Poland, Italy, and then back In New York after years abroad

[StringerBell]

The difference here is very clear. Both are past tense completed ("dokonany" - I do not know English grammar term for this) verbs. But "powiedziałam" means I told him something short. "Opowiedziałam" means I (if I were women of course ) told him story. Something longer.

Powiedziałam mu, gdzie mieszkam -> I told him where I live
Opowiedziałam mu, co się dzisiaj wydarzyło -> I told him what had happened today

Dziękuję, nie małam pojęcia!

There is an old joke playing with meaning of "donosić" - it may have also mean "bring sth to", but this meaning is very seldom. So the joke is:
Sultan miał harem pełen kobiet. Miał też eunucha, który mu co noc donosił kobietę, którą sułtan sobie wybrał. Pewnego dnia jednak ten eunuch zmarł. Jaki z tego morał? Ciężko pracujący człowiek żyje dłużej niż donosiciel
Enjoy translating

My first Polish joke! I actually was able to understand that. Może jestem nie całkiem źle!

[cjareck]

Dziękuję, nie małam pojęcia!

Nie ma sprawy - polecam się

Hope you don't mind:

Może jestem nie całkiem źle!

Either "Może nie jest ze mną całkiem źle" or "Może nie jestem całkiem zła". I would prefer the first one since the second without a clear context rather mean that you are angry or evil

[drp9341]

Last week, someone asked when my sister got here, and I said, "tu jest od dwóch tygodni." instead of: "Przyjechała tu dwa tygodnie temu." I'm pretty sure that they're both correct and "sound normal," however it gets frustrating having to think of another way to say something so often, especially when it's something so simple in your native language you take it for granted.

If you sait Jest tu od dwóch tygodni it would be correct. So you were close

Thank you, I'm pretty sure I've been saying "tu +być" pretty often. I'll start trying to fix this habit! By the way, is "tu jest od (time)" incorrect in the same way that "poszłem" is incorrect? (In the sense that even though it's totally wrong, you hear it all the time.)

The confusing part, is when you think you can add a prefix to the verb, and it has another meaning. Like "donieść" for example, you would assume that, "Jan to doniesie do naszego szefa" means: Jan is bringing it to our boss... but it means something like, "Jan is snitching to our boss about it."

There is an old joke playing with meaning of "donosić" - it may have also mean "bring sth to", but this meaning is very seldom. So the joke is:
Sultan miał harem pełen kobiet. Miał też eunucha, który mu co noc donosił kobietę, którą sułtan sobie wybrał. Pewnego dnia jednak ten eunuch zmarł. Jaki z tego morał? Ciężko pracujący człowiek żyje dłużej niż donosiciel
Enjoy translating

I'm going to use this, thanks !

[drp9341]

Updates

Anki:Friday I changed my Anki decks around so I have two decks. I have unlimited reviews, and a total of 24 "new" cards a day. I'm burying a lot of the cards that are not so useful, or will take me too long to learn.

Reading: I am shocked at how easy this book is for me now. I know probably 95% of the words, and out of the remaining 5%, I can intuitively understand 4%, and for the remaining 1% I look up the meaning. This is great for my Polish. I'm paying attention to the collocations, (which verbs with which cases, reviewing declensions, learning a new ways to say things etc.)

Grammar: I studied the sh*t out of all the forms of nieść and nosić, and reviewed the words of movement again. I've been paying these verbs extra attention every time I encounter them in a sentence. I also reviewed a lot of basic grammar that I'd forgotten.

Speaking: This morning I spent over 2 hours talking with my girlfriends older brother, (he's a huge history-buff, and loves to talk about history, politics etc.) We talked about tons of complicated things, and while I definitely made tons of mistakes, there wasn't any lulls in the conversation, nor was it that mentally taxing.

I think a big issue I have is that I've been "pushing forward" so fast that I haven't spent enough time drilling the basics into my head. I'm going to start incorporating daily sessions of reading and watching things that I can understand with ease, in order to get my brain used to fully understanding Polish. I noticed these past few days when re-reading Luca Lampariello's book, that I actually feel surprised when I fully engage with things in Polish that I understand effortlessly. I need to get my brain used to Polish being simply another way to communicate, because I've been treating it like a challenge, and actively searching for things that are outside of my comfort zone. Challenging myself is great, but I need to balance it out more. I'm remembering that you can really improve your skills in a language by reading and watching things that are easy!

[cjareck]

Thank you, I'm pretty sure I've been saying "tu +być" pretty often. I'll start trying to fix this habit! By the way, is "tu jest od (time)" incorrect in the same way that "poszłem" is incorrect? (In the sense that even though it's totally wrong, you hear it all the time.)

Yesterday it was late, and I didn't notice the fact, that "tu być" is being used quite often, but it is a basic structure: "Tu jest dom", "Tu jest kuchnia" and so on. It is absolutely correct but has nothing to do with time.
So "tu jest od (time)" is wrong and it should be "jest tu od (time). I don't remember hearing the first a lot. And I think it is just opposite from "poszłem". Since in the first case the mistake is by using the wrong pattern. With "poszłem" the mistake is because of using the correct pattern and ignoring the exception which is in this case By the way, it is funny to see my children who sometimes make such mistake - they use a correct pattern but do not know that there is an exception. They learn this by repeating the word in different situations.

[drp9341]

Thank you, I'm pretty sure I've been saying "tu +być" pretty often. I'll start trying to fix this habit! By the way, is "tu jest od (time)" incorrect in the same way that "poszłem" is incorrect? (In the sense that even though it's totally wrong, you hear it all the time.)

Yesterday it was late, and I didn't notice the fact, that "tu być" is being used quite often, but it is a basic structure: "Tu jest dom", "Tu jest kuchnia" and so on. It is absolutely correct but has nothing to do with time.
So "tu jest od (time)" is wrong and it should be "jest tu od (time). I don't remember hearing the first a lot. And I think it is just opposite from "poszłem". Since in the first case the mistake is by using the wrong pattern. With "poszłem" the mistake is because of using the correct pattern and ignoring the exception which is in this case By the way, it is funny to see my children who sometimes make such mistake - they use a correct pattern but do not know that there is an exception. They learn this by repeating the word in different situations.

Thank you Cjarek! I'll keep this in mind. By the way, do you know of any good grammar book you could recommend to me? One that would cover these kinds of nuances?

[drp9341]

Update:
At my new job I am hearing tons of Polish, and with the other teachers I am speaking tons of Polish, it's great.

Also, I've been finishing Anki everyday, (quite easily actually,) and have been reading a good amount also. I want to incorporate more writing, but I think that it's not worth the time. I can learn much more in the same amount of time from reading / listening than I can from writing.

I think a big thing I now I am faced with is verbs. There's just so many forms of each verb. It's a lot of memorizing. The noun declensions come with repeated exposure, but the amount of verbs, and the specificity with which they describe things, is unreal.

I also need to make my Polish more "automatic" as I notice that I speak a lot slower if I'm trying to say something that I haven't already said / heard a few times before. What I mean is, if I want to say something that I know how to say, (I know the vocabulary and grammar,) but I haven't said / read that exact thing, (or something pretty similar) in a while, I have to actually think about how to form the sentences. This is normal, obviously, but I am tired of speaking Polish being something that requires a lot of mental energy. I want it to be like my Romance languages, where I have the grammar and structure so ingrained in my skull that I can be half asleep and still speak effortlessly. If I'm tired, or if I'm feeling mentally foggy, my level in Polish decreases DRAMATICALLY. I want to blame this on "speed learning," but I think it might be more connected to the fact that this is my first slavic language, and slavic languages are quite tricky, as well as structurally pretty darn different to English.

Lets see if by the end of September, something changes!

[cjareck]

Thank you Cjarek! I'll keep this in mind. By the way, do you know of any good grammar book you could recommend to me? One that would cover these kinds of nuances?

You are welcome. Since grammar is my weakest point in all languages I know, even my native, I can not recommend any book to you...

[StringerBell]

In hindsight, would you have done anything differently from the point where you first starting learning Polish until now?

[drp9341]

In hindsight, would you have done anything differently from the point where you first starting learning Polish until now?

I would have started using the Busuu app, after I completed Babbel. Aside from that, I don't think I would have done much differently. If I could change myself so that I was a robot, then I would been 120% faitful to Anki, but that's not possible.

The one thing I think about, is whether or not I should have stuck with Assimil. I'm not "convinced" that this would have made a huge impact, but it might have been better to have a more structured source from which to harvest information.