Thandi in Poland, a New Language Resource
Hi and welcome😍!
Today, I’m so excited to introduce a new language audio resource: “Thandi in Poland”, a Youtube channel where I will be sharing my experiences of what it is like to live abroad and speak several languages!
Feel free to comment in your own languages! I want this platform to be a place where languages are cherished and nurtured.
I love and breath languages. I cannot do without them. What about you? How do you feel about languages in general?
I can speak six languages: English, French, Polish, Italian, Chichewa and Chitumbuka. What languages do you speak? What languages are you learning? What is your favourite language? I would love to know more about that!
Subscribe to my YouTube channel and join the conversation about languages. I can’t wait to hear from you!
More about ‘Thandi in Poland”
I decided to start this YouTube channel “Thandi in Poland” to create a community of language lovers.
Languages have always been my passion since time immemorial.
I first fell in love with English in my early years on earth. It was not rare for me to spend DAYS indoors, reading books which I often stole from my mother, poor soul.
She is the thoughtful person that introduced me to Greek mythology books and all sorts of children’s literature. For this, I will forever be grateful to her.
Later on, children’s books were not enough, so I started exploring adult literature😉
I wanted to know more about the world and books gave me extra lens through which I could examine my environment.
“Jane Eyre” was my first novel. The “Mills and Boon” series followed together with the “Pacesetters” series. My friends and I would also lend each other Enid Blyton‘s short novels. It was a joyful time to live!
My love affair with French began at secondary school. I first encountered this lovely language at Phwezi Secondary School. Pierre and Seydou were the main characters of our French textbook and it was fun to follow them around.
Our teacher was a handsome young man from the Democratic Republic of Congo. Many girls did not like French but they just loved to see this beautiful West African teacher who spoke a language we did not know.
“Bonjour, je m’appelle Seydou, et toi?”
I hope this sentence rings a bell to many people who studied French in Malawi!
It was therefore of no big surprise that I married a French man. Here was an irresistible and young man who spoke beautiful French and wrote incredible letters in English with such fierce honesty. On top of that, he had a great sense of humour! I mean; I was sold💖!
At university in Paris, I met the Italian language. Our teacher was a decent and lovely young lady who was a stickler for perfect grammar and flawless expression. I loved to please her and I was always thrilled when I got a 20 out of 20 in her tests! I loved Italian!
I couldn’t continue studying this language though, unfortunately😞.
However, I was glad to rediscover it a few years ago when my daughter was studying it at school. I told myself that I would start learning it again when the right time came.
This year, I had a wonderful opportunity to study with a very talented and thoughtful lady. Her name is Anna. She really gave me the tools to speak and understand this beautiful language. I will be forever be indebted to her and I cannot thank her enough💗.
hanks to her, my love for languages has been rekindled and I can’t wait to learn more languages in the future. German? Do you hear me? I am coming after you😃.
Polish was another fish to fry. My God! What a beautiful but complicated language it is! Dear friends, I have been wrestling with this language for almost eleven years. It is a difficulty language to master and I hope that one day I am able to speak this language with the same fluency as in French or English.
I live in Poland and each day, I strive to expose myself to this language so that I can understand and feel it with my whole heart. One day, I will do so and this will be one of the most beautiful days of my life. In this day, a burden will fall and I will have conquered a significant milestone! I just can’t wait🤩.
What about my mother tongues?
Chichewa and Chitumbuka are the languages of my heart💘. These are my emotional languages. When I am hurt and I have not time to think, I yell “Mayo ine!” (“My mother!”) These are languages that I will never forget even though I have been gone from home for more than 20 years. These are the languages of my childhood and of my earliest experiences on earth. These are the languages that I will forever love and cherish, no matter what happens. I LOVE these languages unconditionally and I will always do.
Questions for you
- What are the languages of your heart?
- What language do you think in?
- Is there a celebrity who represents a language crush for you?
- Who is your role model as far languages are concerned?
- Who was your favourite language teacher?
I hope to hear from you soon!
Until then! Take care!
Thandi Ngwira Gatignol
Founder and Author, Learn English With Africa
Further Exploration: Thandi in Poland
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Have you ever brought somebody a present and they destroyed it right in front of your eyes? This is what happens to Hannah, the nostalgic narrator of this short story.
The culprit is none other than husband whose name is Christopher. Hannah and Christopher are an immigrant couple living in Europe.
Why are these people far from their home country? Why did she buy the present in the first place? Why did Christopher react in such a way?
If you would like to know the answers to these questions and learn more about the Present Perfect, read this short story to find out.
This short story also has Reading Comprehension and Grammar Worksheets.
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New YouTube Channel: Thandi in Poland, (Exciting Languages and Lifestyle!), ©All Rights Reserved.
