Are you Knocking off cobwebs this summer?
Keeping ones blog up to date is tough work - that is unless you're in the civil service and actively need things to keep your mind occupied! All jokes aside, I just spent a very nice week in Ireland, albeit with the usual precipitation-heavy shitty weather that neverendingly acts as a catalyst for my propensity towards a serious bate of sneezing and headaches. Dust begins to gather on ones blog just as it begins to mount up on ones physique if they don't get the lead out of their arse and be active - swimming, weights, running, sports game, etc.
And so I've started going to the gym and running again recently - I felt like a tonne of bricks when my trainers hit the asphalt for the first time in an age last Monday; knocking off the auld cobwebs is an excruciating business. I almost did a wymiot (vomit), but decided not to push myself to such an extremity that getting fit again would have to an shite experience. I already feel the benefits, though muscle pains exist here, there - indeed, everywhere. The weather is beautiful in Warsaw at the moment so it helps my motivation to get up and out and bare my white Irish legs to the tanned and toned Warsaw public.
I've also started doing 2 hour conversational classes in Polish with a colleague which I'm finding good fun and very helpful. For any of you poor souls who come across this blog and have to tackle Polish, I have to be honest - it's a real pain in the balls/ovaries! But once you start making progress and are understood at your local bazaar and hairdresser the sweat tears and loud exclamations of 'Kurde' (a strong version of 'Damn it' only used by adults) and 'Cholera' (Fuck) over grammar exercises or when someone corrects you for making the same mistake 25 times in the past 24 hours, well, it all seems worth it.
I read in the back of my Polish dictionary that a native English speaker needs to study Polish full time for 1,350 hours before they can become proficient. I'm satisfying my conscience with the fact that I've done about a 1/3rd of that in formal study/course and am at pre-intermediate level. I really hate Fianna Fail (The Soldiers of Destiny) who are the major political party in Ireland, but their campaign slogan from the 2002 election rings true to end this short piece on the struggles of language learning:
A lot done, a lot more to do!
Anybody else have summer resolutions they wish to share? Feel free to comment if you have time, energy and/or the will.
Comments
I have been living here for three years now and am probably about the same. Two hour conversation lesson seems alot. My problem is that like you i am an ELT teacher and conduct most of my day in English with just shops and the like in Polish. Further to this, i am usually working at the same time that Polish lessons are available. I had one to one lessons in my first year, but to be honest, didn't apply myself enough and do my homework well. However, i am increasingly confident and able to deal with situations which are out of a controlled context.
Are you still going to teach in Afghanistan?
I've other voluntary plans for the summer which are best left unwritten on this forum though.
I've been here since Dec. 2005, but spent last summer in Ireland. I've done a good few courses, both intensive 3 week ones as well as the standard 6 hours a week. My current teacher is a colleague from my workplace who I find a very good teacher. Trust me, 2 hours flies by. And it's far better then sitting on your whole in a group lesson where you are mute for 95% of the lesson.
I enjoy looking at films in Polish with Polish subtitles and reading articles from the Polish press also. Despite the fact that most of them are a bit too difficult for me to completely follow, I can get the gist nevertheless.
Similar to yourself I use it when I'm shopping but all my friends here speak English and like to practice their English when I'm around. I like meeting new people who find it really cool and exciting that someone foreign is learning their language- they tend to have a lot more patience than my Polish friends when it comes to my attempts to speak Polish.
It's certainly a struggle when one os speaking English all day at work. But I teach a wide range of levels here, including about 100 kids who need clarification in Polish, so that really helps me use my language skills. They then correct my mistakes. Of course I tell them what to do in English first, but if they don't have a clue, the best route I find is to say it in Polish and then repeat the Eng. instruction whilst doing the action.
I find adults also like one to use their bit of Polish or translate a word quickly for them. But all in all in order for one to become fluent, I guess we just gotta hang in there for the long haul. My g'friend is proficient in English but she has been learning it for 15 years. Yet still she has difficulty understanding my mam and others when she visits Ireland. Language fluency is one thing, but when it encounters a thick country accent it still has a tendency to drown.
I wish you all the best in your continued efforts. You sound like a similar learn to me. And if my advice is of any worth then I suggest you keep getting some one on one lessons with small achievable tasks related to topics that really interest you.
Powodzenia;))