Accent marks in Polish throw me. They show up in places where I don’t expect them. First, in consonants. I am most definitely not used to consonants with accents. They are especially audacious in the Polish word for “song”:…
In Polish, I have just learned that men get their own plural personal pronouns, but women and things, such as bananas, share one. (I hope I am getting that right; I am pretty much non-stop confused these days.) At least…
I have to admit, Polish is kind of kicking my butt. I am asea in nominative, accusative, genitive, and dative adjective and noun forms, and there are still three grammatical cases left to study. If I’m being honest (that’…
I went back to Brooklyn earlier this week, to visit an English class for adults at the Greenpoint branch of the Brooklyn Public Library. On the way, I stopped at the Polsko-Amerykanska Apteka, where a woman behind the counter was…
For the past two silent weeks, I have been studying away. That I haven’t written here is due not to a lack of enthusiasm or effort, but to arm pain from too much computer work. I needed a typing…
One word for “worker” in Polish is robotnik. I find it a funny and cute word. It is also suggestive of how I have been feeling lately: a little robotic. So, after 771 consecutive days of this project, I…
Almost every day in my apartment building I cross paths with Vladimir. Vladimir is a contractor from Poland who, with a team of guys I believe are also from Poland, is renovating an apartment down the hall from us. …
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