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  What it means

  What little Janek didn’t learn, Jan struggles to learn as an adult — habits and knowledge acquired in childhood are far easier than learning later in life.

  English equivalent

  You can't teach an old dog new tricks.

  Vocabulary

  • Janek — Johnny, little Jan (diminutive)
  • wyuczyć się — to learn thoroughly, to master
  • Jan — John (adult form)
  • ciężko — with difficulty, hard
  • uczyć się — to learn, to study

  Grammar note

  'Czego się Janek nie wyuczył' — genitive of negation after a negated verb. The shift from diminutive 'Janek' to adult 'Jan' carries the whole meaning.

  Cultural context

  The use of the same name in child and adult form is a neat linguistic device unique to Polish diminutives.

  Intermediate

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