Learning Polish for my Clients in Poland
I work with voice over studios around the world, but one of my favorite jobs is recording as an American Voiceover in Poland, or as they say “Amerykański lektor w Polsce”. No, I didn’t look that up with an auto translator. I’ve been learning Polish since the start of this summer. I am at the beginner level still, but I can write and understand simple sentences. For example, I can write “I can hear you fine, but please speak a bit slower” (Słyszę cię dobrze, ale proszę, mów trochę wolniej) or “I will record this for you today and deliver the files.” (Nagram to dla ciebie dzisiaj i dostarczę pliki). These are sentences one can even use for voiceover! I know how to take basic voice over live direction in French, German, and Spanish and then edit to them. Now I can add Polish to my languages for my voiceover clients.
Sometimes, I am even emailing and chatting in Polish with my clients in Poland! They’ve are very encouraging and supportive: providing good tips and advice. I love my clients for American Voiceover in Poland and it’s a main reason why I wanted to learn the language. Furthermore, with 36 million native speakers, Polish is the 8th largest language in Europe after Spanish.
How I am Learning Polish: It’s not easy, but it’s fun!
However, at first I only wanted to know how to pronounce the Polish alphabet so I could read Polish names and places in my scripts. But I soon came to enjoy the language and wanted to learn more. It feels like an interesting variation of Esperanto: and sure enough, Esperanto was developed by a native Polish speaker.
In order to learn Polish, I use my account at Duolingo.com but also the fantastic free resources clozemaster.com and mowicpopolusku.com. Watching lots of YouTube videos helps with being an American Voiceover in Poland. I follow and engage with interesting Polish profiles on Twitter, as well as the Learning Polish groups on Facebook.
It felt great when recently a client gave me a Polish voice over track for which I provided the English narration over it. I could read along and know exactly where the Polish narrator was in the script. I kept my timing perfectly, and hit all the edit points on the fly. And now, I’m able to easily edit my American Voiceover for Polish Media recordings knowing the sync will be just right.
My Work as an American Voiceover in Poland:
Here are a few video examples of the projects I’ve recorded as an American Voiceover in Poland. I still live in Atlanta, but can be directed by Source-Connect, SessionLink Pro, Phone Patch, and Video Chat. Dziękuję i dzień dobry!
-Lance