Matching Tracksuits

Fun in Fours

Results For "Month: July 1996"

Perfectly Imperfect

Wednesday 3 July 1996

Just when I thought I was getting the hang of this Polish thing, BOOM!! We begin perfective/imperfective [verb forms]. So that means in many cases we have to learn a second verb for the same damn thing. Not only that, but the conjugation patter of many of the past tense perfective verbs are incredibly irregular. Not only is there an ending change from masculine to feminine – the stem sometimes changes! Oh joy.

Sitting in class I experienced total overload. Everything the poor woman was saying simply bounced off of me. I might as well have walked out of the room.

For the first four weeks I’ve been asking for verb conjugation information. “No, not now,” everyone told me, “It’s not time.” So now, in three days, (a week, rather) we’re getting everything. I kept telling people “This is not the first time I’ve tried to learn a foreign language. I know how things work, at least a little.”

One more thing about perfective: Most perfective verbs are simply the imperfective verb with a syllable added. The problem is that because of the next-to-last syllable stressing, adding the extra syllable makes an entirely new pronunciation.

Strange One

Tuesday 2 July 1996

There is a PCT that I must write about, for he almost worries me. His name his C and he is quite possibly one of the strangest people I’ve ever met. Today in X-cult we had a session on twentieth century Polish history. Of course one of the concerns is whether the Poles can be considered holocaust collaborators. After all, most of the death camps were in Poland. Chad at lunch told me that the Poles were glad to help the Nazis exterminate the Jews. Of course it’s obvious that the Poles had no say in where the camps were built. They couldn’t say, “We don’t want them here,” and I don’t [think] there was competitive bidding to determine who would be so very privileged as to have a death camp. The fact (as I understand it) is that Poland has been historically open to Jewish immigration.

That’s not the only weird thing about the guy. He is ridiculously stubborn. Returning to the Jewish discussion he refused to admit that the Polish Jews who came from Russia were originally from Israel. I pointed out that the Jews are more of an ethnic group than a people tied together by a religion. “You don’t see people converting to Judism then referring to themselves as Jews like you see in Christianity or Islam.” But he refused to see my point. Later in the day I mentioned to Vince the Newsweek article about the thousand-year bug and Chad was there. “They’ll just fix it,” he replied with a shrug. “That’s the point,” I replied, “They’ve not yet found a way to fix it.” With only the slightest pause, he said “I don’t believe it.” I said nothing to him directly.

One last thing (though it’s hearsay): He has apparently called Peace Corps Poland “the gravy train.” “We don’t do anything for the things we get.” “We teach,” [Bill] replied. “That’s not work,” Chad said. He obviously has never taught. If he says that still in a year, I’ll seriously question his commitment to teaching.

I guess I shouldn’t be hard on him. I don’t know anything about him really, or his background. One thing he said today makes me think he’s not had the greatest home life. About his relationship with his parents he said, “I can’t imagine not fighting with my parents,” laughing. After a thoughtful moment, he asked “What do you do with them, then?” Talk to them?
I really wonder about him. It would not surprise me if he was asked to go home after training.