Language / Too many English words in the Polish language! [709]

It's only partly true that languages in general borrow words when they don't have a word for a concept. It's not that hard to create new words in Polish (or expand the meaning of older ones) which is why people use komórki and not mobajle for example.

Words get borrowed for all sorts of reasons and expressive nuance is one of the most important. I remember when the words for 'place to have a few beers with friends' had really bad connotations and so the english word pub was pressed into service and then after a few years the previous poor connotations of knajpa (from German) were rehabilitated and people began to use that too.

What bothers me is smug self-conscious unneeded borrowings that the speaker thinks makes them look cosmopolitan. Really, in this day and age, borrowing English words into another language is the most unoriginal and banal behavior possible....

Language / Too many English words in the Polish language! [709]


I know, the same happens in English, some titles (esp operas like La Traviata and Cosi Fan Tutte) are not translated into English (even when sung in English).

But this is the first time I've seen a non-English title translated into English and that being used as the Polish 'translation' (or appearing where the Polish translation would normally appear).

Language / Community interpreting/public service interpreting in Poland [13]


Why have you become so nasty toward so many people? They may have different values from you but it's their country more than some random EU person who washes up here.

Courts do provide interpreters though often this is just someone who speaks the language in question and Polish and not necessarily a trained professional.

Nowhere else does AFAICT and I can't see any special need for them to do so.

There are other languages in Poland but the common national language is Polish and the burden is on the resident foreigner to deal with that.


Three factors

a) bureaucrats use a lot of jargon that only they understand

b) they speak at breakneck speed unless you (politely) request (repeatedly) for them to slow down and repeat themselves

c) many Polish people are hesitant to ask someone to repeat themselves for reasons I don't fully understand.

I've never used an interpreter dealing with the bureaucracy (and I'm not shy about asking them to repeat themselves and I repeat back what they say to make sure I understand). I've informally helped people but I'm not sure if you'd call it interpreting. If possible I just find out what they want ahead of time and then go in with them and take care of it myself (making a pretense of including them once in a while). Once at the migrants office they had to tell me to wait for the person to answer themselves instead of answering for them....

Please keep to the topic, everyone.

Language / Too many English words in the Polish language! [709]


So you're saying the translator might think that an accurate translation of "The killing" into Polish is "di killink'?

The translations I've found for the title are: przestępstwo, zbrodnia, wykroczenie... I still zbrodnia would be a better title but it might already have been taken.

Study / Shocking! Test standards in Polish schools. [165]

The consensus of linguists:

for infants, all spoken languages are equally easy/hard to learn, all infants learn to speak at the same rate (differences are greater between infants speaking the same language than between groups of infants speaking different languages).

once a person has acquired their native language(s) then other languages are more or less difficult based on several factors, including similarity to the person's native language, Polish is easier for Russian speakers than for English speakers, English is easier for Norwegians than for Poles.

writing is another matter and some writing systems (Finnish, Spanish,) are much easier to learn than others (English, Chinese).

getting back to the original topic, the standards aren't very impressive but it's what you get when you expect millions of people to learn a foreign language very different from their own, with minimal exposure and not that much real, concrete motivation.

Language / Too many English words in the Polish language! [709]

Stupidest translation I've heard recently:

I've been watching the awesome Danish detective drama Forbrydelsen (with lektor) and when the Danish title comes on the screen mr lektor translates it as 'di killink' (trying to say 'the killing', the English translation of the title used in the UK).

uhhh what's wrong with 'zbrodnia' (an accurate translation) or zabijanie or something like that?

News / Poland now soft-pedalling ACTA signing [107]


And who gets to define what's racist? You? Little dictator?

Study / Shocking! Test standards in Polish schools. [165]

The high level of English of Danes, Norwegians, Swedes and the Dutch is mainly due to the combination of massive exposure and linguistic similarity. Dutch is the most closely related national language to English and there's a large amount of Scandinavian influence historically. Finnish speakers have as much exposure but the results are less impressive (impressive but not to the same degree).

Also said countries have little cultural self-confidence and an unwanted by product of their English ability is difficulty in convincing resident non-locals, including permanent residents to learn and use their languages.

News / Poland now soft-pedalling ACTA signing [107]

I think PO has given up completely on the youth vote for the future.

And where is mr alternative Palikot?

Love / Any Polish Muslim girls living in Poland? [103]


I'm sure the muslim women I know will enjoy you educating them about their religion.

And the answer to your question is that most people in Poland will look down on you for wearing niqab. There's no tradition behind it and no benefit whatsoever. The mostly wouldn't care about hijab (or notice it unless you make a big deal about it). But a real Polka would know that already.

If it weren't for the ridiculous English only rule on this forum, we could very quickly show that this person isn't Polish (or probably a woman) at all.

Love / Any Polish Muslim girls living in Poland? [103]

Do you want to wear niqab because you're ashamed of becoming muslim?

For what i's worth I know muslims (including women) who are freaked out at dealing with someone in niqab and consider it a backward cultural practice with no true religious justification.

What contribution can you make to Polish society by covering up your face?

Work / A Nigerian planning to relocate to Poland for better opportunity. [8]

Unless you speak Polish extremely fluently you have almost no chance of finding work in your field.

History / Warsaw - under whose occupation in late 19th century? [16]

According to the grandfather of all knowledge (wikipedia)

"Following the Congress of Vienna of 1815, Warsaw became the centre of the Congress Poland, a constitutional monarchy under a personal union with Imperial Russia"

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warszawa#16th_to_18th_centuries

Work / Teaching salary per hour, PhD in Architecture [28]

Have you actually applied anywhere? Sent your CV around? Dropped by in person?

Have you done anything to make contacts?

Are you working hard to learn Polish so that you won't be a drag in a Polish speaking environment who'll need special treatment all the time?

Work / Teaching salary per hour, PhD in Architecture [28]


In theory yes, in practice not so much.


The easiest is to ask them. You don't have any bargaining power so you have nothing to lose. Keep in mind you're asking about starting next October since it's really doubtful that they'll be willing/able to have something for the summer semester (starting in february) and that polish universities are basically closed from july through september.

Life / Do Polish Marlboros differ? [21]


Huh? If there's a law like that it's stupid and inneffective since I hear people asking for "lajty" cigarettes all the time.

Work / Teaching salary per hour, PhD in Architecture [28]

University staff are usually not paid by the hour and there's mostly no negotiating salary. Your best strategy is looking up schools of architecture in google and making personal visits (hiring tends to follow 'a bird in the hand' philosophy, just sending in a cv won't work). You'll need to stress that you're learning Polish as a non-Polish speaker in a Polish work environment is usually more trouble and effort than they're worth.

Also, erasmus may be encouraging English language lectures but the reality is different in Poland.

I've taught that kind of class for a couple of years now and a lot of people on Erasmus basically have trouble following a lecture in English.

And Polish architecture students are mostly not going to want lectures in english if they can get lectures in Polish (which they can).

But you never know until you try.

Language / Give me some reasons to learn Polish [126]

It will definitely broaden your intellectual horizons.

It will help you develop mental discipline.

It's interesting on its own.

You like it.

Any foreign language will help with the first two but the last is subjective and needs no outside justification. You'll get more out of learning a language you're genuinely interested in than a 'practical' language that doesn't interest you (for whatever reason).

Life / What is wrong with Poznan? [197]


In other words, you're prejudiced.

Life / What is wrong with Poznan? [197]

Lesson learned: While it's completely normal for new arrivals to ***** about any country they've recently arrived in, it's probably not a good idea to do so on a public board full of people who have mostly already made their adjustments or who have a chip on their shoulder against some category of people you belong to.

Really, the level of nastiness among some people here is really uncalled for, I've defended him in the past but delphiandomine has shown less than zero class in this thread and deserves another yellow card (at least).

Life / What is wrong with Poznan? [197]


Learn the look! Really it can work wonders. Look right into the faces of drivers who might be about to go into your lane as if they were total scum. They always stop. A passive aggressive point to the crossing signal works too.

Life / What is wrong with Poznan? [197]


Yeah, it mostly doesn't bother me. Lord knows I did more than my fair share of complaining early on. Back then the differences between NAmerica and Poland were much more extensive and so I aimed at bigger things than traffic lights (ever try making a long distance call in the early 90's? hooo boy!). But I did complain about things that don't bother me now.

Life / What is wrong with Poznan? [197]


en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_America

There is no geographic barrier between Mexico and it's northern neighbor the US. They're on the same continent, North America.

Life / What is wrong with Poznan? [197]


Mexico is in North America (geographically even if culturally it belongs more to Central/South America.

As for the OP, as a longtime resident of Poznan, I have to say the complaints about traffic lights are just dumb. They're no worse (often better) than other countries in the region. A very trivial thing to expend so much worry over. One thing he needs is to master 'the look' a withering gaze that pedestrians can bestow upon drivers that will stop most of them even when they have the right of way.

The questions about road construction are connected to Euro 2012, everybody hates it but is putting up with because a) there's no real choice b) the assumption/hope is things will be better by spring.

Poznanians are not _ruder_ than Poles in other cities but they are more standoffish. Look up Prussia and remember Poznan used to be part of it.

The ticket issue is only really important the first day or so when a person is unprepared and arriving blind. After you know what the system is there's no excuse for being caught out. If you're too cheap/disorganized to buy a sieciówka then if you're out of tickets try to buy one from a fellow passenger (Polish skills are needed for this though).

Life / WHY DO POLES USE ENGLISH WORDS IN CONVERSATION? [396]


I've already heard it (in Poznan) but from someone who was working in Warsaw.

Except the version I heard was ciapaty (adjective in form though treated as a noun phrase), plural ciapaci.

Some very quick googling seems to indicate that ciapaki (singular ciapak) is more insulting.

It means (South) Asian.

Language / Difference between wise and intelligent in Polish [30]


The context strongly suggested the other teacher was using the test result as particular confirmation of their evaluation of the student as very intelligent.


No, not for me, but there's another cultural/linguistic difference between Polisha and (US) English (maybe). In Polish if you single out one member of a group as being very intelligent you're not really saying anything about the other members of the group. In my version of English singling one student out as being intelligent means that you think they're smarter than the others. That is in Polish (IME) saying something about one more members of a group doesn't necessarily imply anything about the others while in English saying something about part of the group will also imply something about the other members, at least those are my intuitions.

Again, this is a question of overall "language feel" that came out of questions about usage (and talking with both English and Polish speakers) about the different implications of translating things in different ways (in other words I didn't just make it up though I can't back it up with independent citations).

Language / Difference between wise and intelligent in Polish [30]


Dictionaries are best at checking meanings of words you find in context. They're less useful for figuring out how to say something beyond the most basic things (unless you cross check a time or three).


Cause they were all unversity students able to keep up with a tough subject.


Because native intellgence and test taking skills are overlapping but independent phenomena. Sometimes really smarter students do less well on tests than students whose skills include performing well on tests. In the US this is widely reognized in education and the term 'good test taker' means just that, a person who can do well on tests without necessarily being the most knowledgeable about the subject being tested. Obviously a good test taker is also intelligent but test results rarely coincide with absolute intelligence rankings (or knowledge of the subject at hand, which I know from personal experience as a good test taker).

Again in Polish it made sense but it's not how I would have evaluated the situation in English.


To some extent but overall genetics are the bigger determiner of intelligence. You can make bigger gains in knowledge than in intelligence.

Language / Difference between wise and intelligent in Polish [30]


Not nearly alarming enough.


ME: So-and-so did really well on her final
Polish teacher: She's very 'inteligentna'
Me: ??? (all the students in the group were very intelligent this one just happened to do better than expected on the test)

For me (native user of USEnlgish)

wise = knowledgeable about life and human nature

intelligence = genetic endowment (whether realized in an educational setting or not)

Language / Difference between wise and intelligent in Polish [30]


They're very dangerous and should always be used with caution. If there's anything I dread (as a teacher) it's a student who decides to dress up a perfectly acceptable essay by diving into the dictionary for fancy words.... brrrrrrrrrrr

At a minimum you should always reverse check.


I've heard the Polish used when I wouldn't use the English (probably vice versa too but examples don't spring as easily to mind).

Back to the OP, since I'm not sure if he's a native speaker I can't be sure on what kind of difference he has in mind between wise and intelligent let alone how to render the distinction in Polish.

Language / Difference between wise and intelligent in Polish [30]


I kind of believe that tho obviously practical translation is possible. What I disagree with is the idea of a list of words in one language linked by = to words in another. It just don't work that way.

Polish (like English and Dutch) has different kinds of words for different kinds of intelligences but divides them up a litle differently. There's not a single pair on the list that will always match up.