Language and Mentality
Veröld - hús Vigdísar, Brynjólfsgata 1, 107 Reykjavík Directions
Mon Sep 14 2026 16:00
At this event, organized by the University of Iceland Language Centre and the Embassy of Poland in Iceland, participants will have an opportunity to learn more about the Polish language and the people who speak it. The event consists of two parts: a lecture and a research activity. It will be conducted in English and is open to everyone.
16:00–17:00: Mentality Coded in Language – The Role of Polish as One of the Keys to Understanding Polish Culture
Does the Polish language reflect the Polish mentality? What do Polish phonetics and grammar reveal about Poles and their attitudes towards reality? What clues to understanding Polish ways of thinking can be found in the language at the levels of phonology, word formation and syntax? This lecture offers the audience essential insights into Polish culture and mentality, taking a light-hearted and humorous approach to the topic. It presents language as a guide leading us through the maze of the Polish mind.
17:15–18:00: Research Activity on Plurilingual Competences
Participants are invited to take part in a linguistic experiment that forms part of a research project conducted by two researchers in linguistics from the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland. Would you like to find out how much Polish you already know, even if you have never studied it before? Have you ever heard of plurilingual competences? The ability that enables us to communicate even in languages that are completely unfamiliar to us.
Dr Beata Terka is a linguist and Assistant Professor at the Institute of Polish Glottodidactics at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków. She is a certified academic tutor and an examiner for the state examinations in Polish as a foreign language, as well as an author of certification examination tasks, teaching materials and textbooks.
Her research interests include grammar, particularly verbal morphology, and foreign language teaching methodology. She studies the category of aspect from comparative and glottodidactic perspectives, as well as plurilingual competence.
