Hi all,
It has been 2 months since I last updated my blog.
The reason for my absence has been down to the plain fact that I have been very busy.
My progress in regard to learning Polish and Spanish, is excelling in some areas, such as reading and speaking, but is grinding to a halt in other areas, such as writing and listening comprehension.
I thought by spending the Christmas period in Krakow, it would improve my level of Polish but I found it all most impossible for me to have a conversation with a Polish person without them switching to English.
Over and over again, I was given the reasons below:
1) My level of English is better than your Polish, so the conversation should be conducted in Polish
2) I want to improve my English
3) Polish isn’t an important language, so you don’t need to learn it
4) You will never be able to speak Polish
5) I don’t want to be rude, so I will speak to you in English
To combat this, I’m making the most of my language exchange with Darek, my Polish exchange partner, and watching Pierwsza Milosc on IPLA.
Pierwsza miłość (First Love) is a Polish soap opera set in Wrocław, Poland. It has been broadcast continually on television Polsat since November 4, 2004. It has over 3,200 episodes, so by the time I’ve watched every single one, I will either be speaking like Adam Mickiewicz or be dead.
Another thing which I believe has helped my listening comprehension is that my language exchange partners have been sending me audio files which contain a reading from a book, in each of my target languages. The audio doesn’t come with a text, so I’m forced to listen to it over and over again.
Finally, during one of my language exchanges, my Russian exchange partner told me about a website, Forvo, which helps language students to pronounce foreign words.
Well that’s all folks!
Bye for now!
learn23eublog 