Time for a long overdue update. Fortunately I have more time now, since I have four weeks free before I head to Poland. I decided earlier this semester that this would be a Slavic Summer - these last four years have been full of ancient languages (out of necessity, thanks to my degree) and Spanish (since one of my jobs depended on it). Now, as a graduation gift to myself, I am giving free reign to Polish and Russian - until this fall, when I have to become a respectable graduate student.
The last two weeks have been packed with Polish. My comprehension hasn't suffered much over the years of neglect, but I can't say the same for my active vocabulary. So my plan is to refresh my knowledge and then forge onward - I want to place into the highest level possible of my language program in Poland (I'm hoping C1, but perhaps B2 is more realistic). These next four weeks are critical.
So, strategy.
REVIEW
To begin with, I am rereading
Colloquial Polish: the Complete Course for Beginners. I am almost done with this, after about a week and a half; the exercises are for the most part super easy, and it is just a matter of reactivating some of the vocabulary.
ADVANCE
I downloaded the ebooks of
Czas na czasownik and
Iść czy jechać and these two exercise books will form the heart of my grammar study. My goal is to finish both of them. A lot of this information will be review, or perhaps will serve to render explicit in my mind grammar that I picked up intuitively in my early teens, but I expect there will be many nuances that I have never encountered. I am using
Gramatyka języka polskiego: Podręcznik dla cudzoziemców as a supplement, for things like determining what the heck is going on with numerals (especially collective ones).
As I go along, I am writing down verbs that I am uncomfortable with and making a list of them with their most common definitions and uses.
* * *
Grammar will be my main focus over the next week or so, but after that I will be incorporating more listening and reading in. I am most worried about my speaking and writing, so I will address that next week, too. But speaking should be one of the focuses of my program in Poland, after all.