Moja Walka - Studying Polish in Warsaw

I haven’t written about learning Polish for a little while but I always hope that there are people reading this who are considering coming here to live or work and want to know more about this subject (and with people from the UK you can generally presume they won’t speak a second language, I don’t didn’t).

I haven’t written about it mainly because I haven’t been learning in any formal sense for about 5 months. I didn’t have the money for it, and my last experience (in a semi-intensive class of very mixed abilities) scarred my self confidence more than I cared to admit at the time. It was too much, too quickly and by the end I was really downhearted about my own ability to continue. Conclusion - Choosing the right group and school is very important, pay careful  attention to the dynamic in the first class (when it’s free)

I maintain my belief that in order to successfully learn a language you need to have just two ingredients: interest and confidence. The first can usually be presumed but the second is something that you need other people, students and teachers and the public, for. To compare yourself against, to feed off, to be reassured. Conclusion – speak to your fellow students. Are they as motivated as you? Will they be a drag or a plus on your learning?  (Regarding interest, I say usually that’s presumable, but my experience teaching English is that sometimes people will be paying for something that they don’t even want, which is a drag).

But in the meantime I’ve been listening to podcasts in Polish, trying to speak as much as possible , learning vocabulary, re-revising cases and also I’ve spent a lot more time with Polish non-English speakers (like my friend Marcin Z whose a character I’ll have to tell you about on another occasion). At work my colleagues speak a mixture of Polish and English, and in due course I’ll need to engage with Polish businesses in Polish as well. This is a good spur for motivation.

I was pleasantly surprised that last night in an initial class at a language school I was able to speak confidently and correctly in a group around A2. The group itself was probably a bit too low for my level now, but it confirmed to me just how important it is to consume, consume, consume Polish in every format and override the embarrassment factor of feeling stupid when trying to articulate thoughts with people who can speak to you perfectly well in your own language. Conclusion – (yoda voice) surround yourself with the force, let be in you, around you and of you.

Two more thoughts: I still remember the first time I was introduced to the Polish case system. It was completely mystifying conceptually. Now I don’t struggle with it as a system and find myself “feeling” some endings are correct, merely though hearingthem repeated so often on tv or in the street or by friends, you just “know” they’re correct. Conclusion – tables and books are all very well but there’s no susbstitute for gut feeling. This is something I never would have though six months ago when I maintained that all I needed was an A4 pager with all the cases on and I’d finally “get it.”

Finally, depending on your money and time factors, it’s important to consider how you are learning. If you do go to a school, try not to have delays or gaps. You may find yourself becoming unteachable as you know bits and bobs from here and there. I was acutely aware that I was too far advanced for yesterday’s group, but definitely not ready for a B2 group. One way is to archive your learning – make a summary of everything you’ve learnt in each class/level: cases, zeby. Participles, times and dates. This will help you and future teachers understand what you have and haven’t covered. All schools are different.

For now I am going to go down the private tutor route – I can finally afford it and my needs are specific. 

I hope this might have been useful in stimulating a few thoughts and if you’re looking at studying Polish in Warsaw and have a question, feel free to get in touch (see "about me" for contact details).