What is the most annoying thing about non-native Polish speakers?

I've never asked them to pronounce that but I would imagine it's "Firty..." Alot of them start spitting when they try to pronounce the "th" lol

I tried to teach a friend but it took 10 min. to just get the th right. lol

This is supposed to be about people speaking Polish as a learnt language, but in keeping with the way this thread is going, can I mention how Poles trying to speak German very often sound far more aggressive than native German speakers? All that rolling of the letter R and failiure to do nice Ö and Ü sounds - it grates!


I've been trying to teach someone the th sound for about a year now. I still feel like I'm getting nowhere. I fink I might give up...

Or perhaps I tink I might give up.

You are better off to forget it because he never learned it with me. lol
But he always brought me a case of lays chips when he came so I'm suppose to look the other way HAHA. He worked at the company. :)

Tell them to pretend they have speech impairment (even eef you fink zey already du).

Polish "zezem" - English "thethem" (both voiced)

The crazy thing is, when my student here gets excited, he does already talk with a lisp.
luvvy jubbly in english means Very nice, but in polish ' nice arse'

Doesn't Polish "taka" typically function as English "a/an", and Polish "to" typically function as English "the". (Please note that I will never get the hang of Polish gender.)

Have you ever heard a Pole try to pronounce "plural"? Basically, it comes out something like "plular" with a very thick accent (trilled "l", distinct "u"). I'm not sure if this is a pronunciation difficulty or just confusion with the fact that "singular" ends in "-ular". But English is the only language I've every heard that treats its "l" and "r" in such a strange way.

As far as trying to speak Polish, I imagine that I annoy (or amuse) the Poles to equal degree by utterly abusing their prepositions and noun declensions (seven nontrivial cases, why!?), and to a lesser degree by not being able to pronounce things like "dzwi" and "trzy" (Come on, let's have some vowels in there) or the distinction between "s", "si", and "sz", etc. (which, to an English speaker, all three = "sh").

Sorry, I guess I wasn't logged in. I am the "guest" above.

English "a/an" = Polish "jakiś/jakaś/jakieś" <-- We use these words only if we need to emphasize that the thing we are talking about is not specified.

English "the" = Polish "ten/ta/to" <-- We use these words only if we need to emphasize what is important or to show which one of many choices (things, persons etc.) we are talking about.

Use them only if you have to. In most cases they are not needed.

(I hope I was able to help regardless of my rubbish English grammar ^^)

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.

What do these words mean?

cipa - cunt
chuj - cock
kurwa - whore
suka - bitch

(:

What delightful words, McCoy! Thank you so much for that. None of them are in my Frankling Electronic Translator! But they SHOULD be, because let's say someone was calling you one of these names, you need to understand what they mean so you know you are being insulted, don't you think?


In the USA they use the expression: that's a load of hooey! I wonder if this is where it comes from?

Does suka mean bitch as in female dog, as well?


My father only lived in Poland for the first 17 years of his life. After the war he lived in England. To the day he died, aged 82, he never used "the" or "an" in the right places, not could he pronounce "the" properly, yet he lived in England, with almost no contact with any other Poles, for over 50 years.

hehe, maybe. kurwa is also used in the same situations like fuck in english. the one can say: kurwa, what have you done and it does't mean that he calls you names.


tak

Well if someone is calling me a cipa I want to know, so I can respond with a few choice words from my own language!

want to learn some more words like that? ;)

I think Nie rozumiem po angielsku would be better. You could pretend to speak only Welsh, that'll fox them!


Yeah, go on then. I don't see how anyone can learn any language if they are not permitted to learn the swear words and slang. It's just words, they don't offend me (and I am a professional writer!)

soo few more:

pizda - cunt
kutas - cock
jebać, pierdolić - to fuck
pierdolić - to talk bullshit
odpierdolić sie - to fuck off
napierdolić się - to get wasted
skurwiel -fucker
matkojebca - motherfucker
dupek - asshole
zajebać - to kill, to punch, to kick, to steal
pojebany, popierdolony -fucked up
ciota, pedał - queer, faggot
stul morde, stul pysk - shut a fuck up
tępa cipa, pizda - dumb cunt
wkurwić - to piss smb off
szczać - to piss
zajebiście - fucking awesome
co jest do kurwy nędzy? - what a fuck?


what kind of books do you write?

could be also podpierdolić or podjebać (as to steal)


also najebać się or ujebać się

Wow don't you know a lot of BAAAAD words?

I write women's history. See hastingspress.co.uk

i googled your name and you are real celebrity :)


yeap, but now i can say that you know many swear words too ;)

You really think I am going to remember them all?

I've been listening to Polish-language-learning MP3s in bed and at every spare moment for the past two or three weeks, and I can honestly say that I have not learned one single new word, although I've been through eight batteries and listened to the same lessons over and over and over.

Strangely, every piece of Polish I know is stuff I learned a long time ago.

It must be that I'm simply too old to learn anything new.

Thank God many young Polish people can speak English -- it's my ONLY hope now.

I seem to remember this Lady came onto PF some time ago ? Didn't you write a short story on your childhood on here ? (which everyone enjoyed reading )

Or was that someone else ? I do remember the previous poster was also a writer and worked or owned Hastings Press ?

:)

I just found this thread :-

https://polishforums.com/archives/2005-2009/life/poland-romance-unknowable-country-15831/#msg292064

Is this you ? Was a good write up :)

I'd agree that Polish is difficult, but it's not unlearnable.

Before even thinking about cases, it's probably best to forget all about the "a" and "the" in English to give yourself a chance. (A background in Latin would be quite helpful.)

I've just returned from the most wonderful time in Kraków and my limited Polish took me a long way. I didn't have to use English at all in the hotel.

Outside, I used Polish about 80 per cent of the time...most difficulties came when I was speaking to older people who tried to engage me in a fuller conversation after I'd asked them for directions.

Younger people were as keen to use their English as I was to use my Polish, so a lot of conversations were conducted in my often-rubbish Polish and their sometimes-questionable English.

It doesn't matter. We communicated perfectly, and I never got lost.

I do so much wish that I'd been able to give the older folk, who'd no English, a better conversation, but I hope to improve on that next time around.

As an example, a waiter in a bar used the word "podać several times. I didn't realise, at first, that it was a "dać" with extra meaning...

And that's the beauty of Polish. Just when you think you can say "barszcz" correctly, you find that a simple verb like "jehać" can take on many different meanings when you put "po" or "do" or "wy" in front of it.

I look forward to going back to Poland.

Your language is beautiful and your people are a pleasure.

However:


Not quite so sure I'd agree with the concept of a general Celtic "r". Welsh does have a trilled "r" and Scots Gaidhlig does too, but in Irish (my native language) you'll only find it among old people with no teeth. I'm not denying that it was there (it was until about two generations ago), but it's very hard to find nowadays. Sadly, in my opinion.

An excellent point though, because the Welsh sound answers "r" in "herbata" quite closely.

Ian


Their teeth?

Absolutely nothing :) though some of Poles (especialy older ones) might not like if someone would use word Cię (You) instead of Pana/Panią (Mr, Mrs)

Or cześć instead of do widzenia, LOL. I did that by mistake once. The opposite works to a lesser extent. I said do widzenia to a girl at the hairdresser. We know each other and she looked at me quizzically and said 'cześć' in a tone that suggested that that's what I should've said.

Hardly annoying tho, there has to be acceptance that foreigners sometimes just don't know. They are not doing it to be awkward.

you can say cześć to person you know well - friend, co-worked, neighbour.
You should say do widzenia to older people, your boss (if it's official meeting) etc.

you can use both if you cannot speak polish at all, if you are intermediate, you should use proper one.

I was born and raised in Australia. The first language I ever learned to speak fluently was Polish. I spoke perfect Polish for 7 years ( I began learning English when I was 5). Now as a 17 year old teenager I have naturally lost my perfect polish accent, and sometimes miss pronounce words in Polish, but I still speak very good polish but not perfect. Like someone had said, its trying that matters. Besides if Poland was a more liveable place (where no money problems) then my family and I probably would have moved back to Poland when I was 5, and would be still living there . Polish people need to stop arguing with each other and stand together as a nation!!

i agree.


my husband's telling me and his family too that my polish accent is cute and sweet. it's really encouraging... thank God.....

It's only happened to me at airports, and only when they see the UK passport. Though one guy was insistent, so I got a bit p*ssed off and decided to reply entirely in Czech instead - he soon returned to Polish after that! haha.

Sometimes I think that my Polish is too good - because no-one has ever assumes I'm "English" over there - I often wonder if I would be treated differently (better? worse?) if it was obvious that Polish is a struggle for me. However, few people have ever changed to speaking English to me in CZ, not even in hotels/airports, when it is obvious that I'm not a fluent Czech speaker, so I really don't know!