|
 |
Let it begin--Starting Polish | ||
Tags: Polish | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| arcelt Newbie United States garyrussell.us Joined 5438 days ago 9 posts - 11 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Polish | Message 1 of 9 23 January 2011 at 9:02am | IP Logged |
|
As I posted elsewhere, I have a new job role that is going to require quarterly travel to Poland (Gdansk), so, since I don't want to be the normal American Everyone-Should-Speak-English tourist type and would love nothing more than to show my respect for the people of Poland by conversing with them in their native language, I have begun attempting to learn this language.
I have to admit--Polish seems baffling to me at the moment. The pronunciation is not that much of a problem; I am comfortable with most of the more foreign sounds, such as shch and the nasalized vowel sounds are not so bad, particularly since I studied French for 3 years in High School. However, the grammar terrifies me. It seems completely beyond my understanding. I hope that as my studies continue the grammar will seem less daunting. I am working with two sources right now. Michel Thomas Polish and Colloquial Polish. I have tried Michel Thomas in the past with Spanish and was annoyed by some aspects of it but I think, given its focus on proper grammar, it will be helpful penetrating the complexities of Polish. Additionally, one of the Polish team members has agreed to tutor me a couple times a week. I am particularly excited about the latter--I have never before had the opportunity to study a language with a native speaker. Here's hoping all goes well. I'll try to post at least weekly updates of my progress and I would LOVE to hear from others who have attempted to learn Polish. Edited by arcelt on 24 January 2011 at 12:34am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
 Fasulye Heptaglot Winner TAC 2012 Moderator Germany fasulyespolyglotblog Joined 5658 days ago 5460 posts - 6006 votes  1 sounds Speaks: German*, DutchC1, EnglishB2, French, Italian, Spanish, Esperanto Studies: Latin, Danish, Norwegian, Turkish Personal Language Map | Message 2 of 9 23 January 2011 at 9:11am | IP Logged |
|
Hi arcelt, could you please edit your first post and give your new log a more descriptive title? If you call your log "Let it begin" nobody knows what the topic of your log is.
Fasulye 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| doviende Diglot Senior Member Canada languagefixatio Joined 5797 days ago 533 posts - 1245 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Spanish, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Hindi, Swedish, Portuguese | Message 3 of 9 23 January 2011 at 10:39am | IP Logged |
|
I haven't yet started with my attempt at Polish, but I'm making plans for starting in March. Because of the complexity of the grammar in Polish, I'm starting to think that it'll be an ideal testing ground for methods that don't rely on tons of explicit grammar study. To speak Polish, it won't work to try and hold all the rules explicitly in your head and calculate through them in order to form sentences like a computer. I'm pretty sure the only way through this is to absorb the language from understandable content, and get an intuitive feel for the grammar through massive exposure.
Reading example sentences that illustrate certain grammatical scenarios might be helpful so that you are able to notice them during your exposure to the language, but otherwise attempting to memorize tables and calculate results will probably be too difficult due to the sheer number of irregularities in Polish. For these reasons, I'll be going straight to parallel novels once I start on Polish. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Mistral Diglot Senior Member Poland Joined 5740 days ago 160 posts - 179 votes 1 sounds Speaks: Polish*, English Studies: Mandarin, German | Message 4 of 9 23 January 2011 at 11:15am | IP Logged |
|
Well, Polish is not an easy language and I'm saying it as a native speaker. It's difficult even to us and every day you hear people making bunch of grammatical mistakes. There are so many exceptions from grammar rules that it's hard to remember them all. Good way is just to read/listen a lot and somehow you will just grasp it. However, you have to watch out and choose sources carefully because, as I said, many Poles don't speak proper Polish. My tip is not to look at any forums, blogs etc. because you will find there plenty of grammar mistakes, terrible misspelings and so on.
Good luck and don't get discouraged! Powodzenia! 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| arcelt Newbie United States garyrussell.us Joined 5438 days ago 9 posts - 11 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Polish | Message 5 of 9 24 January 2011 at 12:47am | IP Logged |
|
Thanks, Fasulye, I've edited the subject to make more sense.
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Fasulye Heptaglot Winner TAC 2012 Moderator Germany fasulyespolyglotblog Joined 5658 days ago 5460 posts - 6006 votes 1 sounds Speaks: German*, DutchC1, EnglishB2, French, Italian, Spanish, Esperanto Studies: Latin, Danish, Norwegian, Turkish Personal Language Map | Message 6 of 9 24 January 2011 at 7:21am | IP Logged |
|
You're welcome, arcelt. But it's not the idea that you create a new log for every day that you study your language. Have a look at some other logs here. You can write about all of your study activities in THIS log.
Fasulye Edited by Fasulye on 24 January 2011 at 7:23am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| arcelt Newbie United States garyrussell.us Joined 5438 days ago 9 posts - 11 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Polish | Message 7 of 9 25 January 2011 at 2:45am | IP Logged |
|
Ha, ok...third times a charm. When you click the link from your profile that says "Post a new entry to your learning logbook" apparently it creates a whole new logbook...I'll keep my posts in this log. Here is my second post that I inadvertently posted elsewhere:
-------------- So today was my first day of studying Polish. I listened to the first two tracks on the first Michel Thomas cd and I think I am comprehending it pretty well at this point. The only thing that I'm a little blurry on is the use of to/tego but I suspect that's something that will start to make sense as I explore the grammar more. I also put about half of the vocab from lesson 1 of Colloquial Polish into Anki. ------------------ 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| arcelt Newbie United States garyrussell.us Joined 5438 days ago 9 posts - 11 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Polish | Message 8 of 9 25 January 2011 at 3:33am | IP Logged |
|
Day 2--it's pretty clear that, for me to make any progress, I've got to get a grip on the sounds and, in particular, the consonant combinations and accented consonants. I've gone over the pronunciation guide of Colloquial polish, listening to the audio while following along with the text, reviewed anki, added more vocab to anki, and continued lesson 1 of Colloquial Polish.
The end of the pronunciation guide has, for some reason, a reading from the first page of a Polish passport. While listening to the audio, I find it difficult to follow the words with my eyes, the speaker goes so quickly. I know that some day, if I am diligent, it will sound like individual words instead of a continuous slurry of Slavic sounds but right now that's all it is..a bunch of nyes and shchs without any pauses...sigh, maybe someday I'll get there... 1 person has voted this message useful |
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
