How many people really know English in Poland?

Well..they were only around 20 when Poland officially was no longer under the commie rule, why didn't they start learn then?

I would not expect anybody over 50 or 60 to know another language, but most people under the age group had a chance already. Yes, many young people are pretty good at English now, but still not enough.

English was taught in schools before 1989 but only students 15 yrs old and older - not in primary school like now. As for the age group I'd put it 50 and older had probably no schooling with english language at all.

I think most of the older generations learned Russian, German and French as foreign languages. That said, I have a number of adult students (over 40's a small percentage) for things like business and pleasure (including a group from the local law courts, interestingly enough). The rise of English speaking companies in Poland (like Phillips Electrical) has increased the need for English.

As to today's students, I think you just have to look at the number of private language schools to see that the business is booming. I have 5 groups of around 14 students at intermediate and above. There are over 20 teachers doing more just in the school where I work.

Add to that the fact that the Matura exam used to give a waiver to those kids with FCE. Now it doesn't, suggests that the Polish education authorities felt that the FCE was a threat to the Matura in some way. Now more kids opt not to do FCE but go onto Advanced instead... the level is definitely pretty good.

.. and a lot of them now are interested in learning English. Some HE institutions do an EU programme called the Uniwersytet Trzeciego Wieku ("the university of the third reich" or something) for pensioners and the English programmes are very popular.

Then again, if you count words like Hello and hamburger as English, I doubt there's anyone in Poland who would be an absolute beginner these days.

Easy there, i think you are mixing something. In this context it means university of the third generation.

Oh you could have a point there. I'd better stop wearing those swastikas to the lesson!

Literally, that would be "University of the Third Age".

in poland at almost every school children are learning the English. all the way to the completion lceum:) you have much łatwejszy and cooler tongue than other:) but the learning at school isn't enough to it to know entire language great

Well i saw one poland in newground well he can speak english well . so i think ur okay to go warsaw .

OOPS Post again cuz u guy don know what newground is !

actually newground is a flash game or flash movie site

i found another one they live in same state !

Their user name is

1 : MariogD
2 : Mejson

MariogD IS a teen and Mejson is a Adult .

Ok, to be exact:

368 persons speak English.
255 persons moan in English when they have sex.
476 persons wants to know English.

Every youg person have one language in grammar school. So there is 70% learning english and 25% learning german. In high school they have two languages. Most popular combinations are english and german or english and spanish. ...Every person younger than 25 will undestand you...

Oct 19, 09, 20:15 - Thread attached on merging:
do Polish people speak English?

i mean most of them..soon i'll be sent to work to Poland for several months and i wonder if it's possible to survive there without being able to speak Polish.

the simple answer is no
the answer to the latter part of your question - is - it depends where your gonna stay

but wait for expat views - especially those who live in Warsaw

lastly - it is not that difficult to learn a couple of nouns in Polish and a couple of infinitive form verbs to assist them, buy a dictionary and learn the rules of Polish spelling and pronounciation (which is not Chinese astrology)

I could actually say that more and more young Poles especially in the bigger cities know more and more English - it is the older generation that you will find the least success communicating in English

do Polish people speak English ?

Well..............there first language i think would be Polish. Then those that choose to learn English would in addition to speaking Polish also speak English. That's how i see it.

ok.thanks for reply.

i'd love to be able to speak Polish of course but i'm working with several Polish people here in France and they all discourage me from learning it by saying it's one of the most difficult languages in the world(i've also come across this statement here in forum). i'll be working in krakow

as far as I know Kraków as well has some expat oriented services, but you perhaps will need to make find some contacts to learn about these - keep the thread 'floating' hardly anyone writing here is constantly on-line

make contacts/friends with the expats living in Kraków - some regular contributors from here live in Kraków

then even though it is difficult for foreigners(westerners) to learn Polish fluently (because of the grammar) - knowing a number of most useful words sure can help much (in their basic grammatical forms) even if you can't pick them up from Polish people speaking

I'd say that in bigger cities most people below 30 speak at least some basic English. Don't expect anyone older to understand you, though. If you go to Poland you should learn at least some basic Polish. Learn the rules for pronouncing words, some basic grammar and vocabulary at least. A phrase book could be useful too.

Do not listen to them. They're either stupid or want your time in Poland to be far worse than it has to be.

For your question. Many, many people have taken English classes at some time, but many people who have are shy about using it or haven't learned enough to understand a native in real time or didn't really try to learn much.

Younger people in cities are more likely to have learned some, but it's not something you can (or should) ever really depend upon.
And the difficulty isn't quite as bad as cracked up to be. No, it's not easy, but you can get basic functional ability (which does not depend upon being perfect) in a couple of months here if you apply yourself.

well , i don't know lol
but it does sound difficult, i'll try to learn basic expressions ,as some suggested here,and terms connected with my job. i guess i won't learn much within 2 weeks:)

is there some nice Polish girl willing to be my teacher?:P

no there are no nice Polish girsl here :) the only ones that frequentiate here are moaners or shrews ;)

sure it's possible to survive without speaking PL. Now it will be more difficult for you to make friends and in general to get around than if you did speak PL but Krakow is tourist-oriented city so you shouldn't have major issues...

There are some expats from K-kow who post on this forum so you can always come back and ask for an advice in case you do have a problem.

Are you French?

Moaner. ;)

You have to speak slowly 'couse even for me it's hard to understand natives, especially british people. I think that educated polish young people can speak English but don't expect that shop assistants (old women) will be able to do it.

yes i am;]

i will speak slowly because my English is not perfect either

thanks for all advices!

i'll often drop in :)