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Posts by osiol  

Joined: 25 Jul 2007 / Male ♂ 		Last Post: 10 Oct 2009
Threads: Total: 55 / In This Archive: 49
Posts: Total: 3921 / In This Archive: 3065
Interests: Not being on this website when I'm asleep

Displayed posts: 3114 / page 27 of 104
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osiol   
17 Oct 2008
Language / Plural endings [20]

co? is not elegant
czego? is rude

be 'Proszę?', sometimes even 'Słucham?'

My former flatmate used to answer the phone with a very rude-sounding "Co?" almost every time. I told him that it sounded impolite, but he told me that there was nothing wrong with it and that it's perfectly normal. I would never answer the phone with just the word "What?".

"If you say 'Co?' when answering the phone to me, I'll just hang up. Sluchasz?"
osiol   
16 Oct 2008
Language / My Learning Polish Woes... [64]

Immerse yourself in language - have a bath in a bowl of Alphabetti Spaghetti (looks more like pretend Italian though).
osiol   
16 Oct 2008
Language / LASKA- CHICK, BABE OR BIRD? [12]

I would never use the word chick unless I was either talking about an avian creature before its adult plumage grows, or in some poor quality joke about meeting Ukrainian girl by cooking chicken and garlic in breadcrumbs.

What someone thinks when they hear laska is not going to be the same as someone else. I wouldn't know about laska. It does sound a bit like lass though, which couldn't be derogatory so long as you are talking about a female.

I won't call a girl laska then?
osiol   
16 Oct 2008
Language / My Learning Polish Woes... [64]

DVD subtitles

I learnt the word pamiętam from subtitles. I could almost say that's the only word I ever learnt from Polish subtitles, but you could add to that: pamiętasz, pamiętać... I might even have learnt a word or two from a Polish sat-nav machine.

sześć

Siedem

Osioł!
osiol   
16 Oct 2008
Language / My Learning Polish Woes... [64]

well, that's how i've learned everyday English, away from the books... Americans used to ask me

In America, I assume. The difference here is probably that it's easier for Polish people to communicate to an English person in English than it is for them to do so in Polish, and that in Texas, there are even fewer people able to speak Polish. Language, like lightning, nearly always takes the path of least resistance. Unlike lightning, it is slow!
osiol   
16 Oct 2008
Language / My Learning Polish Woes... [64]

the best for you would be hanging out with Poles as much as you can, and talk talk talk...

Yes and no.

It's all too easy to revert to the easiest course with language. In England, being an English person speaking to Polish people who can speak English, English tends to win. This doesn't help learning.

I have noticed that when I'm at work, I ask Jurek what time it is or to pass the secateurs in Polish, and if he can, he responds in the English he's learnt by hearing us speak. I'm still better at his language than he is at mine (shouldn't get complacent though - where's my latest thread - I have some learning to do).

of course it's going to get better

You didn't tell her that it's all going to fall into place. I wonder why!
osiol   
16 Oct 2008
Language / My Learning Polish Woes... [64]

I have to hear words five or six times before they stick in my brain.

For me it takes three times to actually hear it, preferably for two different speakers. I can't learn a written word very easily if I don't hear it spoken as well even though I know how it's supposed to sound. Finally, I either guess the grammatical endings, leave them off wherever possible, or even in extreme cases, accidentally invent my own grammar.

Trouble is that we usually revert to English.

Get some Polish friends who can't speak any English. Then this problem will be solved.
osiol   
16 Oct 2008
UK, Ireland / Bobski the Builder ... Channel 4, 9pm Thursday16th Oct 2008 [20]

The only builders I see regularly seem to do everything painfully slowly, especially queuing in the baker's shop every morning for their cups of tea with seven sugars, bacon sandwiches, sausage rolls and so on and so on. Most builders seem to order all of the above. All I want is a loaf of bread!
osiol   
15 Oct 2008
UK, Ireland / All That Manners Business [I'm Polish, moved to UK as an au pair.] [87]

If anyone didn't actually know (there have been one or two vague or not-so-vague clues), Wyspianska and Osiol have met. It seemed a bit more like the real people behind the forum member names though. I already knew Wyspi is a nicer person than some people here seem to think- we've chatted to eachother on msn for a few months now. But even I was suprised how pleasant, kind, polite and generous she is. She's rather good looking too, but I know when to behave myself!

I can safely say that if there is any problem with her relationship with AvJoeUK's mother, the blame is really the mother's. I don't really like to judge anyone I've never met, so it's easier to judge someone I have met. I have met Wyspi, and now I can judge her! (Who am I to get all high and mighty?)

Good luck Ewi in navigating your way through life in England and coping with the tricky character of THE MOTHER! Keep your chin up and remember there are still plenty of people here on your side.
osiol   
14 Oct 2008
Real Estate / What is a "jard" [10]

We don't use ares, but we certainly use hectares in Britain. We're at least half-metric here.
I think it was Napoleon and his crowd who spread the word of the metric system, and look who had to be different!
osiol   
14 Oct 2008
Real Estate / What is a "jard" [10]

There is an English word "are" (pronounced the same as air). One hundred of these is a hectare.

edited - I made a mathematical error.
osiol   
13 Oct 2008
Language / Correct Way to Write Polish Address on Envelope [14]

People like writing superfluous lines in the address because it makes them feel better about it, more secure in the knowledge that it will get there, or at least that they themselves know where it is supposed to be going.

I like to add

UK
Europe
The Western Hemisphere
The Northern Hemisphere
The Earth

on my letters... that I write to myself.
osiol   
13 Oct 2008
Life / Why are Polish people cheap? [126]

you sound like a pretty bitter and nasty person

Astute forum members may know ratcatcher's true identity.
osiol   
13 Oct 2008
Life / Why are Polish people cheap? [126]

thriftiness

Carefulness? Miserliness? Skinflintiness? MEANNESS!

I'm sure it's not entirely true.
osiol   
13 Oct 2008
Language / Pronunciation difference between Ź and Ż / RZ [83]

Devoiced isn't the same as voiceless tho

I was never sure if they are or not. In careful, deliberate speech, it can sound completely voiced, or at least partly voiced. In faster (or careless) speech, it's too fast (or too careless) for me to notice.
osiol   
12 Oct 2008
Language / Pronunciation difference between Ź and Ż / RZ [83]

sz, does this combination exist in english?

Of course it doesn't! Half of this thread seems to be about what it sounds like in relation to other Polish sounds. If no-one can agree on that, then how is any of this going to help.

You would be understood perfectly well if any of the consonants that are devoiced in certain places were left voiced.
osiol   
12 Oct 2008
Language / Pronunciation difference between Ź and Ż / RZ [83]

I thought that rz=ż which is the (usually voiced) equivalent of sz.
It's unvoiced at the end of an utterance or before an unvoiced consonant, also after p-.

Wrong?
osiol   
12 Oct 2008
News / Poles Ranks First in Computer Coding [47]

you dont hear us brits ranting about our significant contributions to the world.

Actually, despite this being a forum about Poland, you do get that kind of ranting.
What could possibly be wrong with Darius giving a bit of information about this stuff on a thread which is relevant to that kind of information?