From Polish to Pillars to Blogpost

There are four “pillars” to my stay in Poland and one of them is to speak intermediate to advanced Polish within 12 – 24 months. It took me six months before I was able to afford classes and even now it’s the most significant drain on my wallet and the most likely to be cancelled should financial hardship hit.

Schools

I started off at a school in central Warsaw which advertised its “open and communicative method” to language training.  After nearly 3 months I became a little frustrated at what I feel was the 'dumbed down' nature of the teaching: the cases are all given English names,  the “why” of grammar (the rules which allow you to apply it outside of the class) skipped over and the materials were all “home grown.” The pace felt relaxed, rather than intensive.

Odpoczasz, mon....

The kicker for me came last week when as part of a question session every single student in the new A2 class we'd begun (drawn from two different groups and including me) got a simple answer using the Instrumental case wrong. All 7 of us had spent three months studying at the previous level including studying the Instrumental and none of us could remember how to apply it correctly. I have no excuses as I learnt the Instrumental years ago in London! 

Borsuk

My old chum Borsuk na Pradze studies over at the Centre for Polish Studies and I’ve also started in his class.  The difference was startling: the audio exercises are much faster and challenging, the class smaller, the material and teachers simple more challenging. Having gone from being able to do the exercises off the top of my head at the previous school, I am now having to sit down and put the brain into gear. Good! You’re never going to learn a language like Polish without getting a serious case of brainache from time to time. And I want to do the best that I can do, not feel comfortable.

Students

I loved my group at the previous school but they did have some terrible habits, the sorts of things that frustrate me as a teacher. Yawning loudly, texting during class, talking to each other in English, refusing to be creative and lack of commitment are all really annoying. It’s made me realise that the class you study with is at least as important as the teacher you have. In addition in the previous school we kept going drinking after class. Good for socialising, bad for the wallet and waist. 

Commitment

Unless you’re a naturally gifted linguist learning Polish (or any other language) is a big commitment. That may sound obvious but I don’t think I realised that when I first studied it in London. In my opinion, there is almost no point learning it unless you are able to throw yourself in completely: consuming Polish in every medium available, speaking as much as possible, writing everything in Polish and thinking in Polish. It was with some small pleasure that I woke up on Monday morning realising I’d had a dream that had taken place with Polish being spoken. I can’t remember what it was but it’s a sign that it’s permeating my consciousness. 

Coin toss....

I also find that I am starting to replace English words like “but” “indeed” and “of course” with Polish as the words I automatically think of using in certain situations. Yesterday I found a shiny five pence coin in the change in my pocket. I turned it in my fingers and realised that it looked unknown to me, out of place. Without realising it the złoty and groszy has somehow committed mental regicide and replaced the noble British pound and the hearty British pence in my mind-set. Perhaps that’s the point about learning a language: you need to give up something to get something back. The process benefits you but it can leave attachments which were once familiar suddenly looking like strangers.