To Polish through Russian - Update 3: The truth about how much I had forgotten

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It’s about time for another update on my To Polish through Russian project. But today I don’t want to discuss the progress I made but my thoughts about how much I really forgot since having studied Polish for the first time.

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As I explained in the project presentation, I studied Polish for the first time 2008 but then I terribly neglected the language and forgot most of it. One of the main goals of this project was to reactivate the knowledge as I was sure that there must be still some of it in my head.

Now, about two months after having started the project, I’m a bit upset about the reality. I’m attending a class at university and before it started I was convinced that with my pre-knowledge it would be relatively easy for me. And actually, the content of the classes is not very demanding and with the method we’re using it’s quite easy to follow and to make progress. But I do not benefit from my previous knowledge of Polish as I had expected.

What did I “forget”?

Grammar! When I learned Polish about six years ago, I focused on learning grammar and completely stuck to my course book. I hardly used any additionally material but I spent days and weeks on creating grammar tables for declination forms, verb conjugations etc. and memorizing them. I remember, at the time, I used to spend my lunch break at work with a working mate. She prepared for a work-related exam and I revised my Polish notes. I really invested a lot of time in studying the Polish grammar.

When we now go through a grammar topic in class, e.g. the word endings of nouns, I feel like as if I saw the endings for the first time. Don’t get me wrong, it’s actually really easy for me to use the right word forms now, but not because my Polish is so good, but because the declination system is, with very few exceptions, the same as the Russian one.

I have no problem at all with Polish grammar now – but not because I invested so much time in learning the grammar back then but simply because I spent three exhausting years on mastering the Russian grammar and now I can benefit from that. How sad is that????

Words! As I said before, the first time learning Polish I did not use much additional material but I deliberately studied every single word appearing in my course book. And now? I was convinced that once I would come across a word I had already learned years ago, I would immediately recognise it and bring it back to active understanding. Ha! When I come across such words now, in the best case, I know that I once knew its meaning.

What did I realize?

How awful my pronunciation of Polish words was! At that time I didn’t know anything about platforms like Forvo, italki etc (and probably they didn’t exist yet). I just learned the words, often without any clue about their pronunciation because I just picked them from a dictionary.

When I now study words and put them into my Anki deck, I always download the mp3-file from Forvo. Oh, you can’t image my surprise when I think I know how to pronounce a word and then hear how it is really pronounced…

What did I NOT forget?

At this point you could think that I forgot everything and that my first attempt to learn Polish was completely useless. Well, it was not a complete failure. Some things actually gave me a head start over my class mates who were absolute beginners:

Pronunciation: Ok, I said that my pronunciation was horrible and that’s true. But I was already used to the sounds and, most importantly, to the awful combinations of consonants the Polish language is famous for.

It was an advantage to have a rough idea about how a word is pronounced because from the sound of the word you sometimes find related words in Russian more easily and thus understand its meaning.

Words and expressions I used in Poland or at work. After studying Polish at home, my company sent me to a 3-week intensive, one-to-one course to Poland. I don’t remember anything from my class time there and even when I opened the book we used then, the exercises etc. didn’t seem familiar to me at all.

But I spent quite some time with Polish people there and I remember a lot of words and sentences I used during conversations. For example, I remember that I often used the word dziwny (strange) and I think it’s still one of my most-used words in Polish.

Overall conclusion

Well, I guess it’s obvious: The acquisition of the theoretical part of the language lead me to short-term success when I was learning, but now, about six years later, I dare to say that it was good for nothing. At the same time, the things I learned through exposure are still present. This is really difficult for me to accept, especially as I love to dive into grammar and theory. For a long time I was convinced, that my theoretical approach was sufficient in order to be “an excellent language speaker”.

Over time, I kept adapting my methods and approaches – I guess that’s a natural process. And I know that I’ve become a much more effective language learner over the years. Nowadays I integrate much more different methods and material into my studies. But to experience the weaknesses of my approach first-hand, that’s like a punch in the face :)

It’s necessary to constantly reflect not only on our knowledge but also on our processes and how effective and efficient they actually are. Even though it hurts, you can only evaluate your activities from the retrospective and have to live with a slight feeling of disappointment.

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