„Mówisz po polsku?” If you still cannot speak Polish and are interested in this colourful Slavic 
language, this article might be just for you. This time the E@I team in cooperation with other international partner organisations brings you polski.info – an e-learning platform that will cheer all the polyglots around the world up. Out of curiosity, did you know that Polish is the second most spoken Slavic language in the world? No? Read through this article and you might discover some other interesting facts.
When compared to Slovak, the Polish language might seem a bit more “hard-sounding”, yet there are plenty of similarities regarding the vocabulary. Therefore, the two peoples usually manage to understand each other quite well. However, there are plenty of words that might be “false friends” – they seem familiar, but have totally different meanings in the two languages. For instance, if a Pole said to a Slovak that he feels like having a “pyszna babka”, Slovak would be terrified that he feels like having fun with “a proud grandma”, whilst the Pole would only want to enjoy “a tasty mud-pie”. The same might happen if a Slovak and a Pole were walking along a street and a Slovak would see some candy on the ground and would exclaim “look ‘cukrík’ on the ground!” – meaning that there is a piece of candy. The Pole would be stressed, as he would be expecting “a diabetic” which is “cukrzyk” in his language. Mere pronunciation of Polish words seem like a tongue twister for Slovaks – try to pronounce the following, common word (meaning a fifty-cent coin) “pięćdziesięciogroszówka”. How much fun can one experience while learning a language, right?
It will be soon possible to acquire the Polish language for free thanks to the online platform polski.info we are currently working on. The platform will be available in 9 languages (Polish, Czech, English, German, Russian, Lithuanian, Slovak, Slovene and Ukrainian). It was in 2002 when we started using the internet for education by creating an online course for the world’s easiest language – Esperanto. Since then we have made it possible to learn Russian, Slovak, Czech and German on the go and for free, using only your smartphone. This interactive e-learning platform allowing you to learn the basics of Polish is the 1st one providing free online course of Polish in Slovakia.
The platform is designated especially for foreigners, who would like to start speaking Polish and broaden their horizons about Poland – a country imbued with rich European history and culture. Basic information on Polish daily life, traditions and colloquial expressions will be built into the language courses. That will enable you to not only learn to communicate in Polish, but also to better understand Polish people and their lives, or even increase your chances in the labor market.
What will you find here?
- Online Polish language courses in levels A1 and A2 (including an introductory phonetic lesson at the beginning of A1)
- Polish language grammar guide
- Basic dictionary with recordings of the words’ pronunciation
- Communication and social network tools
Polski.info is being developed thanks to support of the Erasmus+ programme. You can be looking forward to multimedia content with interactive and engaging exercises, reading materials or audio and video tools. Discussion forums will allow for real-time communication and practice. Users will be able to communicate with each other and practice the language with other users.
“Do widzenia”!
Michal Grodza