Hi! My name is Luca from LucaLampariello.com
and I'm here in Cracow with Justyna from Easy Polish.
Hi Justyna. Hello.
So what are the main reasons why foreigners want to learn Polish?
Well, I think that family is a very common motivation.
There are many people who have some Polish roots for example.
Or they come from a family of Poles who moved abroad
and they want to be able to understand the language of their parents.
Or when they visit their family here, they want to be able to communicate.
That's a common reason.
Another common reason is having a Polish girlfriend/boyfriend.
Even if they live somewhere abroad
it comes in handy to know your partner's language in a mixed relationship
eg. in order to be able to meet each other's parents and talk with them.
So that's another common reason.
And then... a lot of people come here
especially from the East
for work.
Or sometimes foreigners
simply move to the cities like Cracow.
And I think that when you live somewhere it's just natural to want to
learn the language that the people all around you use
in order to be able to communicate with them.
I agree completely.
And you know what?
I was...
That happened some 3 days ago.
I went to a store and wanted to buy a newspaper.
Gazeta Wyborcza.
And there was this guy there, you know.
And I don't know why
but I like to interact with people in English when I'm in a store.
Even though I speak Polish.
And then, this was a bit strange to him because...
"Hmm... this guy speaks English but he wants to read Gazeta Wyborcza".
So he spontaneously asked:
"But are you able to...?"
He asked me in English:
"Can you read this?"
"Can you read Gazeta Wyborcza?"
And I simply decided to respond in Polish because otherwise
that would have been somewhat strange.
And when I started speaking Polish
he changed completely.
And at first he was a bit harsh.
And then:
"But you speak Polish so well!"
And you know, that was great because
it's not only...
This is clearly just one example of the way people react.
But I think that even a couple of words can make a difference.
When you speak the local language
people open up.
At once. Immediately, you know.
But I think that it also has to do with the fact
that Polish is not necessarily a popular language
and that's why Polish people really appreciate it a lot
when someone is learning Polish.
And when they can say a couple of words in Polish.
For us it's just so incredible
that someone has made this effort and speaks to us in Polish.
Polish people say – they always say – that...
Not all Poles but I think that they have this impression
that Polish is the most difficult language in the world.
They always say that, right?
If you speak Polish, they go:
"But why?" You know?
"But why? How come?" Because they are curious.
"How did you break this code?"
Exactly.
Look, it so happens that like Easy Polish
and I wanted to ask what it is that other people appreciate in your videos.
And what they can learn in general?
I think that what people can learn from our videos is more than anything
the way Polish people really talk with each other in daily life situations
where the conversation has not been planned beforehand,
where everything is said in a very spontaneous way.
And I think that's also what people appreciate the most about your videos.
Because, obviously, there are many language learning resources
that have been made according to some kind of a scenario.
Even when you watch a Polish movie that shows more or less real life situations
the conversations there have been carefully thought through.
And our videos show spontaneous conversations.
We simply talk to the people on the streets.
They answer as if they were talking to their acquaintances, friends or family.
And this is what everyone needs to learn
if they want to speak a foreign language well.
How to understand people who simply speak in a natural manner.
Sometimes there are some repetitions.
Sometimes you get to hear words that you don't use in the written language
and you have to pick them up.
And I think that this is exactly the main added value
in all the Easy Languages – that we go outside and show
what the everyday language really sounds like.
But there are of course advantages and disadvantages.
With spontaneous conversations people don't know what's going on.
And that's why they speak in such a normal, spontaneous way.
But it also means that they speak somewhat fast, let's say.
Do you think that someone who doesn't say a single word in Polish
can still make use of these videos?
Because for example some two or three years ago
I was watching the Easy Greek videos and it was a bit too complicated to me.
So, what would you advise to someone who wants to learn Polish
and use your videos?
I think that first of all you shouldn't get discouraged.
There are no contraindications to watch our videos
even if you're just starting with Polish
because all of our videos have subtitles in English
so you'll be more or less able to understand what's going on
and at the same time you'll start getting used to the sounds.
You'll get used to what the language sounds like.
You'll get used to the way people talk.
You just cannot expect that after watching all of our videos
you'll start speaking Polish right away.
It won't work this way if you're starting from scratch.
But it certainly is some kind of a first experience,
the first encounter with the language.
We also try very hard to make sure our videos are
well... language learning resources
but also that they are fun.
We try to ask interesting questions.
So that people simply
have fun when watching them.
Janusz, the founder [of Easy Languages], uses the term "edutainment" for this.
Meaning we're trying to smuggle the language through entertainment.
That's why we hope that even when you're just watching
because you're too tired to jot down all the new words
that you'll still enjoy hearing some interesting questions
or watching some funny scenes in our videos.
And that you'll have fun with this
because, as we know, when we have fun and enjoy something
then we go back to it more readily.
And we try hard to make sure Easy Languages are perceived that way.
Yes, I think that learning has to be fun in general, you know.
In my opinion we have unlearned how to have fun with languages.
And that's why I think that when I saw Easy German
for the first time, maybe 3... I don't know anymore... 7 years ago?
A long time ago!
7 years ago sounds plausible.
And I said to myself...
I remember very well saying to myself:
"Damn, this is cool!" You know?
Because you can have fun and see how people react.
And the topics are varied and interesting.
I think this is really cool.
But for all those for whom the speed of speech is an issue,
because it's a feedback we get very often
that it is indeed a bit too fast,
for all those we have our Super Easy Polish series
which also exists for other languages.
We have less videos there but we're working slowly towards developing it.
And in those videos we try to show things meant for real beginners.
We make those videos completely on our own and in them
show some new vocabulary or some new grammar points.
We try to...
Verbs of movement, perhaps?
Yes, verbs, numbers.
Recently we had body parts.
Vocabulary, to put it simply.
And in those videos we speak
slowly,
clearly,
we make long pauses
so that you can repeat things inbetween.
So I think that everyone can find something of interest.
If someone wants to watch the Easy Polish episodes
because they have just started learning Polish
what would you recommend?
Watching it on a regular basis, every day, how many times etc?
Watching the videos multiple times is a feedback
that we often get from our viewers.
That that's what they do and it helps them a lot.
They watch a video once and then...
First they try to watch the video without looking at the subtitles
to see if they can understand.
Then they watch the second time with the subtitles on.
And then the third time looking at the English translation.
Then they take notes.
I know that you made a video about how to
use the videos on the Easy Languages channel.
You have a video like that.
Have you seen it? Cool. Yes, I've seen it and...
when someone asks me how to use our videos, very often
I just sent them the link to that video.
Great!
Justyna, I'm very curious
since I've been watching Easy Polish for a long time now
and I'd like to know how it all actually started.
Well, Easy Polish is part of a much bigger project called
Easy Languages where teams from different countries
go out on the streets and ask various questions like we do
and it's a cool way to learn languages because we get to hear
how people use their languages in their everyday lives.
How OUR team in particular became part of this project is because
my former school is a member of an organization
called The Global Experience.
And my school had a successful collaboration
with the German counterpart of the Global Experience which was
managed by Karina and Janusz, the founders of Easy Languages.
And through trial and error
over the course of years Karina and Janusz developed
the Easy German format which turned out to be a success.
That the videos always have subitles,
that we talk to people,
that it is all very natural.
Easy German really stated to thrive.
And then we got an offer
to make Easy Polish
since we had already been collaborating with each other
for a long, long time.
And it was clear to us that it was a great project
and that we wanted to participate in it.
And that's what we do until now.
And then the project started growing
more and more and now we have
really a lot of teams who do what we do in various languages.
And we work under the common label Easy Languages.
And I'm very glad. Either way, I wanted to say
that the Easy Languages channel is really cool because
you can see how people actually speak on the streets.
And I think that there aren't so many resources out there
where you can simply see how people speak on the streets.
I'm curious
because it all looks very pretty and easy
but I can imagine that
sometimes things get, you know, a bit complicated.
For example when you approach people with a microphone.
How do they react?
Well, people react in many different ways.
Obviously what you can't see in our videos
is how many people actually say "no" to us on the streets.
And in the final episode we only get to see the people who
were eager to talk to us,
who were nice and friendly.
But when we approach people, usually 9 out of 10 people say:
"No, I'd rather not to, I'm afraid of the camera".
And that's OK.
For all of us who make Easy Languages
the most important thing is to talk only to the people
who really enjoy talking to us,
who feel comfortable.
And with time I guess you get used to it
that you simply have to keep on walking and asking people.
9 people will say "no", the 10th person will say "yes".
You're gonna have a nice, friendly chat.
And at the end of the day we always think about those nice
and friendly people who answered our questions.
And what is generally difficult about Polish for foreigners?
Syntax? Verbs? Pronunciation?
Prefixes?
I think it's very difficult to say what is GENERALLY difficult to foreigners
because different things are difficult for different people.
Obviously for someone who speaks another Slavic language
learning Polish will be a completely different experience
than to someone who uses only English on a daily basis
and has never learned another foreign language before.
What we can often observe are problems with pronunciation.
In Polish we have many words where changing just one sound
changes the meaning completely.
A common example
are the words "byłem" and "biłem".
"Biłem" means
"I had a fight with someone and I hit them",
whereas "byłem" is the first verb that we learn
"to be somewhere".
There are some problems with our infamous case system.
There are 7 cases.
And, you like it not, you have to learn them.
I can see how a lot of people when constructing a sentence
try to choose the right ending in the back of their head.
They say one ending, then they try another one to see if it sounds better.
And one more thing that can cause some trouble,
especially at the beginning,
if the fact that Polish is a rather precise language.
And very often we have a couple of words
for something that in English can be described with just one
and those Polish words have completely different meanings.
And at the beginning you just have to learn
a great deal of vocabulary.
But with time I think that this is rather an advantage
because we can express ourselves very precisely
and say exactly what we mean.
And I think that regardless of the many myths
surrounding the difficulty of Polish
Polish CAN be easy.
And there are also many things – like Easy Polish –
many things that make Polish
an easy language to learn.
For example, the rules of syntax
are not that strict in Polish.
Also, we have only 3 tenses
and not six or twelve.
Or God knows how many.
We don't have to decide if we should use present perfect, simple or continuous.
If it's present, then it's just present.
There isn't much regional variation
when it comes to Polish.
Basically, once you learn Polish you'll be able to communicate with anyone.
And it's true, because when I was in Poland for the first time
I was surprised that everyone speaks the same way.
For example in Cracow... I don't know, in Katowice, in Warsaw.
And the truth is that I was surprised
because in Italy, for example in Rome, in Tuscany
people from different regions speak in a different manner.
Each and every one of us has their regional accent in Italy.
This is the end of our video.
Unfortunately, because it was very interesing.
Thank you very much.
Thank you for having us.
We have made another video for the Easy Polish channel.
We asked people on the streets of Cracow
why in their opinion it is worth learning Polish.
So if you're considering learning this language
we recommend you watch that video.
Maybe it will encourage you.
You can find the link to that video in the description below.
Watch it.
We invite you to watch it.
Bye bye!
Take care. Bye!
I have to coordinate everything.
Look at the camera, look at you.
Microphone.
Speak Polish.
Speak Polish correctly
which is problematic.
Okay then...
But you're doing great!
Will found?
Will find.
Miss Justyna, Miss Justyna.
OK, now we're gonna address each other like this for the rest of our lives.