few months is not sustainable in the long run? I'm down to something like 2 hours on average, and it still feels like a lot... 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Fuenf_Katzen Diglot Senior Member United States notjustajd.wordpress Joined 4367 days ago 337 posts - 476 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Polish, Ukrainian, Afrikaans | Message 79 of 134 11 August 2013 at 8:15pm | IP Logged |
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Good to see you back here, Mooby! I think sometimes we need a break from grammar study and just do "fun" things in the language. Much less pressure!
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| Mooby Senior Member Scotland Joined 6103 days ago 707 posts - 1220 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Polish | Message 80 of 134 11 August 2013 at 8:39pm | IP Logged |
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Hi Bakunin,
Szklarski books are quite easy to read, although the stories are dated. To be honest, I'm not very interested in boy's adventure stories written in 1954! However, the books were a gift from a Polish friend, so I'll finish reading them and aim to get new vocabulary and practise comprehension. I have a book by Stanisław Lem ('Kongres Futurologiczny'), another gift. It looks harder but more interesting, and I'm looking forward to reading it. I listen to Radio Trójka a lot. There is much so material to choose from, that I sometimes listen to the first thing I see (often an interview with a politician!). However, I prefer to listen to The reports - REPORTAŻE. There are a hundreds of reports to choose from, ranging from subjects about health, history, science and so on. Last night I listened to one about sailing. There are occasional problems with background noise or indistinct speech, and I sometimes fastforward if the programme is too hard to listen to. I carefully read the introduction to the program, and then listen for about 15 minutes at a time - before I lose concentration. As well as good listening practice, the reports are very interesting and informative - and give me sometime to discuss with my Polish friends. Yes, 3-5 hours a day is tough, but until my routine was disrupted I was coping ok. I'm trying to re-build my stamina. I think that a grammar-heavy language like Polish (from an English point-of-view) requires a lot of intial intensity. Too slow - and I'll lose altitude. I have to blast into orbit and escape gravity as soon as possible! Good luck with Thai. And good luck with your cycling holiday! Edited by Mooby on 11 August 2013 at 8:46pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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