[ninly]

I lived in a Polish neighborhood in Brooklyn for a few years, and absorbed as much orthography and pronunciation as I could during that time. I ate a few pączki, too.

While I learned to speak a little bit, it was not enough to be functional beyond basic greetings and ordering food. It was always a lot of interesting fun, though.

The main outcome of all this is that for ten years, whenever I see a Toyota Camry, my weird brain thinks "hmm... tsahm-rih..." and I roll my eyes at it.