A Language Is Like a Lump Of...
All right, well, we're no longer right in the old city of Kraków.
We took the tram, which is over there, and we came across the Vistula River
and we're looking at, uh, Kazimierz, if I have it correctly, which is
where the Jewish ghetto is located, and we're gonna be walking, we're
taking a walking tour this afternoon.
And what's interesting about this is, you know, you form an impression of
a city because for the first three days we stayed in the old city.
We thought this is Kraków, uh, inside the walls of the old city.
And then we begin to realize that Kraków is actually much larger.
And of course it's much larger because the central part of Kraków within the
city walls is actually quite small.
So here's another part, Kazimierz.
And I, I think there's more and more to this city, and again, I bring everything
back to language learning, right?
But so I think of it, you know, when you're learning a language, you've got
the big picture, the whole language, which you gradually get bits and pieces
of and where whatever part of it you have, you think that's the language.
But of course the language is always much larger.
And, you know, visiting Kraków here, I bought a book, which is
Historia Krakowa dla kazdego.
So it describes the history of Kraków.
It explains the different parts of Kraków in Polish.
So this is good for my overall Polish language, getting the language in me.
I understand 60, 70, 80, 90% of what I read.
I don't worry about what I don't understand.
I'm still getting the language in me.
I'm getting an impression of Kraków.
I also bought a book on learning polish for Ukrainians, and I'm going through this
and I'm picking up the bits and pieces of grammar that I have looked at before.
And every time you look at the grammar, it's just a, an ingredient.
And I kind of see the whole process of language learning is...
it's almost like you're, you're mixing a dough and the dough gets bigger and bigger
as you throw more ingredients into it.
The, the ingredients are the words and the phrases that you pick up as you're
reading and you're listening and maybe you're talking to people and sometimes
I, when I talk to people in Polish, I can't quite manage, and we go back
to English, but it doesn't matter.
They're all bits and pieces that are fed into this big dough.
And then the visit with the bits and pieces, the visit to the
grammar, where I don't necessarily remember it, but it is contributing.
It's contributing to solidifying my grasp on this overall picture of the language.
And the same way here, we're gonna travel to different parts of Kraków.
We're gonna talk to people, take the tram, which is a great experience.
I love taking a local transit when I'm traveling.
And then we're gonna have a walking tour, which will be in English.
But this evening we might speak some Polish, and every so often I
consult my grammar book, which has the advantage of being in Ukrainian.
So I'm looking at the differences between Polish and Ukrainian.
And then tomorrow we're taking the train back to Warsaw and we have a meetup.
And, um, there we are gonna, I'm gonna speak Polish, uh,
How do you say?
And, uh,
So the important thing is to, in my conversation, I will make lots
of mistakes, but it's another engagement with the language.
I will hear what people are saying.
If I have to think about whether this is correct, is it a Ukrainian
word or a Russian word or a Czech word or a Polish word?
Is it correct?
Is it the correct tense?
I won't be able to speak, but if I can start speaking and listening
to people, it's further input.
It's further, further involvement with the language and gradually slowly, as I
said the other day, the language, if you get enough opportunity, you will improve.
And I have enough of a hold on Polish now I can read this book and
understand most of it that if I were to spend two months in Poland, I
would be speaking quite comfortably.
But of course here with, uh, five days exposure, I can't speak very comfortably,
but you'll have a chance to hear me at our meetup on Thursday afternoon.
June the first in front of the Puro Hotel in Warsaw.
Bye For now.
So here we are in the square, in Warsaw.
Uh, we just went for a walk to get over our, having spent so much time eating on
a plane and uh, in behind us we have, we walked a fair distance to get here and
you can see the whole thing behind us.
I can show you there what it looks like.
The old town.
The old town.
So now we are going to proceed into the old town.
I spent two months listening and reading, working up my vocabulary.
I even worked on the plane on my iPad with my history of Poland and
I've got my vocabulary up to where I even decided to buy some paper books.
One is, uh, Help Yourself book and the other is a history or the
Life of Chopin, all in Polish.
I'm gonna read them, it's gonna help me, but trying to speak has been difficult.
I struggled with my taxi driver.
I struggled on the plane with the stewardess.
And didn't quite get there, but we'll see.
Couple of days I should improve.
