Saturday was Independence day here in Poland and so what better way to celebrate than to show old British war films all weekend. In between learning Polish I have done nothing other than watch TV this weekend. Unfortunately I had no lessons to teach and so I had an abundance of free time.... On Saturday night I went to the local bar and witnessed karaoke Polish style. Unlike their spotlight-hogging British counterparts the Polish karaoke singer is accompanied on stage by all their friends and anyone who happens to be passing at the time. The microphone goes from singer to singer and the listener can't actually hear anything other than a garbled collection of noises! Which is fortunate for the listener, I suppose.

But more importantly, on the television we have Hell's Kitchen, American wife swap (both of these are overdubbed in Polish so it is possible to hear the original English if you listen carefully), Polish Super Nanny and as always, the Italian music channels playing a mixture of Euro-pop and that guy out of Blue (why oh why?).

The book I'm learning Polish from informs me that I'll master the basics in 4 weeks, so by Christmas I'll be bi-lingual, although when I practise my newly-acquired skills on my Polish acquaintances they struggle to understand me and so it seems much easier to just speak English. Have I mentioned that their language is impossible?!