Signing up for a language course at Varia is the first milestone to your success. What else can you do to reach the finish line of your Polish language education? Become your own coach! Here is how!

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 connects the motion and the vocabulary word and recalls it easier.

Be your own teacher!

Do you know who learns the fastest? A teacher. So, when you are learning a new thing, try to also explain the skill to others. If you are mastering a conjugation, try to teach it to your family members. Then you will remember it yourself.

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. If you feel tired after the lesson, it is a good sign. You will soon see the results.

Start learning with a purpose in mind. Don’t just automatically repat the material. Do you know who is pictured on a 20 złotych bill? You use that bill all the time, you have seen it countless times, yet you do not remember what it really looks like. You look at the bill automatically without any deeper analyses. So, repeat the materials from your lesson, but use some creative methods. Do not just look over and over again at the table with the noun conjugation endings. Create something to help you remember them – make up funny sentences, draw pictures, use emoticons. The options are endless – use thought maps, colors, shapes. Have your own 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.

The author – Justyna Szybińska