This letter in Polish has been causing me problems: ę. Its pronunciation sounds radically different to me from source to source. Tea, Source of Pronunciation Challenges (This Came from One of My Lovely Japanese Conversation Partners, By the Way!) In Rosetta…
Lately I am encountering Polish almost as much as I encounter Spanish. It has been surprising, since Spanish is ubiquitous in New York and Polish is not. Times Square Has Been Hopping This Summer According to the Modern Language Association…
I have just begun a book by John J. Bukowczyk entitled A History of the Polish Americans. I have been feeling as though my background in Polish history—beyond my college studies of World War II—is very weak, so…
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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