“Libraries gave us power” – Manic Street Preachers.
It’s been ages since I did a Studying Saturdays post and I still believe that we are all perpetual students until the day we die. We are always learning, always studying. We are forever on a learning cycle on this planet. As far as learning languages is concerned, I know I haven’t always been the best at it. But I always want to improve. At school I studied French, German and Latin and at times, I wasn’t totally into those subjects. I can still travel around French and German speaking countries and read menus, and get by. But not much more. I couldn’t engage in much stimulating conversation.
In 2010, I spent a month in Uruguay, learning Spanish in Montevideo, living with a local family and that was a cool challenge. In the end, my Spanish was again just about enough to get by in Spanish speaking countries. I passed the course and continued my travels. The Spanish came in useful of course as I later backpacked through places like El Salvador, Colombia, Mexico, Spain and Nicaragua.
In 2015, I spent a month in Hong Kong learning Cantonese (written in traditional Chinese). This was the toughest language challenge to date. But somehow my wandering heart didn’t hang around. I finished the first 4 weeks of an 8 week course but I was off backpacking in Bangladesh soon after.
“Good luck learning, Jonny, if you need any help, just ask me” – My Polish friends.
Here in 2016, is the first time I will have lived in Eastern Europe for longer than a month. I am staying put in Gdańsk for a while and I am now learning Polish. I think this one is the biggest challenge yet as I attempt to read, write and speak Polish. With Chinese it was only speaking really. I am enrolled as a student at Polish in Gdańsk and am doing three weeks of intense Polish classes here.
My teacher is Alina, my classes each day run from 12.30 pm to 2 pm, with an hour of homework and however long I want to dedicate myself to additional learning.
I am in Room 121 on the first floor, Monday to Fridays only. This gives me weekends free for backpacking, writing and socialising. I am getting intensive 1 to 1 lessons. I started off in my first week by learning simple everyday phrases, learning how the alphabet letters are pronounced, a few nouns, a few adjectives and a few verbs. I can also count from 1-10 in Polish now.
I’m still busy blogging, backpacking and writing my book and life is action packed here, but I am enjoying this new challenge and look forward to sharing my story again in August, once I know a little bit more Polish. I am so glad I am here in Gdańsk, studying Polish and backpacking again. Life was stale for a while recently and I now found a home to stay, just for a while, or until life changes for me again.
Here are some of my other articles from Backpacking in Poland, not just this trip but previous visits:
– Cycling with Mika in Gdańsk and Sopot
– Visiting the Polish Post Office where World War II began
– Touring the Murals of Zaspa in Gdansk
– Pub Crawl in Gdansk
– Visiting Westerplatte Where World War II Began
– Visiting Stutthof
– Food Tour with Eat Polska in Gdynia
– Backpacking in Starogard Gdański
– Backpacking in Tczew
– Backpacking in Pelplin
– Backpacking in Bydgoszcz
– This A Present from Stalin’s Reign
– Warsaw Skies They Won’t Rain on You
– Auschwitz Part 1 – Auschwitz
– Auschwitz Part 2 – Birkenau
– Backpacking in Krakow
– Backpacking in Poznan
– My Stay at Mosquito Hostel, Krakow
– My Stay at Poco Loco Hostel, Poznan
– Night train from Krakow to Lviv, Ukraine
– Touring the Sand Dunes at Łeba
My Polish classes are right in the heart of Old Town Gdańsk, which is amazing! Here are the details for booking Polish lessons here in Gdańsk:
- ul. Za Murami 2, p. 121
80-823 Gdańsk, POLAND
Email: [email protected]
Telephone: +48 534 996 030
Skype: Polish in Gdansk
As I’m not blogging as much as I used to, here are some photos from my first few weeks in Poland on this trip. As you can see, life is damn busy and I am having fun again! #dontstopliving Northern Irishman in Poland.
[…] – This A Present from Stalin’s Reign – Touring Sand dunes near Łeba – Studying Polish in Gdańsk – Auschwitz Part 1 – Auschwitz – Auschwitz Part 2 – Birkenau – […]
Good luck with the Polish classes! It is one of the toughest languages in the world to learn.
Ray recently posted…Tappers Arcade Bar
Hi Ray, thanks. It definitely is a tough language. Two weeks in and I can only saw a few short sentences! Safe travels. Jonny
[…] this differentiates Starogard Gdański from other cities also known as Starogard. Literally, as someone learning Polish this translates as the Starogard […]
[…] absolutely care about you. I’ve been helped a lot so far in Poland and especially now I am learning Polish in Gdańsk. I was looked after by Karolina, Agnieszka, Wojciech and […]
[…] the best of Tczew but you can also read about my time touring Gdynia, Sopot, Starogard Gdański, Gdańsk, Pelplin […]
[…] I study Polish in Gdansk now, I’m looking for a flat here and I might even get a part time job on top of my travel […]
[…] Szczechin, Lodz and back to Starogard Gdanski. But mostly, I’ll be enjoying my new flat, learning Polish and I won’t be leaving this country for a while! I will be buying new clothes and I […]
[…] backpacking), and I decided to do something local away from the travel side of things – I started to learn Polish. They say this is a difficult language to learn so it was to be a good test for me. By August, I […]
[…] of Zaspa in Gdańsk, Poland. You probably read that I now live and work here in Gdańsk, and study Polish too as well as having tried Irish dancing, on a food tour to Gdynia and on a pub crawl of the […]
[…] This is my first ever blog post on here in part-Polish, It’s coming towards the end of my second month in Poland and though, I have travelled around Pomorskie and into Kaliningrad in that time, I have found time away from work to start to learn Polish, with Learn Polish in Gdańsk. I did a quick report before on my first week learning Polish in Gdańsk. […]
[…] August), my friend Ola moved to Poznań in July, and I stayed in Gdańsk as I loved it so much! I started to learn Polish and took side trips to lots of towns, one of these side trips was hugely memorable, later made […]
[…] this differentiates Starogard Gdański from other cities also known as Starogard. Literally, as someone learning Polish this translates as the Starogard […]
[…] the dream died away but this was the reality that I was now faced with. I had a flat. I had a home. I was learning Polish. I had appeared in 2 local newspapers (Tczew and Starogard) and I had some excellent media contacts […]
[…] vowel, how do you pronounce the beast? Thanks to my Polish teacher Pani Alina and my time at Learn Polish in Gdansk, I know how to say it. In English, it can be roughly said like this – Beeda […]
[…] and Sopot by bicycle with Mika on the Road, visited the Post Office where World War II began and started to learn Polish. It has been a really fantastic time of my life. This week in my dorm room, I met Marina from […]
[…] Polish in Gdansk When life took me to Gdansk in 2016, I started to learn Polish with Pani Alina at Learn Polish in Gdansk. For sure, this was the language I was best at out of the […]
[…] all of that affected my days, I stopped learning Polish despite being on a roll with it in Gdansk, Poland with my teacher Pani Alina at Learn Polish in Gdansk. I let others get in the way of my own studying and my new life here […]
[…] I also met the other two guides – Aga and Dominika, they were off duty tonight. Although I am studying Polish here in Gdańsk, the pub crawl was held entirely in English and only the guides are Polish speaking the evening I […]
[…] talked about. Sharing dorms I kept ignoring other people and felt like a monster. I enrolled on a Polish course in Gdańsk, I got my own local WiFi cafes and bars sorted, I made some new friends and I toured some remote […]
[…] time and money as I only wanted to visit Kaliningrad and because I was hanging around in Poland and studying Polish in Gdańsk. So it then became obvious that I should apply for the visa online. After being rejected at the […]
[…] Many people will study a second and third language to improve their competitiveness in the job market. Yet, attending a French class is not as effective at mastering the language as working in France or learning Polish. […]
[…] courses in five different countries, with some more planned. I’d love to have a crack (ov) at learning Polish or Russian someday too. Here are some of my previous studying […]
[…] trip, your experienced will be enhanced by being able to communicate with the locals. I studied Polish in Gdansk, Spanish in Montevideo and Cantonese in the […]
Great! I want to learn polish.
Dear George, good luck learning Polish! Jonny