Why learn Polish?
Poland was the largest and most powerful country in Europe for hundreds of years. For centuries, Poland was the guardian of Europe; and peace and justice reigned. Polish civilization evolved away from military conquest early on, and focused its energies on intellectual, artistic, scientific and spiritual development. It is the home of Europe’s oldest constitution and the first non Italian Pope in 500 years. Poland was the home of Copernicus and Chopin and countless other great minds.
Before the Second World War Poland was the center for a high level of capitalist activities. If it was not for the destruction of the Fascist and Communist ideologies, Poland would be the Switzerland of Europe today. Even so, 15 years after the fall of Communism the Poles went from having nothing, to having everything. During World War Two, Winston Churchill said ‘Poland was the only country in Europe that never gave up.’ In the 1980s, in the shadows of a 10 million man Soviet army, Polish workers defied the Communist. This defiance started a domino effect of resistance, and, with time Communism fell. Learning Polish will give you the passport of language to this great culture.
The Polish language is spoken by 40 millions Poles in Poland and another 20 million around the world. It is a Western Slavic language along with Czech and Slovak. Polish is an inflective language similar to Latin (with cases and optional pronouns) with a Slavic vocabulary.
If you make the initial investment of learning this language (which by the way is one of the few Slavic languages with a Western Script), other Slavic languages will be open to you. The Slavic languages are more closely related to each other than any language group. If you know Polish, you will be able to get by in the Czech Republic or Ukraine.
Polish is a beautiful language. The sophisticated grammar which allows for flexible constructions making Polish is especially eloquent in literary expression.
If other Westerners knew how rich and romantic Polish literature is, ‘Cosmo’ and ”Sex and the city’ would lose their appeal. In the rich and romantic language and literature of the Poles is found the romance of the way life should be lived.
“Love enters a man though his eyes, a women through her ears” – Polish proverb
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