Posts tagged with "reflexive"

Polski via Skype – Learning Polish via Skype?

Posted by Anna 7 Comments
Apr 18 2009

Thank you once again! I’m sure that your answers to my question in the last post are going to be very helpful to any readers who are still not sure whether to sign up for a Polish language class or go it alone. And as a few of you noticed, sometimes there’s no choice – it’s self-study or nothing, because Polish classes can be hard to find in some places.

That brings me to another point I’d like to know your opinion about. What do you think about the effectiveness of learning via Skype with a tutor? A couple of you mentioned this way of studying Polish and this is something I’d like to know more about from the student’s point of view.

You see, I am myself helping a couple of Polish learners via Skype and from where I’m sitting, it looks like a wonderful way to study a foreign language. It can be a quasi-language course, and a quasi-private class with all the convenience of doing it in your pajamas.

But how effective is it, really? Do you think that it can replace a structured “in-person” language course and offer the same learning benefit? To be honest, this is something I’m not sure about, and as a tutor I may be shooting myself in the foot here, but I have to say that Skype is not for everybody. It requires the same discipline and dedication as independent self-study. And it requires more concentration and attention than working one-on-one with a tutor face-to-face – for both the teacher AND the student. Myself, I find it more challenging than working with a student in real life.

But those of you who use this option, do you think you get out of it what you want to get? Are you happy with your results and the progress you are making? And how do you deal with the time difference if you and the tutor live in different time zones? Who stays up? Is it you or the teacher? Do you think this method can be used alone, or is it best in conjunction with something else?

I think Polish is a very challenging language to teach via Skype. A simple conversation lesson about, let’s say, ordering beer, almost always ends up as a very involved grammatical explanation of, let’s say, noun cases or numerals. However, what I think might be vastly different from what you guys think.

I know that quite a few Polish tutors read this blog, and I know your answers will be very valuable not only to me, but to anyone who teaches a foreign language on the internet. And that in turn should bring better results to our students.

  • uczyć się polskiego – to learn Polish
  • uczyć się – to learn

Remember when we talked about “się” and how it can change the meaning of a verb completely?
Here’s your chance to review:

  • Ja uczę polskiego. – I (am) teach(ing) Polish (“language” is implied and understood). – This is what I would say about myself.

But:

  • Ja uczę się polskiego. – I (am) learn(ing) Polish (“language” is implied and understood) – this is what you could say about yourself.

But if you want to direct the first sentence to me, what would you say?

  • Ty uczysz polskiego. – You (are) teach(ing) Polish.

And if I want to direct the second sentence to you, what would I say?

  • Ty uczysz się polskiego. – You (are) learn(ing) Polish.

Ok, next time we will take a look at the many different English tenses this one Polish sentence can be translated into. Yes, it’s grammar time! Oh joy, oh joy!

Co się tutaj stało? – What happened here?

Posted by Anna No Comments
Jan 10 2009

In the comments to the previous post, Yellerbelly made a very valid point regarding “co się stało?”

He said that he thought it meant “what’s wrong?”

I think it’s a reflection of our collective Polish psyche that something so innocent as “what happened” can imply “what’s wrong?” in our language. Just goes to show you that we, as Poles, always expect the worst.

Let’s take a closer look at “co się stało?”

  • co – what
  • się stało = stało się – happened, 3rd person singular, neuter, past tense

Now imagine this:
Your teenage daughter calls you and with a serious dose of panic in her voice says, “Dad, please don’t be mad…”
Your immediate reaction is “co się stało?” which here can be translated as “what’s wrong?”
“I totaled the car,” your daughter answers.

And this:
Your teenage daughter calls you and says, “Dad, ohmygod, you’re not gonna believe this!”
You ask “co się stało?” and here it simply means “what happened?”
“I got accepted to Stanford!” your daughter squeaks happily while you’re frantically trying to calculate in your head how on earth you’re going to pay for it.

“Stawać się,” as this verb looks in its basic dictionary form, also means “to become.”

For example, when in one of my moments I misspelled the name of the street I live on, and then can’t figure out why the mail is not getting to me, I can say “ostatnio staję się coraz głupsza i głupsza.” – I’m becoming stupider and stupider lately. Duh!

So, when you see this verb used in any other form than 3rd person singular, neuter, past tense, it will most likely mean “to become.”

In that 3rd person singular, neuter, past tense – “stało się” – it will most likely mean “to happen.”

And while we’re on the topic of “stało się,” here’s a handy Polish saying:

  • Co się stało, to się nie odstanie.

Literally, it means something like “what happened/what’s done, can’t be undone.”

So, when your daughter totaled your car and is crying over the phone, after asking her if she’s OK, you think to yourself “co się stało to się nie odstanie, but next time she’s definitely NOT borrowing MY car.”

And speaking of, have you noticed what happened here?
“Zauważyliście co się tutaj stało?”

The blog got a face-lift. Do you like the new design? I love it!

And now we’re also on Twitter!
Polish Blog on Twitter

So between blog posts here, you’ll be able to find me there, twitting away.

Teach and Learn

Posted by Anna No Comments
Jan 3 2009

I was talking to my friend today, and as always, she does her best to express herself in Polish. She’s been studying the language for quite some time now, and generally does a very good job when writing in Polish. However, when it comes to speaking, things can get a bit confusing at times.

Today she was explaining to me that she got a new job.

She: “Mam nową pracę.” – I have a new job!
Me: “Świetnie! Gdzie?” – Great! Where?
She: “W szkole średniej.” – In a high school.
She: “Będę uczyć się matematyki.” – I’ll be learning (studying) math.

Huh?

Of course what she meant to say was:

  • Będę uczyć matematyki. – I’ll be teaching math.

However, by adding that pesky reflexive “się” in Polish, the sentence got a totally different meaning.

I explained it to her, and she said it probably came from the fact that she’d been saying “Uczę się polskiego” (I’m learning Polish) for a very long time.

You see, while “się” following a verb tells us it’s a reflexive verb, some of those verbs can and do exist without “się” as well. And some of those verbs without “się” actually mean something else in English than their “się” equivalents.

I hope I didn’t totally confuse you now.

Just take a look:

  • uczyć się – to learn, to study
  • uczyć – to teach

This is a very common mistake even for Poles who learn English. While Polish students confuse “learn” and “teach” their foreign counterparts get stumped by uczyć and uczyć się.

We will talk more about “się” very soon. It’s a very handy word, as you’ll see.

For now, I’ll give you all the “uczyć (się)” verb forms.

Future tense:

  • ja – będę uczyć (się) or będę uczyła (się) / uczył (się) (fem. / masc.)
  • ty – będziesz uczyć (się) or będziesz uczyła (się) / uczył (się) (fem. / masc.)
  • on – będzie uczyć (się) or będzie uczył (się)
  • ona – będzie uczyć (się) or będzie uczyła (się)
  • ono – będzie uczyć (się) or będzie uczyło (się
  • my – będziemy uczyć (się) or będziemy uczyły (się) / uczyli (się) (fem. / masc.)
  • wy – będziecie uczyć (się) or będziecie uczyły (się) / uczyli (się) (fem. / masc.)
  • oni – będą uczyć (się) or będą uczyli (się)
  • one – będą uczyć (się) or będą uczyły (się)

present tense:

  • ja – uczę (się)
  • ty – uczysz (się)
  • on/ona/ono – uczy (się)
  • my – uczymy (się)
  • wy – uczycie (się)
  • oni/one – uczą (się)

past tense:

  • ja – uczyłam (się) / uczyłem (się) (fem. / masc.)
  • ty – uczyłaś (się) / uczyłeś (się) (fem. / masc.)
  • on – uczył (się)
  • ona – uczyła (się)
  • ono – uczyło (się)
  • my – uczyłyśmy (się) / uczyliśmy (się) (fem. / masc.)
  • wy – uczyłyście (się) / uczyliście (się) (fem. / masc.)
  • oni – uczyli (się)
  • one – uczyły (się)

And as you can see, this is an imperfective verb, because it occurs in all three tenses.
Also, it’s more or less regular, and I’m sure by now, if you’ve followed our verb posts, you can spot the pattern of how the regular verbs change according to person (ja, ty, on, etc.) and number (plural and singular) in all the tenses.

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