Time to Catch Up

My first two Polish classes have been great. I've found a course at The Centre for Polish Studies on Swiętokrzyska. I received a recommendation for the school from a friend and so far I'm really very glad I took his advice. We will learn grammar, hence the title of this blog post.

I bought myself a copy of "Hurrah! Po Polsku" last year, and have been making half hearted attempts at working through it on my own and with my wife's help. So far I'm not past chapter five of twenty. What that means is that although I'm speaking a lot more than I was a few months ago, my knowledge of grammar is pitiful. In my new class, we have been doing exercises from well into the second book in the "Hurrah" series, and I'm already way behind! This weekend I am spending some time working through my book and trying to teach myself some of the basic grammar. I need to catch up fast.

I'm no language genius. This stuff is difficult for me to understand, and studying Polish at home reminds me of that frustrated feeling I had while studying for mandatory French classes in school. Grammatical rules confused and irritated me. Polish possessive pronouns in the dative / celownik did so today. I tend to get a little overwhelmed by how much there is to learn so I know I need to break things into pieces. My goals this weekend include:

1. continue studying and recording new vocabulary
2. reviewing and practicing endings for instrumental / narzędnik with adjectives and nouns.
3. reviewing nominative possessive pronouns
4. reviewing and practicing endings for accusative / biernik

I've decided to forgo maintaining one separate, mammoth vocabulary document, and instead post the new vocabulary each day as part of a blog post. Vocabulary preceding today remains on a separate page.

Today's vocabulary so far:

• podniecać / to excite, to thrill esp. sexually (v)
• doczekać / to wait until (v)
• "Nie mogę się ciebie doczekać."
• strzał w dziesiątkę / bull's eye, right on the money
• chyba / probably
• szkoda, że . . .  / It's a pity that . . . 
• o co ci chodzi? / what do you mean?
• nie szkoda ci czasu? / Aren't you wasting your time?
• reżyser / director film (n)
• urzędnik / clerk, office worker (n)

A Student Once Again

I ventured out today for my first Polish course since last summer. I've got a course now, 90 minutes three times a week. There's just three of us plus our teacher so it's great so far! After just one class it's hard to say how hard it will be but we all enjoyed the class and I think my classmates are around the same level as me. I was a little anxious this morning because I hadn't been on the receiving end of a teacher's questions for so long. Honestly, I was so excited for my course to start that I had trouble sleeping last night. I wasn't exactly bright-eyed and bushy-tailed (try explaining that one to your English students) this afternoon but I had fun.

After a long day I'm far from having enough energy to blog in Polish but I will partially update the słownictwo tonight with some of the new words we used today in class. Today you only get the Polish half. When I get a minute I'll add the English translations. One thing is for certain - my vocabulary really needs a lot of work. My słownictwo from today's class alone has 39 new words on it. I also already have homework!

It's fun to be making faster progress in Polish again and blogging more. Thanks to my new and old readers. As always, your comments are welcome! I'm especially grateful to you patient souls who provide a correction from time to time. Thanks for participating and I hope someone out there is learning as much as I am.

While you're here, click the Facebook 'like' icon to the right so you can be informed via Facebook of updates and other Borsuk na Pradze news, contests, and explorations of Polish and Warsaw. Leave your comments and suggestions in the language of your choice.

Kurs Polskiego - jutro!

Dobry Wieczór!

Dziś wieczorem mam dobrą wiadomość. Jutro popołudniu zaczynam nowy kurs polskiego. Nie miałem lekcje polskiego w szkole od czerwiec rok temu. Wiem, wiem, robię duży błędy z przypadki. Jest trudny język! Mam nadzieje, że moja nauczycielka jest miła. Już znam jej imię: Kasia! Nie jestem zaskoczony!

Podniecać się nowym kursem.

Też, uaktualniłem Słownictwo / Vocabulary dziś wieczorem.

Vocabulary / Słownictwo

Building vocabulary is hard work. Through the course of the day I refer to the dictionary in my phone a handful of times. Just as often, I ask my wife what something means. How much of this do I remember? Very little.

I'm starting to keep a daily log of the words I needed in a day. I haven't yet found a consistent way of keeping track of new words while I'm moving through the city but I suspect that good old pen and paper will prove the best solution.

I will post my daily lists here. For those of you reading this blog for amusement, you won't be bothered by the daily (weekly?) lists, because I will add them to the vocabulary page here: Słownictwo / Vocabulary. Later, you can find this page in the column to the right under "Reference."

For those of you using this page to help you learn Polish, (anyone?) you can refer to the vocabulary page periodically to see what has been added. I'll try to mention in my regular blog posts when the vocab page has been updated. Go check the first list now and tell me what you think. Is this a good way to organise vocabulary?

Psy

W Niedziela, byliśmy na spacer w Park Skaryszewski. Skaryszewski jest dobry park bo zawsze są dużo psy. Bardzo lubimy psy, ale nie mamy bo tylko mamy mała mieszkania. Chcemy beagle. . .

Dwa tygodniu temu, zrobiłyśmy zdjęcie ale nie napisałem na blogu. Dziś, pogoda był ciepła i słoneczna. Moja zona i ja usiedliśmy na ławce. Weronika czytała książka i uczyłem się polskiego. Mam "Polish in 4 Weeks," która jest bardzo nierealistyczny pomysł. Jednak, to dobry przewodnik gramatyka.

Kiedy idziemy do parku, zwykle nosimy aparat, bo są zabawny i ladny psy. Chcę wam pokazać kilku zdjęcie.

"Jest dobry dzień na spacer. A potem . . . piwo."
"It's a good day for a walk. Afterwards . . . beer."

"Czasami myślę, że jesteście za wolny i za nudny. Chcę biegać!"
 "Sometimes, I think that you guys are too slow and boring. I want to run!"

"Nie pamiętam, jest piłka twoja czy moja?"
"I don't remember, is the ball yours or mine?"

"Nie zjadłem śniadania dziś. Ale widzę mała corgi. . . "
"I didn't eat breakfast today. But I see a little corgi . . . "

"Hej! Dziecko! Budź i baw się ze mną!"
"Hey! Kid! Wake up and have fun with me!"

"Nie ma problemu, ja wszystko łapie!"
"No problem, I catch everything!"

"Tak, jestem mały ale jestem najszybciej w parku!"
"Yes, I'm small but I'm the fastest in the park!"

"Proszę pedałować! Nie mogę ciągnąć więcej."
"Please pedal! I can't pull any more."

"Czy masz prawidłowe f zatrzymać?"
"Do you have the right f-stop?"
Caption by DiverDoc.

"mam sziwa wasa dlatego musie brac lasca."
"I have a grey moustache because I have to bring wood."
Caption by Paddy, of PzU.

You'll notice the last two photos don't have captions. That's because I need your help! Please help me chose an appropriate caption for the last two dogs. Post your ideas in the comments below!

Also, if you don't understand my caption or see a glaring error in my Polish, feel free to point me in the right direction.