The 69th edition of the summer Polish language and culture course organised by the Centre of Polish Language and Culture for Foreigners “Polonicum” has come to an end. This year, there were 105 participants. On the last day, the participants danced the traditional polonaise in the Gardens of the University of Warsaw Library.

The course is organised every year in August and lasts four weeks. Its programme includes not only Polish language classes at different levels, but also lectures and conversation classes on Polish history and culture, which are conducted in Polish and English.

This year’s edition began on 5th August, with a total of 105 participants. Students from Germany, the United States and the United Kingdom predominated, but there were also representatives of other countries. The students participated in 78 hours of language classes, as well as workshops in grammar, communication, literature, comics and medical language.

“In this year’s edition, we introduced cooperation with a Warsaw-based school of theatre improvisation – Szkoła Impro. We wanted to create an environment in which learning Polish is spontaneous. This is a didactic innovation that has not yet appeared at any university in Poland. We are proud to be paving the way,” Małgorzata Malinowska, the organiser of courses for foreigners at “Polonicum”, said.

The programme also included a guided walk around the UW campus at Krakowskie Przedmieście, film screenings, national presentations and visits to the Museum of Warsaw and the Warsaw Rising Museum.

Inspirational classes

“My main motivation for learning Polish is my family, I have Polish roots on my mother’s side, so I wanted to dedicate time to learning Polish. I currently live and work in Brussels, where many Polish emigrants live, so knowing Polish will also be useful there,” Hannah Phillips, a participant in the course, said, adding: “I didn’t expect it to be so diverse – after the language course, we had cultural workshops. Everyone could choose what interested them the most. I particularly enjoyed the inspiring classes with the invited guests, Jakub Rużyłło and Anna Rabczuk, as well as the screen-printing classes.”

Participants in the course do not need to know Polish. Nine language groups are available, depending on language level. Most of the course participants are connected with academia: students, doctoral candidates and academic teachers, although those not connected with academia – representatives of business, diplomacy and journalists – are also welcome.

“I first came to Poland in 2021 to work as a researcher at the Faculty of Applied Linguistics for three years. I immediately started learning Polish because I really wanted to communicate with all the people I met. After a few months, it became clear that knowledge of Polish would come in handy in various places, not only at university. Because of funding for a new research project, I will be in Poland for a total of six years. As it turned out, starting early was an excellent idea,” Dr Valentina Ragni, who took part in the latest edition of the course, said.

At the end of the course, the participants danced the traditional polonaise. The choreography was arranged by Magdalena Ptak.

Information about “Polonicum”’s activities and the possibility to enrol for courses is available at: https://polonicum.uw.edu.pl/en/.