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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| arcelt Newbie United States garyrussell.us Joined 5632 days ago 9 posts - 11 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Polish | Message 1 of 3 23 January 2011 at 8:48am | IP Logged |
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Hi, I am a native English speaker and recently received a promotion at work and part of my new job involves managing a team of software developers in Poland. As such, I will probably be traveling to Poland (Gdansk specifically) 3-4 times per year.
I have always been interested in languages but tend to lose interest and focus because, living in the middle of America, I rarely if ever have a chance to use any language that I study, except for rare occasions with Spanish. However, now I have the opportunity to immerse myself in a language, if only for a week or two at a time, and have a real need to learn it, so I hope this will keep me motivated. My question: I understand that Polish is HARD. I'm not really afraid of a challenge I'm just wondering if others who have attempted to learn Polish could offer any tips on learning. I currently have Michel Thomas Polish and Colloquial Polish. Also, one of the team members has offered to tutor me in the language a few times per week. How should I best use these sessions? He is not a professional language instructor, he is a professional software engineer, so I'm sure he doesn't have a prepared syllabus or any experience tutoring others in Polish. Edited by arcelt on 23 January 2011 at 8:49am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Mooby Senior Member Scotland Joined 6110 days ago 707 posts - 1220 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Polish | Message 2 of 3 23 January 2011 at 11:37am | IP Logged |
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It is hard, but certainly achievable provided you are disciplined
and can maintain your motivation for several years. It's not a quick and easy thing. I made a start 2 years ago but fizzled out, I just wasn't focussed enough. But since last August I restarted and am really enjoying it. Some realities: 1. Pronunciation is difficult to start with, all those consonant clusters look scary. But the more you repeat them and the more you read them, the sooner you grow more confident. Common clusters like 'przy...' are really just one sound (or perhaps several sounds compacted together so that what comes out is a sound you'll soon be making without thinking). 2. The vocabulary is totally different with virtually no similarities to make you feel familiar. You are well and truly out of your comfort zone. They also tend to be longer words than English. 3. The grammar is hard, very hard, even for Polish natives learning it growing up. BUT, it's logical. One difficulty is the case system; there are 7 cases (with appropriate word endings) in which to express nouns. And they're different for masculine, feminine and neutral nouns. Oh, and different for the plurals of nouns. You'll also have to remember the endings of adjectives, pronouns, some prepositions and numbers which at all times must agree with the relevant noun case. 4. Grammar again.... Verbs have a complex conjugation which also distinguishes between masculine, feminine and neutral. You learn a verb...and then have to learn it's twin: most verbs can be expressed by TWO words. These are called verb aspects (imperfective: the action is incomplete, ongoing + perfective: the action is complete). 5. Word order is more flexible than English, but it takes getting used to. My main advice is, that whatever materials you use, you've got to give this language a lot of effort in the first few months. And I mean 4-5 hours a day ideally. Otherwise, as I found out, you never build up enough momentum to get off the launch pad. Getting into 'orbit' where you can start working with the language takes a massive blast at the start. MATERIALS: Basically, read Chung's Polish profile on this Forum. You'll want a few audio things (I used Pimsler and 'Polish in 4 weeks'. But there's lots of stuff on YouTube). And you'll want a course book, Colloquial Polish is fine, and 'Polish in 4 weeks' (don't be misled by the title!) is very good. Buy a couple of story books, aimed for children to start with, and use it to practice pronunciation, familiarisation and translation exercises. I read EXTENSIVELY (just read and get into the flow without stopping to translate everything) and, INTENSIVELY (hyperliterally translate and then interpret one out of every 10 pages). Grab the offer of your friend! You'll want him for conversation practice. If you can build up your vocabulary on your own (I use ANKI) and get to grips with the basic grammar then you'll want an opportunity to get your brain to start formulating all this strange and new stuff in real time. A conversation partner will really help your brain to select, process and say words with correct pronunciation, tense, case and order. For writing practice, join Lang-8 and let native Polish speakers correct and help you. You may just want to learn enough basic words and phrases to get by, that's fine. Just clarify how far you want to take this language. You might only want to learn it for a season while it's useful. Or decide that you want to retain it for life...if so, you'll need to mentally prepare yourself for a heck of a ride. And once you're on board - never quit. Powodzenia! Edited by Mooby on 23 January 2011 at 11:39am 9 persons have voted this message useful | |
| arcelt Newbie United States garyrussell.us Joined 5632 days ago 9 posts - 11 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Polish | Message 3 of 3 24 January 2011 at 12:52am | IP Logged |
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Thanks Mooby, that's EXACTLY the kind of advice I was looking for.
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