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« A Golden Twelve | Main | Poland Goes it Alone »

September 24, 2007

Language Learning

“Kraków is my home and I learned Polish in about a week.” Impressed? These are the words of Argentine soccer player Mauro Cantoro, as quoted on page 8 of last weekend’s scrupulously accurate Dziennik. Cantoro must be either extraordinarily gifted or extraordinarily deluded. I turned at once to page 29 and the full interview. In answer to the question “Did learning Polish take a long time?” the footballer actually replied “I took lessons for… a week.” The three dots were presumably inserted by the journalist – an annoying affectation in written Polish, whose verbal counterpart I have never ever heard. Cantoro continues: “However, it was a real pain, so I gave up. Language is best learned by practising…”

Journalism too.

Posted by hgrodsk at September 24, 2007 04:30 PM

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Comments

God dammit, and here was me waiting for his magical solution. I'm not surprised he gave it up.

I find it a bit of nightmare too. But then again I'm not the most disciplined student. I've done lots of courses and have been living in Warsaw for the guts of 2 years and still can't keep up with the pace of the news or table conversations. It's a real pain in the rear. But I'll keep on keeping on.

Every now and again I go out and buy another Polish language book, just to deceive myself that I am actually making some progress. And though my girlfriend is Polish we are just very indisciplined, always speaking English together.

Yes I know, it's 99% perspiration. Maybe I should be buying sweatbands rather than more language books and CDs!

Posted by: Damien Moran at September 25, 2007 05:28 PM

Once you learn the language you may find yourself regretting being able to keep up with the news. I used to think that Poland was a much more civilised place than it actually is. A Polish friend of mine assured me that Marek Jurek, for example, is a model of tolerance and respect now compared to what he was back in the days when I couldn't even pronounce his name.

Posted by: Henry Grodsk at September 26, 2007 07:47 AM

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