ĆWICZYĆ, UPRAWIAĆ I PRAKTYKOWAĆ OR ON SPORT IN THE POLISH LANGUAGE

ĆWICZENIA Z JĘZYKA POLSKIEGO (POLISH LANGUAGE EXERCISES)
Sport is one of the most popular topics among the participants of our Polish language courses. Within its context, however, several verbs appear, which often causes confusion. The students are already familiar with the verb ćwiczyć (to exercise/work out) and they know that one can ćwiczyć at a gym or a fitness club, but this word may also be used with regard to the issues related to the work of the brain. Therefore, we can ćwiczyć mówienie po polsku (practise speaking Polish), ćwiczyć gramatykę
robiąc ćwiczenia gramatyczne (practise grammar through doing grammar exercises) lub ćwiczyć rozwiązywanie zadań matematycznych (practise solving mathematical problems, e.g. before an exam). However, when we talk about specific sport disciplines (sailing, basketball, volleyball, skating etc.) we need another verb.

JAKI SPORT UPRAWIASZ? WHAT CAN YOU UPRAWIAĆ IN POLISH?
First of all, in Polish we never do sports (nie robimy sportu), but we cultivate / practise it (uprawiamy go). We use the same form when referring to specific disciplines when we want to emphasise that they are present in our lives on a regular basis. Obviously, you can say that you play basketball (gramy w koszykówkę) but if you spend half of your spare time on a basketball court, saying uprawiam koszykówkę (I practise / cultivate basketball) is more adequate (gram w siatkówkę - uprawiam siatkówkę; pływam - uprawiam pływanie; jeżdżę na nartach - uprawiam narciarstwo, żegluję - uprawiam żeglarstwo etc.). In the Polish language you can also uprawiać jogę, pilates, body balance, lekkoatletykę, but also...seks. You can check here for the other contexts in which you can use this verb and for its inflection.

VERBS PRAKTYKOWAĆ AND TRENOWAĆ IN A POLISH LESSON
When talking about sport, foreigners learning Polish ask about the verbs trenować (to train) and praktykować (to practise). Both of these forms are very easy to memorise, they have similarly-sounding equivalents in other languages, and as a consequence, they are particularly commonly used by the foreigners. Well … here is where a problem comes in, since in the Polish language these verbs can be used only in strictly defined contexts. We can trenować do triathlonu, maratonu, trenować boks lub karate – that is intensively practise (ćwiczyć), because the specificity of the sport or the fact that we are (semi) professionals requires it.
In the Polish language we practise (praktykujemy) yoga, Zen, Buddhism or any other religion – this verb thus relates to activities staying rather within the spiritual sphere, it indicates exercise but at the mental level (by saying ćwiczę jogę we concentrate on the aspect of performing physical exercise and not on the spiritual sphere).

                                                 practise your Polish on our FB profile.

In summary, to have a good command of the Polish language it is necessary to dużo ćwiczyć (practise a lot) and here uprawianie sportu (doing / cultivating sports) in a group with Polish colleagues can turn out really helpful. Furthermore, sportowe treningi (sports trainings) should be supported by praktyka medytacji (meditation practice) so that our brains will be ready to absorb a greater amount of knowledge during the Polish language courses.

POLISH LEARNERS' STRUGGLE WITH... DATES

DATES  IN THE POLISH LANGUAGE

Który dziś jest? (What’s the date today?) – the question seems fairly easy, however... Well, we all know that appearances can be deceiving. Then, how to answer that question correctly? Do we say: dziś jest piętnasty stycznia (15th January), or perhaps piętnastego stycznia? When do we say dwa tysiące piętnasty, and when dwa tysiące piętnastego?
Foreigners often ask those questions in Polish lessons when they learn how to read the dates correctly.
To make things harder, native speakers of Polish themselves make mistakes, too, which doesn’t help at all.

WHICH DAY OF THE MONTH IS IT?

So, how to say the dates in Polish correctly?
When asked: Który dziś jest? we should answer: Jest piętnasty stycznia dwa tysiące piętnastego roku (It’s 15th January 2015).
Forms such as piętnasty styczeń we should avoid like the plague, since they are not only wrong, but also simply absurd. If we make an effort to figure out their meaning, we should grab a calendar and check how many months of the year called styczeń there are. The form piętnasty styczeń means the fifteenth January (as if there were many months called January and we are referring to the fifteenth of them), not the fifteenth OF January. It’s the form we use when we say piętnaste piętro (the fifteenth floor), or drugi zawodnik (the second competitor). Therefore, when reading the date 15/01 we should put the name of the month in the genitive case and say piętnasty STYCZNIA. That means we have in mind piętnasty dzień stycznia (the fifteenth day of January), not the fifteenth month called styczeń. That is both gramatically and logically correct.
If someone asks us when we could meet, then we can answer: piętnastego stycznia dwa tysiące piętnastego roku (on 15th January 2015).

WHAT CAN WE SAY IN POLISH ONCE IN A THOUSAND YEARS?

And what if we want to say what year it is? Let’s simply not forget that the Polish language loves declension and use it. Say: jest rok dwa tysiące piętnasty (it’s the year 2015), but w roku dwa tysiące piętnastym rozpoczynają się nowe kursy języka polskiego w Po Polsku (in 2015 new Polish courses start at Po Polsku), in which case we have to use the locative.
We should also mention rok dwutysięczny (the year 2000). This form we can use once in a thousand years. There was rok tysięczny (the year 1000), there was rok dwutysięczny (2000) and there will be trzechtysięczny (3000). But NEVER EVER SAY  dwutysięczny pierwszy. That’s a terrible mistake. Remember that the year 2001 one we read: dwa tysiące pierwszy (thousands and hundreds are used in the form of cardinal numbers and tens and units take the ordinal form).

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We wish all our readers interesting Polish lessons (not only of Polish as a foreign language) w dwa tysiące piętnastym roku!

PISZĘ BLOG or PISZĘ BLOGA? UNUSUAL USES OF THE ACCUSATIVE CASE

ACCUSATIVE MASCULINE

Anyone learning Polish as a foreign language will face that problem at some point. They already know that in the masculine gender accusative case takes one of the two forms: either -a ending or remains unchanged, i.e. it is the same as the nominative case (it is also called a zero ending – ø). Those attending the courses of Polish know that the –a ending refers to the so called masculine animate nouns (that’s why we say: mam męża, brata, kota, psa – I have a husband, brother, cat, dog), while the zero ending refers to the group of nouns that are masculine inanimate (that’s why we say: mam dom, samochód, komputer etc. – I have a house, car, computer).

BLOG, MEJL, SMS IN A POLISH LESSON

Right. Why then do we often hear: on pisze bloga (he’s writing a blog), wysłałam ci smsa (I’ve sent you a text message), kupiłem laptopa (I’ve bought a laptop), odebrałem twojego mejla (I’ve got your email)? All the nouns mentioned are of masculine inanimate gender. According to the rule, they should remain unchanged when put in the accusative case! Well. The rule says one thing, but life, or should we say, users of the language, say another. The above mentioned use of masculine inanimate nouns with the –a ending has become so common that Polish linguists had to give in and accept those forms. However, though acceptable, they are considered COLLOQUIAL, and the structures with masculine inanimate nouns in the nominative case still remain to be the correct ones (on pisze blog, wysyłam ci sms, kupiłem laptop, odebrałem twój mejl).
In the examples given we’ve used the words that have appeared in the Polish language quite recently, the words connected with the latest technologies. However, we face the same dilemma (whether to use the accusative case with or without the –a ending) when using the nouns that appeared in Polish a long time ago. We often say: jem kotleta, pomidora, banana, although the correct form is jem kotlet, pomidor, banan. The use of –a ending with those nouns has become so common that it will probably replace the zero ending over time.

CARS, DANCES, SPORTS: 
THE “LEGAL” –A ENDING IN THE ACCUSATIVE CASE

When learning the accusative case we should bear in mind that there is a great deal of inanimate nouns which take the –a ending, and that is THE ONLY CORRECT FORM they can take. We use it when talking about car makes (mam mercedesa, fiata, peugeota), dances (tańczyliśmy walca, fokstrota, swinga, rock and rolla), sports (gram w tenisa, golfa, pokera, brydża), types of flowers (dostałam jednego goździka, tulipana, irysa).
You can learn more about the exceptions and unusual uses of the language while attending our classes or using our app.

HOW TO PREPARE A GOOD LESSON OF POLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE? PART 2.

A GOOD POLISH LESSON. WHAT SHOULD IT BE LIKE?

100% (or almost 100%) IN POLISH!
Speak Polish! Kind of obvious, but... If you speak English or any other language for most of the lesson, it’s YOU who practises their language skills, not your students. There’s a common misconception about teaching Polish: when teaching a group of beginners it isn’t possible to use Polish only, especially during the first few lessons. Well, it IS possible! Obviously, you need to simplify the language register a lot, use your body language and visual aids, and first of all, you need to adapt the material to the specific moment of the course or lesson. Clearly, you are not going to start the first class (beginner course) with the past tense, but with introductions and alphabet, and the phrase „Co słychać?“ (How’s it going?) you’re likely to introduce at the beginning rather than the end of the lesson.

THE STRUCTURE OF A LESSON
Remember about the structure of your lesson. No matter how long the Polish lesson is, your student should go through the following stages: warm-up – review of the last lesson – introduction of new material – drilling new material – student’s performance – summary. Remember about the margin of error for your students, do not correct every single mistake that lower level students make. The less advanced the student, the larger the margin of error is acceptable.
When introducing grammar, remember: first an example, which you analyse, and then the rule (never the other way round). For homework your students can practise grammar in a fun way: application Polish for Foreigners (available also on iOS, iPAD and Windows).
Better to do less but properly, than more but just whiz through it. If you provide students with too much material during a lesson, they won’t memorize it all anyway.

YOUR STUDENTS
Listen to your students, pay attention to their verbal and non-verbal signals, find out what they’re interested in, ask them questions (without invading their privacy) and remember that being a Polish teacher you often meet people of different cultural background, confession or having values different from yours. Respect that!

                                     

One of the pictures you can find on our facebook page PoPolskuPFP. What grammatical problem does it help to explain?

HOW TO PREPARE A GOOD LESSON OF POLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE? PART 1.

A GOOD POLISH LESSON. WHAT SHOULD IT BE LIKE?

WHO IS YOUR STUDENT?
First of all, you need to figure out WHO the lesson is FOR. Who’s the foreigner you’re going to teach? Is it a businessperson who has no time to do the homework and wants to make full use of the lesson time, because that’s the only time when they can learn the language? Or is it a new mom who needs Polish to communicate with the doctor, do the shopping or to answer some question while in the park? Or maybe a student who is going to start attending university courses and needs to learn Polish as quickly as possible? Or is your student a keen language learner and the Polish course is simply another one of many in his life? Such a student is bound to ask you plenty of questions with the same level of enthusiasm as the fans of cars of sport when talking about their passions. If you love your job, a course like that will give you a lot of satisfaction.

GROUP COURSES
When conducting classes in groups, you should first try to figure out what the average level of the group is as soon as possible. That means that the pace, rhythm and your expectations as a teacher should be adjusted not to the weakest or the most gifted student but to the one between, the average one. The common mistake many teachers make, and we mean teachers in general, not only teachers of Polish as a foreign language, is that their lessons are „based“ either on the most gifted student (it’s easier for US to work like that, but is it the best solution for the group?), or they focus on the weakest student too much, trying to help him or her. Remember to note whether there are native speakers of any Slavic languages in the group. And if such students have been put in the same group as non-Slavic speakers learning Polish, that proves that the school running the course lacks professionalism. The differences between Slavic and non-Slavic students will be discussed in another entry.

COURSEBOOKS
You should be SELECTIVE about coursebooks available on the market. Believe me, most foreigners aren’t interested in lessons in which they’re asked to describe their flat, talk about fortune-telling and divination or analyse Polish legends. Do not torture foreigners by making them read Polish classics! Do not talk about the opera with a student who is a financial analyst and prefers golf; do not make an engineer read a text on classical music when he or she likes dark rock, and do not teach a mom who has decided to be a homemaker how to find a job in Poland. Obviously, that’s not the case when you are teaching a course preparing for a Polish language certificate exam. Then you need to go over the topics which are less practical for a student in everyday life.

MATERIALS FOR LEARNING POLISH
See that you use wide range of materials. If you use coursebooks available on the market on a regular basis, be sure to check whether the texts published there are up-to-date. Do not be afraid to use material from the press, radio or the Internet, especially when teaching advanced students. Make sure that the Polish language you teach is the „living language“, currently spoken by native speakers. Invite your students to like facebook pages which will support their learning: PoPolskuPFP , use materials available online, e.g. sites with conjugation of Polish verbs, suggest that your students become acquainted with applications, such as  Polish for Foreigners, which will provide them with additional exercises and practice.

WHY LEARN POLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE?

REASONS FOR CHOOSING TO LEARN POLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE

Why should foreigners learn Polish?

That’s the question many foreigners probably ask themselves after the first Polish lesson, which usually gives them an impression that Polish is difficult. The first answer that comes to one’s mind is that there are about 44 million speakers of Polish around the world. That means there are 44 million chances of you meeting a Polish speaking person somewhere in the world.

However, there are more practical reasons. Imagine foreigners who have arrived in Warsaw, for instance. Just in case they type in the keywords „Polish for foreigners Warsaw“ in the browser (or they can simply go to Po Polsku site and find all the necessary and important information on courses of Polish as a foreign language in Warsaw) and start wondering whether to learn Polish.

Polish is useful!

Obviously, at work or at a restaurant they can communicate in English with not much of a problem. However, assuming that the students take an active part in the lesson, after only one class they will be able to read the name of the street where they live or work without much difficulty.
They will be able to tell a taxi driver their address, no matter whether the street is called Świętokrzyska, Szczera or Pajęcza (these are some examples from Warsaw).
After the next few lessons of the course the foreigners will easily find bread at a supermarket. They will know they they can find it under the letter „P”, which is the first letter of the word „pieczywo”(the name of the department in a store) or „piekarnia”, and not under the letter „B” like „bakery”. It seems a mere trifle, but it definitely makes life easier and helps us save time, which is, as we know, precious.
On the way back from the shop you can listen to the radio, which makes driving more enjoyable. And the radio, as we all know, is not only music, but the news as well, which is always worth listening to. After the course of Polish for foreigners you shouldn’t have difficulty understanding what you hear.
As you can see, Polish is definitely worth learning, you’ll find it useful in everyday situations, it’ll make your life more enjoyable, you’ll be able to listen to the radio, read papers and good books in original version and first of all, you’ll be able to tell your neighbour in the morning „Dzień dobry! Co u pana słychać?” (Good morning, how are you?)