Last weekend, my girlfriend and I, we had guests. Her sister came to visit along with her 3 children.
I love them but it’s difficult to communicate most of the time. Not that we don’t agree with each other, we get along very well. It’s mainly language-wise the difficulty since I’m Italian and they are Polish.
Anyway, my girlfriend’s sister and her daughter they actually speak English so the challenge was only with the kids. Fortunately for me few smiles, some snack, and some cartoon eased the situation.
Unfortunately, that doesn’t work when her parents come to visit.
They are always asking me “When will you learn Polish?” and my answer is always the same “Soon!”
Come on! What should I say? Do you think that some online course or some CD will be enough to learn Polish quickly?
Polish language is considered the hardest to learn.
Did you know that the average age for a Polish speaker to be fluent is 16?
An English speaker is fluent at the age of 12 (average).
How long do you think it would take for an adult whose native language is one of the easiest to learn?
Let’s compare the 2 languages:
Italian
21 letters in the alphabet;
4 cases;
2 grammatical genders.
Polish
32 letters in the alphabet;
7 cases;
5 grammatical genders.
Moreover, there are plenty of Polish words which sound is extremely difficult to reproduce and the grammar has rules but 95% of the cases are exceptions.
I learned few things so far but just because my girlfriend keeps talking to our dog in Polish or she uses Polish words while talking to me when she doesn’t remember them in English.
So, when I’m with her family I spend most of the time listening carefully to their conversations trying to catch those few words I know and proudly show them that I understood something. Alternatively, I could tell my parents in law to sit down and not to bark but it didn’t work already the first time (yep…I did it).
Anyway, in 3 weeks we will meet the entire family again and, once more, I will survive as I did so far…random words and body language.
I’m Italian after all, I know gestures for any kind of situation.
