Advice on how to independently learn Polish for my aging grandmother?

Parent Cafe
1

<p>Hello there Parents Forum, </p>

<p>I’d really appreciate some advice in regards to my mission to learn Polish for my 88 year-old grandmother who’s starting to slip a little bit. It would make her world if I could gain some kind of proficiency in her native tongue because my genes are also 100% Polish and I’ve always been her little “Polish Princess.” I don’t know how much time I have left with her, so I want to make the most of it. </p>

<p>My babci is bilingual and speaks both Polish and English frequently, and while her sister is also fluent and my mother can understand some, I know absolutely nothing. I know some phrases and some songs from growing up, but that’s it. She loves it when I try to speak a few words to her, but I simply can’t have a prolonged conversation with her. </p>

<p>For as long as I can remember, it’s always been my grandmother’s dream for me to go to Poland and visit our family that still lives there. She and my great aunt went about 25 years ago, and we were all set to go about 10 years ago but decided to wait since Poland wasn’t in the best of shape at the time. Now that I’m an adult (well, 19) and am ready/able to travel, my grandmother feels too tired to travel across the world and so would not be able to join me. </p>

<p>Basically, as she’s getting older, I’m feeling increasingly guilty that I never learned the language of our ancestors and have never been to our homeland. Both sides of my family utilize parts of the culture, but I’ve been studying French since high school and feel like I should have somehow picked up Polish. </p>

<p>Now that I’m older, I realize that I want to step it up and do my best to keep the spirit of Polska alive. I want to learn Polish and gain competency so that I can travel to our families’ houses and be able to get around and communicate. I just don’t know how! </p>

<p>I have a beginner’s Polish book that my mom learned from, and I know that there are tons of opportunities online. I also have my grandmother and great aunt, but after about 10 minutes they get really cranky because they don’t know the details of the language and the exact grammar since they learned it at home through talking to their parents. </p>

<p>My university doesn’t offer any Polish classes, and my schedule is too booked to try and take one somewhere else. I have 16 credit hours and work 20 hrs/week, but I know I can fit in some Polish learning during odd times when I’m free. I think there’s a Spanish professor at my school that is from Poland, so I was thinking about maybe contacting her, but I don’t know if that would be appropriate or not. </p>

<p>I’m really trying to do this, and I really want to make it work. Does anyone have any advice/tips on how to do this successfully? Does Rosetta Stone really work, and is there any way I could get formal grammar instruction somewhere or maybe in person? It would mean so much to my grandmother, and it would mean a lot to me to be able to reconnect with my heritage. </p>

<p>Thank you so much for reading, and I’m sorry that I rambled a bit.</p>

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<p>I would go with Rosetta Stone and a basic grammar you can probably find in your university library. Or Pimsleur, which I think is cheaper. That’s not my favorite way to learn a language – I like to be more systematic than that. But it works reasonably well, and it certainly gets you into some basic conversations quickly, which is really what you want. You are not looking to delve deeply into Polish literature or archives.</p>

3

<p>Pimsleur is good. It makes you sound fluent beyond your actual level of knowledge. It is expensive to buy, but you can get it from a library.</p>

4

<p>I suggest one of the sites that allow you to do a language exchange with a person who speaks another language (Polish, in your case) and is trying to learn English. For a while, you both use Polish, and for a while, you both use English, and you both practice.</p>

<p>[Language</a> Online - Language Exchange Abroad Community FREE](<a href=“http://www.languageforexchange.com/]Language”>http://www.languageforexchange.com/)
[Language</a> Exchange Community - Practice and Learn Foreign Languages](<a href=“http://www.mylanguageexchange.com/]Language”>http://www.mylanguageexchange.com/)
[Conversation</a> Exchange - Language learning with native speakers](<a href=“http://www.conversationexchange.com/]Conversation”>http://www.conversationexchange.com/)</p>

<p>I haven’t used any of these sites, but others have recommended them.</p>

5

<p>My parents were immigrants to the US and I used to be fairly fluent in Serbo-Croatian. Since they’ve passed away, I realized that I was quickly losing whatever skill I had. I decided to see if I could find ways to learn more and have used the resources listed on this Boston College website. It’s also got resources for those interested in learning Polish.
Here’s the link:
[Polish</a> Resources - Language Laboratory - Boston College](<a href=“http://www.bc.edu/schools/cas/language/catalog/slavic/se-polish.html]Polish”>http://www.bc.edu/schools/cas/language/catalog/slavic/se-polish.html)</p>

<p>I also met a native speaker (she recently moved to our town and lives next door to a friend) who’s happy to converse with me. I found that this was as useful, especially because I got more comfortable with my pronunciation.</p>

<p>Does your family belong to any Polish cultural organizations or a Polish Catholic Church? Usually these organizations are very interested in preserving their culture and will offer language lessons. Good luck!</p>

6

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<p>For preservation of existing reading skills in a language, perhaps reading news media in that language may help: <a href=“https://support.google.com/news/answer/40237?hl=en[/url]”>https://support.google.com/news/answer/40237?hl=en&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>"I also have my grandmother and great aunt, but after about 10 minutes they get really cranky because they don’t know the details of the language and the exact grammar since they learned it at home through talking to their parents. "</p>

<p>Then don’t ask them how to conjugate a verb or decline a noun or to compare what seems to be a past tense form to what you think the equivalent form in English will be. Ask them “How would you say this?” or “If this happened the day before, how would you say it?” Don’t analyze the language. Make an effort to communicate in the language even with the limited skills that you already have - they will improve with time.</p>

<p>Berlitz does offer some live instruction over the internet. I don’t know how much it costs, but you should be able to choose from a number of different options for number of lessons.</p>

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<p>Very, very sweet. : )</p>

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<p>If you have an Android phone, try this:</p>

<p><a href=“https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.goethe.pl&hl=en[/url]”>https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.goethe.pl&hl=en&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>I am using it for another European language and like it very much.</p>

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<p>This might help
[Collection</a> of learning resources for learning the Polish language.](<a href=“http://www.polishforums.com/general-language-17/collection-learning-resources-learning-polish-language-31442/]Collection”>Collection of learning resources for learning the Polish language)</p>

11

<p>It is very difficult to learn a language when you are not in an environment with regular interaction. I would advise studying rosetta or a book for elementary knowledge, then engaging your grandmother to teach you to speak it. That would draw her out and focus your efforts.</p>

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<p>Thank you so much for all of your suggestions! I will definitely check out online sources to help develop a base. </p>

<p>And yes, I think it’ll help to have her engage with me, even if it’s solely speaking. I know that even with studying French, I wouldn’t be half as competent if I didn’t have someone speaking to me every day in class and engaging me to respond. </p>

<p>It’s just a shame that my school doesn’t offer Polish. I know they offer general “Modern Language” courses for languages not offered by the department, but I don’t know if that that could really help me since there’s not a set instructor.</p>

13

<p>Adding to the excellent advice above: Since you say your grandma is 88 and “slipping a little bit” you can get a lot of mileage out of just a bit of Polish. Don’t be a perfectionist. If you begin now, in any way you can, and let her know you have set a personal goal to learn more in the coming years, that can make someone aged 88 extremely happy to consider and imagine. She may take great joy that you will eventually learn, rather than need you to be able to converse with her, at length, right now,</p>

<p>What you give her is the emotional message that she – and her story-- matters to you, across 2 generations. That’s a great affirmation for any grandparent from a grandchild.</p>

<p>I’m saying she will take joy even to hear you try out the first phrases on her. Hearing you say something in Polish will brighten her, in that moment, surely. You said you already are doing this, just keep it up and realize it’s very meaningful.</p>

<p>It also sounds like on some deeper level you want to tap into her memory base while you still have her. You might do that with picture study together of some scenes or cities/villages in Poland today that remind her of her youth. If you bring your laptop alongside her and browse together, that could be very enriching for you both, even with English conversation peppered with a tiny bit of Polish. Right now.</p>

<p>When someone is 88, it’s no time to strive for perfection. Sieze this moment and explore Poland together in her memory. Promise her you will try to learn the language in the coming years, and keep the promise somehow. Try out your phrases on her, now, to see her smile. Use picture study to ask her to teach you a few vocabulary words (nouns, mostly). </p>

<p>Good for you! So caring.</p>

14

<p>Adding: try reading familiar children’s fairy tales (Cinderella, Three Bears, Jack and the Beanstalk, etc.) written out in Polish. Best yet, if there are illustrations alongside.</p>

<p>I find children’s literature an easy and effective way to gain self-study traction in a new language. You already know the story, so don’t have to struggle to figure out the meaning or direction of the narrative. You can just notice the new words and phrases which pop up right where you’d expect them. “Not too big, not too small… but just right!”</p>

15

<p>Explore getting a TV service with a polish-language channel. Nothing like watching TV (even a little bit per day) to get your ear attuned to the language.</p>

<p>If that’s impossible, definitely check out polish-language films via Netflix or whatever. Movies, combined with English subtitles, can be very effective.</p>

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<p>To learn polish words you might try out the site <a href=“http://www.openflashcards.org”>http://www.openflashcards.org</a></p>

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<p>Our local library has the Polish Pimsleur available and yours may too. You should also find some print sources. Polish is one of those languages, like Irish and Vietnamese, that has very unusual phonetic rules (at least from the point of view of an English speaker).</p>

<p>I bought a traditional Polish donut yesterday - called a “pushka” - and I can’t tell you how it was spelled! I think there was both a z and a c in there somewhere. </p>

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<p>If your local library doesn’t have the Polish Pimsleur, they can get it for you.</p>

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<p>I’m doing Pimsleur right now, Japanese. It is effective, though of course it takes time to learn a language. If you can get it at the library, or order a used version, you can get the beginning CD’s fairly cheaply. Combine it with some of the resources on line. And don’t give up. Listen for half an hour a day, every day, and in 6 months you will be surprised how much you can say. My kids like the Pimsleur too. It progresses slowly, but the stuff you learn sticks. It does seem a bit geared toward adults and business people, with a lot of learning about how to order Sake and beer in the Japanese version, though, LOL. </p>

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<p>I am interested in learning Polish and French. I was just looking at pimsleur, but I have an auditory processing disorder so I am a little worried about trying to learn purely from audio CDs-- I am afraid it will go in one ear and out the other and frustrate the crap out of me without something to SEE and read along with. Are there any good programs that include books or perhaps computer software to work with in addition to the audio? If I understand correctly, pimsleur is just CDs.</p>

<p>When I learned Spanish in college, we learned by speaking and listening and class, and reading and writing at home, at the same time. I struggled and had to repeat a year because I could not learn to speak, at all, until I had a firm grasp on writing. My writing ended up several years ahead of my speech before my speech could start to catch up. I just don’t learn that way, I need to SEE the language and how it works to be able to use it.</p>