WHY DO POLISH PEOPLE THAT COME TO ENGLAND CAN'T SPEAK ENGLISH?

english is the 2nd language in poland but yet almost all the polish who are coming to england to work or live cant speak a word of it. the english that is taught in poland isnt proper english just like in england at polish school the polish is all wrong.

Maybe because those in Poland who have a good English knowledge have a good job in Poland and don't need to move to the UK...

if that was true why 3 million poles in the uk? poles come here 4 a better life. women are doing jobs in poland men should be doing like fireman,factory worker. poland cant build stadium for european championships football becuase theres no polish workers there all here.

That's the point. Most of the Polish people who go and work in the UK are poorly educated. If you've got a degree and know at least one foreign language, you can find yourself a proper job here, you don't need to emigrate.

the english spelling is on purpose wrong.thats how british ppl type.shortern words and saving time.its easy compared to england to get a degree in poland.people are coming to england because why earn 5zl per hour when your can earn 10 times that in england. england has a better education system and better hospitals and the main reason poles come here is becuase the polish government are very selfish and dnt care about poles.

marek_ : hehe, better hospitals and education system? (ok, i agree in the last one, but only partially- UK has a better higher-education. low and midlevel isn't better than in poland).

You can't generalise. What you see in England is a certain social group (again, I'm not talking about ALL Poles in the UK) - uneducated, desperate to earn money to support their families etc. etc. You can't say 100% of Poles are like that.

I've started my job not so long ago and I already earn decent money. No need to look for it in England!


It's partially true, but some people do survive here and a lot of them lead quite decent lives actually!

Now post a list of jobs where wages in the UK are 10 times higher than in Poland...

thats easy.what is typical wage in poland per hour. like bar staff or cleaner or factory worker.alot of the polish who come here have specialist skills like plumber and plasterer and decorator, there like on at least 600/1000 zl a day.doctor and teachers on more.ive been in polish hospitals in torun,warsaw,poznan lodz and more.and if the rest of polands hospitals are like this then o dear. english hospitals are not perfect by any means.since world war 2 poland has always had a close connection with england.my babcia like hundreds of thousands of poles came to england then.nows theres more.

the reason the Polish don't speak English, well the same reason as the English don't speak Polish, they are both English and Polish respectively.

How can you expect a nation to be fully prept on another language and especially one so different from their own. It takes time to learn a language and with something like english you cannot learn it until your start to speak, read and write it regularly, this cannot happen in Poland. So therfore they come to England or as here on a forum to practise. You cannot surely expect everybody to speak brilliant english when they first arrive in the UK.

Granted i hate it when somebody is in a job where they need to be able to communicate but can't thats not the fault of the individual its the fault of the employee for not having the foresight to see this problem. The Polish don't have a problem in learning english, many of my polish frirneds now speak a very good standard of English and they have been here for about a year.

I think it depends on the individual and the exposure they have had to the language. Its just my thoughts so don't shoot me down

T

Right on the money tornado2007

Why can't the English speak Polish?


But there are countries where foreign language learning reaches a much higher level than the UK or Poland.

I have worked with quite a few Polish people who can't speak enough English. One very good worker who always worked hard, understood the job through and through and could build anything out of anything, didn't get offered a full time job because of his almost non-existent English speaking capabilities. Some bloke who's only half as much use got the job because he could speak better English.

We don't value languages as highly as some of our European neighbours, unfortunately. Maybe the talent is there but the will isn't.

i think its because English is spoken in so many countries around the world that it makes the english reluctant to learn another language, i mean why, if everybody else speaks your tongue???

If the Polish language was a popular as English and spoken in a lot of nations around the world i'm sure the English would speak it if our language was used in only ou country. Its nothing to do with talent its to do with circumstance.

Seanus and Tornado, I think you are right, if there was more of a push in Brit schools to learn another language more people would take it on. I remember from High School (a while back ;) we had the choice of French or German. I think we got it twice a week. We started with a language in the late stages of Primary school but it wasn't a priority for the teachers and was only taught if there was a language teacher available to come to the school.

So yes, there does seem to be a hint of "everyone else speaks our language so why should we bother?"

As for Polish people not speaking English, that varies from person to person. I have a Polish friend who talks and talks and talks in English and speaks it very well (literally you can't make him stop talking) but a couple of other Polish people I know have poor English. Mostly though, the people in my Polish circle speak good, clear English but maybe don't understand "local" words.

The title of this post 'WHY CAN'T POLISH (correct: THE POLES!!) SPEAK ENGLISH? really begs the question a bit. I think the same question might be asked of any European group, perhaps moreso the Poles, Spaniards, or Italians, but even the 'pluperfect' Germans aren't exempt here, sorry to admit.

As soon as the EU starts making English-language film, both on TV and in the cinemas, MANDITORY in English, NOT dubbed into the native language of the country being screened, the sooner Poles and everyone else will improve their English. This will never happen, of course, 'cuz it's just too !@#@%#*-ing expensive!!! -:)

I agree...dubbing is okay for cartoons.
And not only for English-language films, but every other languages too, cause it would make kids ears used to other languages, and this way, it would be easier for them to learn another language (if not more).

I'm sorry for you, because you seem to need a lot of medical assistance.
I hope you recover soon.
Get well buddy.

No. In Polish you'd say Polacy, but in English either "Polish people" or maybe "Poles" (no need for the article in this case) would sound better. It sounds strange to say "the Poles" every time that Polacy would occur in Polish.


Why on earth would anyone want that? I personally don't mind dubbing (though I hate voice-overs (lektor)). I think it would be hideous to go to Italy (for example) and turn on the tv and hear English.

The correct sentence should be:

"why can't the Poles that came to England speak English?"

Here it is with the definite article because it is referring to a specific group of Poles, namely those that came to England.

As a native Brit "why can't Poles that came to England speak English?" sounds wrong and is incorrect.

:) then how about the original title of the thread -
WHY DO POLISH PEOPLE THAT COME TO ENGLAND CAN'T SPEAK ENGLISH?
:))

When I first came to the UK, my English was pretty limited. The reason for this is that I didn't learn it at school and my language skills were entirely self taught. Upon arrival in the UK, it was much easier to pick it up because I was surrounded by English speaking people. Its easier to pick up English in the UK, and no doubt plenty of the Poles that arrive with no English will pick it up whilst here. Thats my experiences anyway.

obviously that's even worse... :-)

the point im making is from a young age the poles in poland are taught english in school. i wouldnt dream of moving to poland if i couldnt speak a word of polish. in england polish is widly spoken and taught.polish food and drinks are widly sold here. theres polish signs everywhere so polish people can understand more like in banks and shops. polish is offered in english schools as well as german and french. i took my polish gcse at english school. english is taught in every school in poland and has been for many years.i know how well english is taught in poland as half my family were taught english in schools in poland.if you come to england lookin 4 a job that invloves interacting with the public ya need at least the basics.i mean my babcia has lived in england over 50 yrs and still cant speak perfect english which is the case for most of my babcia's generation who moved to england.9 out of 10 poles when asked where they'd like to live reply not in poland.i love poland myself.i go to poland 7/10 times a year.1000's of more poles enter the uk every week to live and work.settle down.put there kids in english schools. in my opinion the poles come here becuase the british government look after them more then in poland. i know polish polotics and its very corrupt.richer get richer and poorer get poorer.the poles get jobs here almost instantly. simple reason is the poles have a great reputation for hard work.

I agree that no article and the past tense 'came' would be wrong, I was thinking in the present tense "that come to England" which could be either with or without the article (with a change in meaning).

I'm only 24 and English wasnt taught at my school - it was introduced only to the year group below me. I dont know about schools in other areas, but the only languages I learnt at school were German and Russian.

Yeah, any long term resident in a country with a different language (no matter the reason for their presence) needs to become proficient enough in the language for survival, carrying out daily business.

But I find myself pretty unconcerned about the topic here for two reasons:

a) Most British residents in Poland (there are some welcome exceptions of course) don't make any special effort to assimilate linguistically before arriving or in some cases after many years of residence here.

b) Even those Poles in the UK can speak/read English very well will also prefer to speak Polish to other Poles and also want access to Polish media/information etc. and there's no reason why they shouldn't.

I guess a key difference is that English is taught in Polish schools for quite a few years whereas the same is not true in reverse. I get quite peeved when the Polish authorities, e.g tax and ZUS, expect me to understand everything they say and are visibly frustrated when I don't fully grasp a procedure or provision. My level of Polish is more than enough to understand most but, from time to time, there's a small part that I don't understand fully and u have to be certain with authorities who are sticklers for the books. They will catch u later.

I fully agree that Polish officials could use some basic lessons in how to communicate with non-native speakers of Polish.

For what it's worth, many people (regardless of language and country) don't understand everything in those kinds of contexts either, but may prefer not to ask for explanations, clarifications or repetitions so they end up spending lots of unecessary time with repeat visits and/or arguments.

My basic technique whether in the US or in Poland is to politely ignore the official's frustration and politely repeat everything I've understood (or paraphrase what I think they're telling me to do) until I'm reasonably sure I understand what to do and in what order. It takes more time during the initial visit but saves time later on.

I was away to say, good answer btw. My girl is well qualified and doesn't understand some of what they say either. She's Polish. I get by with patience although her 2nd opinion is always welcome. ZUS started to mess me around, issuing needless summons so I wrote an Upowaznienie letter and my girl now liaises with them. I understand the need for bureaucracy but not excessive and needless bureaucracy. People keeping themselves in jobs.