5 tasks for you

You’ve decided to learn Polish? Excellent! How will you start? By buying a book? Choosing a free course online? Starting to watch Polish TV? Signing up to a language school? Maybe you will read Polish books and look up words in a dictionary?

Regardless of the option you choose, you should also apply the method of small steps. How does it work? It boils down to setting goals that you can realize every day. Remember that systematicity in learning is important and the method of small steps can take you very far! Thus, plan to do one of the following things everyday:

1.      Do your shopping in Polish. If you go to a self-service shop, ask the cashier about something e.g. “Could I have a shopping bag?”, “Can I pay by card?” etc.

2.      Write down 5 Polish words, that you’ve heard on that day. They may come from anywhere: the street, the bus, the tram or a queue in a shop. In your free time check their meaning online or ask your Polish friends.

3.      Write down 5 words that you’ve seen that day: on a billboard, a cover of a magazine, a shop window. Choose the 5 words that had interested you the most and later check their meaning.

4.      Take a Polish dictionary and write down 5 random words along with their meanings.

5.      Take a book (any book you want as long as it’s not a textbook!), choose a short sentence that you’ll be able to remember and repeat, and write it down. If you don’t know how to pronounce it, check online (or – if possible – ask your Polish friends).

Warning! Make sure to revisit your notes often enough to learn the words and sentences by heart. They must enter your language and life for good!

If, aside from regular learning, you’ll also apply the tasks above, you’ll learn Polish a lot faster. You must notice that a language surrounds you all the time. It doesn’t just show up when you open your school book or enter your language school. Polish is everywhere. If you begin to notice it in your environment, soon you’ll adapt to it and feel like home.