Reading in your native language

Hi.
I live in Poland and the resources for tarot here are very scarce. Therefore most of my learning has been done, and still is done, in English (my second language), over the Internet. And I feel really comfortable with it, and it's natural for me. But, as you may expect, not many people in Poland want readings in English. My family and friends would want a reading that's most comfortable and easy to understand to them, not me, not to mention any other potential clients. But every time I try reading in Polish I get totally stuck! All the meanings and stories unfold before me in English, and by the time I manage to translate a part - with breaks of "uuuh" and "ummmm" - the other possibilities have already rushed in and caused total chaos in my primary feelings. I don't get a coherent story and on top - I sound like a half-wit.

Does anyone have a similar problem? How do you deal with it? Read more in Polish, obviously, but who do I practice on? Here I have all these people in the exchange forums, making it easy to perfect my style in English, I don't have such an option for my native tongue. Maybe I should restudy the cards one by one in Polish? But then again, I never did study them all in English, I went as far as 24 cards - in readings I just read them as a story or intuitively , or looking at elemental dignities. I'm totally stuck on this.

yes, I think you should study in Polish, make your own notes about the cards... maybe in time it will become more easy for you

Maybe you could still get the bulk of your practice on here in English, but before you answer in English you could give the reading, out loud to yourself, in Polish. Maybe that could help you to get some practice using Polish to tell the story, and when you actually have Polish speaking querants, it may come easier

Wow, yeah, that could help. I aslo find Polish more down to earth, I don't like the sound of it when I talk about tarot. English is much softer and melodious, it fits better with the subjects of divination, the subconscious etc. Maybe hearing it in such circumstances more often would make it sound more natural and not so out of place.

Have you thought of getting a Polish deck with a polish accompanying book? There is one that is very popular on AT, though most people here can't read the book of course . That way you would at least learn the Polish terms for meanings, and when you get stuck or have that famous blank spot we can all have, you have something to fall back on.

Try and find people to practice all around you - and just explain you are learning, so you might not be as professional as you hope to become one day. I found that people were very helpful that way when I was starting out. For the first 7 years of my tarot reading, I did it all face-to-face, by the way - I only started reading online in the past 3 years. I am sure that after the first few readings, your fluency would improve. You can also practice reading out loud for yourself, for characters on TV, for some news item, etc. Just to gain the fluency reading tarot in Polish.


Good luck!

I think that you should practice doing your readings out loud and in Polish to help you find your Polish Tarot voice.
I do practice readings out loud and it has really helped me.

And I would recommend getting yourself a copy of the wonderful Tarot Swietlistej Drogi. As Fudugazi has already said, it comes with a book that you'll be lucky enough to be able to read.

I've seen that deck and I don't really like it. I have a few books in Polish, they're mostly translated from English or Russian, but I don't like reading them, they're so... commanding. It's not even "dictionary" style, it's military. Like I don't have the right to use my intuition, don't even dream about it! This card means this when you're reading for love, that when you're reading for finances, and this when you're reading for health issues, AND NO ARGUING!

I think I'll do what a couple of you mentioned -maybe get a new deck to practice out loud with it from the very beginning. In that way I won't have to battle all the previously attained feelings and meanings flooding in in English.

Such a simple idea and still I don't think I would have come up with it myself, thanks.

Wouldn't there be more Polish deck than that one? I know there's one 'under construction' on www.kartytarota.pl and it looks lovely.

"I live in Poland and the resources for tarot here are very scarce. Therefore most of my learning has been done, and still is done, in English (my second language), over the Internet. And I feel really comfortable with it, and it's natural for me. But, as you may expect, not many people in Poland want readings in English. My family and friends would want a reading that's most comfortable and easy to understand to them, not me, not to mention any other potential clients. But every time I try reading in Polish I get totally stuck! All the meanings and stories unfold before me in English, and by the time I manage to translate a part - with breaks of "uuuh" and "ummmm" - the other possibilities have already rushed in and caused total chaos in my primary feelings. I don't get a coherent story and on top - I sound like a half-wit.

Does anyone have a similar problem? How do you deal with it?"

Yurikome, i live in Montenegro and yes i do have the same challenge as you do... especially that English is actually the forth language i've learned. In my case, it's not so much about the words, it's not a problem to learn 400-500 new words of any language, the problem is it with different frame of mind. I've been to your country, it has great cultural heritage and all the people i met were really cultured and extremely polite. When i came to Montenegro, 10 years ago, it's been like 4 wars in 15 years in this area, you could imagine how "open" were the people for both Kabbalah and Tarot, they actually (apart from literally four intellectuals) never heard of it... But, easy does it. I don't think it's the "problem" with you that you are going "hmmmmmm" while doing readings, it's actually the universal wisdom being channeled through you and put into specific language and cultural reference. And if it only takes few "hmmmmm's"- you are doing great, trust me. I loadhe interpreted books too, indeed they are "military" as you say. You know, they say the best interpretation ever is Boris Pasternak's (autor of Dr Zivago) translation of Gethe's Faust from German into Russian... and that 25% of the original is lost. I am interpreter and writer myself and i know what it takes to make a good interpretation... it's very rear. In my experience, the more your readings prove accurate, the more the "querents" become patient and willing to listen to the "hmmmmmmm" it takes to convey them the message
Just my 0.2 usd
Love&Light
Lena Ruth

At last! Someone who understands!!! {{{{Yurikome}}}} I know what you're going through!!!

When I lived in Chile, I found myself having to do spreads for the girls I worked with in Spanish, which is my third language, and I don't know it very well. Luckily, Spanish and English are close enough that if I couldn't think of a word/term in Spanish, I could say the English with a Spanish accent, and that would work more often than you'd think. I'll tell you one thing, it really improved my Spanish! But it didn't do so much for my reading. It was frustrating. I had to find alternative ways to explain things that often weren't as clear or didn't emphasize the same points as my ideas in English.

Now I'm living in Taiwan again, and Saturday I did my first reading in Chinese (my second language,) which was easier in some ways than I thought and harder in others. What I did was tell the querent I would need some time to interpret, and then I jotted down some notes/keywords in English, and then explained it in Chinese. That worked ok. I also had a Chinese dictionary handy. But reading in another language is twice as exhausting, isn't it? My first couple readings were ok, but after an hour (she had a lot of questions, too,) I could neither read the cards nor speak to her clearly, I was mentally so tired.

From now on, I'll do spreads in Chinese (or in any other foreign language I learn in the future), however I'll put a time limit on it. Otherwise, it's no good for the querent after a certain point, and of no practice for me (except for my Chinese, but I don't do the cards for the language practice, you know?)

Maybe you can keep the spreads short, like no more than 5 cards until you feel more able to describe more complicated situations. After you throw the cards down, take as much time as you need and write the important points down before you forget them in English (or your first language), then use that to help guide you as you explain it in Polish, so you don't forget anything important.

I also bought a deck in Spanish (the World Spirit) and it came with a little guide book in Spanish. That does help by just showing how Spanish speakers phrase certain ideas. Also, in Spanish I used to practice writing my personal interpretations of each card just for the practice of explaining those kinds of things. That really helped too. In both languages I made a list of key tarot words (wands, pentacles, major, minor, king, page, symbolize, etc.)

And time limits. It's hard to tell someone you have to stop, but like I say, after a certain point you get so tired it's hard to read anyway. Best to cut it short and keep them coming back for more, right?

I hope that helps! Let me know if you have any other tips!