If you want to know how to say merry Christmas in Polish you came to the right place. I will give you not only the expression, but also transliteration and the meaning behind it all. I will also give my perspective, as an American living in Poland, and from the perspective of  my wife, she is Polish and wrote the second part of this.

An American perspective of Xmas

Why do I prefer Christmas in Poland more than in the USA? I am an American born and raised but also Polish and live in Krakow. In the USA I was always stressed about gifts and shopping. However, in Poland I do not buy gifts. What, are you kidding?

It is a religious celebration more than a commercial celebration, where in the states I feel it as more a commercial holiday, traffic, crowds, endless holiday jingles and commercials and sales. Who likes that.

Imagine a world without a commercialized Christmas holiday, if you like the idea come to Poland.  In fact, for gifts  and games Poland has Santa Claus day on December 6th for kids. Christmas on the other hand is a peaceful religious holiday for singing and decorating the tree on the 24th. The ornaments and decor actually go up on Christmas eve.

Oh, one last thing, you can say Merry Christmas in Poland. In American you say happy holidays. There is a world of difference in the feel of these two holidays greetings.

The linguistics of a Polish Christmas

Linguistically speaking I feel it pretty hard to learn the Christmas greeting in Polish because of Polish pronunciation.  English words are short. Polish words are long because they pronounce every single letter.

However, if you break down the symbols and transliteration and learn it piece by piece it will eventually roll off your tongue and you can use it in many situations, for about two months that is. In my mind this is a good investment in learning.

The phrase Merry Christmas in the Polish language

Wesolych Swiat, Bozego Narodzenia i Szczesliwego Nowego Roku

weh-sohl-ih shveeaht, Boh-zheh-go nah-roh-djehn-eeah ee shchehs-leev-ehgoh no-vegoh roh-koo

Maybe copy or print this and try to practice it until you have it down. It literally means, “joy to the world, birth of God, and a happy new year”.

You can just say Wesolych Swiat and this is enough.

Xmas card from Poland

Merry Christmas a Polish perspective

This part my wife Kasia wrote:

Christmas is the most important, meaningful and favourite Polish holiday. In Polish it is called “Boże Narodzenie” or “Święta Bożego Narodzenia”, which means Christmas Holiday or literally the holy birth. It is totally dedicated to religion, tradition and family. Święta Bożego Narodzenia are in some ways similar to American Thanksgiving, when the whole family and friends meet to celebrate and spend time together.

The holiday last 3 days. Is started with the Christmas Eve which is called “Wigilia” or sometimes “Gwiazdka”. Wigilia is a very special time and it has unique atmosphere of warmth, when you feel like you are united with the whole world and all good souls. For me it is a very moving and joyful day and I’m always looking forward to it. Wigilia is celebrated December 24th, when the days are short and the evening comes fast, but although it is cold and dark outside. After Christmas the days are getting longer, and the amount of daylight increases, which has an additional impact on this celebration and its meaning – the Christ was born and brought God’s light and the hope to the world.

Wigilia or Christmas eve

Wigilia in Poland is celebrated with a traditional dinner, served with 12 dishes, one for each month. The dinner starts when the first star appears in the sky and that is a symbol of the Star of Bethlehem. In polish tradition people are sharing wafer and say Christmas wishings to each other. After that they eat the dinner together. The dinner table is decorated with a white cloth, under which people put a hand full of hay. On the table there is a one extra table set for an unexpected guest. The food served during Wigilia doesn’t contain meat.

The most popular Polish dishes are:

• borsh whit little dumplings stuffed with mushrooms, in polish it is “barszcz z uszkami”,  – fish (ryba) – fried, served as soup or in a gelatin,
• cabbage with pea, in polish “kapusta z grochem”,
• kompot – a drink made from bolied fruits (usually dry plumes).
• Besides that there are served pie with mushrooms, pasta with poppy (kluski z makiem) and for dessert: “makowiec” – which is a poppy-seed cake, “sernik” – cheese-cake, or “kutia” – a sweet cake, popular in eastern part of the country, made with wheat and honey with nuts and raisens.

After dinner there is time for “kolędy” -  Polish Christmas carols.
The evening ends at midnight with a special mass called “Pasterka”, from the word “pasterz” – English ‘shepard’, which refers to shepards preyers. Pasterka also begins Christmas Day, but it is a chalange to stay up till the mass, especially after such fulfilling dinner.
The main thing on Christmas Day is a mass, and going to church.

The day is extraordinary and people spend it on celebrating and being together with a family and friends. Except for life-saving types of jobs, nobody goes to work this day, all the shops are closed.

How to say “Merry Christmas” in Polish? Here you find greetings and a few expressions, that will be useful:

• Merry Christmas – Wesołych Świąt Bożego Narodzenia, the short version of this is simply – Wesołych Świąt (Happy Holiday) and you can say it while sharing the wafer, but also in your workplace, shop, etc.
• Other wishes you can say during Wigilia (wafer sharing):
• All the best – Wszystkiego najlepszego
• God’s blessing – Błogosławieństwa Bożego
• Lots of health – Dużo zdrowia – this is a very poplular fraze, and polish people say it with other ocasions (birthday, name’s day),
• Lots of love – Dużo miłości
• Lots of happiness – Dużo szczęścia,
• All kind of prosperity – Wszelkiej pomyślności
• Be fulfilled with your family – Zadowolenia z rodziny
• Dedicated friends – Oddanych przyjaciół
• People’s kindness – Ludzkiej życzliwości
• Make your dreams come truth – Spełnienia marzeń
• Anything you wish for – Wszystkiego czego sobie życzysz
• Cool presents – Fajnych prezentów

If you know the other person well, you can say something personal, that you think they may wish for, but with this list you are ready to celebrate Wigilia in Poland.

Let me know if you are Polish or have Polish roots and your experiences or stories regarding the Christmas tradition, what do you remember in your home?

You can see what some of my other strange somewhat eccentric interests are.  Most are about languages and love.

I know business professionals would cringe that I have mixed business and pleasure but I prefer to keep it real. I like real and sincere not commercial. I like unpretentious.

I have a few blogs on this site about  my other interests. Claritaslux its more a site based on my personal experiences in life rather than some commercial site; even though I am writing innovate and professional language learning programs.

Some of my posts have created rather heated debates.  Most are connected with language learning and a few are about crazy things like beauty and love and citizenship and me being an expat.

Interesting posts about languages and love

Does true love exist – Well does it? Find out.

Hardest language to learn – This has almost 500 comments and is one of my personal favorite posts about languages, it is short and to the point but the best is to read other people’s input as to the most difficult language to learn.

EU citizenship – How to get an EU citizenship, how I did it and maybe you can too.

Amish language – The Amish sure have an interesting language, read all about it.

EU driver’s license – Living in the EU like I do is great (I get to practice my languages), however, if I want to get to point A to B I might need something else. I might need an EU driver’s license.  Find out what the requirements are and if you need one and how to get one.

Best country to start a business – Where is the best place to start a business? If you said the US or Canada think again. Do not just read something in the economist magazine or something that some accounting firm like PWC write, take from someone who is in the trenches.

What is attractive on a girl – This part of my site is more for fun, yet the debates arround this whole section are perhaps the most intense.  I started this part of my site because I am truly happy in love and marriage and wanted to share some insights, but it has taken on a life of its own.

Love phrases – If you want to know how to say I love you in French or Spanish or Italian, the this is the page to go to. I created a resource for love phrases in several languages.

I love you in Polish – My wife actually wrote this, she is Polish and it is pretty good for a none native speaker of English. In fact she never studied English, rather she just fell in love with me. Maybe this is the best way to learn a language.

How I learned a language -  This is a great personal account of how one person learn a language from ground zero to fluency.  The introduction I wrote is a little language but parts 2, 3 and 4 are worth reading if you have an interest in languages and how to really achieve your linguistic dream.

Slavic languages – My world is East of the Oder river. If you are curious about the Slavic world and its languages this is a must read.

This site has many tentacles. I hope that you will not only check out the individual posts, but also the related posts at the bottom of each posts, as there are many sections on this site that are valuable and are under appreciated.

Which posts have you found interesting?

Who writes opinions of Rosetta stone

There are three types of writers of reviews.

• The first one is those promoting an array of language learning software companies, but does not make their own.
• The second is a competitor of Rosetta Stone languages and trying to compare and contrast their product with the market leader.
• There is a third category of people who are writing a guide of language learning products because they used it and they wanted to be useful to others. However, this category is the rarest.

I am in the second category. However, I am also in the third. I try to remain objective and clear on the pros and cons of this language course as I believe objectivity is the essence of intelligence and honesty is the best policy. If they create a better product, the onus is on me to improve mine rather than knock someone else. Further, at this juncture I do not sell any products yet as mine are being developed.

Pros of Rosetta stone

• Easy to start using – you install and start using. Almost no learning curve to use the program.
• Nice visual layout and good choice of colors, this keeps you interested.
• Many level, like for example Rosetta Stone Spanish is a complete language course if you buy all the levels
• I love the visual approach that can even be extended now to mobile. Who does not like to sit back and look at photos.
• The idea is innovative
• Many different OS and devices Rosetta Stone can be use on, I have yet to try to make it work on Linux, but will give it a try.
• They are always adding more functionality and have recently included mp3 files.
• Clear audio pronunciation of words and phrases with native speakers. Not all language programs use native speakers.  For example, Transparent languages, which is a good company, but uses a Czech speaker for their Polish language course.
• 6 month return policy – most people will not do this, but it is nice policy from a respected company
• Large Wall Street company (NYSE)  whose ticker symbol is RTS if you want to buy the stock.

Cons of Rosetta Stone

• Main Rosetta Stone review opinion – I have never known one person in my life, including myself that learned to speak or read a language with Rosetta Stone. I have taught languages for many years and know many who use the program, but none who have learned from using it. There might be some, but I have not met any.  My friend George has Rosetta Latin and Spanish but  despite spending over a grand, has made no forward progress. Perhaps it is because of sloth but maybe other reasons.
• Program teaches no grammar and is confusing, maybe children can learn this way but adults think abstractly. If they were to learn this way they would need a lot of repetition.
• Meaning of the images are unclear in some lessons but in others they are very interesting to look at
• Written to teach English, not European or Asian languages that have a different grammar system. I tried the Polish course and it was really confusing. Poor design in terms of presenting a foreign translation of grammatical ideas so the learner can benefit.
• I wrote a more complete review of Rosetta Stone here
• Price is ridiculously high, I personally do not have the cash to pay for a the Rolex of language learning especially if I have not personally seen the results. Who has money like that, maybe in the 90s but now today?
• Pure flashy marketing company with bright colors and eye candy but I doubt you will learn a language from it. They are masters at marketing and getting you to buy on an impulse with their colors. however, I have personally learned languages with flashcards but not with this linguistic software program, except some pronunciation as a very beginner.

Now as a large positive vote for Rosetta Stone languages, my competitor. Learning a foreign language with any program, language course or lessons is very hard work. The reason that Rosetta stone does not work might not be that the program is that bad, but people give up too soon. They pay the price and buy it on emotion but their commitment to learn their target foreign language is fleeting.

For example, my friend George did this. He paid 500 dollars for I think two levels of Spanish, now is not used. That is not Rosetta’s fault, they even offer a money back policy. I think the issue is, once you get past a few concrete nouns, abstract words and verbs really deflate many people’s motivation. Therefore, if you have will power and can afford the price, I think there is reasonable value with using Rosetta stone as long as you have the motivation to follow through and sit with it for an hour a day for six months. That is a very fair evaluation of Rosetta Stone. The free trial is not enough to apprise its effectiveness and make an informed decision, if it works or not.

My point is just do not pay and expect to learn, use it.

Rosetta Stone is rock solid in terms of programming, return policy and visual presentation but lacks in effectiveness – in my personal experience and opinion.

I do not want to end on a negative note. I have to say if you want to try anything by Fairfield Language Technologies here it is, I as a competitor am actually giving their site.  I also make no money off of it, I provide it for you if you want to skip the ratings and got to rosettastone.com and reviews and go to their site.  I would like to hear your experiences and ratings regarding this software, or any thoughts you might have. All positive feedback is very welcome as I want off this as a balanced analysis.

Where did my interest in Slavic languages come from? I am something of an amateur Slavophile when it comes to languages.  I’ve spent the past decade learning Polish (as I live in Poland and no longer participate in a formal language course, it’s more at the passive than active stage at this point) and have made numerous trips to other Slavic countries.  What follows are some observations and a bit of background on Slavic tongues and their speakers.

Background of Slavic Languages

Slavic languages originated from one mother tongue known as Proto-Slavic, spoken previous to the 7th century.  Old Church Slavonic was the first written Slavic language, codified in the 9th century by Cyril and Methodius, two missionaries who adapted the written language from a tongue spoken in modern-day Macedonia.  Cyril and Methodius are revered in some countries in particular and one will see monuments to them and their work throughout the region.

Today Slavic languages are grouped into 3 geographical groups:  Western Slavic, Eastern Slavic, and the Southern Slavic families.  Western Slavic includes Polish, Czech, and Slovak.  Eastern Slavic comprises Russian, Ukrainian, and Belarussian.  Southern Slavic includes Serbian, Croatian, Slovene, Bosnian, Bulgarian, and Macedonian.  There are also minor Slavic languages, such as Kashubian (spoken by a small minority of Poles in a small region south of Gdansk;  the current prime minister, Donald Tusk, as it happens, is a native Kashub) or Rusyn in Ukraine.

Taken together they form a band spanning from the Adriatic Sea across Central/Eastern Europe through Asian Russia to the Sea of Japan.  Russian, Belarussian, Ukrainian, Bulgarian, Bosnian, Macedonian and Serbian are the Slavic languages which use Cyrillic.  Cyrillic is also used by some non-Slavic tongues, such as Moldovan and Mongolian.

Interestingly 2 languages of significance exist among this “sea of Slavs” that are not Slavic—Romanian (and by extension, Moldovan), a Romance language more closely related to French, etc, and Hungarian, a language only distantly related to any other.  The Baltic countries as well interrupt the Slavic domination of the region, with Lithuanian and Latvian related to one another and sharing some elements with Slavic tongues, but forming their own language group, and Estonian, a language related to Finnish and distantly to Hungarian.

The Cyrillic alphabet, though it may look exotic and difficult to master on first look, is not as tough as it may seem.  During a four-day trip to Bulgaria, I was basically able to get down the basics, to the point where I could read signs and pronounce words (not that I knew what they all meant, but a basic operational capacity in using the alphabet—helpful in train stations and stores).  Previously I had been in Greece for a week, which did help a bit as some of the characters in the Greek alphabet are similar, but for the most part it is not too terribly difficult.  On later trips to Ukraine, this capacity came back to me (and coupled with the fact that Ukraine has some similarities to Polish and that Polish is generally understood, particularly in Western Ukraine where I was traveling, I was able to operate fairly well).

Benefits of Learning a Slavic Language

It’s been my experience that if you get even one Slavic language under your belt, it allows you to operate and communicate in many countries and languages.  This is most true within the geographical grouping (Polish speakers will find it easier to understand Czech or Slovak;  Russian speakers likewise with Ukrainian and Belarussian).  With just a little bit of on-the-fly tourist study, I am able to communicate pretty well in Czech or Slovak, using only a base amount of words in the local language and plugging gaps with Polish if need be.  I don’t understand- “Nie rozumiem” in Polish, would be “Ne rozumím”* in Czech, “I don’t know”—“nie wiem” in Polish, “ne vim” in Czech, “large” or “great”- “wielki” in Polish, “veľký” in Slovak, etc.

Some words come out quite differently:  train-‘pociag’ in Polish, ‘vlak’ in Czech, for example.  But knowing one Slavic language helps you understand others.  This is true even across groups—knowing Polish I am able to understand some Russian, an Eastern Slavic language.  I recall on visiting Croatia, that the South Slavic tongue Croatian was surprisingly also understandable as well, at least to a degree.

The Slavic language speakers cover the most geographical area in the world.

Another benefit of learning a Slavonic language is the rich culture, overshadowed for ages by that of Western Europe.  Slavic countries are responsible for very fine art, literature, advances in technology, science, etc.  Chopin, Kafka, Mucha, Dostoevsky, Copernicus, Pushkin, and scores of other greats in the worlds of literature, music, art, and science hail from Slavic-speaking countries, and learning one of the languages can help contribute to your appreciation of them and their works.  Adam Mickiewicz is a renowned poet in Poland (and held in high esteem by the Lithuanians as well, for that matter).  Poles swear that English translations do not do him justice, however, and reading him in Polish is a must to appreciate the richness and depth of the language he used.

I also love Slavonic church music but this is another story.

Another reason to learn a Slavic language is the travel.  For example the nature in Russia is almost unparalleled. The colors you see in Siberia have an other worldly quality.  Knowing the Russian language will give you a passport to see such beauty.

Russian sky and birch trees; learning the Russian language will help your world travel to beautiful places like Siberia.

For those interested in traveling or even living in Europe, Slavic countries generally offer a much less expensive cost of living, especially when compared to their Western neighbors.  While this doesn’t necessarily hold true for the largest cities (Moscow, Warsaw) comparatively one can live and travel much more cheaply in Slavic Countries than in, say, the United Kingdom or Italy.

Fun with Slavic Languages

Though there are similarities among tongues, there are also some often-amusing challenges that arise when comparing Slavic languages.  While many words are similar, some words which seem to be the same, actually have different meanings.  The most well-known among Poles and Czechs is probably the confusion over the verb “to look”.  This verb in Polish is “szukac”, in the first person form it would be “szukam”, as in “Szukam policjanta” (I am looking for a policeman).  But be careful when you are in the Czech Republic and thinking you are asking a person on the street an innocent question—“szukam” in Czech has a much different and more vulgar (sexual) meaning.  The verb you want in Czech is “hledat”.

Another similar instance is found in Slovak—with Polish visitors to the country sometimes encountering the very funny “odchody” sign at stations—meaning “departures” in Slovak, but something like “excrement” or “feces” in Polish.  Not a great image and one that gets at least a chuckle from Poles.  “This way for feces”, Poles are advised and helpfully directed by an arrow on the sign.  No thanks!

The accent and pronunciation differences can be interesting as well.  Czechs, to my ears, have a sing-song pronunciation.  It sounds like they are serenading you in short bursts, with words rising in tone or with drawn-out syllables.  I find it quite charming, and is one reason why I consider Czech to be one of the more beautiful languages to listen to (more so than Polish, and also more so than the supposedly beautiful and much-lauded French).  Russian, on the other hand, and Eastern Slavic languages, for that matter, tend to grate on my ears a bit.  They consist of some drawn out sounds as well, but to my ears they seem to sound more “obnoxious” and exaggerated, for lack of a better description, especially in comparison to the lovely Czech tongue.

Another thing that Poles are well acquainted with is a Czech and Slovak pronunciation which sounds unusual to Polish ears—words may seem similar but pronounced in a funny way.  Poles tend to say that Czechs sounds like Polish children or babies trying to pronounce Polish words.  What is funny is that I have heard the same thing said by a Czech friend about Poles.  I would tend to agree with the Poles on this one though—the much harsher and harder sounds of Polish are more difficult for children to pronounce at first, and are more likely to come out sounding like the soft tones of Czech.  A simple comparison of the words for “thank you” shows this—“Dziekuje” in Polish, with the hard “dz” syllable, vs. the softer “dekuje” in Czech.

If you have questions about any Slavic language or have Slavic ancestry or a general interest in Eastern Europe I would love to hear from you.

How I learned a language interview

• How did I learn a language? – Introduction
• How did I learn a language and why?
• What prevents people from learning a foreign language?
• What idea can help others learn a language?

What prevents people from learning Polish, or for that matter any foreign language?

I really think anyone learning a language at some point hits a plateau, and if you are just doing rote learning, people can burn out quickly.  So the saying that keeping it fun and interesting is key is definitely true.

And part of keeping it fun is kindling a passion for the language.  If you have a reason why, you figure out the “how”.  I think that basic idea applies in so many areas of life, and it definitely does in language.

For some, especially those living in a foreign country, being able to function in the day-to-day, and the feeling of independence and freedom that being able to communicate for yourself gives you, is a strong reason ‘why’.

Others maybe motivated for reasons of love and the opposite sex.  No surprise there.

I’ve also seen people, especially in upper levels of English and academics, who seem to take a real pride and pleasure in learning a language well, the semantics and the ins and outs.  They continue to devote time and energy to learning, among other reasons, because they have a natural passion for language in itself.  Some people have this, almost like a natural quality or inclination.  Others don’t, and so other reasons may have to serve as a ‘why’.  But I believe you can also cultivate a passion for a language—for example as you learn more about the structure and meaning and origin of words in a given language, it often naturally stimulates curiosity and interest.

For example, I particularly find the connections, similarities and differences among Slavic languages fascinating.  I discovered this early on a trip to the Czech Republic.  Some words were the same or nearly the same as in Polish (ie “rabbit”—“krolik” in Polish, “kralik” in Czech).  Others weren’t but made sense to me (“hospital”—in Polish “szpital”, in Czech “nemocnice”, which makes sense knowing the Polish “nie moc”, in other words roughly “to not be able to”, which would make sense—people in a hospital are generally incapacitated and unable to totally function normally until they heal).  And still others seemed totally unrelated to one another (the verb “to find” being “szukac” in Polish and “hledat” in Czech).

There are many other aspects of language that one can develop a passion about, not just the comparative aspects between languages.  For instance, if you are a political junkie, learning a language may allow you to read articles in that language that you otherwise wouldn’t be able to for lack of translation.  This will not only further expand your knowledge, but in a way can make you more savvy by being able to perceive an issue in the way it is written by the writer in its original form, with all its original bias and context (which is of course often lost in translation).

Continue reading how to learn a language here: What idea can help others learn a language?

How to learn a language – Interview

• How did I learn a language? – Introduction
• How did I learn a language and why?
• What prevents people from learning a foreign language?
• What idea can help others learn a language?

What other ideas can you share about learning Polish and languages in general?

A language can be learnt in the spare moments of the day.  I always tell people who are learning English that my absolute favorite method for increasing my vocabulary in Polish was simple flash cards.  I would use these for example while waiting for or riding in a tram around Krakow or any other time I had a few moments to kill.  The 10, 15 minutes here and there throughout your day are just ripe to be used for learning a language and boosting vocabulary.

I would keep a stack of flash cards in my shirt or jacket pocket and would cycle through them.  As I got comfortable with them I would rotate them out and put new ones in the pile.  I found this a fast, effective way to get you confident and feeling like you are learning.  If we know the names of things and can identify verbs, even if we are not totally sure how to put the sentences together or how to conjugate the verb, we still feel a sort of growing power over the language as we continue to file away vocabulary in the memory bank.

Not only that, but I found that flash cards were a great conversation starter.  People are naturally curious when they see you filing through a pack of cards and mouthing words to yourself.  I found them to be fun at social get-togethers, pulling them out and making a game of it even.

The old saying that it’s best to live in a country of course is very true.  But of course not everyone can make such a large life move.  I was fortunate as I did it shortly after graduating from college, and I was fortunate enough to be able to transfer my work from the States to Europe.

When you are in a foreign country you are just constantly exposed to the language.  Even in a place like Krakow, where there are a lot of students and a tourist orientation, and thus a comparatively high level of English.  At the same time, living in larger and more cosmopolitan cities (depending on the country) can be an obstacle, as more people are likely to know English and you are not forced to learn.  If you live in a foreign country you have to be careful not to slip into the trap of only spending time with other foreigners, or with natives who speak your tongue very well.  Cultivating friendships with people who do not speak your language as well is a good way to force you to use the tongue of the country you are living in.

So just going to live in a foreign country doesn’t mean it is automatic, as it really depends on your immediate environment (which you of course have a large measure of control over).  I see a number of people here that have lived here a long time but don’t ever get past a rudimentary level of language, which is not what you’d expect, but makes sense when you look at the social circles they operate in.  It is easy to be lazy about learning when the people around you already know your language.  It may be one reason that in America we generally don’t have the language skills that Europeans do.

Language is a great ice-breaker and a lot of humor and fun can come from language as well.  When I worked selling books in Amish communities, I was always sure to try to pick up and use some basic words and phrases in Pennsylvania Dutch.  It was a great ice breaker and I think learning a bit in someone else’s language (even if they can speak your own) is a sign of respect.

I’ll never forget the sight of Amish kids looking up shocked when I slipped in a line or two of my rudimentary Pennsylvania Dutch.  They just don’t expect us “English people” (Amish term for non-Amish) to know PA Dutch, so using it out of the blue like that it often gets a laugh.  A lot of fun and again a great way to make a connection.  I would often teach some basic Polish in return—fun things that fit the environment—the word for cow, horse, etc.  Language differences, perhaps counter-intuitively, often bring people together.

People enjoy seeing you make the effort, and even if you struggle a bit, people tend to be on your side and want to help you because they see you are trying.  The more obscure the language, the more true this is, I find.  For example, someone learning English, since there are already many foreign speakers of English, is less of a novelty.  Not that you won’t get sympathy and help as an English learner, but people are less fascinated by someone speaking English with a foreign accent (versus, say, someone speaking Polish or Estonian or Thai with a foreign accent) since there are so many foreign-accented speakers of English already.

But the key thing in this is not to be afraid to make mistakes.  The only mistake is not opening your mouth.  We train our minds and tongues by using them.  Everyone will make mistakes but the vast majority of the time people are very forgiving when they see you are trying.  Just try to avoid the swear words.  Come to think of it, perhaps this is why swear words are among the first thing language learners are taught;  for amusement, but also to prevent you saying something that you really wouldn’t want to!

Post comments or go back to the start here: How to learn any foreign language you study..

How I learned a language interview

• How did I learn a language?  – Introduction
• How did I learn a language and why?
• What prevents people from learning a foreign language?
• What idea can help others learn a language?

How did you learn Polish—and why?

I originally became interested in Polish after visiting the country as a child.  My grandparents lived in Warsaw and I still have a grandmother there today.  Mom was born and lived her first 20+ years in Warsaw, and Dad was technically full Polish too, his family having originated from near Lwow (or rather L’viv as it is now a part of Ukraine).  But my father, immigrating to the states at age 4, did not have the strong Polish foundation and began to lose it in American society.  He met my mother when they were in their 20’s and she was visiting on a trip from then-communist Poland.  Since his Polish wasn’t strong and her English was excellent, English was the language spoken at home (with a few Polish words thrown in here and there).  Occasionally I would hear Polish when relatives would call and I’d hear one side of the conversation, with my mom talking, but little of it stuck.

Perhaps it did help a bit for knowing what Polish should ‘sound’ like on some subconscious level, but other than some rudimentary vocabulary like the word for “ice cream”, and being able to count to 10, I really had zero Polish knowledge when I signed up for a Polish language course at age 20 while a student at UNC-Chapel Hill.

After 2 years of studies, I was definitely the weakest in my class of 7, though I was able to pass the courses and move on.  At this point I really did not have more than a functional command of the language, still struggled greatly with conjugations and declensions, and to be frank, lacked a burning desire to learn more.  Though I wanted to return to Poland for a period of time, there was just not an immediate need to be good in Polish, and thus I lacked the level of motivation to really throw myself into it.

But I did have a strong desire to return to Poland for awhile, and I will say that I really began to learn when I arrived in the country.   And it turned out my 2 years spent learning I the States was really a good investment, as though I did not have a strong active command of the language, I had acquired a good bit of latent knowledge and when I began learning in Poland my mind was able to fill in some gaps and begin to build on what I had learned at studies.

After about six months of self-study as well as attending a further Polish course in Krakow, I hit a point where I remember things began to click.  Like a switch had been turned in my brain.  I still remember it well;  perhaps this is when I began to “think” in Polish.  Responses and words just seemed to flow better, the words I was looking for and struggled to find before began to appear, and life got sunnier.  I continued to build from there over the next few years with continuing self-study, reading newspapers and articles, and so on.  I did not do too many more courses, in total I took perhaps 2 or 3 semesters worth when in Poland.

So I think there is a definite place for language courses, but they function best by providing a foundation, and then when you are in the environment you have to swim or sink with the language.  That gives you the motivation that you may lack otherwise.

Continue reading here to find out: What prevents language learning?

• How did I learn a language? – Introduction
• How did I learn a language and why?
• What prevents people from learning a foreign language?
• What idea can help others learn a language?

At this point I recommend you jump right into the interview above. The rest of this post below is just my rants about language learning; which I have a passion for, but might not be as interesting. So go to the second part above called ‘how to learn a language and why’.

My rants about this language interview

Why is it good? It is specific, instructional and authentic and not written by a linguist, but by a man on the street.

It is not written in some broad abstract ivory tower way; rather, it a very concrete interview with someone  who learned a language to the fluency level. It asks the three most relevant questions for language learners.

This person started studying his language with no knowledge of his target language as a adult.  The result is this:

• He now communicates perfectly, almost as a native speaker, in fact,  native speakers have told me they hear absolutely no mistakes, with the exception of sometimes a very light but nice American accent.

Note: When I am in a club with him and the music is playing, people do not hear an accent.

His own modesty would prevent him from saying he is at this level so I would rather convey what native speakers have told me.

I think this will be of  a great value to readers, because probability the most frequent question I get is ‘how do I learn any language?’.

Most people feel  intimidated and feel that languages are either acquired as a child though a bilingual education or learned by the gifted.

This is not true. Please read on.

For ease of reading I have divided this narrative into three addtional parts. Each part answers a question.

An interview with a language learner

I chose the interview format as it is the most interesting and readable.

The language he learned was Polish. It is one of the   hardest languages to learn for an English native speaker. This is because of the grammar and pronunciation which is foreign to Western European languages.  However, I think it is the best language to hear a story about because it is so challenging. It is not something relatively easy like Spanish or Italian.

I felt it better to have someone else tell their story, rather than my own experience with language learning here. This is because I might lose some of my objectivity and show partiality towards my method of how to learn a language.

How to learn a language feedback

If you have any comments or feedback or personal experiences with you or someone you know who has studied a foreign language with success,  please let me know. I think it is a story worth being read, for any one who wants to know how to learn any language.

Read part two of this series here and find out: why and how I learned a language.

The best way to raise a bilingual child is to expose them to both languages at the same time. That means,do not favor one language over the other. Simply speak naturally to your child in both languages. After the age of nine months you can actively teach your child the two languages by demonstrating what things are around the house. I found that before nine months, there is no great need to teach them, but rather speak to them naturally. That is bilingualism.

This post is a little long so I added some organization to it. Here are the major topics I will cover.

• Real bilingual education mistake stories
• Bilingualism experts where wrong
• How to raise a bilingual child

Why I know about raising a child with two languages

Here are my credentials for writing about bilingualism.

• I have a daughter who is both American and Polish like me. We live in Krakow, Poland. We are raising her in two languages.
• My mother was raised bilingual with English and Ukrainian.
• My father was raised bilingual with English and Polish.
• I was not raise with a multilingual education but had to learn languages as an adult. I now teach and learn languages in Europe.
• I teach bilingual children as well as adults.

I do not profess to be the world expert on bilingualism or bilingual education, however, these are my personal experiences with bilingual children both as a father and a teacher.

I do not profess to be the world expert on bilingualism, however, these are my personal experiences with bilingual children both as a father and a teacher.

Real bilingual education mistakes stories

How not to teach children languages

I believe, and linguistic science confirms that people learn from mistakes. If you are an adult language learner, one of the best ways to learn is to make mistakes. It is our mistakes that teach us. Similarly, the Ancient Greeks favored tragedy over comedies. They preferred this because they believed we can learn not only from our mistakes but from other people’s mistakes.

Therefore, read and learn. I will give you five stories or examples of families that do not raise their children bilingual.

Bilingual education story one

I meet a British couple while on vacation in Greece. They were raising their children in Greece. They choose Greek to be their children’s first language. This decision was because the environment they was growing up in. They were given this language advice, that if a child learns two languages they can easily be confused. Therefore, it is better to learn one language at a time. This linguistic advice came from a local linguistic expert. Therefore, their intentions were to teach them English later, in school with the other children. This is wrong thinking. It is wrong because the children will learn their second languages, English, as a non-native speakers. In fact, they will never get those years back, and lose the window of opportunity to make them truly bilingual. For their whole life English will be stored in the second language area of their brain, rather than their primary language area of their brain. They will never master their second language and never truly be bilingual, even if they sound like they are fluent. Brain imagining confirms this and so does my personal experience.

Bilingual education story two

Another mistake in raising a child with two languages is being too passive. For example, I have meet a couple of American fathers in Poland who teach English to foreigners. Yet, amazingly these teachers are very passive about teaching their children English. Their children understand English, but speak Polish. That is the children do not want to use one of their two languages. Why? Children are children.

The children’s fathers are more poets or backpacker type teachers. They love their children very much, but when it comes to playing an active role in teaching them English, they are more passive. They enjoy talking philosophy or watching the football match on TV with their ex-pat friends in a pub than being active in their kids language learning. They wrongly assume, their children will pick up English anyway. This is a wrong assumption. Why? Because kids gravitate toward the path of least resistance. Unless you actively guide children with love, patience and time, their learning during these critical years will be less than optimal. The result is they will not be perfectly bilingual.
Bilingual education story three

I also meet a British father who thought it was cool to speak Polish his son. In my opinion this is very selfish as this child will not learn English like his father learned English. I was doing this myself a little. I love speaking in different languages. So I was practicing my Polish sometimes with my daughter sometimes or mixing English with other languages. However, one of my students point this out to me. I was unaware I was doing this. I do not know why I was not aware, it was my fault.

I think most parents’ mistakes are things they are not aware of consciously. If you want your child to be bilingual you have to be proactive. If you and your spouse speak several languages, then each one of your needs to speak in the language(s) that you are the strongest in speaking. Otherwise, your child will speak with an accent. In fact, I met children growing up in multilingual homes with permanent accents because their parents did not teach them in the right way.

On the other hand, another point which might sound like it contradicts some of what I said above, if you live in a country, favor the other languages. Why? Because all the children’s friends, school and TV will give them immersion. To be bilingual children your children need your help with the non local language. If you are not worried about your child’s linguistic development, become worried. Quite your job. Stay at home with your child and work with them. Better than saving for an Ivy league school, is teach and love them when they are young. This goes for fathers and mothers. What would you, yourself rather be a polyglot with multiply passports and experience with many cultures or have a piece of paper that says you have a degree? If I had to choose I would choose the former. However, the irony is if your child is a polyglot then they will have a better chance in getting into a top school. So stay at home if you can and have your kids love languages.

Does this sound like radical advice? It is not. I do not have a cushy life. However, I hope to raise happy children. What is more important to you, your important career and money or your children?

Bilingual education story four

A couple of my neighbors are rich. One is a Lawyer and one is a Doctor. They have both asked me should I teach their children who are around two years old English. I said yes, right now, start today. Get a private tutor, it does not have to be me. Or put them in a class with native speakers. There are English schools for the young. There is an English church in town and an English story time at the American bookstore and many other opportunities for the kids to have immersion even without spending money. Get involved in your child’s language learning. They said, ah they will learn it in high school, and they took a vacation (the third that year) instead or investing in their child. Again, I think this is very selfish.

Bilingual education story five

I was teaching a bilingual native speaker in English and Polish. The girl was ten years old and lived in the USA until she was eight. However, since moving to Poland she was lagging behind in her English language development. This was because since she moved to Poland and attended school her parents and friends spoke only in the Polish language.

Her mother was determined that the way I teach her daughter was with grammar drills. This is because this is the way she learned English as a none native speaker. Her mother wanted this naturally bilingual fluent native speaking child to spend my lessons with her doing a lot of book work. Book work meant learning grammar forms and pen and paper, rather than conversation. For example, practicing the present perfect tense or the difference between passive verse active speech and English grammatical constructions.

The child so disliked languages learning she would not do her homework and complained all the time, and then said she did not like English. This is the wrong way to teach a native speaker bilingual child. A child like that needs to learn vocabulary naturally and just practice and enjoy the language. Read books at her level and have fun with the language. She should read books like Sweet valley high and Nancy Drew or movies like Princess Diaries or learn about animals and the world in English. She should not be punished with boring grammar and book work, while in the presence of a native speaker. These grammar books were made for non-native speakers to learn a language as an adult. A bilingual child’s brain functions totally different. Eventually I taught her my way. That is, lots of natural conversation and just get her using and enjoying being bilingual, watching films using the Internet in English and talking about it during the lessons as well as some vocabulary work. Her mother was from the old school and did not like it and wanted her to return to grammar books. I eventually gracefully gave up as I did not need the stress.

What can we learn from these bilingualism failures above

I think the lessons from the above stories are as follows:

• Bilingual children should learn both languages simultaneously, with equal development with both languages. Do not worry about measuring their linguistic development with their peers because they are special bilingual children.
• Do not assume a child will become perfectly bilingual naturally just because one or two parents speak a language. You need to be active and not passive in the teaching process.
• Put your child’s development before you career and lifestyle and education in school. You, and not your school or any experts are responsible for your child’s development.
• Do not teach bilingual children in methods made for non-native speakers. Make it fun not work.

Bilingual experts

In my opinion ‘experts’ are often full of ideas and ego. Therefore, they lose their objectively. In the past psychologist were recommending the approach mentioned above, that is teaching a child one language at a time. They were wrong for many reasons.
Children have a window to learn languages in a native way. Once this door is closed it is closed forever. Even if you are fluent in a second language as an adult you will store the information in a different area of the brain and it only mimics real fluency.
Children that learn two or more languages as a child’s brain develops a more flexible structure than non-bilingual children. In fact, these children have a greater protection against senility in older life and mental decline. They are also in general just smarter. How do I know this? Modern studies on the brain confirm this.
A child might initially develop linguistically slower learning multiply languages at once, but this challenges their brain and they develop compensatory strategies for learning a language. Therefore, by the age of ten they are equal or greater in both languages.

My parents did not make my trilingual for this reason. They were advises by experts to only teach English. The experts were wrong. While the experts are trying to give a definition to the word bilingual you and be focusing on teaching your child Spanish or another target language.

Raising child with a bilingual education

How to give your child a bilingual education even if you are not multilingual.
With all children with love and patience. They are only children.I do not believe in the hard way, at least not for the first twenty-five years. From zero to eight is when IQ is determined in a child as the child’s brain prunes unstimulated connections. From eight to eighteen a child’s emotional stability is determined. If you mess it up during these two phases they will spend the next twenty years of their life trying to recover. Therefore, with love and patience try to be good to them.

The first thing to remember is, they are only children. So try not to be goal oriented when working with them. Simply be there and spend time with them and have fun with them.

Concrete ways to raise a bilingual child
That being said here are some concrete ways to raise a child to be bilingual is you do not speak a two languages yourself.

Bilingualism-a bilingual education for children is fun

• YouTube is in my opinion the best resource. It has short clips with native speakers which are made for kids.I use YouTube as a create source of multilingual sounds for them to digest. Kids get addicted to this early and can watch three or more hours a day starting at about age one. Next move to kids movies in your target language. Children love to watch the same thing over and over again.
• I also love books. Reading every night from age 3 months or earlier, in different languages. Even if you are not a native in the language, reading to them with an accent is better than nothing, just my opinion. I think some linguists will cringe at this.
• Enroll them in a bilingual day care. Or if your target language is Spanish for example, a Spanish day care even if you live in the USA. If they have friends that speak the target language bilingualism will be more natural.
• Perhaps this is my best advice. Hire a native speaking tutor. Sell your car if you can not afford it. There is nothing more important then loving your child. Use local classified ads that exist in every city. There are always students from other countries that will tutor your child at ten dollars or less. If you spent thirty dollars a week on your child your child would be bilingual for life. If you live in the USA are you telling me you can not afford thirty dollars a week? I live in Poland and I live on only a few hundred dollars a month. Stop making excuses and start investing in your child while they are young, rather than saving for that big high in the sky Ivy league education that in my opinion is not worthy as much as enriched cognitive function of your child’s brain while it is still flexible.

Use your imagination. If you are proactive. Be positive and relaxed about it. Although I make a strong argument that you should make introduce bilingualism to your child, there are no shoulds in life. But why not introduce bilingualism into your child’s life and enrich it.

Here is a series of posts I wrote on bilingualism .  Here another site worthy of consideration on bilingual education.

You are smarter than you think. Look in your town and with multimedia resources to teach your child more than one language. If you have a desire, you can have a bilingual child and it will enrich their lives.

I think Rosetta stone is a good program for some and might even recommend it. But it did not work for me.
My experience with Rosetta stone Polish was as follows.  I bought it off their website a a few years ago.  I was really fired up about learning Polish.   In fact, I had the intention of visiting/moving to Poland so cost of was an issue.

For the first three weeks I worked really hard with Rosetta Stone. However, I became very confused. Why? When I asked my Polish friends they all said Rosetta Stone was a very ‘głupi’ (that means stupid in Polish) program.  I asked why and what was going on.

Polish cases not taught properly

They explained the program was written by English native speakers for the English language.   It gave no respect to Polish noun cases.  This is what the Polish language is all about.  Just like Russian or Ukrainian.  In the first lesson, there are three Polish cases with no explanation.  This is crazy. The result confusion.  I had to learn Polish grammar on my own and years latter Rosetta Stone made some sense, after I already learn to speak Polish.

Pictures in Rosetta Stone are unclear

Further, the pictures are unclear as to the meaning.  A lot of mental energy and pain goes into trying to figure out what the picture is about. This same energy could go into learning the word itself, rather than just what the picture is about.

Customer service turned to Stone

A few years ago I thought Rosetta Stone customer service was great. When I was purchasing the product, there was no push, the people answered all my questions honestly, they even admitted the weakness.  I was impressed and decided to try it.  When I called a few years latter just to see if the level of customer service was the same, it was another team.  The sales agent must have been on commission as he was pushy, uninformed, rude and really turned me off.  I asked him not about Polish but Russian this time, he said it teaches grammar well.  This is not true, not for Polish nor Russian or almost any other European language.

Is Rosetta bad?

Not at all.  I think the idea was great.  I love the idea and the effort they put into creating it.  However, for me personally it taught me little, it wasted my time (money was not a factor). Time is the most important thing, not the money.  It put me back six months, me messing around with their program and eventually coming to the realization I was not really learning anything.  I guess I did not want to believe it at first as their product looks so tempting. I think Rosetta is trying to improve in many ways but the core program has issues with the method.  I personally would not use it to learn any language but English. But its not all bad.  It looks nice, the photos are nice, they use native speakers.  So its not all bad, but Rosetta Stone Polish is just not for me personally.

Alternatives to Rosetta Stone Polish

You can read about these LearnFast Polish flashcards here -> Flash cards