Work / Learning Polish in Olsztyn... crazy prices for private lessons. [27]

If you go to modern Polish school in Krakow at least you will get what you describe. Traditonal teching is dead there. But I do not cooperate anymore with this schools because

I think they present limited approach.
To learn faster you havet get insight to Polish system. But of course to teach cases I do not use names of cases but methapor of genetic code I do not say imperfective and perfective verbs but process verbs and result verbs and so on

Grammar has to be a useful tool. I studied linguistic five years, but now when I teach Polish to over 50 years old women from Rochester NY I have to explain it to her so easy and handy as possible. And I can do it. She understand how cases work without knowing what cases are. And she does not have to know it. This is my job not her. But I have to face the core of the Polish language. It is not to avoid and this is very exciting for me.

BTW communicative approach was invented to teach English and it does not have to work the best allways and everywhere like american model of democracy (-:

Work / Learning Polish in Olsztyn... crazy prices for private lessons. [27]

I think the problem is that very oftem people
make an artificial contrary between mechanism and communication.
The next sin is faith that all languages can be taught like English.
But I admit Polish teaching methodology is very poor. But what I can observe now is an escape from a traditional not effective approach to a new overtaken from English methodology. I do not like it. It is not effective in reference to the Polish language I am afraid .

Work / Learning Polish in Olsztyn... crazy prices for private lessons. [27]


I do not understand why you assume that a good Polish course is a padantic course.
I did not write that you cannot learn Polish on your own. Of course you can.
You can learn Polish prenounciation 6 months or 2 weeks.


Hm, Polish is not English. POlish has a very logical but abstract grammar system which influences communication very much. You CANNOT avoid it.

But on the other hand if you learnt Polish on your own respect from me and I should be quiet.
I met very few people like this.
But mostly foreigners repeat that Polish is the hardest language and so on and do nothing effective to learn language of their children or wife/husbend. This is pathetic!

But pathetic is also reaction of Poles who really belive that Polish is soooooooooo dificult.

Actually this is a funny situation from my point of view (-:

Work / Learning Polish in Olsztyn... crazy prices for private lessons. [27]

100 PLN per hour is really a lot.

Yes, beelzebub, the best solution is to pay 15 PLN for a Polish lesson and then to say that Polish does not make any sense. I do not know, people, what is the situation in your countries, but in Poland if you want to have good service you have to pay for it. When I wanted to learn German I went to Germany and paid a lot for the course. The same with English. What a strange attitude: to want to get effective teaching for almost nothing. I think this is very often just lack of respect if not lack of reason.

It is NOTHING strange that foreigners start to speak Polish after 2 or 3 months but to achieve it, they have to devote time and invest some money.

Of course you can go to a stadium to start to play rugby even when you do not know the rules. If you are stubborn enough you will FINALLY learn it. But if you find a professional who explains to you how it works, you will do it incomparably better and faster.

Language / Spelling / pronunciation of Polish words and phrases [30]


"piękność" is just a very old fashion word. It sounds funny. We do not use it in the contemporary Polish


What do you mean?

Language / Spelling / pronunciation of Polish words and phrases [30]

"piękno" not "piękność"

Language / men.male - Polish pronunciation? [8]

Not this time. In the word mężczyzna we pronounce:
ę>en
ż>sz

Chaza let me tell you something general, I am afraid you cannot learn Polish pronunciation thinking about your tongue. Find Polish native speaker and repeat after him. I think only imitation and continuous corrections is a good method. At the beginning You cannot even hear all Polish sounds.

Make a list of all coponents of Polish pronunciation, and find somebody who will read it for you. You should repeat component by component and you shoulkd be strictly corrected.

Then pronounce syllables

Then pronounce

Allways pay attantion to see components, thanks to this you will notice that Polish
pronunciation is very regular.

Language / When do you use 'się'? And what does it mean? [37]

Do not forget "się" means very often nothing. It just belongs to the verb form. We do not translate it. "uczyć się" means just to learn not "to teach myself". Do not mix meaning of a verb and its etymology. "Jak się masz" means just "How are you". Many other verbs work the same.

Language / Declension of młody and stary [9]

In Polish in Plural we have two genders:

Male People Gender (oni) -i/-y starzy, młodzi
Not Male People Gender (one) (the rest: women, children, anmals and things, I know it is kind of masculism (-:) -e młode, stare
If we have a mixed group let'say 1 man and 100 women
always Male people gender is stronger

Male People Gender
M -i/-y
D -ych/-ich
C -ym/-im
B=D
N -ymi/-imi
Ms=D
W=M

Not Male People Gender
M -e
D -ych/-ich
C -ym/-im
B=M
N-ymi/-imi
Ms=D
W=M


But only in Singular Neutral! Female and Male gender are different.

Notice We have 3 genders in Sngular (male female neutral) and only 2 in Plural (have a look above)

Study / Medicine study - good Polish University for international students; study in English? [38]

They say this is the best medical university in Poland

medschool.cm-uj.krakow.pl

I am not objective because I live in Krakow (city where the school is located) and I taught
Polish to a few foreigners who studied there. For sure university in Krakow is one of the oldest in Europe. But there are othe medical school for foreigners.

Here you can find the list: poland.pl/directory/index,Medical_schools,cid,682.htm

If Polisch people are nice? It depends o a person. I am Polish. Sometimes I am nice sometime rude (-:

If we are racists? It depends. But Krakow is quite international, many people from India work here in IT.
You have to ask other foreigners who live in Poland, perhaps they will help you better.

Language / Polish was chosen the HARDEST LANGUAGE in the world to learn... :D [1558]

Polish is very logical. Of course we have VERY FEW exceptions. But the propotion is like 97:3
Even if you ignore exeptions you can understand almost everything. Until you haven't learnt the rules you think that the order is chaos. If you know a few rules but you do not practise using them you think there are too many rules.

Polish is logical and does not have many exceptions - but I know myths are very often stronger than facts :)

Language / Polish was chosen the HARDEST LANGUAGE in the world to learn... :D [1558]

A bit more about correct speaking native language.
One day I taught Polish to a professor from Department of English of University, Fresno CA. He told me that he could not correct language mistakes of his students because it would be treated as a kind of racism (-: (-: (-:

If so, I admit that speaking good Polish is really a bit more difficult because we are still obliged to keep rules and norms.
But, seriously, I will repeat: Problems with the Polish language reflect just general problems with the Polish identity. Polish is mostly taught wrongly and Polish people do not know how to promote it.

On the other hand, foreigners listen to nasty things about Polish with pleasure because it justifies their - OOPS! - laziness.

It is not surprising for me to see people who start communicating in Polish after two months of learning. But of course it requires a bit of time, energy and money.

If somebody has lived in Poland for years or have a Polish partner/ family,
then he or she prefers to hear that Polish is the hardest language in the world
than: Get grip on yourself, you are just a lazy guy!!! (-:

Life / Feeling ashamed of my Polish heritage. [237]

I do not know if there is another country in Europe which made bigger progress then Poland in the last 20 years.
Even western observators tart to notice it. Energy of people decides about country's potential not politicians. That is why I am not worry about Poland's future (-:

Have a look what they write about Poland in the Economist. It is not a Polish magazine I guess (-:

economist.com/world/europe/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15394158

Language / Polish was chosen the HARDEST LANGUAGE in the world to learn... :D [1558]


Of course the teacher should take under consideration learners aprroach but we cannot change the specificity of the Polish language. I belive everybody in an individual, but mechanism is general. Especially at the begining of the learning process teaching methods

should be very similar for everybody. Of course it they work (-:


Male, Female, Neutrum

but also in Plural

Male people/personal gender and Not male people/personal gender

That is why you say:

"profesorowie byli" but "koty były" however "profesor" is male and "kot" is male in singular

And
male animated versus male inanimate
this is important in Acc. and Gen. plural

In plural we make also a difference between

male personal and male animated

So it looks like seven I am afraid (-:

But the point is not how many cases we have.
Polish is like a machin which has logic inside
If you understand how it works and you get efficient
exercises to practise it you can learn it very fast.

But to do it you need a succesful method which depends more on
Polish language requirement then on individual expectations of learners.

Polish has an objective structure. If you want to speak Polish you have to get
inside it. Nevermind if you like it or not (-:

Real Estate / Renting in Krakow, Poland - the safest district? fairly close to the city centre... [25]

You have to count a bit more for heating, water etc.
But I think 1500 PLN sounds realistic to me

have a look this in an example: krakow.gumtree.pl/c-Nieruchomosci

Real Estate / Price per a small furnished apartment per month? (Living in Poland for a year) [12]

No Problem (-:
I really love Bieszczady. I am there (in Wołasate, Ustrzyki or Wetlina) at least 4 times a year.
Of course allways via Sanok (-:

Real Estate / Price per a small furnished apartment per month? (Living in Poland for a year) [12]

I did not mention about Bieszczady region. I think the most beautyful. The bigest city of this region is Rzeszów.

Real Estate / Price per a small furnished apartment per month? (Living in Poland for a year) [12]

From Krakow you have 90 km to the highest Polish mountains (Tatry) you can find many pictures on internet.
In smaller cities of this region flats are for sure cheaper.

You can check also Wroclaw and its area. There mountains are not so high but also beautiful

Real Estate / Price per a small furnished apartment per month? (Living in Poland for a year) [12]

Everything depends where you want to live. There are big differences between cities. In Krakow where I live for two room apartment in a good location you will pay rent for about 1500 PLN + 600 PLN water, heating and so on.

As for learning Polish, you can start to do it before you come to Poland, wherever you presently live.
I am a professional Polish teacher. I live in Poland in Krakow and I teach
people from all over the world via Skype. I teach private individuals as well as business people. Please have a look at my website: polish via skype

If you are interested in my offer I would like to invite you to a free 45-minute Polish trial lesson. I will answer all your question during this lesson. After this lesson you will decide If you wish to be taught by me. In other words you do not take any risk.

I offer very flexible hours and a unique, highly efficient teaching method. My teaching style is based on patience an my crucial professional skill is adjusting myself to the learning style and needs of my clients.

Przemek Dul