Tongue Tied

This past week I finished my second language course. While I still cannot hold a conversation of any substance in Polish, I do feel that I am making progress. 

As I wrote a few months back, the language has a lot of rules. And when there are rules, there are exceptions to the rules. And when there are exceptions to the rules, there can be exceptions to the exceptions. But there are rules about the exceptions (and the exceptions to the exceptions) and once I get them all straight in my mind, I might become fluent. Meanwhile, I usually have a headache at the end of each class. 

I recently read an article written by a British expat who says that with dedicated study, a non-native speaker can become reasonably fluent in about three years. He also mentions a statistic that I have heard a lot that people born here are often not fluent in their own language until age 16. Why my classes would make it faster than that I don't know but I do intend to keep trying. 

So, just to provide a sample of what one needs to contend with, here are  a few things that we covered in the second course (in which we discussed the plural present tense of verbs, past tense, a shortcut to future tense - but not real future tense - and three of the seven noun cases). [Warning - grammar terms ahead]

• In the present tense, the same word is used for third person singular (he, she, it - also including the formal version of "you")

• In the past tense, there is a different verb form depending on whether the subject is masculine or feminine (I say "I was" as byłem while I woman would say byłam)

• Sometimes these different verb forms involve different verb stems (I say "I went" as szedłem while a woman would say szłam)

• There is a separate verb form for past perfect of most verbs (in the bullet point above poszedłem and poszłam) to indicate the action was completed at a specific time

• In third person singular past tense, there is also a third verb form for neutral subjects (byłe, była, było) 

• Some verbs change a letter in the verb stem when forming the past tense (rozumieć, which means "to understand" has a verb stem of rozumia- in the past tense)

• When you talk about plural past tense, this letter change continues to apply....unless one or more of the subjects is a person who is male. In that case, the letter change does not apply plus you have a different ending. For a group of women to say "we understood" would be rozumiałyśmy but if at least one of the group is a man, the word is rozumieliśmy. 

• The masculine past tense only applies to people, and not impersonal masculine subjects (such as cars and dogs). 

• There are at least four ways to say "to go" in the present tense - depending on if you are talking about on foot (iść), going on foot but mentioning frequency (chodzić), going in a vehicle (jechać) and going in a vehicle but mentioning frequency (jeździć). Two of those four (iść and jechać) each have two separate past tense forms - one for past perfect and another for past imperfect. And all of those past tense forms have different versions for masculine, feminine and neutral subjects. 

• In addition to the point above, if you toss in other variations to indicate going to somewhere przejechać, going from somewhere wyjechać, etc., you have a lot to choose from.  

When it comes to the nouns, you also have a lot to remember. If "my sister" is the subject, you use one case (moja siostra). If I want to say "I have a sister" that is a second case (mam siostrę). If I were to say I don't have a sister, that is a third case (nie mam siostry). The same works for a masculine noun - if it is alive, such as a person or an animal - but the second and third cases are the same (for "brother", mój brat, mam brata, nie mam brata). For an inanimate masculine noun (such as "car") the first and second are the same, but not the third (samochód, samochód, samochodu) plus in this case the second to last letter changes also. As I said, I have not yet learned all of the cases, so I am sure this is not the end of it. 

As I started getting more familiar with the vocabulary, some patterns started to show up and my teacher points them out as often as possible (for example, verbs starting with wy- normally have something to do with leaving, such as exit, depart, disembark, throw out, rent out. Also, the word od (sometimes) means "from" and po (sometimes) means after. But that doesn't clarify for me the build up of verbs such as "to know" (wiedzieć) "to say" (powiedzieć) "to answer" (odpowiedzieć) and how close they are to the word "to see" (widzieć).

I have been asked recently whether learning Polish is easier or harder than learning Armenian. After giving it some thought, I have concluded that Armenian was easier - not to read, not to write, but to speak. Even with the reverse sentence structure it did not seem to me that there was as much to remember about the grammar. Granted I had more intense language lessons there and more situations where nobody spoke English forced my learning, but it seems to me that Polish is just more complicated. 

Having said all of this, some of it is sinking in. I have managed a few small successes entirely in Polish (retrieving my glasses after leaving them in a theater, buying tickets for a concert, ordering in a restaurant). Although my listening comprehension is still poor, I can pick up more words than before when someone is speaking (although I really wish people would speak more slowly...). I am paying attention to the subtitles when I see movies as a supplemental study and soon will get cable TV and start watching Polish programs to see if that helps. But I doubt they could be as good as this.

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Meanwhile, spring has arrived. Cumulatively, I estimate that Warsaw got about six inches of snow. I wore long underwear three times. It was achingly cold for about five days. So, in response to any fears I had about the weather....

Very ironic that I came to Eastern Europe to escape a cold winter.