Keen lovers take Polish lessons

Forget French: the new language of love could be Polish, if evening classes in Cardiff are anything to go by.

A Polish language course proved so popular last autumn that more are being laid on in the city this year.

But organisers found many of those who enrolled at Cardiff University did so to learn the language of their Polish partners who now live in Wales.

"It might help having a girlfriend to practise with," said Helga Eckart, co-ordinating lecturer for languages.

Others joined up because they wanted to be able to speak to Polish people in their communities.

The university's centre for lifelong learning started the beginners' course two years ago.

It was so successful last year that there will now be two courses from 1 October - more beginner classes and an improvers course.

Ms Eckart said 18 people enrolled last year.

"The course lecturer told me that a lot of them had Polish girlfriends," she said.

"There were lots and lots of men with Polish girlfriends. They had an unfair advantage as they'd go home and practise with them and come back improved the next week"

Emma Raczka, who was on the Polish course

"It's a very challenging language to learn and the grammar is more difficult than German so you'd have to be quite motivated to learn it. Although it might help having a girlfriend to practise with."

Emma Raczka, whose grandfather came to Lampeter in Ceredigion from Poland during World War II, was among those who signed up last year.

She said although she was there because of her background, about half her fellow students wanted to learn their partners' native language.

"I had been looking out for Polish classes for years and was so excited when I saw the course," said Ms Raczka, 34, who lives in Mountain Ash, in the Cynon Valley and works as a communications manager.

"It was big - sometimes you go to these classes and you only get a few people. But there were about 18 people at the start of the Polish classes and that went down to about a dozen by the end.

"There were lots and lots of men with Polish girlfriends. They had an unfair advantage as they'd go home and practise with them and come back improved the next week. It was at least half the class.

"I think a lot of them will be back this year."

She added: "There was even a guy there who had a lot of Polish people as his customers in work and he wanted to learn some of their language."

With more and more Polish people moving to the area, she said she felt the classes could help integration.

"You hear about Polish people learning English so it's a bit different doing it the other way round," she said.

"Even just to say hello to a Polish person in their language would be good. We had some Polish visitors to our class and they were really impressed we were learning it.

"I suppose it's like going to a far away land and seeing people learning Welsh.

"It's a challenging language but it sounds beautiful."

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