This week during my genius hour I decided I would go down the route of Duolingo!
It was a painfully humbling experience taking the placement test at the beginning, as I knew what all the phrases and sayings meant, and I was able to translate well enough (when there was a word bank at the bottom), but failed miserably when I had to write what I heard.
Now, I definitely understood what I heard. Copying it however, was another story. In Polish, there are apparently different sounds for the letter "ż" and "rz"as well as "ś" and "sz", but to me, they sound exactly the same. So, when typing what I heard, sometimes I'd use "ż" when I was supposed to use "rz", or "sz" when I was supposed to use "ś". This caused me to somehow fail the entire placement test, and I was to start the app at ground zero. Now, I am aware that this is the exact opposite conclusion of what I had posted last week, but alas, I trust that Duolingo does not lie.
So, I spent 15 minutes a day this week practicing my Polish, and I only made a few mistakes! I knew to tap each verb and each pronoun as they popped up, and wrote down the way it was spelt and the context in which it was used, so that I can look over it later on when I'm reviewing all the different conjugations. That is, after all, my biggest struggle when trying to learn Polish.
I have now mastered that "oni" is the masculine plural of "they" and "one" is the feminine plural of "they". This was an issue I struggled with for years! I knew one was masculine and one was feminine but I was never able to figure out which one was which. I have also formed and translated every possible way of saying "he/she/they/ is/are eating an apple". I'm at a point now where if I hear "ona je jabłka" (she is eating an apple) one more time I might throw my phone!
This week I was also able to practice a lot of my Polish while working at the farmers market. I work with my best friend Nina and her family, the owners of "Wanda's Farm". They are a full-blown Polish family, and so naturally attract a lot of Polish customers. I did my best this week to speak only in Polish to our Polish customers. A lot of the time I start by saying "dziendobry" (good morning) to our customers, and then swiftly move on to English when they have questions about our produce. This week I was wearing my brave pants, and vowed to answer in Polish, even if I made mistakes.
Let me tell you, it went pretty well! No one looked at me like I was an alien, or like I wasn't making any sense. They continued to respond in Polish, and one woman even told me I had a very nice accent!
From the market, I have learned the words: "miękie" (soft), "dojrzały" (ripe), "mięsisty" (meaty), "morela" (apricot), and "węgierski" (translates to Hungarian, but used to describe Italian plums).
It's working my friends. I am slowly building my way up the ranks!
I plan to continue using my Duolingo app for 15 minutes a day, and taking notes each time! I also plan to continue watching videos on Youtube from Polish Youtubers, just to get used to the speed of their speaking, and to expand my vocabulary a lot more. Lastly I plan to keep asking what words mean when I don't understand them. I wouldn't have learned any of the words above had I not just asked later on what they meant!
I'm so excited my friends. I love expanding my Polish. I feel so much more Polish than I ever have!
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