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Posts by SzwedwPolsce  

Joined: 21 Feb 2009 / Male ♂
Last Post: 27 Jul 2015
Threads: Total: 11 / In This Archive: 2
Posts: Total: 1,594 / In This Archive: 631
From: Poland
Speaks Polish?: Staram się... hehe. ;-)
Interests: Driving motorcycle, SCUBA-diving, playing guitar, delicious food etc.

Displayed posts: 633 / page 3 of 22
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SzwedwPolsce   
1 Dec 2009
Language / A good learning book for Polish [44]

Colloquial Polish (B.W. Mazur) is the best I have seen.

You learn linguistic structures (grammar) and very useful vocabulary in a balanced way. Many books have difficulties with this balance.
SzwedwPolsce   
30 Nov 2009
Travel / Platform information traveling from Krakow to Rzeszow [28]

Just read the signs correctly. Don't worry, I have never heard about anyone who didn't find their train in a Polish railway station.

and i dont seem to get any further - lol

It's just speaking, speaking, speaking... listening, listening, listening.

And of course read some grammar, and normal Polish texts. Of course you need someone in real life who can give you feedback.

byłaś polką?

był polką? = you were a Pole? (before you died?)
(czy) ona była polką? = Was she Polish?
(Sounds a little like the person is dead now)

Czy ona jest Polką? = Is she Polish?
SzwedwPolsce   
30 Nov 2009
Travel / Amsterdam to Krakow and back [8]

It takes about half an hour with taxi from Waw Airport to the Central Station. Rather cheap (30 zl) if you get a "normal" taxi from the taxi line, the persons offering you taxis in the Airport are twice as expensive.

i) Go for the 10.35am flight from AMS to KRK with stopover at Vienna.

I'm sure this one is the easiest and most convenient. Delays can occur anywhere, that's life.
SzwedwPolsce   
30 Nov 2009
Travel / Platform information traveling from Krakow to Rzeszow [28]

hmmmmm i think im terrified now

Even a brain dead person can find the right train. Just look on the signs.

But make sure you look on odjazdy (departures) and notprzyjazdy (arrivals).
SzwedwPolsce   
29 Nov 2009
Food / POLISH BREAD..... isn't it great... [22]

There is a lot of very good bread in Poland, if you go to the right places and buy the right stuff.

But there is also a lot of bread that's not so tasty.
SzwedwPolsce   
29 Nov 2009
Love / Love my polish girlfriend alot but under pressure from family [166]

'CAUSE a real Polish guy disallow ALWAYS that the girl pay!!!

Usually it's normal that the man pays when a couple is on a date. It's not only in Poland, but in many other countries too.

But we should remember that in Poland, culture and customs are different depending on where you live. If you ask young people about culture and customs you will often get different answers from those who live in big cities and those who live in villages.

More and more Polish girls really want to pay from time to time when you're out eating, drinking etc.
SzwedwPolsce   
29 Nov 2009
Language / Not sure if I will be able to speak Polish [53]

There is also the fact that a lot of vocabulary is alien-like. Someone earlier in this thread said that's not true but it actually is.

It depends on what your native language is. For some people there are many more alien-like words in the English than Polish language.
SzwedwPolsce   
29 Nov 2009
Language / Not sure if I will be able to speak Polish [53]

If you by "mastering English pronunciation" mean to be able to pronounce most words, for sure it will take more time. To get started with English conversations is much easier, though.

I agree.

I'd be interested in knowing the outcome in a related experiment one way or the other.

Neutral experiments are always good. It's very hard to determine how difficult your own native language is to learn. I am not a native English nor Polish speaker, so maybe it's easier for me to see it clearly.
SzwedwPolsce   
28 Nov 2009
Language / Not sure if I will be able to speak Polish [53]

But I never said that the differences between sounds like rz, sz, ż, ź, ś, s, z, dz, dzi and ci, c, ć, cz are easy to master.

For example, as Deveron said, the difference between czy and trzy is very diffuse in the beginning. But they are spelled completely different.
SzwedwPolsce   
28 Nov 2009
Language / Not sure if I will be able to speak Polish [53]

Polish pronunciation is much much much much more difficult for a non-slav due to complexity

In English you need experience to know how words are pronounced, in Polish you don't need this experience, you just need to know how all letters (and 2-letter combinations) in the alphabet are pronounced. It's a big difference.

I learned both English and Polish from scratch. I was younger when I learned English, it's easier then. My native language (Swedish) is more similar to English than Polish. But I'm still 100% convinced that an adult native Slavic speaker needs more time to master English pronunciation, than a native non-Slavic speaker needs to master Polish pronunciation.

Polish have some very difficult sounds for non-Slavic speakers. But when you know them fairly well you always know how to pronounce a new word. In English you can know all sounds properly but still you don't know exactly how to pronounce it. You need to have a "feeling" how it's pronounced.

The thing with English is that it's spoken with a zillion different accents and pronunciations, and people make themselves understood anyway, because people are used to it.
Polish on the other hand... Poles are not really used to hearing foreigners speak Polish, and they easily get confused if you make some minor error

This is true of course.
SzwedwPolsce   
28 Nov 2009
Language / Not sure if I will be able to speak Polish [53]

Polish is at least 30 times harder than English (no exaggeration).

It's not that simple.

Polish grammar is much harder than English grammar. But pronunciation is much more irregular in English than in Polish. I'm sure an adult native Polish speaker needs more time to master English pronunciation, than a native English speaker needs to master Polish pronunciation.

A Polish letter (or 2-letter combination) is always pronounced the same (with only very few exceptions). An English letter can be pronounced very differently depending on where in the word it is located, and what other letter are around it. Much more complicated.
SzwedwPolsce   
28 Nov 2009
Love / Love my polish girlfriend alot but under pressure from family [166]

Do you gave her handkisses? (Polish tradition)!

If you live in Poland now you should know that hand kissing is very uncommon among you people. People at my university just laugh at it.

I agree with you that men should act like gentlemen, but it should be on a reasonable level.
SzwedwPolsce   
22 Nov 2009
UK, Ireland / English tossers give Brits a bad name in Poland [139]

Anglik skakał po samochodach.

Idiots who can't control themselves exist in all countries.
But if you go abroad it's even more important to behave well, so you don't give your countrymen bad reputation.
SzwedwPolsce   
20 Nov 2009
Language / Are there multiple meanings for "jestes kochany"? [10]

always something new to observe, even when fighting/crying/regretting/fretting. much more interesting to do this in another language. every cloud has a silver lining ...

True. You get a new perspective on your own thoughts and feelings.
SzwedwPolsce   
18 Nov 2009
Love / My Polish girlfriend checks my mobile phone all the time [70]

the outcome is, we have rude and selfish people

Yeah, we also have a much more egocentric atmosphere in society today. It's only about me, me me.

Love, respect and good behavior you learn as a young child. But for many people sth went very wrong.
SzwedwPolsce   
18 Nov 2009
Love / HELP!! Need some advice about Polish guy at work. [26]

maybe i shud just ask him if he just wants 2 b friends or what??

Option #1

invite him round. watch a film with him. mention how long it is since you had a back massage

Option #2
SzwedwPolsce   
18 Nov 2009
Love / My Polish girlfriend checks my mobile phone all the time [70]

Honesty has "decreased" in most of Europe, also in the UK.
The respect for other people today is not even near what it was 50 years ago.

One of the very few things you can demand in a relationship is total honesty.
SzwedwPolsce   
18 Nov 2009
Love / My Polish girlfriend checks my mobile phone all the time [70]

lying is ingrained in the polish culture

Cheating in school is common (among certain people) in all countries. Maybe a little more cheating in Poland, difficult to compare.

Lying to family and close family and friends is even more unaccepted in Poland than in Western Europe.
So that Polish people in general are lying more in this sphere is not true.

Also note that personality is a very important factor, nationality is a much less important one.
SzwedwPolsce   
18 Nov 2009
Language / Are there multiple meanings for "jestes kochany"? [10]

'that was really sweet of you?'

obviously not a literal translation but from observation in context that is a frequent english equivalent

I have heard it when you do someone a favor. So yes, something like this. But as you say, it's not a literal translation.
SzwedwPolsce   
18 Nov 2009
Language / Two questions for people who learn polish [57]

I have to know whether or not the given town/city/country is a plural (e.g. Kielce, Siedlice, Katowice, India, Niemcy etc..), masculine (Kraków, Gdańsk), feminine (Warszawa) or neuter (Biała Blasko).

You also need to know the grammatical case.

Warszawa - w Warszawie - do Warszawy
Białystok - w Białymstoku - do Białegostoku

This looked crazy the first time I saw it. Polish loves to extensively decline everything by gender and case.
SzwedwPolsce   
15 Nov 2009
Work / Is it hard to find a job in Poland? [9]

It depends on what you compare with.

But generally it's not so easy to get a job in Poland. If you don't speak Polish it's very difficult.
SzwedwPolsce   
13 Nov 2009
Love / Do not marry Polish woman [212]

women are quality-sperm-seeking missiles. however, they have intelligent technology. they assess the likely viability of the male, and the sperm, extremely quickly. eg, nicely-dressed sexy guy in beautiful car, v. uncertain wimp in bad clothes with no money - who would you pick? of course they go for the one most likely to deliver - and then support - babies. even if they don't think that is what they are doing.

Modern neuroscience has shown that it's much more complicated than this in humans. This is only one of the factors. If you look at science that's not 30 years old, you will see that there are also other factors, that sometimes contradict what you say.

The theory you describe is too simplified, and was created many decades ago based on animal studies. Today we have newer research.