Posts tagged with "się"

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.

Się, Part 1

Posted by Anna No Comments
Jan 8 2009

Are you ready for another installment of Polish grammar? No? Don’t worry, I’m not ready either. We’ll get through it together.

A couple of posts back I started to talk about “się.” That was when I told you how this little word could alter the meaning of a verb. You have a verb without “się” and it means one thing. You stick “się” at the end and it means something else.
I gave “uczyć” (to teach) and “uczyć się” (to learn) as examples.

Here’s another one of such verbs: stawać.

  • stawać – to stand (up) – as in this expression: stawać na głowie (literally – to stand on one’s head) – to bend over backwards or to do one’s darnest

and then you have:

  • stawać się – to become, to happen – as in this expression (past tense): co się stało? – what happened?

By the way, did you notice how in this last example “się” migrated to the FRONT of the verb? “się” is like that, sometimes it can move, and sometimes it even HAS TO move. But that’s something we’ll talk about another day.

Let’s focus on the verbs for now.
OK, we need a verb. How about “myć” – a nice, short word.

  • “myć” means simply “to wash,” but
  • “myć się” – to wash oneself.

You want to see them in action? Sure thing!

  • Myję ręce. – I am washing (my) hands. See? No “się” here.
  • Myję się. – I am washing myself.

At least these two didn’t change in meaning. They’re still both about washing, right?

But apart from those verbs that can exist with or without “się,” there is a whole bunch that occurs almost exclusively with “się.” Here are just a few most popular ones:

  • domagać się – to demand
  • modlić się – to pray
  • domyślać się – to guess, to presume
  • dziać się – to happen
  • wahać się – to hesitate
  • upierać się – to stubbornly insist on something
  • opiekować się – to take care of
  • zgadzać się – to agree
  • zakochać się – to fall in love
  • nudzić się – to be bored
  • martwić się – to worry
  • cieszyć się – to be glad
  • dziwić się – to be surprised
  • denerwować się – to get upset
  • bać się – to be afraid (never occurs without “się”)
  • wstydzić się – to be embarrassed (never occurs without “się”)
  • śmiać się – to laugh

Do you notice anything particular about the verbs in the second group? Yes, many of them describe a state of mental agitation or feelings. Such verbs are almost always followed by “się” and in fact, as you can see, the two that I listed – bać się and wstydzić się do not occur without “się” at all.

To Be Continued…

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