Polish

Polish Television

Submitted by David Snopek on March 9, 2009 - 9:38am

Last night I spent a couple hours watching Polish television on Onet.tv Platforma.  They have mostly clips on specific themes or topics but a few full shows.  I particularly like the "Podróże" section ("Travels").  There was a full episode of Podróże.tv (a travel channel) about Egypt and another showing a Klub Podróżnika ("Traveler's Club") in Kraków, where a guy was giving a presentation about his time in Kurdystan in Iraq.  Very, very interesting!  You can also find shows/clips on news, weather, cooking, film, music, games, etc..

Until now I've had a lot of trouble finding Polish television online.  A friend of my pointed me to wwiTV.com, where you can watch streaming live television from around the world, but I didn't have much success.  Many of the channels don't work and I just couldn't find a time when anything good is on!  By the time I'm home from work, its really late in Poland and there is mainly "adult programming."  I watched news on the religious channel for a bit, but that was pretty much all.

While I mainly like to listen to audio books, there are people who swear by the tv method of language learning.  Maybe it will help, maybe not.  But it is fun!  And on the occasion I feel like watching television, why not do it in Polish?

YouTube - Happy Birthday Madzia!

Submitted by David Snopek on October 4, 2008 - 11:57am

Shortly after posting my first YouTube video, I was contacted by a Polish guy who wanted to make a video of people all over the world saying "Happy Birthday" to his girlfriend.  He dug that I was an American who could speak Polish, so he asked me to wish her "Happy Birthday" in Polish and I did.  He also corrected some of the Polish from my earlier video (see the comments there), for which I am very greatful!

The video he made is now finished and posted!   While some of it is pretty corny, I think the video on the whole is really cool.  Some people sang, some made signs, some played musical instruments (there's a flute and violin in there) and several different languages are represented (Polish, Czech, Spanish, French, sign language).  I particularly like the guy at the end with balloons taped to his head, singing in French and drinking a beer!

But its really the YouTube community that impressed me.  That all these people, from all over the world, who don't even know each other would put so much effort in to this. Great work guys!

Here it is:

YouTube!

Submitted by David Snopek on September 30, 2008 - 7:04am

Inspired primarily by The Linguist Blogger's YouTube videos where he demonstrates his Spanish and Portuguese abilities, I created a short video on YouTube, where I speak in Polish. I've never put anything on YouTube before and, honestly, in the sea of videos to be found there, I didn't expect anyone to notice it until I linked to it.

However, within an hour of posting it I was getting messages from other users and later comments! YouTube is awesome! I met a bunch of really nice people. So, I think I may post more videos, maybe even do a "video blog" in Polish for the practice.

Anyway, the video follows. Its not terribly interesting, I didn't really plan what I was going to say before I did it. But it at least "proves" that I speak Polish and gives me something to gauge my progress against. I imagine that in a year I'll listen to it and laugh at how bad my Polish used to be. ;-)

Back in the U-S-(S)-A!

Submitted by David Snopek on July 30, 2008 - 7:03am

I just got back on Sunday!  I'm still trying to recover from the jet lag (I wake up completely awake at 3am) and I just came down with a cold.  But I'd rather suffer in the USA than while on my vacation so I'll take what I can get.

Anyway, the trip was brilliant on several levels!

I bought a whole bunch of awesome stuff:

  • A few bottles of Żubrówka (if you buy it in the USA, it doesn't actually contain any bison grass, its signature ingredient).
  • Lots of Harry Potter stuff: All the books and audio books I don't already have, as well as all the DVD's currently released.
  • A post apocalyptic sci-fi book: Apokalipsa według Pana Jana by Robert J. Szmidt.
  • June and July editions of Science Fiction magazine (Robert J. Szmidt was also founder of this magazine).  These are collections of short stories.
  • A CD by Kazik Staszewski.
  • More random assorted magazines and news papers.

Katolicki Uniwersytet Lubelski (KUL)

Submitted by David Snopek on July 1, 2008 - 6:33pm

On Saturday, I'll be traveling to Poland again, for a 3 week stretch.  Like last year, I'll be taking a Polish language course at the Katolicki Uniwersytet Lubelski (Catholic University of Lublin) in Lublin, Poland.  The 9-10 hour plane ride should afford me lots of time to read!

When I took the course last year, I had a really strong grasp on conscious grammar but was rather weak with speaking, understanding and vocabulary.  On the first day they give you a placement test, to see what level you should be at.  It has a written component, which I did really well on, and an "interview-ish" spoken component, which I bombed.  Even so, they placed me in the highest level, bardzo zaadwansowany.

Another Harry Potter bites the dust!

Submitted by David Snopek on June 10, 2008 - 4:56pm

On Friday, while walking home from work, I finished listening to Harry Potter i Więzień Azkabanu (the 3rd Harry Potter book in Polish). This is the first one where I had both the text and the audio. I tried doing a couple of things with this:

  1. Simultaneous reading and listening.
  2. Listening then later reading.
  3. Switching off, doing which ever one I feel like at the time.

#1 turned out to be waaay harder than I thought. I read at a different speed than the actor read the text. I kept wanting to pause the audio so I could catch-up. This turned out to not be very enjoyable for me. #2 worked great, although it was a little boring at reading time. There would sometimes be a word or two that I failed to catch in the listening that the later reading would clarify, but nothing that ever changed my understanding of the text.

Harry Potter i Więzień Azkabanu

Submitted by David Snopek on May 1, 2008 - 7:42pm

My copy of "Harry Potter i Więzień Azkabanu" (the 3rd Harry Potter book in Polish) just arrived today!  Hurray!  And this time, I have got the audio book too.  My copy of the audio for the 2nd book is still in transit somewhere, but I'm done with that one anyway.  Rock.

Polish Update

Submitted by David Snopek on April 11, 2008 - 6:40am

I meant to write about this weeks ago! But it slipped my mind. Anyway, I finished reading the first Harry Potter book. I didn't reach my goal of pages to translate, but that never mattered anyway. I reached page 223 and I was shooting for page 250.

I've already started reading the 2nd book, but the audio book which I ordered from Empik hasn't arrived in the mail yet and I'm worried it may have gotten lost. Usually, I buy all my Polsh books/audio-books from one of the great Polish bookstores in Chicago (Polonia, Quo Vadis), which is how I got the paper book right away. Anyway, for some reason I can't find a local bookstore that has the audiobook for the 2nd one, even though they've got the 1st, 3rd, 4th, etc... So I had to order that from Poland.

Ash Wednesday Update!

Submitted by David Snopek on February 6, 2008 - 10:08pm

I haven't posted in awhile, I apologize! Today is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent, however, I didn't make it to mass because we were hit with a massive blizzard. I walked home from work, partly because the buses stopped running and partly because I'm bad-ass. ;-) It was good exercise.

Here are my projects as of late:

  • Released POE::Component::MessageQueue version 0.1.8! I have to give most of the credit to Paul Driver who really did all the work this release. But its still exciting!

New Year’s Resolutions

Submitted by David Snopek on December 10, 2007 - 8:43am

It might be a little early to think about this, but its already on my mind. At the end of each year, I like to think back on the previous year, about what has happened, what was accomplished, what wasn't accomplished, what was awesome, what wasn't, etc... It helps prevent the years from just sliding away without taking notice.

For most people new year's resolutions are a joke, but I like them. Probably people don't like them because they feel bad when they don't meet their goals and so'd rather not set them. I like setting goals, even if I don't reach them. The attempt is more important.

For 2008:

  • Pay off my debt. This was a resolution last year too! I got close, but still not there.
  • Study Polish for 2 hours a day until I have a language break-through. I'm hoping this will be a 6 month goal, because I plan to study in Lublin again in July.
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