“Ludzie pragną piękna” by Formacja Nieżywych Schabuff

Witamy! Welcome to the first post on the Popglot blog, where I’m documenting my journey to Polish fluency one song at a time. If you’re new here, feel free to check out my About Page and my breakdown of the Popglot Points to understand how this process works.

I’m starting with the cheerful, quick-tempo Polish song “Ludzie pragną piękna” (People crave beauty) by Formacja Nieżywych Schabuff. As an average song in terms of difficulty, I set my target at the standard 100 points for Core Song Competence.

Lyric source: https://lyricstranslate.com/en/ludzie-pragna-piekna-people-crave-beauty.html

Beauty by Numbers

Unfortunately, learning the song took longer than I would have liked due to recent events in Canada that kept me compulsively doomscrolling. I should have completed it in 3-4 days at most, not 7.

Here’s the point notation showing what I did: 2a,2d / 5a,2b,2c,1e,9g / 3a,1b,2g / 2g / 15g / 1b / 7g,3e

Let me break this down day by day:

Day 1:

    • 2a (2 listening plays × 0 = 0 points)
    • 2d (2 listening while reading plays × 2 = 4 points)
    • Total = 4 points

Day 2:

  • 5a (5 listening × 0 = 0 points)
  • 2b (2 reading × 1 = 2 points)
  • 2c (2 singing × 1 = 2 points)
  • 1e (1 listening while singing × 2 = 2 points)
  • 9g (9 listening, reading, and singing × 3 = 27 points)
  • Total = 0 + 2 + 2 + 2 + 27 = 33 points

Day 3:

  • 3a (3 listening × 0 = 0 points)
  • 1b (1 reading × 1 = 1 point)
  • 2g (2 listening, reading, and singing × 3 = 6 points)
  • Total = 0 + 1 + 6 = 7 points

Day 4:

  • 2g (2 plays of listening, reading, and singing/speaking × 3 = 6 points)
  • Note: One play involved speaking instead of singing
  • Total = 6 points

Day 5:

  • 15g (15 plays of listening, reading, and speaking × 3 = 45 points)
  • Note: All plays involved speaking instead of singing
  • Total = 45 points

Day 6:

  • 1b (1 reading play × 1 = 1 point)
  • Total = 1 point

Day 7:

  • 7g (7 listening, reading, and singing × 3 = 21 points)
  • 3e (3 listening while singing × 2 = 6 points)
  • Total = 21 + 6 = 27 points

That adds up to a total of 123 points. I didn’t track my progress daily, so I overshot the 100-point goal. By the 100-point mark, I was singing the song well enough to move it to my Maintenance Mode playlist, where it can simmer to perfection.

Reflections

Though I aimed for 100 points and hit 123, the extra effort paid off—the melody and most lyrics are now stuck in my head. The Popglot method remains effective, even when life (and doomscrolling) slows me down.