Language, language, language

Have you ever tried to speak with foreigners in Polish? It’s funny, isn’t it? They do their best to do it well or even to be understood but unfortunately it isn’t always clear enough what they really want to express. Personally, I love listening to their different accent, strange pronunciation, mixing up ‘ż’, ‘dż’, dź’, etc. It has such an inimitable charm when they repeat some phrases after you and it isn’t similar to what you’ve said at all. Of course, we shouldn’t make fun of them but sometimes it’s inevitable.

I wonder if there is a need to learn a foreign language if you live abroad. On one hand, if you go there with some of your compatriots you can communicate with them, on the other hand, if you are alone and lonely, the minimum knowledge of a language can be welcome. It doesn’t mean that you are going to plough through Dutch grammar the whole week before moving to the Netherlands. Understanding and speaking in a communicative level is enough. And studying a language isn’t a sudden change by night but a long process you go through step by step. Be patient. If you less concentrate on the fact that all the time you get to know some new words, better for you! You won’t wait too long until you observe an improvement and one day you say: oh my God, I can understand the majority of what I listen to from people who surround me. Moreover, I can ask in a grocery whatever I want without any dictionaries, improvisations, pointing with my finger out a product I need. That’s a real independence, independence everyone deserves. For that reason, it’s always better to be aware of the fact that the knowledge of a language even a minimum one is always more useful than nothing. Knowledge is power so let’s develop it to the fullest; it’s worthwhile. Maybe one day you’ll be able to speak a foreign language in a way that nobody notices that you are Polish. That’s gold dust but never say never.