Learn our techniques on how to learn Polish on your own at home!

Signing up for a language course at Varia is a milestone on your way to mastering Polish, but it’s only 60% of success. Surely you are wondering, then, where to find that 40%? Look in the mirror – it’s you and your work that can secure your place on the podium of the best students.

How to accomplish this? Let’s get down to specifics.

Do it yourself!

Right away put your knowledge to the test. When you are learning new verbs, practice them while doing the activity. If you are learning the word “mix”, you can repeat “I am mixing the soup” and pretend that you are mixing the soup. Or even better, mix your soup. Our brain then not only remembers the word and its meaning, but also connects it to the movement of your body – it has a picture of this activity, so it is much easier to remember such a word.

Be your own teacher!

Do you know who learns the fastest? A teacher. Yes, you read that right. Why is this the case? Because the teacher must be as focused as possible, must analyze the material from many different perspectives – so that he is not surprised by any question from his students. If you are learning a new thing, for example, a new case, try to explain it to close people – husband, wife, friend, mother. Be a teacher for them. Believe, after such a session nothing will get out of your head!

Be your own examiner!  Test yourself!

Are you stressed before a test? Preparing the tests may help you handle the anxiety, but it will also allow you to repeat the material and remember it. So change your approach and test yourself!

Why making tests work so well? You have to go through all the materials and critically analyze them. When you intensely think about the correct answer, your brain works harder and focuses on efficient remembering. With every test you make, you have more practice, and the official tests are no longer so scary and stressful.

 Take notes! Just the way you like it!

Why should I take notes when everything is already in the books or online?  You may think – taking notes is so tiring. And that is the point.

We learn faster during the notes taking process, because your brain works extra hard to focus on listening and noting at the same time. This is a good sign! The effects will soon be knocking on your door.

Before I say what the second important thing is, I have a question for you: do you know what’s on a twenty-zloty or ten-zloty bill? Don’t you remember? You are not alone in this! Most of us often see these banknotes, but we are unlikely to be able to tell who or what is on them. Why? Because we look at them in an almost mechanical, automatic way, without any analysis. What does this mean for you – a person learning another language? It is worth repeating the material from the lesson, but not automatically! Be creative! Don’t read for the tenth time the same table with endings for the accusative, the complement, the objective… Analyze everything and create something yourself that will help you
in remembering new information. It can also be a table, it can be something else. Draw, add your examples, add pictures, funny sentences, examples related to your life, personal, emotional! Use mind maps, arrows, colors! Have your unique way of taking notes!

Rent a room in your house to biernik, dopełniacz or tryb rozkazujący! 

Relax! It will only be happening in your imagination! Close your eyes and imagine entering your home. In the kitchen you see Brad Pitt eating brown rice and drinking an orange juice. He is a man. He will help you with the masculine gender. Now you are going to the living room. You see your sister eating a vegan salat. She will be your feminine gender specialist. In your room you see a child drinking a glass of milk and his face is covered with chocolate cake. The child will know everything about the neuter gender. Voila! Now the biernikin singular form is no longer a problem!

Your home – visualize it:

I have just described the mnemonic system, where you visualize an object/information in a very familiar place. It is important for any of the symbols to be connected to your life so they can be easily remembered.

Justyna Szybińska