I often found myself sinking in Poland.
But I'm back. And I didn't drown.
In the last 6 days, I've spent 39 hours on a bus. 19 there. 20 back.
So right now, the drive really isn't in me to retell everything I experience. ..maybe I'll get around to that tomorrow, or on the weekend.
Monika invited me to her house for Easter because America is too far and too expensive for me to visit for a weekend. I spent 5 days diving into, supposedly, the 4th hardest language to learn in the world (behind Chinese, Finnish, and Estonian, so I heard from some of the other exchange students, but according to i-dont-know-who. This says otherwise).
I'd been warned beforehand that Monika's parents knew neither English nor German. Neither did her grandmothers, whom I also saw a lot of (Her older brother, however, does speak English). Though Monika translated most of the time, I could generally pick up on when I was the topic of conversation, and on occasion one or two other topics as well (which really isn't much in the span of 5 days).
I was pleasantly surprised with Monika's "non-german-speaking" mother whipping out her German vocabularly she learned in high school once upon a time.. However, I have a feeling she either tried her best to brush up on some vocabularly before I came, or has used her German occasionally since high school. ..probably both. I learned my standards: hello, goodbye, (informal) hi/bye, please, and thank you (very much).
When I stumbled thru uttering "Thank you" for my second time, Monika's father made the comment (translated): that is the most important phrase to learn in any language.
I can speak two languages, but maybe more importantly, I can now say "thank you" in six:
English (of course)
German: Danke ( schön )
Italian: Grazie ( mille )
Spanish: ( muchos ) Gracias
French: Merci ( beaucoup ) ...but i had to look up how to spell "beaucoup"
Polish: Dziękuję ( bardzo ) ...and it's just as hard to say as it looks. ..maybe a little easier for a frenchman.
There are occasionally very subtle differences in Polish pronunciation, that I am only able to hear if someone asks "can you hear the difference between..." but in the words themselves, I have no chance of distinguishing the difference... They both sound like "Shhh"
I think it was on our way to Warsaw, while talking about that topic, when Monika asked if I'd seen this video. Though I had in fact already seen that, I thought it couldn't be more perfect.
But I'm back. And I didn't drown.
In the last 6 days, I've spent 39 hours on a bus. 19 there. 20 back.
So right now, the drive really isn't in me to retell everything I experience. ..maybe I'll get around to that tomorrow, or on the weekend.
Monika invited me to her house for Easter because America is too far and too expensive for me to visit for a weekend. I spent 5 days diving into, supposedly, the 4th hardest language to learn in the world (behind Chinese, Finnish, and Estonian, so I heard from some of the other exchange students, but according to i-dont-know-who. This says otherwise).
I'd been warned beforehand that Monika's parents knew neither English nor German. Neither did her grandmothers, whom I also saw a lot of (Her older brother, however, does speak English). Though Monika translated most of the time, I could generally pick up on when I was the topic of conversation, and on occasion one or two other topics as well (which really isn't much in the span of 5 days).
I was pleasantly surprised with Monika's "non-german-speaking" mother whipping out her German vocabularly she learned in high school once upon a time.. However, I have a feeling she either tried her best to brush up on some vocabularly before I came, or has used her German occasionally since high school. ..probably both. I learned my standards: hello, goodbye, (informal) hi/bye, please, and thank you (very much).
When I stumbled thru uttering "Thank you" for my second time, Monika's father made the comment (translated): that is the most important phrase to learn in any language.
I can speak two languages, but maybe more importantly, I can now say "thank you" in six:
English (of course)
German: Danke ( schön )
Italian: Grazie ( mille )
Spanish: ( muchos ) Gracias
French: Merci ( beaucoup ) ...but i had to look up how to spell "beaucoup"
Polish: Dziękuję ( bardzo ) ...and it's just as hard to say as it looks. ..maybe a little easier for a frenchman.
There are occasionally very subtle differences in Polish pronunciation, that I am only able to hear if someone asks "can you hear the difference between..." but in the words themselves, I have no chance of distinguishing the difference... They both sound like "Shhh"
I think it was on our way to Warsaw, while talking about that topic, when Monika asked if I'd seen this video. Though I had in fact already seen that, I thought it couldn't be more perfect.
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