Note to Self: We Aren't Starting From Ground Zero! - GENIUS HOUR #1

So this week's Genius Hour was all about exploring how this is going to work.  How am I going to go about improving my Polish?  I figured I'd start with the basics, and searched for a video on YouTube. I searched "Learn Polish", as I thought being broad would be better.  I came across a video made by a channel called Learn Polish with PolishPod101.com.  The video was titled "Learn Polish in 30 Minutes, All the Basics You Need". You can watch the video for yourself here!

Very soon into watching this video, I realized I am much more advanced than I give myself credit for.  Granted, there were a few things I did learn, like saying "przyjemność po mojej stronie" (it's my pleasure) as a formal way of saying "you're welcome".  That was new to me!

I decided while I watched this video, that I was going to make a list of things I already know! The list is as follows:

© Ella Wiernikowski, 2018

While I was watching the video, Joanna would speak in English before speaking in Polish.  When she was explaining how to formally say "it is nice to meet you" to a woman, I preemptively tried to say it out loud in Polish before she did, to see if I would get it right.  To my surprise, I did not get it entirely right. My word for "Ma'am", "Pani", was different than Joanna's word, which was "Panią".  I know that "Panią" is a grammatical variation of "Pani", but what I don't understand is why it was used.  

So, I've come to the conclusion that when speaking Polish, a lot of the time I know which words to use, I just don't know how to use them correctly.  After having done a specialist in Linguistics during my undergrad, I've grown to have a real appreciation for grammar.  I think this is why I'm so motivated to improve my Polish, because it's the only one out of the three languages I can speak where I have next to no understanding of the grammatical structure.

So where do I go from here? What do I do with this new epiphany? Moving forward, I know now that my focus has changed from just "learning Polish" to "learning Polish grammar".  I am now on the hunt for a helpful website or program that will walk me through Polish grammar, not just Polish basics.  I can also speak to my father and grandmother, who I have asked to speak to me exclusively in Polish for the next six weeks, and ask them questions throughout the week as to why they used x instead of y in a sentence.  I'm hoping that the more I understand a word, the more likely I will be to use it correctly in a sentence next time!

I also plan to periodically read (simple) books and maybe watch a couple YouTube videos done by Polish YouTubers so I can expand my vocabulary and work on my fluency before my next Genius Hour.

I'll be sure to keep you all updated on my progress, so stay tuned next week for more!