Polish only for 6 months

[lusan]

I am starting this log in the hopes that it helps me stay on track and also (if anybody is interested) that I may receive feedback/comments/criticism that may be useful. I have been trying to learn polish for around 2.5 years and I'm nowhere near where I should be. This is purely down to other priorities in life or just being lazy at times. I'd like to give polish a big push over the next 6 months to the end of 2019, focus solely on this and see how far I can get.

Motivation for learning polish
I have a polish wife (from eastern Poland) and therefore a Polish family. I go to Poland between 3-5 times per year where I am immersed completely in Polish language and culture and I have Poles in my house a few times per year visiting. I also attend a Polish Mass once per week with my wife who is Catholic. I'd like to be able to have a much closer relationship with my in-laws, take part more in the Polish events we go to, and also ideally talk to my wife in Polish at home. I am also very much into history and culture of Poland and the surrounding areas and I am really keen to dig into certain books and literature. That is a slightly longer-term ambition, but it is certainly a motivation. Living in Poland is also on the cards potentially in the future.
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Will generally attempt a weekly update. Comments/queries/criticisms all greatly appreciated.

Man, we have so much in common that I feel sorry. My wife is polish, I have in-laws too, we visit Gdansk 2x year for many years, usually in May and October. I have been in this Polish learning journey for 5 years.-10 years ago I took a TYPolish and I decided that it was impossible. I gave up on the first page.-

Now, after 5 years of learning, I concluded that without living there it is darn hard to move from B1 to B2. I define B2 as been able to turn on the TV and understand the darn news. My suggestion is to overweight on listening the language. Reading and grammar did not do much for me, though I love "krop po kroku". Level 1 and 2 will be enough to deal with your relatives but then the fun starts. As far as I know, sorry, THERE IS NOT MATERIAL TO MOVE PEOPLE ACROSS from A2/B1 to B2 without moving to the actual country. It has been very hard for me to find anything worthy and interesting similar to what is found in other languages. It is like a high wall full of words that sometimes I find almost imposible to climb. Ok.... I speak fluently, I read dozens of book and I can read the news. I read Polish about 1 hour a day.... It is endless. I think that the best is to define some specific obejctive with this language. For me, it is to talk to my tesciowa and my sister in law. That is done. I participate in the normal flow of life. I know enough for that. Now I am trying to understand youtubes videos. which it is very hard because I cannot find interesting material with cc... By the way, do not take it personally, I found also that these people do not slow down with me either. When they know that you speak some polish they forget that we are trying darn hard to deal with the rz, prze, ść, że and tak dalej.... They just keep going... If everything fail I just say Tak and the conversation keep going... zdrowia!

[cjareck]

As far as I know, sorry, THERE IS NOT MATERIAL TO MOVE PEOPLE ACROSS from A2/B1 to B2 without moving to the actual country.

I have to disagree with you. Of course, this makes reaching a higher level in a foreign language easier but surely is not necessary. I have studied for one semester in Germany and my German improved a lot at that time. But I have never been to any English speaking country and I consider my English to be better than B1.

If you have a Polish wife so you can pretend to be in Poland by speaking Polish only with your wife There are a lot of possibilities to practice like language exchange via Skype. Some applications like Hi Native are also helpful. Another interesting app is Radio Garden where you may choose radio stations around the world.

[Brun Ugle]

As far as I know, sorry, THERE IS NOT MATERIAL TO MOVE PEOPLE ACROSS from A2/B1 to B2 without moving to the actual country.

I have to disagree with you. Of course, this makes reaching a higher level in a foreign language easier but surely is not necessary. I have studied for one semester in Germany and my German improved a lot at that time. But I have never been to any English speaking country and I consider my English to be better than B1.

I think he means no good material for learning Polish at that level. For more popular languages, it’s easier to find materials and to reach higher levels without moving to a country where the language is spoken. English, Spanish, French and German certainly have materials at C-level and I’ve met many people who speak one of those languages at a high level without having lived in country. I think it is possible for other languages too, even those for which there aren’t any materials, but it’s a lot harder and it helps to have experience learning to a high level in another language if you’re going to attempt it without good textbooks.

[cjareck]

I think he means no good material for learning Polish at that level.

You're right. I also interpreted his post like that. But he also stated that moving to another country is necessary and I addressed that part of his post.

You may acquire Polish grammar books from eBay, Amazon, or even Polish Publisher's websites. There are a lot of monolingual grammar books if you wish to have them. But, as it was stated in many places on this forum, the moving to the native materials is better than looking for textbooks for advanced learners. Unless, of course, you wish to have your language level certified.

[ILikeKarkówka]

I am starting this log in the hopes that it helps me stay on track and also (if anybody is interested) that I may receive feedback/comments/criticism that may be useful. I have been trying to learn polish for around 2.5 years and I'm nowhere near where I should be. This is purely down to other priorities in life or just being lazy at times. I'd like to give polish a big push over the next 6 months to the end of 2019, focus solely on this and see how far I can get.

Motivation for learning polish
I have a polish wife (from eastern Poland) and therefore a Polish family. I go to Poland between 3-5 times per year where I am immersed completely in Polish language and culture and I have Poles in my house a few times per year visiting. I also attend a Polish Mass once per week with my wife who is Catholic. I'd like to be able to have a much closer relationship with my in-laws, take part more in the Polish events we go to, and also ideally talk to my wife in Polish at home. I am also very much into history and culture of Poland and the surrounding areas and I am really keen to dig into certain books and literature. That is a slightly longer-term ambition, but it is certainly a motivation. Living in Poland is also on the cards potentially in the future.
..............
.............
Will generally attempt a weekly update. Comments/queries/criticisms all greatly appreciated.

Man, we have so much in common that I feel sorry. My wife is polish, I have in-laws too, we visit Gdansk 2x year for many years, usually in May and October. I have been in this Polish learning journey for 5 years.-10 years ago I took a TYPolish and I decided that it was impossible. I gave up on the first page.-

Now, after 5 years of learning, I concluded that without living there it is darn hard to move from B1 to B2. I define B2 as been able to turn on the TV and understand the darn news. My suggestion is to overweight on listening the language. Reading and grammar did not do much for me, though I love "krop po kroku". Level 1 and 2 will be enough to deal with your relatives but then the fun starts. As far as I know, sorry, THERE IS NOT MATERIAL TO MOVE PEOPLE ACROSS from A2/B1 to B2 without moving to the actual country. It has been very hard for me to find anything worthy and interesting similar to what is found in other languages. It is like a high wall full of words that sometimes I find almost imposible to climb. Ok.... I speak fluently, I read dozens of book and I can read the news. I read Polish about 1 hour a day.... It is endless. I think that the best is to define some specific obejctive with this language. For me, it is to talk to my tesciowa and my sister in law. That is done. I participate in the normal flow of life. I know enough for that. Now I am trying to understand youtubes videos. which it is very hard because I cannot find interesting material with cc... By the way, do not take it personally, I found also that these people do not slow down with me either. When they know that you speak some polish they forget that we are trying darn hard to deal with the rz, prze, ść, że and tak dalej.... They just keep going... If everything fail I just say Tak and the conversation keep going... zdrowia!

It's nice to hear people have had similar experiences to myself.

I certainly don't take it personally, it's just different to other cultures I have been exposed to (and it is a generalisation) and in fairness Poles aren't as used to people learning their language in a meaningful way. Like I said, from a learning perspective there are benefits to it.

I know what you are saying but I do think that there is good content out there and I have seen some more advanced books although they are perhaps a little harder to find. I cannot speak from authority in that area though as I am not there yet. Have you tried going to Empik (or an equivalent) while out in Poland? You can pick up DVDs fairly cheap which generally have subtitles and you can also find some more advanced learning content, like grammar books if that is what you're after.

If you have a Polish wife so you can pretend to be in Poland by speaking Polish only with your wife There are a lot of possibilities to practice like language exchange via Skype. Some applications like Hi Native are also helpful. Another interesting app is Radio Garden where you may choose radio stations around the world.

That's the goal. I think that I will put a big focus on that in a few weeks after I have moved. When thinking about the average day (especially weekday), probably 75% of the things we discuss are fairly routine and fall into just a few categories.

[lusan]

I know what you are saying but I do think that there is good content out there and I have seen some more advanced books although they are perhaps a little harder to find. I cannot speak from authority in that area though as I am not there yet. Have you tried going to Empik (or an equivalent) while out in Poland? You can pick up DVDs fairly cheap which generally have subtitles and you can also find some more advanced learning content, like grammar books if that is what you're after.

I bought a bunch of movies as well as Polish serials at Empik. By the way, I like Czas Honorus, Dom and Alternativyvy 4. They are fun to watch and full of day to day language. However, the news language jest inaczej.

I look forward to learn more about your journey. Cheer.

[cjareck]

Polish book discount Aros has some textbooks and exercises for Polish. One claim even to be at the C2 level:
https://aros.pl/ksiazka/polski-c2-megat ... -exercises
https://aros.pl/ksiazka/celuje-w-c2-zbi ... oziomie-c2
There are recommendations below and the search engine so you surely will find something interesting.

[ILikeKarkówka]

I have been away for the last month as I was busy moving house, starting a new job and I also spent the last week in Poland on holiday. Therefore progress with the courses has been relatively weak. However I have kept listening and reading up and I did do a reasonable amount of talking while I was in Poland. I was quite immersed the majority of the time I was there so it was a good trip on that front.

Now I am back, in a new house and with no interruptions on the horizon until Christmas which means I can get into a routine which I have been craving for a while (in all aspects of life, not just with learning Polish). I also have access to the internet (I didnt have this for 2 weeks) a desk, my materials etc.

The one thought I have had over the last week is that I am going to push speaking at home in Polish sooner rather than later and I am also going to get some weekly tutoring in place (from next month), probably through italki as I want to practice speaking as much as possible. Currently we cook and do grocery shopping mostly in Polish (we cook together most days) as my language level in this area is quite good. This happened by accident but I realise that probably 75% of what we talk about during the week is fairly routine and there is no reason why I cannot get into a position where we can conduct this talking in Polish relatively quickly. I think it's important for me to just push through the slightly awkward barrier and do it. I am also going to put some focus on writing to support this. So I will focus on writing about the routine of my day etc. Whilst the Polish trip was good it's always a little frustrating at the huge gap between my understanding and my ability to speak so it's definitely something I need to address.