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Conversation 2 - Take a Polish class or not

Narrator: Listen to a conversation between a student and a professor.

Student: Hi professor, I was hoping to ask you a few questions about the class you’re teaching next semester, the course on Polish drama. I was thinking of taking it.

Professor: Well, that’s an upper division course. You don’t look familiar to me. Are you a student in this department?

Student: No, actually I’m not.

Professor: Ok, have you had other classes in the Slavic languages department, here or somewhere else?

Student: No, that’s the thing. I was just wondering how good my Polish would have to be whether the class is taught Polish or not.

Professor: Well, you’d have to have some knowledge of it. By that level a lot of students are quite fluent, plus there’re some native speakers in the department. And we don’t plan for it to happen, but it’s pretty common for the discussions to kind of move in and out of English and Polish and it can be difficult to follow. So, how well do you speak Polish?

Student: Hmm, not so great. It’s just that my father’s from there. So I’m interested in learning about…You know, Polish history, Polish culture, plus I’m studying drama.

I’ll probably major in it. I love plays. So I thought your course might be perfect.

Professor: Hmm, to be honest with you, you have to realize that we’ll be watching videos of performances. And maybe if we can swing it, even watch a live performance and those won’t necessarily be in translation. Also, texts, texts are sometimes available in translation. But even then some references will be to the original. I’d hope you’d be fairly confident in reading.

Student: Hmm, to be honest, it sounds totally over my head.

Professor: You know what? I believe they’ll be offering a survey course on Polish literature. Let me check here. Yes, I thought it was being offered this time, Professor Jowaski is teaching it. Let’s see. It covers the major works, you know, epic romantic poetry, the novels, and it does cover one or two plays.

Student: And this is in English?

Professor: Yes, you’ll be reading mostly English translations and the discussions will be in English.

Student: Hmm, novels and poetry.

Professor: They’ll provide you with a great historical context for the plays. So when you do get to them, you’re gonna really have a feel for the times they lived in, so to speak. Plus this course might also give you the impetus to learn more Polish, you know, get it to the level where you’d be ready for the other class.

Student: Hmm.