Language / Madralo - is it insulting? [16]

Bleedin’ England is all about people who smile in your face, then talk bullshit behind your back. Shame that most foreigners adopt this behaviour all too easily...

Language / SMS known to English speakers? [6]

Yeah, they say “text message” and “to text someone” here. And they say “cash machine”, not ATM. They invent abbreviations, then use something else. Does me head in.

Language / Madralo - is it insulting? [16]


No, they aren't... at all. That's why they (we) adopt it so easily. But we have different reasons. (And we have no such manners that the English still seem to have in most cases - I have to admit that!)


It's meaning is English or Englishman. But it is adopted from Latin. No derogatory meaning (same as "Hungarian" in English). In Hungarian, we only have derogatory/tender names for the neighbouring countries and the ethnic minorities... :)

Language / (part 2) Polish Language Pronunciation - Sample Words and Phrases [311]


Naaah... You can never be sure in English. Remember that joke about "Mel Jibson" and "Kim Basinjer"?

Or names like Gilbert (you'd think it's "Jilbert", but they say Ghilbert). My mate lives in a Gillott Road, pronounced Jillott, but some people still say "Ghillott"...

This weirdness must come from a French influence...

UK, Ireland / WHY DO POLISH PEOPLE THAT COME TO ENGLAND CAN'T SPEAK ENGLISH? [118]

The thing is that we still suffer from the old linguistic education. Before, we had to learn Russian. It was mandatory and everyone hated it.

After 1990, the majority of the old language teachers (i.e. Russian language teachers) simply "converted" to a Western language, they had to pick them up or lose their job. And the education system still suffers from the old and stupid methods!

There are plenty of young teachers now (who spent some time in real world situations abroad), but one can assure you that the methods they have to use (officially, at schools) are simply stupid in most cases. They try to teach languages as if it was maths or something that you just have to listen to or read, then sit down and learn and understand, then take some tests (build up texts and sentences etc.)... And then they're surprised that they cannot even buy a ticket at a train station.

Language / LASKA- CHICK, BABE OR BIRD? [12]

It certainly depends on the context and the whereabouts in the English-speaking world... Can't just directly translate it.

"Chick" is more of an American English term for a bird. But bird is also an euphemism for bitch (suka) among males. And babe is commonly used to refer to younger girls [or someone at the same age as you] in everyday language round'ere with no derogatory meaning (i.e. "Hello, babe, you alright?" - is nearly an equivalent to "Hello, darling, you alright?", or better: "Hello, love, you alright?"). It's not offensive, has no "sluttish" tone as in American English.

Language / What is the most annoying thing about NATIVE Polish speakers? [12]


I understand it. Well, most of it... or some of it... :) Every language is difficult in the beginning, I suppose.


NativeEnglishspeakerstendtodothataswell..... Everyone's first experience in the UK (or Ireland or US). You just have to get used to the spoken language in real life.

Language / Writing Polish in longhand (cursive) [17]

My grandmother used to write in cursive. After WWII, the Communist régime had done away with the former education system, along with the cursive handwriting, and replaced it.

Someone has posted another topic and attached some photoes of an old letter (sh*t quality, though):

Language / difficult English words for Polish speakers? [119]

In American, it's li-RRRR-ly. :D

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

First and foremost difficult: grammatical genders for everything, just to multiply the headache with the cases.

Next: the different meanings and nuances in "prefix + case" combinations. I.e. na+Acc., na+Loc. etc. - same prefix + different case = different meaning. And I can't translate (=understand) them all the time in the same way, just have to learn them by heart. The same goes to "when to use na? when to use do?" dilemma and such. (Which is worse than the English "at/in/to?" dilemma, because of the different cases you have to apply.)

Pronounciation: to get used to all those soft consonants (ć, dź, ś, ź). For my ears, they sound like you have a lisp. O_o Not that I can really hear any faint difference in natives' speech, but the way I have to pronounce them with the tip of my tongue. ('Cause them buggers can of course hear the difference in my speech!)

Hmm, the struggles of a beginner, I suppose...
At least I have no problem understanding and using dokonany/niedokonany! :)

Language / difficult English words for Polish speakers? [119]


beach - b*tch
can’t - c*nt (in Southern England, at least)
:)


come - go

Language / Expressing "happiness" in Polish [29]

zajebiście ~ fucking great (could be used ironically as well)

=)

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

One more thing: the way they're using Pan/Pani instead of ty. In Poland, even young people, in their twenties, address each other like that.

News / Polish-Hungarian friendship - reality till today or just a phantasmagoria [144]

Hmm... I'm Hungarian and I think some chauvinistic minds need to spend some time abroad. Don't be offended, I offered that to my fellow Hungarians as well! Simply for the reason because today the Carpathian Basin is a nuthouse. You need to get out of there and have a "bird eye view". Most of our "problems" are artificial. They incite hatred among the native nations, and wait for them to cut each others throat. Today we have an insane anti-Magyar puppet-government in Hungary, while there are chauvinistic governments in Slovakia, Romania and Serbia. But if you get out for a while, you will appreciate things we have in common. We lived together in peace up until WWI. Or at least only the Osman-Turkish Occupation could break up Central-Eastern Europe before.

We need nationalism, we need to conserve our values that make up as nations. But that shouldn't draw chauvinism, we shouldn't jump at each other just because we speak a different language. I bet most of us from Eastern Europe have someone in their family tree who came from a neighbouring nation.

News / Polish-Hungarian friendship - reality till today or just a phantasmagoria [144]

Bwaah... Newspapers and the official media are no good. To get a picture of the real situation it’s better to read blogs and unofficial news sites, watch a few deep-buried TV programmes and listen to online radio stations and podcasts...


To tell the truth, I don’t really know about any initiatives other than introducing the Day of Polish-Hungarian friendship. IMHO, to strengthen the relationships with Poland, our government should first stand up for Hungary and the Hungarian people, but they clearly do not even have an attempt at that.

News / Polish-Hungarian friendship - reality till today or just a phantasmagoria [144]

Yeah, Germans... Or perhaps the Martians.

A "Hungarian" police car:

Language / WHY IS @ CALLED MAŁPA IN POLISH? [13]


Quite right that is! Here's one more:
Hungarian: kukac - literally: worm

Language / The best way for me to learn Polish [89]


That made my day. FOTCH
(falling off the chair laughing)

Language / WHY "HIGH FEE" for HIFI in Polish? [12]

English abbreviations and words are always problematic when they make their way into other languages. There are no rules for them.


?? Never heard that word... no idea how to pronounce it. If it is "pancake", then having pancake for breakfast is a US thing, while pancake is a dessert after a main course in Europe. English or Continental breakfast doesn't include pancakes.

Language / Rosetta Stone program - couple of clarifications requested [15]

The only serious drawback of this kind of immersion is that when you are in civilisation, you need to write and read. Just see how many people can speak and understand English, but can’t read it. And lots of them think they can speak it, but they know no grammar, thus speak and articulate in a horrible way.

Everyone has to take the time to sit down and learn grammar -- unless you are alright with some Pidgin Polish... :)

Language / SARKOZY -- SARKOZY'EGO or SARKOZEGO? [14]

Russian do use G instead of H: gamburger, Gitler... (In Slavonic languages, a first G/H is always funny. For example, Czech and Slovakian tend to stick to H instead of G: hranica etc.)

Sarkozy is Sárközy, originally, but that won't change the proper Polish inflection: Sárközy'ego. (The y is pronounced as i. It was just an old convention to use y for an ending in noble names.)

Nagy is of a different matter: gy is a consonant (just like sz or rz in Polish), so following the rule quoted by Krzysztof:


Therefore there's no need for an apostrophe there: Nagya, Nagyem, Nagyego etc. But I think they would still use it in newspapers as the average reader could get confused. :)

Language / SARKOZY -- SARKOZY'EGO or SARKOZEGO? [14]


You're always better off pronouncing the Hungarian letter “a” as a Polish “a” - not “o”. Using Polish ortography, Nagy could be Nadj or Nadż for a Polish speaker.

(It means duży or wielky, btw.)

Language / Usage of the word "Na" [17]


I'd say it's "to": (look forward) to seeing (each other again)
See also: na zdrowie - to (your/our) health

Language / SZCZ and ŚĆ HARD TO EXPLAIN [19]

I don't think anyone can hear any real difference between a soft and a hard consonant other than natives in a Slavonic language...

See also the problem in English with "a" and "e" (i.e. the classic example of "my dad's dad" vs "my dad's dead").

But the thing is that with an effort, you can always learn the correct pronounciation. And as your vocabulary grows, you will automatically recognize more and more words and "hear" the correct sounds.


In my case, they are China [czajna], chill [czil], shark [sza(r)k] and attention [-sz(ö)n]... Well, a Polish speaker may occasionally judge them as "ś", "ć" etc., but they are quite accidental as there is no such distinction in my language. And there's no such soft/hard distinction in English, either, so that transcription above is quite pointless.

Language / SAY TELL TALK SPEAK - HARD 4 POLES [22]

to speak ~ przemawiać
to talk ~ rozmawiać
to say ~ mówić
to tell ~ opowiadać

This is only a rough approximation of mine. One simply has to learn the nuances in English expressions, as you've already explained above.

I think this situation is far more worse 'vice versa', i.e. for an English speaker to learn Polish, because of the co-verbs and the imperfect/perfect distinction: prze-, roz-, poroz-, wymawiać; opowiadać - opowiedzieć etc. :)

Language / The difference between i and a ? [15]

Bwah, I’m glad my mother tongue is not English... :)
I would also say that i is about similarities, a is about differences.

i = and
a = and, in a sense of and then; or in a sense of but

For example:
Mój brat XY ma 20 lat i studiuje ekonomię na uniwersytecie w XYZ, a moja siostra Z ma 25 lat i pracuje w biurze w XYZ.

– Here, a have this "and then" meaning.


I would call that the most simple example! :)

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


:D


Szeged is the name of the city, but segged is your arse. :D

This made my day. :)

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


I disagree. In Central-Eastern-Europe, the problem is still in their methods. Language teaching is still based on the old academic path of “read the text + listen to it [as an option] + learn the vocabulary + regurgitate everything word by word”. The whole learning process is boring and repelling, even for the “linguistically talented” one.

What they fail to understand is that these days it is very easy to make contact with the real language (i.e. outside the textbooks).

You do not necessarily need a native tutor. When you need clear explanations in your own language (i.e. when you have to understand complex grammatical structures), a native English (or Polish, in this case) teacher is not much of use IMHO. You can “pick up” words and phrases from natives, but can never pick up grammar without making an effort.

Accent is somewhere half-way between. It requires effort, and a good teacher should always begin the process by explaining basic phonetics. Of course, there is no such thing as a ‘proper’ pronounciation -- what I mean is that you have to be aware of the characteristics of the language. In Polish, for instance, you have to be aware of the difference between soft and hard consonants etc. (There’s a similar thing with the diphtongs + the triphtong in English). Then you can conform to a native dialect or accent (of your native teacher, or wherever you go/live in the world).

@nessaxoxo84:
if I’m not mistaken, you’re American. For a better understanding of Polish, I suggest you’d do plenty of “listening & reading”. Reading comes in the picture when you have to ‘develop’ your vocabulary -- and you want to do it on your own. There is a sticky topic here somewhere with links to online resources (i.e. stuff to listen to). Plus, most of the Polish movies’ DVDs have English subs these days.