Today was my second venture into the Polish language; Lesson 2 of my Rosetta Stone software package. A little more challenging than yesterday but not too much worse as it logically incorporated many of the terms learned in Lesson 1. For example words like kobieta (woman) and samolot (airplane) which were learned on day 1 were reintroduced with a few verbs, such as biegnie (run) and skacze (jump). So an example of something a 2 year old Polish child could say, kobieta biegnie, translates to something along the lines of “the woman is running.”

I can understand how it may seem so trivial to some, however it truly is a humbling experience to attempt to learn another language. I also think that English speakers are at a disadvantage when it comes to learning another language, because English is unlike another other language currently spoken. Whereas Spanish is related to French and Italian, and Polish is related to Russian, English in my experience is truly unique, and that isn’t necessarily a good thing.

Saturday I took the first step in accomplishing one of my new year’s resolutions. Carin and I stopped by the Willowbrook Mall and made an appearance at the Rosetta Stone booth. I purchased the Level 1 Polish CD set for $200 (came with a free headset and a 6-month guarantee). Today I took my first long and hard glimpse into it and I must confess to being pretty overwhelmed.

Learning Polish seemed like a novel idea over the holidays when I was surrounded by future-family who spoke 90% Polish, but now that I have actually begun to attempt it I have been greatly humbled. I like to think I can pick up new things pretty quickly, especially computer-related tasks such as computer languages, but this is a completely different beast altogether. Prelimenary ventures into the Polish language have left me confused and irritated. However, I will not give up. Learning Polish is important to me for a number of reasons, the most important being that it is the first language for over half of Carin’s family, including herself, and without it there are family members with whom I cannot communicate at all. Thus, it is imperative that I learn it and I will not give up until I do. Luckily I have Carin to help me, and she has been great as always.

I will try to track my progress regularly on this blog so that you all can follow it too if interested. If not, no biggie, just don’t be alarmed one day when you all of a sudden see a post written in Polish!