We had relatives from Poland over at the weekend. It was fun (if exhausting!) having tiny children around the house again. Dominik, on the left, is almost two and Zuzia almost six. The children and I communicated well enough through sign language and making appropariate sounds when nobody had a clue what the other was saying but the most embarrassing thing for me was that Dominik could speak better English than I could Polish! My Polish pretty much begins and ends with Dzien dobri – good morning. Dominik could say good morning, good night, ‘hello’ ‘auntie’ ‘uncle’ as well as using all our names. As for Zuzia – what a star! She knew all the basics including her numbers and colours. I know children are supposed to pick up languages easily but this was really impressive.
I had bought a Polish phrase book but it didn’t help much. There were so many rules of pronunciation I felt overwhelmed. The only thing for it is to have lessons before Dominik and Zuzia visit again. I might be able to count to ten in Polish while Dominik explains the law of gravity to me in English!
Here goes:
zero
jeden
dwa
trzy
cztery
piec
szesc
siedem
osiem
dziewiec
dziesiec