Cohoes parish offers Polish language lessons

By KATHLEEN LAMANNA- | Comments: 0 | Leave a comment

Diane Eckert didn't speak any Polish eight years ago. Now, the 71-year-old parishioner of Holy Spirit Church in East Greenbush travels to Poland for about a month every July.

Ms. Eckert takes Polish language classes at St. Michael's parish in Cohoes. Facilitated by Kazia Lopatniuk, the classes are offered from beginner to advanced levels and are open to students ages five though adult.

The classes -- held in a former convent that now serves as the parish center -- are offered from September to December and from January to May. The students' "homeroom" is set up like a school, with blackboards, reference sheets, textbooks and even homework after each weekly, 90-minute session. Some students are new to the Polish language; others are proficient and don't want to lose their skills.

"We start with the ABCs," said Mrs. Lopatniuk. "Then we go into vocabulary and grammar." Although the age of the students varies greatly, Mrs. Lopatniuk believes that beginners are beginners when it comes to Polish. Adults can "learn quicker and understand quicker. Younger students, it takes a little longer.

"The language is complex," Mrs. Lopatniuk noted. "There are different exceptions that the students have to learn."

For example, the Polish language has noun-gender/adjective-gender agreement, as well as some difficult pronunciations and grammar rules.

Ms. Eckert recognized that she should start to learn Polish after meeting relatives during one of her visits to Poland. Now that she has been studying the language, "I'm able to do anything I want in Poland in terms of communication with people," she boasted.

She chats with family, goes shopping and travels throughout the country. As she pursues her interest in genealogical studies, she's also translating old family records from Polish to English.

If she does not speak Polish for even a few days, Ms. Eckert begins to get "rusty." She makes sure to write her family weekly letters and read Polish books and newspapers as often as she can.

"Most of our students right now are adults," said Mrs. Lopatniuk. "The last couple of years, we didn't have any children.

"With the children, we try to give them a certificate of attendance" to spark pride in their heritage, she added. "We're trying to keep our culture and our tradition [alive]. One way to do that is by teaching" the Polish language.

(For more information, call Mrs. Lopatniuk at 518-588-0977 or go to www.stmichaelsofcohoes.org.)[[In-content Ad]]