Language / What do you find difficult about learning Polish? [98]

Foxtrot, forstaar du ocksaa svenska? Many Finns speak much better Swedish than English, I found.

Language / What do you find difficult about learning Polish? [98]

I figure you also understand Swedish. Most Finns I've encountered speak better Swedish than English, though they'd claim the contrary and would deny this is so. In addition, as with many Europeans, the younger generation usually, they mostly claim to enjoy speaking English more than the enforced languages they had to study in school. However, they usually don't communicate as well in English (which they enjoy) as in, for instance, Swedish (for the Finns) or German (for Poles, Hungarians, etc.) which they claim to dislike. A Catch-22 if there ever was one-::) LOL

Language / What do you find difficult about learning Polish? [98]

....Polish has more inflectional permutations than y'all can shake a bloody stick at, so keep on sweating--:):) LOL

Language / What do you find difficult about learning Polish? [98]

Not that Finnish or Hungarian et al are a bleedin' picknick either, only that it'd be a bit of a mistake to confuse amount of cases with ease of language-:)

German, for example, has a mere four (one less than Latin with its Ablative!) compared with Polish seven, if one counts the vocative, and yet learners of German from Mark Twain on down have often been inundated with its tricky and slippery rules, or, seeming lack thereof.

Furthermore, what English lacks in the above grammatical baggage, she more than compensates for in her totally irregular and haphazard spelling/pronounciation incongruities. LOL

Language / Poles! How do you cope with English phonetics versus English spelling? [37]

Rather than talk 'down', try talking 'up to them instead-:):) Challenge even the most recalcitrant with new, "A-levels" vocab. which forces them to locate the word, then try using the same word in a similar followed by a different context. This will throw them slightly off guard, thereby forcing them to pay closer attention next time to what the partner is saying.

The latter worked for me when I was learning Polish. LOL

Language / Poles! How do you cope with English phonetics versus English spelling? [37]

'English has too many vowels.'

Sorry Osioł, but you've reminded me of the old linguists' quip about Finnland and Hungary. Years ago, so the joke goes, both countries agreed that Finnland with all it's vowels desparately needed some consonants, so richly represented by Hungarian. And so the two nations arranged a swap or transfer, whereby Hungary would "lend" Finnland some much needed vowels to enrich its consonant-poor tongue.--:) :) LOL

Language / Poles! How do you cope with English phonetics versus English spelling? [37]

Pawian, curiously the same happens when I try to speak with as close to a native Polish accent as possible. --:):):) LOL

Language / Two questions for people who learn polish [57]

For me, growing up with two languages, German and English (both developmentally related), Polish declension/conjugation wasn't really a shocker. The "challenge" came, indeed continues to dog me, when I got to the numerals. I think I'm already straight on mixed-gender as well as animate masculine vs. inanimate masculine nouns with regard to Genitive and Accusative case endings in particular. Still, on occasion I have doubts.

What I treasure about Polish, compared with English, is the textured, layered subtleties of all those verbal aspects plus prefixes. Somehow, they almost seem more expressive than our mere tense variations.

To be continued (....I'm sure)--:):) LOL

Language / What do you find difficult about learning Polish? [98]

Basque has, I believe, almost the same cases as Finnish-:) No relation, though. The former belongs more to the Nostratic Languages, and may share affinities with the Kartvelian tongues of Georgia.

Language / What do you find difficult about learning Polish? [98]

Absolutely! Russian in particular is immensely important and probably even more widely spoken than either Polish or German these days.

Mant Finns do, but most Russians don't speak or understand fluent English.

Language / Two questions for people who learn polish [57]

Rudzionu!

Someone = ktokolwiek
Somebody = tak samo, tylko jest mowa potoczna a 'someone' jest pisany język.

Language / Poles! How do you cope with English phonetics versus English spelling? [37]

At (short/open 'a', cf. "cap", "dad" etc..)

fAther (broad 'ah-sound', neither like open 'at' or closed 'fAce' with a final 'e' lengthener)

tAll (long 'aw-sound')

etc........, each with that pesky single letter 'a' causing soooo many problems--:):):) LOL

Language / Poles! How do you cope with English phonetics versus English spelling? [37]

True enough, Kitty! Though I've found that Polish shares with German and probably a number of other languages (both related as well as unrelated) the charactaristic of looking fearsomly difficult at first, but getting blissfully simple...the more one learns the rules. English however, although blissfully unencumbered by the inflective baggage of Polish and many others, has an equally frightful orthography/pronounciation gap, as stated often in this forum, plus becomes quite involved structurally if a person wishes to express themselves on a reasonable academic level, beyond a mere 'He said/She said' parody of a bad Hemingway short story. Frequently, what passes for English abroad is in fact a vulgar caricature of itself.

Too many times English becomes the international language of MIScommunication-::) LOL
Then again, any widely spoken tongue runs a similar risk of being manhandled by the masses.

Language / What do you find difficult about learning Polish? [98]

Surely not too much, admittedly. Yet Swedish is rightfully considered the lingua franca of Scandinavia, as is German of much of the Eastern part of Europe and these days English almost everywhere else, particularly in Asia.

French still maintains a last gasp of hegemony in sections of Africa and of course Eastern Canada!

Language / What do you find difficult about learning Polish? [98]

ALL Slavic languages have certain basic silmilarities, the numbers, for instance and various formulaic greetings etc. Structurally, Polish, Russian, Czech and Croatian have the same roots, but vocabulary can be especially tricky, loaded with false friend "booby traps", some of which can be harmless, e.g. Russian 'pismo' (letter) vs. Polish 'pismo' (general body of written work) etc..., while others not-:) LOL

Counting for a monolingual Pole travelling to Zagreb would prove little difficulty, that is, slowly identifying individual words in a written text. Beyond that however, it'd be as if a Parisian who only knew French going to Italy without speaking the language: It wouldn't really work, although the latter also speak a closely related language!

Back to Finnish, as it's closest relative appears to be Estonian, another even less commonly studied language (for a variety of reasons!), it's practically impossible to find cognate words in sister tongues as it would normally be among a decent size language family such as the Romance or Slavic group.

With Finnish, as with Hungarian or Turkish, aside from loan words, one's almost adrift without an anchor or sightings of familiar land (-:

Language / The only polish word a foreigner won't ever say correctly :P [113]

'przyjaźń' used to cause me terrible problems--:)

Language / The only polish word a foreigner won't ever say correctly :P [113]

Ależ tak, Shellyczko! Wyobrazasz tobie 'PSCHII -YAH -DZ'NN', Boż mój!! Man, I get tired just remembering how all tongue-twisted up my poor tongue used to get years ago when first began studying Polish formally. I'd come home from class both frustrated as well as exhausted, yet emboldened and revived by the consolation that half the world, (not only the Poles) struggle the same way with English...and most never really make it either-::) LOL

Language / The only polish word a foreigner won't ever say correctly :P [113]

I frankly agree with Shelley! It's the same as with many a young lusty male visitor to Sweden and the first word they want to learn how to pronounce in Swedish is 'knulla'. Which country are you from?

"Boże mój"!, sorry-:) LOL

Language / Poles! How do you cope with English phonetics versus English spelling? [37]

Gudd wun, Shellee-:):):)

Language / W Szczebrzeszynie chrząszcz brzmi w trzcinie [23]

"In the town of__________________, a beetle buzzes among the reeds."

Language / The only polish word a foreigner won't ever say correctly :P [113]

My teacher tried 'UWWOOTS' for '£ódź', among numerous other, what she titled "phonmonics" or mnemonic tricks/allusions to different phonetic symbols which often translate in to different, yet familiar, sounds, even words, in the learner's native language.

It worked-:):)

Language / What do you find difficult about learning Polish? [98]

Hungarian was a tough nut for me to crack as well. Not yet sure I even pierced the shell (he-he!), but I'm gettin' there....one case at a time-:):) LOL

Actually, when I finally did make it over to Budapest, I found that all the Hungarian I had learned, on my own mostly, was useful within the first 24 hours, since I got lost on my way back to the hotel and needed to be able to read bus directions etc.. NONE WRITTEN IN ANYTHING BUT MAGYARUL!! Scary. In addition, most younf people knew neither English nor even a smattering of German. Had a couple of tense moments there.

Language / Two questions for people who learn polish [57]

Although I don't speak ANY Celtic languages, I'd imagine that Irish shares with Polish a similarly complex declension system. What I've heard though of spoken Irish, briefly on St. Paddy's Day etc., it sounds more or less unphonetic, if I compare it to written language, e.g. 'Siobbhan' (Shavon), 'Sinead' (Shenaid) or the toast 'Slante!' (Slancha) etc..

Merely the first impressions of a total novice in Irish (...with more than a passing knowledge of Polish LOL)

Language / What do you find difficult about learning Polish? [98]

Yep, Seanus. First time I saw the city of 'Szeged', thinking Polish 'SZ', having come almost straight from years of Polish study, I pronounced it 'Sheged' to a Hungarian and they almost doubled over with laughter.

There were a number of such phonetic malaprops or whatnot that I made by transferring Polish spelling to Hungarian pronounciation-:)

Language / What do you find difficult about learning Polish? [98]

Interesting. Well, one man's meat...... You know the rest-:)

Hungarian has a slightly more regular pronounciation and uniform syllable stress than Polish, but, frankly, that's about it. LOL

Language / What do you find difficult about learning Polish? [98]

Easier? More predictable, surely. Not certain I would say it's any "easier". I suppose though that ease is measured usually by how familiar the sounds are to the learner.

We're all different-:):):) LOL

Language / W Szczebrzeszynie chrząszcz brzmi w trzcinie [23]

I don't know of a language which has THE most difficult tongue-twister. Polish's certainly up there though. English: "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.." doesn't exactly just roll off my tongue either (an English native speaker) any more than German: "Fischers Fritze fischt frische Fische.." etc. etc.., even if I grew up nearly bilingual in both languages.

Language / W Szczebrzeszynie chrząszcz brzmi w trzcinie [23]

Regrettably, black eyes, I don't know Chinese, so I couldn't say. Take your word for it though-:) LOL

Love / Breaking Up Is Hard To Do, Especially In Another Language! [46]

As a one-time casualty of a long-distance, cross-cultural relationship gone sour, I can definitely confirm that what a partner understands in their native culture/language is usually completely different from that of the other person's, even if English is the common language-:)

At twenty-five I was hopelessly in love with a German girl several years my junior. In this case, although we both spoke German as a first (in my case practically native) language, we scarcely saw eye to eye on basic issues other than the most physically obvious. As a result, we couldn't make it as a couple. Expectations do vary from one culture to another!

Language / Two questions for people who learn polish [57]

Learn Polish for what purpose? Conversation? Then Rudzion's right. Literature? Try easy children's stories (NOT poetry at the very beginning, remember, you aren't a native speaking child learning their mother tongue and you'll only get terribly confused!) at first, moving to more advanced short stories, later "graduating" to higher-level writing e,g. Orzeszkowa etc.. Newspapers are fine, but really only make sense at the intermediate to advanced stage, at least that's how it was for me-:)

Begin by doing nothing but listening and simple dications, on your own or with a teacher (preferrably a Polish native speaker). Polish, as with other Slavic languages, requires considerable concentration in recognizing speech vs. written thought patterns. DON'T learn slang right at the outset. You'll think you sound 'cool', but you won't; you'll merely sound like a foreigner trying to sound like a Pole. Even idioms. Don't bite off more than you can comfortably chew in the beginning or you're only likely to choke (..on your words) and bring up gibberish instead of expressing the normal, cogent, educated thoughts you enjoy discussing in your native language.

Powodzenia!