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Mooby’s Polish Slog - Team Żubr - TAC2012

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Mooby
Senior Member
Scotland
Joined 5899 days ago

707 posts - 1219 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Polish

 
 Message 97 of 108
19 December 2012 at 3:47pm | IP Logged 
Anki = 3177
Hours Studied = 22 (Total: 530)

Just come back from conversation practice with Aga. Her mother, a professional teacher of Polish, has returned to Poland for good. But Aga has kindly offered to help. This means that I have 3 potential partners a week. Dorota is very busy studying though, so I probably won't meet with her till next Spring. Grażyna is usually happy to meet me, but she may be relocating somewhere else in the UK next summer. I'm just grateful for any chance I get to inflict my mangled Polish on someone who doesn't seem to mind.
Today I talked about my morning: getting up, going swimming, not having breakfast etc. And about taking my friend to hospital yesterday. Pretty basic stuff. I didn't lack vocubulary and my pronunciation was ok. It's just syntax and grammar that slows me down, as usual.
Here's a couple of things I learned / got reminded about:
1. The Polish numbering system usually does something funny after number four. For example it's -
                 jeden palec (1 finger/ toe)
                 dwa palce (2 fingers / toes)
                 pięć palców (5 fingers / toes)
2. A useful prepostional construct: blah blah blah at him and blah blah blah for him. For example:
                 I was waiting for him ['Poczekałem na niego']
                 I was looking at her ['Patrzyłem na nią']


Words of the Week
Chrześcijaństwo - 'Christianity'. A tricky word to pronounce.
Choinka - 'Christmas tree'
Zbawienie - 'salvation' / 'redemption'
Ateizm - 'athiesm'
Słup - 'post' + 'pylon' [słupek = a small pole, usually metal]
Upominać imper. / Upomnieć per. - 'to rebuke' or 'to admonish'. The teacher admonished his pupils ('nauczyciel upominał uczniów').
Add the reflex się and we get 'to lay claim to' or 'to speak up for'. 90 years ago we laid claim to Polish Silesia ('90 lat temu upomnieliśmy się o polski Śląsk')


This tired old log is coming to an end; I'll give my review of the year in my next post.
But Team Żubr is still going - roll on 2013.
Happy Wigilia

And finally....
A classic by Mazowsze - 'Nie zginaj kaliny'



Edited by Mooby on 19 December 2012 at 3:52pm

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Theodisce
Octoglot
Senior Member
Poland
Joined 5680 days ago

127 posts - 167 votes 
Speaks: Polish*, Latin, Ancient Greek, Russian, Czech, French, English, German
Studies: Italian, Spanish, Slovak, Ukrainian, Serbo-Croatian, Greek, Portuguese

 
 Message 98 of 108
20 December 2012 at 7:14am | IP Logged 
I not quite sure if "zbawienie" can be rendered as "redemption". The exact word for "redemption" in Polish is "odkupienie".
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Mooby
Senior Member
Scotland
Joined 5899 days ago

707 posts - 1219 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Polish

 
 Message 99 of 108
20 December 2012 at 10:00am | IP Logged 
Thanks Theodisce, I checked my usual dictionaries and only Oscar Swann includes 'redemption' as a definition. So I'm sure you are right, many thanks!
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Fuenf_Katzen
Diglot
Senior Member
United States
notjustajd.wordpress
Joined 4163 days ago

337 posts - 476 votes 
Speaks: English*, German
Studies: Polish, Ukrainian, Afrikaans

 
 Message 100 of 108
20 December 2012 at 2:14pm | IP Logged 
Congratulations on finishing 2012! Did you find that having a definite goal of learning new words each week was helpful in acquiring vocabulary?

Edited by Fuenf_Katzen on 20 December 2012 at 2:20pm

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Mooby
Senior Member
Scotland
Joined 5899 days ago

707 posts - 1219 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Polish

 
 Message 101 of 108
20 December 2012 at 4:35pm | IP Logged 
Well, there's a few more days before I flop over the line!
As for learning vocabulary, I had aimed for a few hundred more, but I'm still pleased with what I've got. Some weeks I would add a lot, especially if I had been reading an interesting article or blog. Other weeks I'd be struggling to keep up with my Anki reviews, and I'd decide to add less.
I think it's good to have goals for vocabulary. Here's what Gethin and Gunnemark have to say:

400-500 words = 'Crawl point' [Survival speaking]
800-1000 words = 'Mini' point [Reasonable for slow speech / listening]
1500-2000 words = 'Midi' point [Enough for most daily needs in speaking]
3000-4000 words = 'Non-Fiction' point [Sufficient for reading newspapers]
8000 words   =   'Literature' point [Complete communication system for the average European]
10,000-20,000 words = Active vocabulary in the mother tongue for cultivated Europeans
50,000+ words = Passive vocabulary in the mother tongue for cultivated Europeans.


As I enjoy reading, I'm aiming for a high vocabulary, probably 8000+. Don't hold me to it though!
My 'Words of the Week' are, of course, just a selection of ones chosen pretty much at random. Some words, especially verbs, can take longer to grasp the main definition. I like to thoroughly check the meaning of words so that I use them appropriately. I use these on-line dictionaries:
           1.Pons.eu [excellent audio pronunciations]
           2.Oscar Swann [Complete declensions and conjugations]
           3.Word Reference [Handy synonyms and phrases]
           4.Bab.la [Generally used for checking]
          

I use the first 2 the most. Plus Google images/webpages to visualise meanings and glean example sentences.
Some verbs with multiple meanings can take a long time to grasp. In extreme cases, I've spent an hour on just one word. And even then, only regular exposure to it will cement it's meaning and the ways it can be used.

Do zobaczenia!
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Homogenik
Diglot
Senior Member
Canada
Joined 4618 days ago

314 posts - 407 votes 
Speaks: French*, English
Studies: Polish, Mandarin

 
 Message 102 of 108
20 December 2012 at 9:57pm | IP Logged 
Congratulations for your continued efforts and for keeping up with your progress blog (I couldn't pull that off very
well myself). By the way, as online dictionaries are concerned, I recommend this one :
http://polish.slavic.pitt.edu/polish/

and ling.pl

and the next one for synonyms:
http://synonimy.ux.pl/
1 person has voted this message useful



Mooby
Senior Member
Scotland
Joined 5899 days ago

707 posts - 1219 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Polish

 
 Message 103 of 108
20 December 2012 at 11:17pm | IP Logged 
Hi Homogenik, what are your plans for 2013? [There's still room for another bison if you want to join Team Żubr. Your logs have always been helpful and interesting, especially about your experiences in Poland].
Are you concentrating on Mandarin now?
Good luck whatever you decide.

EDIT: Just read your latest log entry, 99%! I think that answers my question, well done!

Edited by Mooby on 20 December 2012 at 11:23pm

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Homogenik
Diglot
Senior Member
Canada
Joined 4618 days ago

314 posts - 407 votes 
Speaks: French*, English
Studies: Polish, Mandarin

 
 Message 104 of 108
21 December 2012 at 5:31pm | IP Logged 
I will join, I think I just need to think about my goals before I commit :)



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