Most of us have had the experience of learning a foreign language at school. Unfortunately this experience more often than not gives us a wrong idea and tools on how to master a language that’s not native to us and leaves many of us with the false impression that we’re not suited to learn languages, that we don’t have the “language talent”.

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The truth is there’s only one thing you need to do in order to successfully learn a language.

Staying curious!
Languages are an amazing and fascinating thing: not only do they allow you to communicate with people around you, form new social bonds and understand the culture better – they also let you grow internally through finding a new way of expressing yourself and acquiring a new look on very familiar concepts.

Did you know that the Chinese carrot cake is actually a radish pudding because both the concepts of a carrot and a cake are wider than in English? That in Ukrainian you receive a shower and in Polish you take it, the Ukrainian word for shower coming from French for water pipe and the Polish one being a surname of a nineteenth-century Czech-German peasant who promoted vegetarianism and hydrotherapy? That in Polish you’d use completely different expressions for liking something or someone when you have a good first impression and when you grew to like it over time?

At Spoko Polish, we prove to you that the so-called “talent for languages” doesn’t exist. It happens over and over again that people who come to our classes saying they suck at learning languages become the best student in the group!
Teaching Polish, quite a complex language, in Spoko Polish we use various methods to help our students stay interested and find information as well as apply it in practice on their own. Staying curious and interested is the best way to help our brains acquire and store new information and the very key to learning languages – exercises you do in the courses and the instructions you receive are only a part of your language journey.
In our courses we encourage our students to do various extracurricular activities are of immense benefit to learning Polish and those of you who apply them make very quick progress. Here are some of them:

Listening to Polish podcasts and radio shows:
it helps your brain subconsciously learn language patterns, discern sounds, words and learn expressions while you just do your daily activities.

Finding music (or other art) that interests you and trying to understand it:
it can’t be understated how much translating songs you like on your own (other than just throwing them into a translator) helps you learn the language, and culture!

Making use of cinema and TV series:
watching Polish movies and series with subtitles in a language you understand or just switching on Polish subtitles on your favourite shows while you relax in the evening makes you learn so much.

Using language apps in a smart way:
there aren’t many things as effective in studying Polish as feeding apps with content that you personally need in your daily life.

Set small goals:
Don’t expect to be able to have a fascinating conversation on your favourite topics straight away. Asking your friend where the bathroom is (even if you know it very well) is a great first step to encourage more interactions in Polish.

And remember: Sucking at something is the first step to mastering it:
Get out there, practise your skills, make mistakes, have a strong accent – this is the best, fastests (and actually only) way to become fluent. Forget that school told you you shouldn’t make mistakes – they’re actually one of your best friends when learning a language!

If you’d like more inspiration, here’s a playlist we prepared for you, containing a lot of interesting ways polyglots use to learn new languages.