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Views #28 | Mid Intermediate 5

Homestay in Poland

Charlotte talks about her homestay experience in Poland.

Script
Vocab
Quiz


Charlotte	Todd

Charlotte: The first time I moved to Poland I wanted to live with a foreign family so that I could learn Polish language. I went to live with couple in their seventies whose children had moved away from home.

They started treating me like a second daughter. At first it was really fun because they'd encourage me to speak and they'd act everything out for me, including my landlord's experiences during the Second World War in Poland.

Where he'd stand up and perform but after awhile it got a bit wearing because when I was out the house he would go into my bedroom and start picking up my dirty underwear from the floor, all he used to leave on the bookshelf for me.

He would also go into the bathroom, take my underwear off the line and hang it outside so it would smell fresher. Sometimes he would cook for me which is great up to a point, because I got to taste some real Polish home cooked food. But when he decided that I really was his long-lost daughter and started chopping my egg for me and then trying to feed it to me I began to feel that maybe it was starting to get time to move out. He would also invite me into the living room so that I could watch the Polish TV and improve my language and then spend half the television show prodding me and getting me to speak to him in very fast Polish. He was very kind to my friend Kathy when she came over to stay but unfortunately, he wanted me to translate his thoughts on the Polish economy from very fast Polish into English and the same time she was asking me to translate her ideas on English Cricket to Polish. None the less, it was an experience I would not have missed.

Learn vocabulary from the lesson!

move to or live with

When I moved to Poland, I wanted to live with a foreign family so I could learn the language.

If you 'move to' a place it means you relocate and live there. The people that you 'live with' are the people that live in your house with you. This may be family or roommates. Notice the following:

Do you still live with your family?
I heard you are going to move to Canada.

move away (from home)

Their children had moved away from home.

When you 'move away from' a place it means that you leave that place to live in a new area. When you 'move away from home' it means that you move out of your parents' house or the town where you grew up. Notice the following:

He finally moved away when he was forty.
When will you move away from home?

off the line

He would take my underwear off the line and hang it outside.

If we do not use a dryer to dry our clothes we frequently hang them on a clothesline. To take something 'off the line' is to remove it from the clothesline. Notice the following:

Did you take all the pants off the line?
When the clothes are dry please take them off the line.

long-lost or move out

When he started treating me like a long-lost daughter, I felt it was time to move out.

If something is 'long-lost' it has not been a part of our lives for a long time. To 'move out' of a house is to take all of your things and leave that place for a new place to live. Notice the following:

I finally found my long-lost journal.
She moved out of her parents house when she was seventeen.

(would not) miss

It's an experience I would not have missed.

If you 'would not miss' an experience it is very important to you either in the past or in the future. We also frequently use the phrase 'would not have missed it for the world' to intensify this phrase. Notice the following: