Hi.
About 4 years back we had a "new starter" at work. He,s a Polish guy and spoke very little English. Immediately we hit it off together and have remained great friends ever since.
At first ,he was very quiet and reserved ,but somehow we both sensed we had the same sense of humour and mentality as each other. Because of this, he felt more comfortable coming to me if he didn't understand a job he was given ,and that I would spend that little extra time in explaining it. As his English was pretty poor I started to teach him basic words to help him get through the day at work. As the months rolled on ,I kept on teaching him more and more words until he was able to string simple English sentences together. Once this happened his English came on in leaps and bounds. We would be in fits of laughter sometimes, because he would come out with things that would come across really "course" or would sound offensive , but I knew it was only said, because of his limited vocabulary. With the great sense of humour we both possessed ,I found teaching English was really good fun, trying to refine is almost robotic way of speaking into a more natural way of how English is spoken. Today his English is brilliant and we can now have a full blown conversation with just the occasional help from me. One thing I did notice was that, as his English good better ,it somehow became harder to teach him. Little things that we accept in a language as the norm ,he would question ,and I could not explain to him why a sentence is said in a certain way. It makes me think sometimes why we would say a sentence in a particular way after hearing his questioning of it.
I think the final breakthrough to him understanding English is that I can now tell a joke to him and he can understand double meanings of a word.
We've been out on plenty of bike rides together last year with lot of pub stops in between.As much as he likes his vodka he's now gained a taste for Guinness down the local :-).tut tut :-).
It's really interesting to listen to him and his family about the history of his home country of the pre Lech Walesa days.
A Strange thing ,is that he now often finds it hard to remember certain Polish word's, because he now speaks mainly English.
I have tried to learn Polish but it's beyond my 3 brain cells unfortunately. I can string a few sentences together at a struggle.
Anyway enough of my ramblings. :-) :-)
About 4 years back we had a "new starter" at work. He,s a Polish guy and spoke very little English. Immediately we hit it off together and have remained great friends ever since.
At first ,he was very quiet and reserved ,but somehow we both sensed we had the same sense of humour and mentality as each other. Because of this, he felt more comfortable coming to me if he didn't understand a job he was given ,and that I would spend that little extra time in explaining it. As his English was pretty poor I started to teach him basic words to help him get through the day at work. As the months rolled on ,I kept on teaching him more and more words until he was able to string simple English sentences together. Once this happened his English came on in leaps and bounds. We would be in fits of laughter sometimes, because he would come out with things that would come across really "course" or would sound offensive , but I knew it was only said, because of his limited vocabulary. With the great sense of humour we both possessed ,I found teaching English was really good fun, trying to refine is almost robotic way of speaking into a more natural way of how English is spoken. Today his English is brilliant and we can now have a full blown conversation with just the occasional help from me. One thing I did notice was that, as his English good better ,it somehow became harder to teach him. Little things that we accept in a language as the norm ,he would question ,and I could not explain to him why a sentence is said in a certain way. It makes me think sometimes why we would say a sentence in a particular way after hearing his questioning of it.
I think the final breakthrough to him understanding English is that I can now tell a joke to him and he can understand double meanings of a word.
We've been out on plenty of bike rides together last year with lot of pub stops in between.As much as he likes his vodka he's now gained a taste for Guinness down the local :-).tut tut :-).
It's really interesting to listen to him and his family about the history of his home country of the pre Lech Walesa days.
A Strange thing ,is that he now often finds it hard to remember certain Polish word's, because he now speaks mainly English.
I have tried to learn Polish but it's beyond my 3 brain cells unfortunately. I can string a few sentences together at a struggle.
Anyway enough of my ramblings. :-) :-)
. I enjoy having people from other countries around as it enhances our culture.
