annhig

Tak, proszę też jedno zimno piwo dla mnie. Dziękuję! >>

got it! [it took me a while and i had to check it on google, but still]. Perhaps i should give polish a go - so long as the lessons were beer based I'd be fine.

Daniel_Williams

For Quokka-- "LOL Pani Wierzbicka - don't we just love the Pani Wierzbickas in the world...

And the crazy aunt, and her love story with Krzysztof's friend from Lwów. Pity the further sequels are not online, I would have liked to see how it continues."

If you're interested, it seems the continuation of "Uczmy się Polskiego" is on youtube now. And it begins with an episode with my favorite curmudgeon, Pani Wierzbicka! I'm looking forward to the lessons for furthering my Polish... just learned the word wytryzmac from Odcinek 16. The following link will get your started.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWKhY4yA9uU

Daniel_Williams

Update and Another Reason I'm Glad I Learned Polish--

As a goal for 2017, I decided that I would buckle down and learn the Cyrillic alphabet. It's an activity I would actually recommend to even those of you who have little patience with learning languages--it took me really no more than a day to learn the sounds associated with this phonetic script; there's often similarity with the Greek and Roman alphabets which makes life easier. My hope in learning Cyrillic is that if I were dropped anywhere in the Slavic world, while I wouldn't be able to speak some languages, I'd sometimes be able to figure things out when reading (even though I've never studied Portuguese, Catalan or Italian, I can often piece together meaning when reading thanks to having studied other Romance languages).

In an attempt to internalize the Cyrillic alphabet so as to make it second nature, I decided I would learn some basic Russian words, grammar and pleasantries. My brother took Russian at his university and he told me that the fail/dropout rate at UVA was very high. This made me think some students of Russian might benefit from learning Polish first...as a BRIDGE to help learn Russian, with speediER vocabulary learning in Polish due to the Roman alphabet in the beginning phase (and then less likely to give up). I'm I would say at least 2 times slower at learning Russian words than I was at learning Polish words (at least in the beginning phase); this slowness is in no small part due to the newness of the Cyrillic alphabet as I sound out words very slowly and sometimes stumble over false friends like H,e,p,y,B which sound quite different from the Roman alphabet. However, thanks to their common Slavic root, knowing the sometimes quite similar Polish word (examples: czytać = читать; piszesz=пишешь) has helped enormously in building and remembering Russian vocabulary.

Update on Polish: I've just read my second book in Polish, Pinokio (the original is a good bit darker than the Disney version LOL). Children's books seem to be what I can handle, and even with these I look up sometimes 20 words on a given page, although occasionally less than 5 words on some pages. May sound bad LOL but I feel my reading is becoming more natural, that there is progress.

Speaking is hardest but have only had limited opportunities so far. Listening sometimes I think I'm doing well (listened to a minister announcing the addition of greater US military presence in Poland, understood everything) and other times I feel despairing (went to a Polish church for a friend's daughter's baptism and I felt I was only catching words never full sentences during the service). I'll stick with it though--I know I'm improving!

Thanks again for all your advice and encouragement!

Best wishes, Daniel

michelhuebeli

I just stumbled on this long-in-the-tooth thread of almost four years (is this a Fodors record?).

I learned some Russian in anticipation of a trip to St. Pete's, two semesters at a community college. Nice teacher, but slow progress, so I connected with a young Russian who tutored me in exchange for music lessons. Highly recommended, the twice-a-week conversation opportunity made a big difference.

I already knew German, French, English, some Italian (enough to converse and read newspapers but with "holes" in comprehension and vocabulary) and limited Spanish (and - way back in school - Latin and some ancient Greek). I'm sure in some way that all helped.

Since this is the travel forum, I recommend to first learn the alphabet - so many names and signs, once deciphered, instantly make sense without need for further translation. Without deciphering - forget it.

Addressing Russians in Russian is tricky - even if you've managed to cobble together a correct sentence, how will you understand the reply that obviously comes back at you in Russian?

Better to learn, by rote, how to ask politely - in Russian - if it's okay to speak (for example) English by adding "because I speak very little Russian". Memorize that, and you'll be surprised how many people will attempt to do their best to accommodate you. Whereas, if you begin in Russian, and then immediately have to admit defeat, it makes the other party look silly, "why didn't you tell me..."

annhig

as ever, Daniel, I am impressed by your enthusiasm and dedication to the cause of language learning. Being able to read children's book in Polish albeit with a bit of help from a dictionary is a real achievement.

Michel - I like the idea of rote learning that phrase - I'll try to remember that next time I'm intending to visit a country and try out my version of their language on the inhabitants.

WoinParis

I impressed my colleague at table yesterday by asking him in Chinese to give me the bottle of water.
Impressive.
I cannot do that in Polish, I can only order wine or beer, fortunately. And only soup and pierogi's. That is a start I guess.
I find impressive people who keep learning language. I tell myself I have no time to learn another language but I guess the hideous truth is that I have no more inclination to do so.
Maybe when I'm old. Err, older. ;-)
So, kuddos to those who keep learning !

StCirq

I learned the Cyrillic alphabet decades ago, when planning a trip to Greece. You're right, it's not hard, and boy does it make a difference when reading signs and sounding out the words (even if you don't know what they mean). Then I studied Russian for a couple of years, but was an exhausted young mother with not much time to do my homework, so my progress was minimal.

I had fun last fall studying Slovak before a trip to Bratislava. That actually wasn't terribly hard at all, at least compared to Hungarian, which pretty much defeated me.

We are going to make a trip to Krakow one of these days with friends of ours here in France, one of whom is Polish, and I have offered to teach her some French in exchange for some Polish lessons. We'll see how I manage.

My husband thinks I'm a bit of a nutcase to keep "collecting" languages, but I can't help it. I love it. And he'd agree that having a personal "translator" has made life a lot easier for him on several occasions.

Daniel_Williams

michel-- I'm sure this isn't a Fodor's record. I've seen posts from much longer ago resurface for some reason or other--sometimes for nostalgic reasons, other times when someone against Fodor's policies wants to promote their business related to the post. Thanks for sharing your Russian experience!

Wominparis-- I'm always amazed how much work it takes with a new language before you meaningfully converse, even for the so-called "easier" languages, so I can totally respect someone who has no inclination to take on such a project. As for Polish, wino, piwo, barszcz and pierogi will get you far! Next step Wino: czerwony o biały?

annhig-- As ever, you delight me with your words of encouragement!

StCirq-- I understand that Slovak is closer to Polish than Czech is to Polish, more often mutually comprehensible from what I've been told. So, you might do very well with Polish (one thing that's nice about Polish is that it doesn't vary much throughout its territory of 40 million speakers). PS We are kindred spirits with languages. I'm a tad envious of your being in France and the proximity of immersion opportunities in all sorts of languages. Living in Quebec, I have to travel far to get out of an English or French zone. If it's any consolation I think some of my friends think I'm a nutcase too but it's worth it for that high I get when I'm actually using language X.

annhig

I never got very far with any of the slavik languages apart from being able to order 2 beers in about 6 variations, and Hungarian is a real facer. And if I try any more like French or Italian I think my brain will fry.

What I'd like to do is to learn something that's a bit like german, [dutch or danish?] but I just don't have the time at the moment. one day!

WoinParis

Annhig
I learnt Dutch (and ended spekaing fluently Flemish) and German is much more beautiful. So if you already speak German, yes why not Danish !

Michel,
Thanks to alleviate my fears that I am becoming lazy ! I guess that with a job, a wife 3 daughters studying, 8 cats one dog and in laws I haven't got too much freetime on my hands... And I must cook on monday !
BTW, I spent one year in Quebec (city) and have always had problem to find someone who is NOT sympathetic there. You seem to follow the rule.

WeisserTee

The night before a friend and I traveled by train from Vienna to Krakow, I happened to take a taxi ride with a Polish driver from Krakow. He was so pleased that I was visiting his city that after we got to my Vienna hotel, he spent 15 minutes teaching me basic Polish (please, thank you, etc). I gave him a big tip in thanks (apologies to all the "never tip in Europe because you Americans are destroying our culture" Fodorites). Knowing those 20 or so phrases really came in handy during our trip.

StCirq

I forgot to mention something that actually addresses the original question. My Polish friend here in the Dordogne shares a love of gardening with me, and every year I order plants from her favorite nursery outside Krakow, and she picks up the plants and brings them to me. All of which means I need to be able to read the nursery catalogue. I've picked up a good bit of Polish that way, albeit of a plant nature, but it does strike me that there are considerable Indo-European similarities.

quokka

Gardening - yes I believe so. There are a lot of Polish words in that field, for example for various specieses of vegetables. I hear that we owe this to a certain Bona Sforza, an Italian princess who married a Polish king in the 16th century and introduced all sorts of vegetables, herbs etc. that had previously been unknown in Poland. So the Italian terms were adopted by the Polish language.

danon

" I think some of my friends think I'm a nutcase too"

There is nothing crazy about being interested in learning new things:
languages, music, customs, cooking ...etc
After retirement, my father ( an engineer ) studied history of the Middle Ages for several years.
A few weeks ago MH and I took out our French grammar books -
time to refresh before the upcoming trip to Paris.
As a tourist one might
not use the language a great deal, but it does
feel good to be able to read Cyrillic alphabet in the Moscow's metro or
order a beer in the native language.