My Learning Polish Woes...

Gah.... the woes continue...

I studied Russian waaaay back, at least 15 byears ago. Last time I used it was about 3 or 4 years ago. It's been resigned to the back of my memory, along with the Macarena.

So now I'm getting stuck into Polish. No matter how much attention I give it - plus the fact that I am surrounded by so many Polish sounds, whenever I try to speak, the Russian just comes out :(

Which is why I didn't even go near Russian speakers or even listen to Russian while I was studying Polish for fear of language interference.

When I was learning Dutch eons ago, someone remarked that they knew I wasn;t really native Dutch because I was too 'beleefd'! Translating instantaneously for a moment I almost put my foot in my mouth, but caught myself just in time: 'beleefd' in Dutch means 'polite' (grzechny), it sounded though to my ears like German 'belebt', meaning 'busy' or 'active'. The German word for 'polite' is of course 'hoeflich', having nothing to do with either word.

Am still chuckling over that one.

Reminds me of the time in my A-level Garman class. My mate got a bit mixed up using the German-English dictionary... she got a bit mixed up with the word "After" :D

...... hold your nose when you say that. L.C.--:)-:)

Or how about it's converse. Letting your German homestay host (or guest - no pun here intended) practice their English by remarking how you 'love taking long walks in the MIST.....' and watching the look on his/her face.....