Brian's Second Language

I am taking Polish lessons and have been since February. As they say, when in Rome…or is that Krakow. Actually, one of the biggest disappointments to me of being here is that I cannot read anything. I just love to read … billboards, bumper stickers, sides of trams, shelves in stores, cereal boxes, etc. So my thought was to take lessons so that I could more easily get around. I asked around and my friend Ewa suggested her good friend Kinga as my tutor. In exchange for my lessons Kinga gets to practice her conversational English. Kinga is an architect at one of the top architectural firms in Krakow and is well-studied. For her English practice she brings articles about Slobodan Milošević, the Sadam Hussein trial, architectural styles, fabrics and cooking. (She seems to be a good cook.) My part of the evening finds me practicing my Polish colors and numbers.

As for my lessons we practice pronunciations, verb / noun / adjective agreement, and writing. Then I get homework, which I actually look forward to doing. (I can’t believe I am writing this.) My homework consists of exercises in the student’s book (reminds me of first grade) as well as a writing assignment. Yes, I am writing stories usually on an assigned topic. Last week it was using all of the colors I had learned to describe the courtyard where we meet for lessons. A previous week it was to describe a woman in a Chanel ad Kinga gave me. (She tries to make the lessons interesting.)

So by now you probably want to know how am doing. Others would say well. Often the wait servers comment that I speak Polish better than they speak English. But I never buy that as they can communicate and I can only speak. My biggest obstacle has been learning my numbers. They say this is the most difficult part of learning a language. And nouns have different endings based on the number that is attached to them. E.g. it is one piwo, two, three and four piwa, five through 10 piw. Then it repeats based on the last digit of the number. Age, as in number of years alive, has a different format. It is one rok, two, three and four lata, 5 through 21 lat, 22 through 24 lata, and then it repeats the lat and lata from there. Now, don’t get me wrong, English is a very difficult language to learn. But many Polak and Polka (male and female Poles) have told me that it is more difficult than English.

Overall, I have made progress in these 6 months as my pronunciation is often accurate and I do know my colors. Well, the ones in that Crayola 8 box for sure