Summer School 2019 impressions - Riccardo Chmielowiec, Canada (Quebec)
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Cześć! My name is Riccardo Chmielowiec and I am from Montreal, Quebec. I am of Polish and Italian origin (my father is Polish, my mother is Italian). I currently study Comparative Literature at the University of Montreal.
Growing up in my household, we quickly favored French over our mother tongues, Italian and Polish, so that my brother and me would properly learn the local language and make friends at school. In my teenage years, it always bugged me that I couldn’t speak Polish; I even feared the language in some way, when my dad would pass me my babcia on the phone. I was scared to make mistakes, so I never spoke. Until two years ago, when I got tired of not being able to create a meaningful connection with my Polish relatives, and realized how important it was for me to properly learn it. This summer, I knew I had to go off on my own and travel in Poland. The Polish Consul in Montreal recommended me this course, when we met, after listening to my story. I took him seriously and applied a few days later to the KUL Summer School. Boy, what a good idea that was.
My experience at KUL has been nothing short of wonderful. Meeting and making friends from around the world; living for three weeks in a beautiful town like Lublin; travelling to neighbouring landmarks and towns with the class. I followed the Semi-Intensive course, which allowed me to go off on my own and practice with classmates or meet people to actively learn the language. My advanced-level classes with Pani Ewa were dynamic, comprehensive and hilarious. The staff at KUL were all warmhearted, generous and outgoing. In 3 weeks, I made great progress in Polish, and even got credits at my home university!
So this goes out to people of Polish origin who want to learn their mother tongue, or anybody curious about studying in Poland: the KUL Summer School is a great way to do that. Seriously consider applying, because it’s a meaningful way to spend your summer in Poland.
DON'T FORGET TO APPLY FOR THE SUMMER SCHOOL IN 2023!
Summer School 2019 impressions - Nicolette van den Bogerd (The Netherlands)
My name is Nicolette van den Bogerd and I am from the Netherlands. I currently live in the United States where I am a PhD student in Musicology at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, in Bloomington. My research focuses on the music of Polish-Jewish composers and Polish music in general, but in order to be able to do research I had first learn Polish. My academic advisor suggested to go to Poland to do this, and I am so glad I did! I attended the summer school at KUL twice: the first time was in 2018, and again in 2019 as a NAWA scholarship recipient.
The decision to come to KUL was easy. The program has the best reviews online, and the staff answered all of my questions quickly and efficiently. One of the things that is really nice about this program is that you can choose how long you want to stay. This is helpful, especially if you have limited time. Once I got to Lublin I was impressed with the level of instruction. My teachers were kind and passionate about teaching. They organized quality educational activities that made learning grammar effective and fun, and their patience and dedication made everyone comfortable. Polish is a hard language, so this was very important to me. This program also stands out because the participants are diverse, and they are of all ages and backgrounds. Some learn Polish because of their heritage, but others, like me, want to get better because they need to be proficient in Polish for their careers.
This program is great for all who want to learn Polish, and you will learn a lot.
DON'T FORGET TO APPLY FOR THE SUMMER SCHOOL IN 2023!
Ryan Rowe, USA (Summer School 2018)
My name is Ryan Rowe, I am from Durham, North Carolina but I live in Minnesota now. I studied Russian and Polish in undergrad and I am also pursuing a degree in opera performance currently. I am learning Polish because I am exploring the option of working in Poland in an opera house, maybe in Warsaw or a smaller city. I am learning Polish so that I could work and function in a Polish environment.
My professor at the university recommended the program in Lublin, I applied through Kosciuszko Foundation in New York and she suggested that I went to Lublin because it is more grammar focused. She said that if I want to be really good at Polish I should go somewhere where I won’t have a lot of English speakers surrounding me and I could purely focus on speaking Polish. And then also your highly-intensive course was more towards what I was looking for, because I need something that can get me over the threshold to about the B2 level before I go back to the US. And I think it will, I speak Polish a lot better than I did before I came here. I like individual lessons because if I have a certain question or if there is one thing that I didn’t understand I can get an explanation during my individual lesson instead of bringing the issue before the whole group. The classes with “Pani Małgorzata” are so much fun. I have her for conversations and individual lessons and she’s like “ok, do your work but then we stop and talk about things” and so she makes little corrections and comments like “these are the patterns that I notice in your speech that you keep making errors so let’s do more grammar exercises to fix those problems” and that’s what I really like because it’s applicable and catered to my needs.
The staff have been really fun as well, If I ever have problems or questions about their recommendations, everyone seems very open and ready to help, which hasn’t always been my experience in Slavic countries. I would definitely recommend the course, I think it is structured in a way where it provides people with tools to take home for independent study, as well as just applicable in everyday situations. It is flexible enough so you can choose how intense you want to speak or study Polish here.
DON'T FORGET TO APPLY FOR THE SUMMER SCHOOL IN 2023!
Katherine Townsend, UK/Poland (Summer School 2018)
My name is Kasia Townsend, I was born in London in 1993 and my mum is Polish and my dad is English. I studied Graphic Design and Photography for 3 years at Kingston University in London and I’ve reached a point in my life where I wanted to practice my Polish to a better standard so that I could speak with my family and possibly live in Poland for a few months, to see if I enjoy the experience.
About 8 years ago my mum encouraged me to try a course like this, but at the time I wasn’t sure about it. I wanted to try something like this before turning 25 in October this year, so I researched about KUL’s Polish Summer School online as well as the course at Jagiellonian University in Kraków. I was really impressed with the course structure at KUL and knowing that I had 2 weeks available this summer, I was really looking forward to spending my time in Lublin as I thought it would be a great place to learn Polish.
I received a really quick response after filling in my online application. Since being here, the students, teachers and catering staff have been really kind, approachable and easy to talk to, especially the teachers, they are really understanding and they put a lot of fun into the way they teach.
I would definitely recommend the course to someone who would love to learn Polish, because the course is great!
DON'T FORGET TO APPLY FOR THE SUMMER SCHOOL IN 2023!
