Sunday 25 October 2009

Poland...Ukraine...Ukraine...Poland...

Well, I'm back on Polish! My research now tells me my father-in-law was born in the town of Tarnow in South East Poland. So that's where we're back heading.

I'm sad in some ways, because while Russian looks that much more daunting at the start, with the Cyrillic alphabet and all, I've thoroughly enjoyed battling with it. So much so, I toyed with the idea of learning both languages at once.

Everyone I spoke to advised me against doing that. You'll end up speaking some odd hybrid of the two, they told me. And that makes perfect sense.

But I think I'd like to return to Russian later. Maybe after my trip, or when I feel good enough about the Polish side that I think I can safely compartmentalise both in my brain.

2 comments:

Doug said...

What are you doing to learn -- software? Classes? Just winging it?

I've never been too good picking up languages unless there was a grade at stake . . .

Steven Pirie said...

I have a dvd course and am teaching myself from that. There's a fair bit on utube too. I've also found a wonderful Polish forum where the people are really helpful. If they're representative of the Polish people in general I can't wait to go there.

I can't say I've considered myself particularly gifted with languages in the past, but this is going well so far.