Teaching Polish, I noticed that the success in learning frequently does not depend on the student's intellectual potential, or even his/her diligence. What seems to be decisive is the student’s attitude and level of motivation. Analysing this problem, I attempted to identify a few issues which, if we give them some thought, may prove to be helpful to all who want to learn how to speak Polish.

Firstly, the cultural disproportion

What is a serious problem is the atmosphere which has been created around the Polish language. And it is not only foreigners who are responsible for creating it. Frequently, Poles themselves believe that their mother tongue is some kind of linguistic curiosity, and that foreigners who learn it should be admired as, if I may say so, Delta Force unit commandos. I remember one client telling me about a taxi driver who, during the trip from the airport, was amazed at how well she spoke Polish, and loudly expressed his doubts saying that maybe it was not worth learning or that she might have had Polish roots. Unfortunately, that was not an isolated case. Such an attitude is a consequence of the cultural disproportion which is still present in the consciousness of Poles and foreigners. Whether we like it or not, people and countries are divided into those which are more and those which are less important. Almost everyone all over the world knows who the president of the USA is, but, I am afraid, there are much fewer people who are interested in the surname of the president of Poland. The countries which are perceived as worse exert much less pressure on the global or European culture. A Pole has to learn foreign languages, a German should, whereas an Englishman does not have to at all! We are constructed in such a way that we work more efficiently under pressure. The statistical Pole feels that he/she has no choice but to learn one or more foreign languages in order to be successful, and such a person is haunted by a certain feeling of guilt if he/she does not do that. I do not believe that the same is the case for, e.g., an American. Does it mean that Poles have a bigger talent for languages? Obviously not. Once in Europe, all well-educated people spoke Latin, then French, and they are, by no means, languages similar to English, which, today, is considered to be an example of an easy language. For medieval elites, the language of, it has to be emphasised, likeable inhabitants of the green islands located on the fringes of Europe was neither easy, nor appealing. To sum up, what we call the level of language difficulty is often, to a significant extent, a psychological concept, and, as such, to a significant extent depends of the attitude of learners of a given language. No wonder that in view of the negative attitude of Poles themselves and under the pressure of the cultural disproportion foreigners believe in stereotypes more and more. But if someone wants to raise the level of motivation, he/she needs to modify his/her attitude.

Secondly, the method

If we want to learn anything, we need a method. English language methodology is a great business, that is why it has been developing dynamically for years. Unfortunately, Polish language methodology is a neglected area. There is a lager body of grammatical theory developed at universities. This knowledge, however, has one fundamental fault - its connection with practice is vague and complicated. If one wants to master Polish, they have to find a school or a teacher who will offer them an effective method. It will not be easy, but without a method learning a foreign language, not only Polish, is impossible. Attending a course is not enough. It has to be a really good course. And, unfortunately, not every smiling and nice teacher is a good teacher. It is not true that Polish is not logical, that it is impossible to understand the rules which govern it, or that Polish pronunciation is unpronounceable. These and many other myths result from work of incompetent teachers. Teachers who work on the basis of an ineffective method, or, who, unfortunately, is also often the case, do not try to use any method at all.

Thirdly, age and time

The other enemies of a learner of Polish as a foreign language are also age and time. These two factor may seriously impede learning the language. It is not just that someone is too old or is too busy. Such an oversimplification would be unfair and untrue. What I am talking about is awareness of certain problems which may help develop a positive attitude constituting the foundation of each effective learning strategy. Foreigners who learn Polish are usually adults, sometimes students, but in the majority of cases people who are busy working. For such people, Polish may be the second or, sometimes, event the third foreign language. The problem is, however, that they leant their first foreign languages as early as at school, that is when their brains were more willing to learn, and, what is more important, when their time was devoted to learning. In the western culture, we spend childhood and teenage years learning. Later, when we start professional life, we constantly acquire knowledge, but rather improve our skills than learn, because learning ceases to be our basic activity. What can be done is such a situation then? First of all, let’s not put the whole blame on the poor Polish language. English may be slightly easier indeed, but we used to learn it in incomparably more favourable conditions. Now, the learning process will be more difficult not because the language is harder, but because we have to switch on the learning mode in our brain again and have to organise time for learning ourselves. In the past, everything was in favour of learning. Now, everything will distract us, and nobody else but us can overcome this resistance. That is why, first of all, we need to give ourselves some time and create conditions for effective learning. What has to be the priority of our learning strategy is regularity. Therefore, it is not worth deceiving ourselves that since we have a lot of duties, we cannot have many lessons with the teacher. On the contrary, if you are busy find a teacher, and have as many lessons and as frequently as possible. It will help you get organised. It is hard to believe that after a day full of duties, one may still feel like learning Polish. With a teacher, it will be easier for you to get motivated. And let’s not forget about patience. Human mind is like a long-distance runner. It is warming up slowly, but once it has warmed up, it discovers an incredible potential in itself.

Fourthly, do not be surprised too much

Over the years of work with students, I have also noticed that learners of Polish as a foreign language frequently find it difficult to accept the fact that a foreign language is a foreign language to them. This manifest itself by constant astonishment which is virtually close to indignation: “How come, in English and German we say it differently!” “No, you can’t do it like that!” Polish, like any other foreign language, differs significantly from the mother tongues of people who learn it. We have to accept this distinctness. If we are surprised or even shocked by every difference, it may turn out that we will quickly get discouraged, because of the feeling that we stay outside of the language, that we do not understand its internal logic. Meeting something different is often difficult, but is usually very beneficial. There are tourist who in the most remote parts of the world look for what they can find in their country. However, there are also such tourist who are fascinated by discovering the richness and diversity of the world. Learning a language has a lot in common with travelling.

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