Done with Polish course. Review. Rant. Long.

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*I began this entry on April 29th but only got around to finishing it today*

I did not attend my last two days of Polish class out of protest (I'll get to this towards the end).

What the hey, while I'm here, I might as well write a review of the program. In case some random stranger is googling for a review of the place... like I was doing before I signed up.

I signed up for the Polish lessons when I was still back in the States, through PNTA (though some people signed up with PROLOG). PNTA is an acronym of:

"Polsko - Niemieckie Towarzystowo Akademickie" in Polish, or
"Deutsch - Polnische Akademische Gesellschaft" in German.

There are very few English speaking students, because, remember, this is a 'gesellshaft' between polish and german folks. From the very beginning, the English speakers were in the minority and most everything was catered to "the Germans", as we "English speakers" liked to say.

---The speech given by the PNTA lead during the welcome party -- only in German.

---The extracurricular lectures about Polish culture and society -- only in German.

---The trip to the Wieliczka, the Salt mine -- the school arranged for a German tour guide. The "English speakers" got handed a bunch of web printouts to follow along.

I think there was a guided town tour given in English, but I'm not sure.
So, ok, fine, make the Anglos suffer a bit, we're taking over the world otherwise.

During my first 2 weeks of class, the ratio of German to English speaking was something like 6:4. Marek didn't speak German and whenever something was too hard for us to grasp, he would explain it in French to the Germans (who all seem to be able to understand French)... and then a couple of them would translate that into English for the rest of us. A belabored way of going about it, but we made it work.

During my second 2 weeks of class, the ratio of German to English speaking was, oh, something like 6:1. I was the only one. And the two instructors who shall remain unnamed but had the same name, would sometimes *forget* that I was not German! They would explain certain words but only in German, and if one German knew the answer to a question or knew the keyword, s/he can spread it around the room in German and within a few seconds I'd be the only one who still didn't have a clue what was going on and looking stupid and dense. A few times, when I perked my ears, I can catch the German as it flew about the room, but often times I was tuned only to the Polish station. *sigh*

Needless to say, I had a lot less fun these second 2 weeks because I had no one to talk to during class and during the breaks, all the Germans hung together. :-/ Why wasn't I more outgoing and friendly and just try to hang with the Germans and make friends?

Because that's just not how it works around here. It's like trying to cross the color divide or something. When Bryce from our first class started to "hang with the Germans", I kidded that he jumped ship, he went to the other side.

And the second 2 weeks, I also feel that the teachers were... not as good as the first 2 weeks. No offense, just the teaching style was not condusive to learning (for me). As I've been talking with my friend Kristin about this (she stayed for 6 weeks), we both came to the same conclusion (independently) that had we had the 2 teachers from the second 2 weeks during our first 2 weeks, we WOULD NOT have signed up again for another 2 weeks. Kristin and I both thought that the school had probably put their 2 better (best??) teachers in the beginner course so that the students would continue and take more classes. Which is too bad, because we also both said that if we were to sign up again for Polish language school, we would probably not come back here. I like Krakow, I just don't know if I like the school. And if they've already put their best foot (teachers) forward, then there's really not much to come back to.

And personally, I think I was ripped off with the room that I got. The website said the school usually offer double rooms, which I took to mean 2 students and 2 beds in one room, so I requested a single and paid 30 Euros extra every 2 weeks. I wanted to be able to sleep when I wanted to without worrying about my roommate.

30 Euros = 120 zl, that's a lot of money by here standards! That's 60 desserts from the cafe across the street. 80 bottles of water. 120 bread rolls (150 if you buy from the cheap cheap stands).

And what I got was a single, but in a family with a crying-whining-yelling 7 month old baby. I get to sleep when I want, but I hear that damn bigheaded drool monster through the walls and when I'm awake I have to hear him googoo gaga and rattle. I know, I'm mean, all babies are cute, this one, too. But WHY should I pay extra for this when naturally the reason to request a single is to have peace and quiet?

And my last big complaint. They give a "test" at the end of each two week session and the grades possible are "good", "very good", and "excellent". So the reason for my boycotting the last two sessions had to do with this test.

On the day of my last test, the instructor handed us the test, explained it a bit, said we had an hour, and then left the room. As soon she went out, out came the notes and dictionaries from everyone's bags. And then began the in depth German discussions about the questions on the test. Back and forth, back and forth, is blah blah in the instrumental case, oder? And what does that mean, what's the plural form of that, yada yada. Can y'all be quiet, I'm trying to take a test here! But of course they didn't shut up.

Everyone finished the test around the same time, surprise surprise, except for me and another guy who came in about 20 minutes late. So we were working and one of the guys who had finished earlier offered to look over my test and help me fix the problems. I said nie, and I pulled my paper off the table so he couldn't see it. Then the teacher came back and I and the other guy were still working. She said 5 more minutes. He asked her, what's the plural of pen. She huffed a tiny little huff, like she was surprised, and said,"I can't tell you, it's a test!" And then she left the room again and the guy who had offered to help me earlier came back in and the guy asked again and now he knew the answer.

... so why call it a test if it's more of a "group exercise"? Why even pretend like that certificate at the end means anything?? Why bother giving us a time limit? And I guess the part that irked me the most is that I cannot tell if the school deliberately turns a blind eye to the blatant cheating that goes on or that they really believe all the students are sitting straight and upright in their chairs during the "test" with eyes on their own papers. Are they stupid, or do they just want to give us the benefit of the doubt? Or are they afraid that if they don't let us cheat, we'll all score shitty and then their teaching methods would come into question? Better to let everyone score well than to cast doubt on the effectiveness of the school?

My irritation with the whole testing thing was why I skipped the last two days. One, I couldn't stand the idea of showing up to class and the teacher goes over the test and, hm, funny, everyone scored excellent except for the dumb American! And two, I know I scored shitty on the test, but I know that I'm not stupid (remember, this is my blog, I can say whatever I want!), so the 'logical' conclusion is that I didn't learn what I was supposed to learn because the way they taught sucked.

Ok, this last part is a bit harsh. But in any event, I was fed up with classes and I had better things to do on my last few days in Krakow, the main thing being to see the Botanical Garden (ogrod Botanica??) Which will be an oh so pretty blog entry when I finally get around to it.

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Comments

[Vala]

I agree so much with you...
...but I decided to be a happy blondynka and enjoy!!!!