News / What do the Poles Think about the Polish Politicians? [13]


This seems to be a sad heritage of Eastern-Central-Europe that we can't just simply shake off. For example, the situation is much the same in Hungary (though I'd say it's worse). The media are almost totally under the control of the post-Communists. Instead of the late Soviet Union, they now serve the European Union. Not to mention the conquest of the Arabic countries by the US and Israel (soldiers were sent to fight in Afghanistan and Irak etc.). The current government have the media under control in nearly 100%. They try to oppress everything that does not speak in their favour. Journalists and news-channels are not in any way objective.

I doubt that we could ever shake off this ominous heritage in Eastern-Europe.

Life / How do Poles spend their free time? [14]

Forgot to mention the most cultivated leisure activity: having a couple of nice Polish beer with your mates. And maybe a few shots of vodka. Or ślivovica, to celebrate our cross-Eastern-European friendship. :)

Language / The final "ę" [29]


Yes, Polish is a soft language, and most of these things simply come down to the voiced/unvoiced assimilation. For instance, try to pronounce the name "Kwiatkowska". You'll naturally say "Kfiatkofska". :)

Language / How do people mispronounce your Polish names? [60]

They just have to shorten and put nicknames on everything in English, anyway, even when there's no real need to. (And no matter if it's British or American.) Even officially, they call themselves Les, Joe, Dave, Harry, Jerry, Ben, Tony... For me, it's a bit funny that the U.S. even had a president simply called "Bill" like an old mate of yours from the local pub. And when they happen to find a foreign name that can't easily be shortened to their liking, they break their tongues in the rush. :)

My name is István [pron. E-SH-T-V-AH-N], which is hard for them to pronounce at first, but as it is quite international, I usually just tell them to call me Steve. Surprising as it is, but quite a few people have realised so far that it is the same name as Steven, Stéphane, Stefan, Stefano, Esteban etc. in different parts of Europe.

Polish people have no problems to say it, btw!! ;)

(P.S. one more classic: I've got a friend named Máté (i.e. Matt), but they just call him "mate"...)

Language / How long to get fluent in Polish? [41]

Rosetta Stone is good, basically, but quite a few times I just had to go barmie at the resolution of the pictures. Sometimes it's so bad that you can't see sod all...

On the learning side, the method is good, but it gives you a passive knowledge, rather than an active one. I found that even if I repeat everything loudly, it's quite hard when it comes to writing. I know, Polish is pretty phonetic but it does have its pecularities for a foreign ear. I remember the first time I wanted to put down drzękuję... It sounds quite simple, but gave me a headache first, i.e. "dzienkuje" etc. :))

Life / Must See Movies in Polish? [65]

Another must see "classic" is Nic śmiesznego (Nothing Funny).

Language / The sound of the Polish 'R' [33]

...and you won't be able to swear! ;o) (k*rwa)

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

(OFF)
"Grzegorz Brzęczyszczykiewicz"
O, qrwa... You'd need to attach two name-badges for that at work! :D

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

>I think for the forigners the hardest in Polish are all the "wizzing" collocations, containing "szcz", "strz", "drz"/"brz"/"grz" etc.

And the collisions of ł and w. They absolutely do my head in. You know, like słowo, słońce, Wrocław, Włocławek... I have to force myself not to say either "l" or "v" (i.e "swowo", "Wroclaw").

In English, there is a phrase to practice the difference between v and w: "The vicar of Wakefield's wife gave a warm welcome to the visitors." Can you suggest me something similar in Polish?

Language / how are you - jak sie masz? (saying hello in Polish conversation) [10]

The fundamental problem with explaining these things is that there's no real formal types of address in English. I'm not talking about calling someone Sir, Mister, Madam etc., which is of course, but the fact that you can only use you, whether the person you address is someone you know as a friend or is a complete stranger. In Polish, you can be ty, wy, pan, pani, państwo... Takes a bit of practice, imho. :)

Language / misleading differences between Polish and English languages [92]


No, actually. :D

Even in a non-Indo-European language like mine, we have Latin loan-words but they can mean completely different things than their English counterparts.

Something I have to add to the misleading differences: I was confused when I first heard "priceless". I always thought it had the same derogatory meaning as "worthless", e.g. "something that isn't worth half a penny". But in reality it is the complete opposite: something so precious that its price can't even be estimated!


Strange, looks like the Saxons left behind this useful little word when they moved to the islands, then! :) Po węgiersku, "na" is of a similar use!

Na, I'm off now.

Language / A good learning book for Polish [44]

Rosetta Stone is good for a start.

For a language book, I'd recommend the "Hurra" series from Prolog. I think they are the most up-to-date on the market.

hurra.edu.pl

Every part comes with a Student's Book (Podręcznik studenta + 1 CD) and a Student's Workbook (Zeszyt Ćwiczeń + 1 CD). You won't need the teacher's handbook.

These are good for self-study as they are mono-lingual and don't present you a massive stream of vocabulary and grammar at the first sight. I'd suggest you should go to a language school, though, if you have no language-learning experience. Watching films can be a help as well. And listening to radio stations (hint: radiostacje.com).

Language / Polglish - mixture of Polish and English [34]

Or do they understand inglisz łenka? LoL

Language / Dokonany/Niedokonany - Perfective/Imperfective [46]

Ha-ha, interesting arguments. It all comes down to the knowledge of English. Thanks for the intro to the use of pi*rdolić, btw - I didn't have problems understanding it as my language has the very same perpectives in that field! :D

AnotherGuest:
as I say, it all comes down to your knowledge of English. In English, I know some pretty rude things by now, but I have to rely on my own language as it is much more expressive. For example, my problem is that English swearings are just too short. In English, you end up with repeating f***ing a thousand times. It's only films you hear beautiful phrases of swearings like "Glorious piece of heavenly sh*t!" or "Holy p*ss on a willow-tree!". In real life, they never say things like that. (I think if it was Star Trek, the universal translator would easily be screwed up translating my swearings to English like "Should've you f*cked your wh*re mother in the mouth, you... etc.")

Regarding the associations: yeah, you just have to practice English to get used to their logic. I can't really elaborate that... In a way, I would agree that they can't "imply" meanings so easily as we'd think, though they have some pretty euphemisms -- I like "stuff it" or "sod" for "f*ck it". :) These ones are still not as good as, for instance, "let me push it in your mother" in my language - which does not sound rude by itself, but the associated meaning is "f*cking someone's mother" (e.g. she is a k*rwa!) and you would get killed if you said it to someone you argue with...

To sum it up, if you don't experience the particular language in real life, it is quite hard to understand/learn swear-words or/and associated meanings... Swearing is verbal, and will always be verbal ("oral"). We can write about it, but that's just not the same. :)

Language / A good learning book for Polish [44]

DazzaMc, chrisscole:

I ordered Hurra!!! po polsku 1 directly from Poland. Cost me 30 quid altogether (student's book + workbook + p&p).

The prices are up-to-date on this page: hurra.edu.pl/angielski/opis_materialow.html

(See the "contact us" page for their e-mail.)

Life / The Narrator voice on Television & Films in Poland [29]



The same in Hungary. The only time we had voice-over was in the 80s. It's a thing of the past. When people bought their first VHS-players in Vienna, you could get foreign films' cassettes on the black market with that ridiculous voice-over. One young bloke narrated everything.

In the cinema, there are subtitles these days, but you can't do that on TV. Dubbing is a profession: professional actors do it, and there are dubbing directors. (Lips are not out of sync if the dubbing was done properly!) For famous foreign actors, there is usually one actor to dub them in their films. Sometimes a film is better than in original!

Language / A good learning book for Polish [44]

DazzaMc:
Sorry, I don't read the forum every day. Yeah, they e-mailed me a consent form that I sent them back with my details.

Well, I'm happy you were successful to order it.


I go to a school once in every week and we use this book. I have some experience with language books, that's why I think "Hurra" is quite a good book to start off with, even for a self-study.

Language / What is the most annoying thing about non-native Polish speakers? [90]


American English words sound too posh: "elevator" for lift, "apartment" for flat, or "automobile" for car are perfect examples... :o)


LoL. It's even worse when I go to a Polish shop in the UK and they speak to me in Polish. Basically, I get on well with my Polish, but I usually end up with explanations at the till, starting "Nie jestem Polakiem."

Language / Computer terms in Polish [11]


Bwah... I have to say that Polish localisers of W*ndows are really possessed by M$'s megalomania.

Language / czy../trzy.. - Full assimilation in Polish [22]

Well, thank you for all your replies, that’s all I wanted to know! So in a nutshell, according to a Polish “Received Pronounciation” (“literary Polish” or whatever we should call it), it is better to avoid that. Except if I plan to go to Poznań. :)

Marek: yes, it does occur in Hungarian, but the reason is that we do not like “consonant collisions” (sorry, I do not know the linguistical term). One good example is the word klucz – kulcs [key]: ‘u’ and ‘l’ was swapped to ease pronounciation. In conjugation, when a word gets a new ending, pronounciation assimilates the collided consonants into one, wherever possible, or a vowel comes in.

Btw. if I was to speak with a foreign accent, I would just say things like podziebuje. (I.e. ‘t’ would become ‘d’ before the ‘rz’.) In my language, the harder, voiced sonants have a tendency to win.



Mutual relationship that is. I assimilate Poles with my home-made ślivovica. :)

Work / Polish Language Courses at Polish Universities [14]

I'm going to Lublin University's intensive course this summer for a fortnight. It's not cheap either, but I read some info on other forums and I decided to go. You can apply till the end of May. Well, after you've decided if you wanna learn Polish or Czech or Estonian... ;o)

Language / Sayings in English that seem odd in Polish? [22]

Illogical sayings like “stone cold” instead of “ice cold” do me head in. ;o)

But I like the funny ones: “he dropped his guts” (i.e. he farted), “piece of piss” (i.e. “peace o’cake”, easy) etc.

Language / Past tense after 'by' [4]


Grammatically speaking, “...so that it were better” is conjunctive, not past tense.

Though, in contemporary spoken English, you would hear “so it would / it’d be better” or “so it was better”.

Language / Speaking bad Polish? [14]


Naah, we in the Midlandz speak proper English, orroy?!

:LoL:

Work / Polish Language Courses at Polish Universities [14]

No cześć! I've done my bit, so to say, been to the kul.pl/art_9038.html - Catholic University of Lublin (KUL) for a two-week highly intensive course. Really enjoyed being there. It wasn't cheap, but it was well worth the money. Highly recommend it.

Here you can find my short summary.

Pozdrawiam.

Work / Polish Language Courses at Polish Universities [14]

Polish Language Courses at Polish Universities

Language / free polish -english dictionary online [52]

I'm a beginner and I use Collins English-Polish - Polsko-Angielski Dictionary, Paperback Edition. These days, you can buy it in The Works for 3 quid. (RRP 8.99)

theworksbookstore.com/

For online use, I recommend Translatica:
translatica.pl

Language / Blackboard Language Project [28]

Check the Khoekhoe-whatsit vids in the series, they're f'ken hilarious. :D

Language / What is the most annoying thing about non-native Polish speakers? [90]


Yes, for us, the English “r” sounds like you have a lisp. It is much closer to l than to the proper (i.e. rolled) r. :) If I want to pronounce “plural” correctly, I actually have to go back to being a baby who has not yet learnt the difference between l and r. Plulal. ;)

:no offence intended:

IMHO an American “r” is even wRRse. Sounds like it comes through your nose. :o) A general Celtic “r” is much closer to one I’d find normal.