clarabelle: Hello Everyone!

Hi! I'm Clair. I'm from Scotland but I have been living in Poland for about a year and a half now. I just stumbled across this forum the other day! I live in Lubuskie and I would also love to meet people in my area! My polish is dreadful and I haven't had any success in finding a teacher so if you know anyone who gives polish lessons near me I would be eternally grateful!

So anyway hello again! Looking forward to chatting to you all!

welcome and enjoy the forum

welcome clarabelle.... have fun and good luck :)

Welcome clarabelle.

Hello clarabelle! Enjoy PF :)

HI Clarabelle - glad to have you aboard !

oh hello everyone! Thank you!

Welcome clarabelle.

clarabelle,

Learning Polish may be a bit tough, but take it one day at a time and learn the phrases you need. Pronunciation will be the key as Poles will know you are a foreigner as soon as you speak. My cousins in Poland think I speak funny Polish with an American accent. But that's ok. By the way a number of Scots immigrated to Poland several hundred years ago to escape suppression in Scotland, and town names like Skoty are examples of these early immigrants.

Do you live in Ośno Lubuskie, Trzemeszno Lubuskie or Laski Lubuskie? all on the west side of Poland. Nowhere near any of my relatives.

Well 18 months on I think its pretty safe to say that I am finding it difficult! I can communicate in shops etc but that is about it! Basically I know a lot of vocabulary but I don't feel confident about my pronunciation at all and my grammar...well I would says its awful but in fact I can hardly string a sentence together so I really think I need someone to help me to be able to progress at a reasonable rate!

I live in the Lubuskie Voivoidship. The town I live in is called Swiebodzin and unless I am much mistaken I am the only non polish person here.

Welcome, clarabelle. Enjoy.

Enjoy yourself. I supect you get a lot of "me" time. Perhaps try the translation forum to see if there are any tutors.

Welcome to the Forum. You might want to look at Univ of Pittsburgh First Year Polish course: URL which has a pretty good course.

How did a Scotish lass wind up in the wilds of rural Poland?

Oh thanks for the tip F15guy. I will take a good look at that site.

And how did I end up here? I am not even all that sure! Finished uni, wanted to travel a bit more. Applied for a bunch of teaching jobs all over Europe. I took this one planning to stay a year or two then go and see somewhere else. However I've just extended my contract for a third year here. Despite being a little isolated sometimes I really love my job here . I had always planned to go back to the UK eventually and teach there...the idea is slowly losing its appeal though! Who knows what will happen!

Welcome, Clair - enjoy :)

. [/quote]


Welcome lady.....i am a Brit that has been living here for about two years , my Polish is not good either , but somehow i manage to be a truck driver here....Perhaps we Uk refugees in Poland ought to form some kind of club to mutually support each other , or at least have a laugh at our attempts to learn the Language....I think i am the only Brit in my region too.....I am at the other side of Polska...in Zachodniopomorskie....

how about having exchange lessons with a Polish person who wants to learn English? Small towns can be isolating at times but since you decided to stay longer, it cannot be that bad. My sister lives in Sulechow and her husband speaks some English.

Thanks for the suggestion miranda. Unfortunately I have tried that way too with no success. I actually found a person to do a sort of tandem learning thing with here. She wanted help with grammar of all things so I went along and did my part and when it came to her turn she obviously had no idea what to teach me although I gave her a vague idea of the kind of things I wanted to start off with. I thought it was better than nothing so I decided to continue but I think she hadn't appreciated that she might have to put some effort into it and told me she didn;t really have the time to prepare things so called it off. I put an ad in the supermarket saying I would either pay or exchange lessons but I didn't get any responces. Then I found a retired school teacher who agreed to give me lessons and then became seriously ill just afterwards so I haven't had much luck!

And about the town...yes sometimes I feel a little isolated but to be honest I do really like it here. I would never say its bad or I am miserable or anything! Unfortunately most of the people I have met in my age group are married with children and have limited time. I think a lot of people move away from here to study and don't come back!

well, good luck. I used to know a lot of people such as yourself (who went to Poland and were working as teachers) and I admire them for sticking around. I am also aware of the fact that it could be challanging at times, which doesn't mean bad.

I wish you luck with finding a good Polish teacher. So is Sulechow not too far from Swiebodzin then, or I mixed the regions up?

No Sulechow is not far from here at all! maybe 30km? Maybe even less than that.

And thank you very much for your good wishes. It is appreciated!

Clarabelle - you may wind up like my nephew. He took three years of Japanese in university for his foreign language requirement. Went to Japan for one year to assist Japanese English teacher in a middle school. Wanted to improve his Japanese.

Has been there now over 12 years, married to a Japanese girl, has the most beautiful daughter and with his wife just purchased a most outrageously priced house in a suburb of Tokyo. What he just paid $800,000 for sells in my neighborhood for about $180,000 or less.

It just proves the three rules of real estate:

1. Location

2. Location

3. Location.

isn't Achmed's rule?? lol

Yeah F15guy...I probably will end up just like him! Oh dear! I am also toying with buying a flat here. Unfortunately I don't have anything like $800,000 to spend!

Hey,dont worry about that,all my Polish mates tell me us Scots tend to have the best Polsih accent/grasp of pronuntiation :)

I would hope something in Świebodzin would cost a very small fraction of a house in a Tokyo suburb, maybe more like 10% to 15%.

Best solution to learning Polish maybe a steady Polish boy friend.

B. Traven, the author of The Treasure of The Sierra Madre, is supposed to have been born there. Any museum or marking of his birth place?



That's because you are raised to have a natural ability to pronounce: RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR.

Maybe there is hope for me yet then...however every time I try to say something Polish in class it seems to inspire fits of giggles!




He is? Thats news to me! There is a small museum in the city hall which I haven't actually been to. There might be something in there. I shall ask my boss about it. He is quite into local history and I am sure he knows about it if there is something!



Well I am open to offers!

I've been thinking...sure, boyfriend would be the best;))but I think of sth else, maybe try students from any "liceum" in your town, let's say, last year, just before "matura", but of course with some linguistic knowledge or hobbies, for example wanting to study Polish at the Universiy or sth like that...I guess teaching Polish may be even more difficult for some Poles than learning English...
Anyway, good luck! If I think of any other idea I'll let u know.

I have no polish language skill either so we ar both going to need to take the same class. The will for knowledge is never an understatement

Clarabelle, I am from Belfast, something similar to your accent, I found a great way to learn Polish, have you heard of Rosetta Stone dot com. I know the software can be expensive around one hundred pounds however I think that it would help you big time.

I have it and I am coming on great, well I do also have help from my wife, she is Polish, but saying that the Rosetta Stone software is the best I have seen.

Oh Welcome to Polish Forums and I shall be moving to Poland shortly too, Near to Opole, don;t think there are many UK nationals in this area yet, I haven't met any anyway... Goodluck

I am curious to your move reasoning Is it employment? This software sounds interesting thank you also for this information.