Language /
Why do people want to study Polish? [90]
Polson,
Agree absolutely! As somebody with a German tongue, Polish was a conundrum of verbal tongue twisters and death-defying consonant clusters.
A lot of our preconceptions however about what is acceptable pronunciation have much to do with the context in which we hear these heavily- accented speakers.
To my mind, the nationality with the toughest time attaining basic, let alone high-level, fluency in English, are the Spanish (by which I naturally include all Hispanic speakers too).
In Spain, as in Poland, I ONLY spoke the language of the country! Yet, when some younger Poles attempted to speak a few sentences in English, it was almost comprehensible. In Spain or Mexico? I often didn't know one word of what was being said in English, having to restrain myself from laughing!!:
Du ju know uuat minss '****'? = Do you know what 'peace' means?
And there were numerous other examples. At least in Polish, EVERY consonant, and most vowels, have the same equivalent to English ones, cf. Spanish 'b'/'v' (Basco or Vasco etc.), 'ee'/'i' (peace or **** etc.)......
Slick's right.
Similar in fact to the US, most Poles of any age have yet to witness one of their own leaders, the face of Poland to the rest of the world, from Gomułka though Gierek, Beirut, up through premiers and presidents Wałęsa, Kwaśniewski or the Kaczyński twins, who speaks fluent or even passable English in public.
Compare them with Germany's chancellor Schmidt, fluent in French and German, the present Angela Merkel, English and Russian etc.
When I heard Goran Persson of Sweden several years ago, I could have sworn I was listening to a British Member of Parliament! When I finally realized it was Persson, I was truly speechless.
