Polish Language Blog

Of course, since last time I bravely announced that the next post would be about grammar, I put on my procrastinator’s hat and have been doing everything possible to put it off for as long as possible. But then today my friend said “you’re stupid, the sooner you explain this grammar stuff, the sooner you can devote your time to more interesting things – like visiting me, for example.” And then she went on and actually did the grammar explaining as well:

“It’s really simple, OK? In English they have this whole bunch of useless tenses, the one with ‘do you blah blah’ and the one with ‘ing something something’ and then the one with ‘been ing whatever, anyway you know it and besides who cares? All your people really need to know that in Polish all this nonsense turns into one normal present tense, just how gods intended it to be in the first place. End of grammar lesson, now, when do you come visit me? I kup jakieś ciasto po drodze, OK? (and buy some cake on your way)”

(Now, if all Polish teachers could be like that! Wow!)

Unfortunately, I’m sure that now “my people” are staring at their computer screens and thinking “come again? ing blah something whatever? huh?”

So, let’s go over it again. And this time let’s use a handy example. How about the one from the previous post, the one about “Ja uczę się polskiego”?

In English you can say the following things:

• I study Polish.
• I’m studying Polish.

and

• I’ve been studying Polish.

And yes, “uczyć się” can be translated into English as both “to learn” and “to study” and don’t listen to Poles telling you otherwise.
In Polish the verb “studiować” (to study) is used almost exclusively when referring to higher education, as in “I studied psychology at Harvard.” – Studiowałam psychologię na Harvardzie. (no, not really, I’m not that ambitious.)

But a sentence such as: “I’ve been studying Polish for two years” can be translated into Polish as “Uczę się (języka) polskiego od dwóch lat.” So for today, we’ll stick with “to study – uczyć się”, OK?

And see what happened above?

The “been ing whatever” (I’ve been studying Polish by myself) became simply “Uczę się polskiego od dwóch lat” in Polish.

By the way, here’s a little something worth remembering. In English we say “for two years” while the Polish equivalent is “od dwóch lat”, which when translated back to English means “since two years.” Which explains why plenty of Poles say it like that when speaking English.

And how about “I study Polish when I have time.”?
Uczę się polskiego kiedy mam czas.

See, again just a regular present tense in Polish. Nothing fancy.

So how about “I’m studying Polish, be quiet.”?
Uczę się polskiego, bądź cicho.

And again the “ing something something” became the same old boring present tense in Polish.

And voila! My friend was absolutely correct. And it only took her 15 seconds to explain this issue. Man, I have a lot to learn… Now, what kind of cake should I buy? I’m thinking “drożdżowka” (yeast cake).

Thank you once again! I’m sure that your answers to my question in the last post are going to be very helpful to any readers who are still not sure whether to sign up for a Polish language class or go it alone. And as a few of you noticed, sometimes there’s no choice – it’s self-study or nothing, because Polish classes can be hard to find in some places.

That brings me to another point I’d like to know your opinion about. What do you think about the effectiveness of learning via Skype with a tutor? A couple of you mentioned this way of studying Polish and this is something I’d like to know more about from the student’s point of view.

You see, I am myself helping a couple of Polish learners via Skype and from where I’m sitting, it looks like a wonderful way to study a foreign language. It can be a quasi-language course, and a quasi-private class with all the convenience of doing it in your pajamas.

But how effective is it, really? Do you think that it can replace a structured “in-person” language course and offer the same learning benefit? To be honest, this is something I’m not sure about, and as a tutor I may be shooting myself in the foot here, but I have to say that Skype is not for everybody. It requires the same discipline and dedication as independent self-study. And it requires more concentration and attention than working one-on-one with a tutor face-to-face – for both the teacher AND the student. Myself, I find it more challenging than working with a student in real life.

But those of you who use this option, do you think you get out of it what you want to get? Are you happy with your results and the progress you are making? And how do you deal with the time difference if you and the tutor live in different time zones? Who stays up? Is it you or the teacher? Do you think this method can be used alone, or is it best in conjunction with something else?

I think Polish is a very challenging language to teach via Skype. A simple conversation lesson about, let’s say, ordering beer, almost always ends up as a very involved grammatical explanation of, let’s say, noun cases or numerals. However, what I think might be vastly different from what you guys think.

I know that quite a few Polish tutors read this blog, and I know your answers will be very valuable not only to me, but to anyone who teaches a foreign language on the internet. And that in turn should bring better results to our students.

• uczyć się polskiego – to learn Polish
• uczyć się – to learn

Remember when we talked about “się” and how it can change the meaning of a verb completely?
Here’s your chance to review:

• Ja uczę polskiego. – I (am) teach(ing) Polish (“language” is implied and understood). – This is what I would say about myself.

But:

• Ja uczę się polskiego. – I (am) learn(ing) Polish (“language” is implied and understood) – this is what you could say about yourself.

But if you want to direct the first sentence to me, what would you say?

• Ty uczysz polskiego. – You (are) teach(ing) Polish.

And if I want to direct the second sentence to you, what would I say?

• Ty uczysz się polskiego. – You (are) learn(ing) Polish.

Ok, next time we will take a look at the many different English tenses this one Polish sentence can be translated into. Yes, it’s grammar time! Oh joy, oh joy!

It’s official! I have the best readers in the world here. And this is no exaggeration. Your comments make my life so much easier. Not to mention – making my blog posts easier, too.

I wanted to thank all of you for taking the time to comment. Sometimes your comments are very extensive and contain more grammatical information than I’m willing to look for and provide. You know that I’m not fond of grammar. And teaching grammar is something that I always avoid, regardless of the language involved. That’s why I appreciate every single comment and explanation you provide.

I am very fortunate to have readers like you. And I am even more fortunate to have fabulous readers who are native Polish speakers as well. Poles, by and large, are very proud of their language’s grammar and like to demonstrate their expertise in this tough subject whenever possible. I am a very pitiful exception to this rule.

This became painfully apparent during my flight from Tokyo to Copenhagen yesterday. I was seated next to a young Japanese girl who lives in Ireland and has a Polish boyfriend there. Hi Kaori!!!

She is busy learning Polish in order to be able to communicate with her boyfriend’s family, who don’t speak English. Kaori is not attending any courses and is doing it entirely as a self-study program using her boyfriend and “Teach Yourself Polish”. And while she gets a lot of help from her guy, she says that this incomprehensible grammar of ours trips both of them up nearly every time.

So, here’s my question to you. How do you learn the language? Do you study alone? Or do you think that attending a Polish language course is a better option?

Personally, I firmly believe that a language course is indispensable. I wouldn’t attempt to learn a foreign language by myself. I know it’s not for me, because I’ve tried and failed miserably. The discipline is just not there.

I’d like to make a list of Polish language classes and courses for individual students (not university programs) all over the world. Yes, I know such a list would need to be constantly updated, but I am willing to give it a try. I think it would provide a great resource for those of us who want to learn Polish but need that extra help of a trained instructor. Because our amazing commenters and readers can only get us so far.

There are plenty of Polish language classes for foreigners in Poland, but what about those who want to learn our beautiful (if a bit incomprehensible) language in other countries? Any particular classes you’d like to recommend? In the coming days I’ll be calling to different places and trying to gather information. But in the meantime, if there are any classes/courses you are familiar with, please share the details with us! Thank you!

• kurs językowy – language course (in general)
• kurs języka polskiego – Polish language course
• kurs (noun, masculine, plural: kursy) – course