Ik verstaa Vlaams bijnaa zo goed als Nederlands. Switching to English (regrettably!), do you find it's easier for Dutch speakers to learn Polish or Mandarin? Since practically all Dutch and Belgians speak a second and third language fluently, usually English or French and then German, is the jump to a Slavic language harder?
mmmm yes... I switched two letters.. sigh sigh sigh...
Lyzko aka Marek : of course Mandarin is a very difficult language. But somehow I managed to get it faster then I get Polish. Seems like every word I learn is forgotten the next minute... but I will succeed. I speak seven languages and studied Latin in school. Polish will not be the language I break my teeth on .. no way ...
Do you know f.ex. German as well as your native language? Just curious. LOL Which others can you speak? I know a number myself, among them Polish, German, Danish, Swedish, Dutch, (survival) Spanish and I have a fluent reading knowledge of Norwegian.
Many Polish speakers find English a nightmare in reverse; we have MORE exceptions than actual rules, almost zero correlation between often completely irregular spelling vs. pronounciation and a staggering choice of vocabulary!!!
Ever seen an old movie from the early '80's called "Sophie's Choice" with Meryl Streep as a young Polish-Jewish immigrant to America? In one line during the film she remarks to her equally young English "tutor"/later romantic interest how English has sooooo many words for one word in her language. "You have (reading from her first dictionary) for "fast" 'fleet', 'rapid', 'expeditious', 'speedy', 'swift', I get dizzy just to think of it all.."
this was a really a bad example cause they used in the film - fast can be described in quite a lot of words in Polish: szybki, prędki, bystry, chyży, rączy, żwawy
Ever seen an old movie from the early '80's called "Sophie's Choice" with Meryl Streep as a young Polish-Jewish immigrant to America? In one line during the film she remarks to her equally young English "tutor"/later romantic interest how English has sooooo many words for one word in her language
Well her language obviously wasn't Polish....Polish is the one that has a million words for one English word....
no Davey it's not this way - quite often it is the other way round often you see polish words (verbs) that correspond to prepositional constructions in English after all to get off a train is not the same thing as to get onto a train - in Polish these are two different entries in dictionary in English you find both at the same entry - so the abundance is quite illusionary
having said that Polish language can be modified by all those suffixes, prefixes etc (I mean it can be creatively extended - new words can be easily created by modification of older ones)
in English people need to use other devices most of the time to achieve similar goals (so there's plenty of meanings to one word for example but also completely new words are invented (new roots) etc. etc
dictionary comparison tells a story as well - there are more entries in English dictionaries than in Polish dictionaries - but simplistic reasoning here does not give you accurate conclusions
I am impressed Marek.I play with languages, as others do with PC's. But still, Polish gives me grey hair....
Hungarian... THE most difficult language in he world, beside Finnish. And Albanian... good lord... you are courageous.
I used to be a flightattendant for the German airlines, and I loved the flights to South-merica , as there always as mixture of all the languages I spoke. And felt like a fish in the ocean.
Btw, what course in Polish would you suggest, kwowing that I am an auditive and visual learner? I like repetitions to acquire my language knowledge.
By the way, my boyfriend's dad is also called Marek.
Jaha, men varfor det daa? I mean, why is it surprising to learn the language of the country one is visiting, albeit in my case only for a short while?? I've always subscribed to the slogan (call it a heresy if you like): BROKEN ENGLISH, INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE OF MISSCOMMUNICATION!!
Hanging out in Goteborg when still in my twenties, I'd ask people who would speak to me or who were curious about my fluent Swedish, "Talar du engelska eller svengelska?" Usually, it was the latter (...but noone dared admit it)--:))
Javisst, du. Owszem pana. Ja, selbstverstaendlich. etc...... Probably, aside from PF, is to try getting into contact with your local Polish consulate and inquiring as to Polish language instruction. Once you've done that, try learning as much onyour own as you can.
Don't wish to be too forward once again, but the Poles are far more intent on foreigners learning their rich and inimitably textured mother tongue than are the Swedes as a whole. There are always exceptions though, of course. I found that even if the average Swede's English wasn't even anywhere nearly fluent/perfect, they would usually INSIST on speaking English, although the partners' Swedish far surpassed their English.-:)))
The Poles are blessedly different in this respect. They encourage everyone to speak Polish, at the very least while in Poland.
Lycka till och om du skulle ville behova naagon hjalp, bara hor av dig har vid PF!!
I talked to a woman here in PL a couple of weeks ago that spoke Swedish, she had been working in Sweden. It was not very strange, but still surprising.
they would usually INSIST on speaking English
Probably because they want to make it more comfortable for you, if you speak English better than Swedish.
It might be more "comfortable", but usually the language-trained visitor to Sweden knows Swedish better than the run-of-the-mill Swede knows English, therefore, it is then no longer comfortable for the stranger, but annoying and more than a trifle embarrassing for the Swede who labors under the delusion that they are making great impression.
whooops, "making A great impression". Gosh, am starting to write English like a Pole--:))) LOL
I don't think that's representative for the Swedish population. But all kinds of people exist in all countries. You are very welcome to come to Sweden and speak Swedish, I think most people would appreciate it.
Skål!
Of course all people don't know English well. But I don't think people will have big problems when visiting Sweden.
"The common observation that Swedes are good linguists has been confirmed by a new Eurobarometer study: "Europeans and Language." The study reported that 81 percent of Swedes speak English, which is a higher percentage of any nation that does not have English as its national language. Dutch were ranked second-best in English, with 80 percent speaking the language, while Danes were third, with 78 percent. The average for the EU was 41 percent who speak English."
Tack, detsamma. Point well taken. Anyway, as regards Polish, try looking into those sources I mentioned and let us know how you've made out thus far, allrighty? -:))
Aug 7, 09, 20:23 - Thread attached on merging: What is the best way to learn Polish?
I have recently become fascinated with Polish Culture and would like to learn the language so I can learn more. What is the best way for me to go about doing this? The only words I know are Jak się masz.
