I, for example, really love my mother's old Polish dinner set. I don't know why, but New Year's Olivier salad looks more festive and tastes better in a Polish salad bowl. Poland has always been for our parents and for us some kind of accessible compromise between domestic realities and the wonders of the forbidden capitalist world.
We always roughly understood their language, and residents of Western Ukraine knew Polish thoroughly, as a second native language. I state this with knowledge of the matter, since my friend from the Lviv region has been working in Poland for 18 years. For her, it's practically next door. Moreover, it was with Polish money that she built her own home of 700 square meters. A bit much, of course, but that was her wish.
Guess what this sorceress does for a living? No, not a director or a top manager. A hired cook! What does she cook? Sushi, pizza, Italian spaghetti? Don't make me laugh! Our Ukrainian borscht, nalysnyky (pancakes with cottage cheese), varenyky, pampushky, and everything that the hospitable Ukrainian land is famous for. Moreover, she has such warm relations with the hostess that she even helped with the treatment of her grandchildren in Poland, and arranged a Polish pension for the friend herself. This is not a fairy tale, but modern reality.
Want to go to Europe? Buy a plane ticket
Unfortunately, the economy in our country is still developing, and not everyone has enough funds for a decent life. If a simple cook here barely makes ends meet, in Poland she receives a quite decent salary, enough for development, not just for living from paycheck to paycheck. And in general, what should a person do who does not have wealthy patron parents capable of placing them in a prestigious university with subsequent placement in a cushy, dust-free job?
Suppose you have acquired a very useful profession as a cook, seamstress, plasterer, painter, or bricklayer, but in your home country these skills do not promise you a comfortable life. But you need to feed your children, provide them with a decent education, and you yourself want to see a lot in this world.
Today, many online resources offer work abroad with good pay. Moreover, managers and other "fashionable" specialists won't find a single vacancy there. Yes, Europe has long begun to properly value the work of people who know how to do something with their hands. Even ordinary handicrafts there, in the West, are valued much higher than is customary here.
Poland in this regard found itself between two fires. On the one hand, it is part of a united Europe, on the other, it is a very convenient donor of labor. Yes, you heard right, Poles also go to neighboring countries in search of higher wages. As a result, a vacuum has formed in the country itself. Ukrainians are always welcome there.
Such labor migration in a borderless society is an inevitable and not at all bad phenomenon. When there is an opportunity to improve your standard of living by earning money in a neighboring country, that is democracy. Moreover, what's wrong with working in a country that is literally in the next room? After all, previously people traveled for work within a huge country many thousands of kilometers to the north. And those are completely different, quite harsh climatic conditions.
At the same time, Poland differs little from Ukraine both climatically and ethnically, and the distance is sometimes very symbolic. But there, civilized European norms apply in everything. If you are not lazy and try to integrate into society, you can not only earn a comfortable living for yourself but also radically change your children's future to a European one.
For example, did you know that for students who are fluent in Polish, education at a local university is practically free? Now you will know. And is it difficult to learn Polish? It's not German or even English! We already partially understand the Polish language; we just need a few steps towards its grammar.
Learn Polish urgently!
How does Polish differ from Ukrainian? The first thing that catches the eye is the Latin alphabet instead of Cyrillic. But who said that's a problem? Latin letters appear in our everyday life sometimes more often than our native "Russian" ones. That is, in correspondence on forums and social networks, they don't bother us, but in the Polish language they hurt the eyes? Not at all.
For me, the Polish language is generally an analogue of Ukrainian, only in different letters. If you learn to "read" Polonisms correctly, you will understand that the difficulties of translation are just a matter of habit. A few more keys to understanding lie in the sibilants and stresses, as well as in verb conjugations and noun endings.
There are not very many such linguistic "cockroaches" between our languages. In other words, it is useful to study Polish in comparison. It is not German or English, which are radically different from native speech. Polish is just a little different.
So, how to learn Polish without much time, money, and effort? I have long found the answer to any language question at the European School of Correspondence Education. As my mother says: "don't look a gift horse in the mouth," and I have no reason to distrust her experience. Especially since English from ESHKO is already a classic with a quarter-century history.
The algorithm of actions is also quite simple and transparent. Go to the ESHKO website, select the language section and in it "Polish Language Course for Beginners." If you don't take my word for it, download a trial lesson (it's absolutely free) and start getting acquainted with the training program. Everything else depends on your desire and the time frame for achieving your goal.
You can order the entire course at once and tell the teacher you want an accelerated pace. This is necessary so that your personal tutor has time to check your homework and adjust the learning process. Or, under the guidance of a curator, break down the learning process into specific stages and deadlines. Then you don't need to pay for the entire course; it's enough to pay for the educational materials you receive. Moreover, you can even receive magazines either in person at the post office or order courier delivery.
But the most interesting thing is that you can take the course with you to Poland if work can't wait. You just need to devote 20-30 minutes a day to studying. Believe me, even with the busiest schedule, you will definitely find those 20 minutes. And ESHKO, thanks to its unique teaching method, will turn those minutes into a useful rest.
You will learn the language very quickly, and along with that, you will significantly expand the boundaries for your career growth and financial well-being.