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Posts by Marek  

Joined: 15 Feb 2007 / Male ♂ 		Last Post: 18 May 2009
Threads: Total: 4 / In This Archive: 4
Posts: Total: 867 / In This Archive: 617 		From: Nowy Jork
Speaks Polish?: Tak
Interests: rozgrywki, podrozy

Displayed posts: 621 / page 5 of 21
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Marek   
7 Jan 2009
Language / TYPICAL MISTAKES OF POLISH LEARNERS OF ENGLISH? [23]

Yes, for example! This mistake though is general European. The Germans and French make the same error.

Poglish- DO a mistake English- MAKE a mistake
ON university AT (the) university/AT college
etc....
Marek   
7 Jan 2009
Language / TYPICAL MISTAKES OF POLISH LEARNERS OF ENGLISH? [23]

It depends of course on one's experiences. Mine have been more with the former than with the latter variety of the kind you mentioned.

This is not to say however, that there aren't many Poles who speak a flawless American or international standard English. My experience though has admittedly been rather limited to those who didn't (..not necessarily couldn't).

Guess I'll have to broaden my horizons-:):)!! LOL
Marek   
3 Jan 2009
News / Polish-Hungarian friendship - reality till today or just a phantasmagoria [144]

Azeiri speakers from Azerbadjan and Turkish speakers from Turkey CAN DEFINITELY understand one another with almost effortless mutual intelligibility.

Hungarians and Turks?? Practically as impossible as Hungarians and Finns, unless the one has studied the other's language-:)
Marek   
2 Jan 2009
News / Polish-Hungarian friendship - reality till today or just a phantasmagoria [144]

Rock, I'm surely not denying linguistic evidence which is already quite familiar to me. However, there are notable examples in many 'unrelated' languages such as Albanian, Hungarian and English, for example, which look superfically like, are even pronounced almost the same way as, yet are "false cousins", if you will, with their counterpart lookalikes, take 'yu' (Eng. 'you') in Albanian or 'haz' (Eng. 'house') in Hungarian. The first especially is, sonically, a dead ringer for the English, yet is of a completely different origin, but happens to sound the same.

Allright, Chomsky, Whorf, Sapir and others will proudly state that there's no such thing as true coincidence in language, granted. In common parlance however, we may safely say that 'yu' and 'you' only appear to be related.

When speaking about Polish and Russian, clearly the relationship is more than superficial. LOL
Marek   
31 Dec 2008
Study / Intensive Polish study in Poland? Are there any affordable courses? [2]

Jagiełłoń University in Kraków has courses 'Język polski dla cudoziemców' (Polish for Foreigners), sponsored by, among others, the Kościuszko Foundation in the US. Other than that, I'm not aware of any of the type you mentioned, at least not in the New York Tri-State area.

I know this school because I almost went there myself many years ago when I first began studying Polish formally. The textbook they used at Kościuszko at that time was called WŚRÓD POLAKÓW (Among Poles), and I believe it was the Foundation's own publication.

Hope this helps a little.
Powodzenia!
Marek   
31 Dec 2008
News / Polish-Hungarian friendship - reality till today or just a phantasmagoria [144]

Osiol, you're not wrong in what you say. However, the Budenz theory of the Finno-Ugritic/Turkic connection is still a considerable ways from an immutable fact, I should caution you!

Furthermore, my comments were not with reference to the mode of living within the two societies, as much as the tenuous, if though provable, link between the two groups.

We are also taking about only linguistic affinity, hardly mutual intelligibility. LOL An Estonian, for example, and a Finn can understand one another's language a bit, if both are spoken slowly enough for careful comprehension. Same with Russian and Ukrainian, Spanish and Portuguese etc.. Hungarians and Finns CANNOT understand each other, nor can Hungarians and Turks or Turks with Finns.
Marek   
30 Dec 2008
News / Polish-Hungarian friendship - reality till today or just a phantasmagoria [144]

By your chromosome theory, all humans are related. Noone doubts that. The question is not whether a dog is related to a hippopotomus by virtue of them both being mammals, more generically, four legged animals.

Slavs and Ugurs are not the same linguistically or culturally, despite your Chomskian point of view which attempts to relate each individual language groups to one another!

That's just a little too all encompassing even for me-:)
Marek   
29 Dec 2008
News / The new Polish government is going to do... reprivatisation [25]

There's a mega difference here between 're-pivatisation' and 'repatriation'! Former East German territories of which West Germans were deprived during the aftermah of the Berlin Blockade ('enteignet', lit. 'disowned' in German) belongs squarely under 're-privatisation', former Polish (now Ukrainian!) territories such as Tarnopil (formerly 'Tarnopol') or L'viv (formerly Lwów and originally 'Lemberg'-:)) come clearly under the category of 'repatriation', as again, those borders changed hands so often, it's hard to tell even now, who the land "originally" belonged to. Multilingual deeds are also pf little help, as their authenticity cannot be verified in many cases.

It's an ongoing problem, a solution to which I cannot imagine in the near future.
Marek   
29 Dec 2008
News / Polish-Hungarian friendship - reality till today or just a phantasmagoria [144]

Not only his eyes! Hungarians and Poles are indeed wholly different, barring their geographical proximity and membership in the human race-:) Poles are Slavs, Hungarians aren't (aside from the inevitable intermarrying as per usual throughout European history), end of story.
Marek   
28 Dec 2008
Language / THE -A or -U ENDING IN MASC. NOUNS DEFINED [7]

In know the book quite well and serves as a gentle reminder of the pitfalls awaiting those learning Polish!

An exhaustive reference.
Marek   
27 Dec 2008
News / The new Polish government is going to do... reprivatisation [25]

Problem with all the talk, at least in Germany, about the so-called "Heimatvertriebene", is that most were NOT of Polish, but rather of pure German, according to the Nazis, racially 'Aryan', descent, who therefore were 'entitled' (bodenberechtigt) to live in 'teutschen Landen'! The Poles expelled from presently Russian-occupied territory after WWII continue talking about repartriation.

What with the border areas continally changing hands, it really depends on whom you speak with.
Marek   
27 Dec 2008
News / Polish-Hungarian friendship - reality till today or just a phantasmagoria [144]

I've known quite a number of Brazilians of Polish ancestry, all of them Jewish refugees from Europe before WWII, of course! Others came prior to Getulio Vargas and stayed until the 60'sm around the time Goulart, Tancredi and others seized power. A lot of Brazilians though prefer Cardoso to Lula. They say the former was a more focused and skillful leader. What say you?

We too are rather familiar with Brazil here in North America-:) More than merely the land of Brama, Campirhinas and Pele. LOL
Marek   
26 Dec 2008
News / Polish-Hungarian friendship - reality till today or just a phantasmagoria [144]

David,

Many of my English students are from Brazil. The challenges they have with English pronounciation and grammar, WOW!!! Never have I encountered a group of learners more mired in their own language and unable to make the mentality leap from mother tongue to target language, including Hispanics and older Southeast Asians!

I guess the Portuguese 'Ta bom' must have numerous applications in that language. It seems that every question I asked beginners was answered with 'Okay!' 'Are you from Sao Paolo, Claudia?' - Okay!, 'Why did you come here to the US?' - Yes, okay. etc......

Frustrating, if enlightening-:) LOL
Marek   
24 Dec 2008
News / Polish-Hungarian friendship - reality till today or just a phantasmagoria [144]

A curious language to me, among countless others I've encountered in my linguistic 'prowls' (I'm currently reading a book called "The Atoms of Language" by a Professor Mark Baker of Rutgers U.) is Georgian. It's the only language I know among the Indo-European tongues, in which PAPA = mother and MAMA = father!!-:)

Intriguing, eh?
Marek   
23 Dec 2008
Life / Euro Trash - does it still exist and what is the Polish variety like? [15]

Yes, and it has a negative touch! The 'lifestyle' involves spreading out all over the place with little to no consideration of one's neighbors, trashing tthe host country and behaving in a drunken, loud and inappropriate fashion.

Remind you of anything??? LOL
Marek   
22 Dec 2008
Life / Euro Trash - does it still exist and what is the Polish variety like? [15]

Sounds painfully like the 'Ugly American' stereotype of decades ago in Mexico, Hawaii, even Europe and other vacation spots where well-heeled post-War Yanks went as watering holes for the wealthy and where, if the truth be known, many behaved atrociously!!

At least south of the border, the term 'gringo' is not negative for nothing.-:)
Marek   
21 Dec 2008
Life / POLES' ENGLISH COMPARED TO EUROPE AS A WHOLE? [39]

Frankly, I think that the Dutch are perceived as having such fluent English because they seem to have far less of a comical accent problem when speaking it than most other nationalities. Granted that's all true.

However, the overall quality of their spoken and even written English is often well beneath that of a moderately educated Asian or Eastern European, among whom I include the Hungarians!
Marek   
20 Dec 2008
Life / POLES' ENGLISH COMPARED TO EUROPE AS A WHOLE? [39]

Admittedly difficult and not always useful to generalize. However, my experience is more in line with those whose experience in English with Northern Europeans has been uneven. In my case, even though I speak many of the languages spoken in Northern Europe, many Dutch, Germans and Swedes have often such bloated egos regarding their English skills, as with the tortoise and the hare, they don't push themselves further above an easygoing, slangy vulgar American-sounding variety. Southerners and many Japanese, with a far harder time learning English, speak and write much better.

In the tortoise story, it was the tortoise who won....not the hare--:)!!!