Language / Which is harder: Pole learning Russian or Russian learning Polish language? [57]

I began to study Russian privately after having studied Polish. Russian has one fewer cases, but I found the palatalized consonants in Russian nearly impossible to pronounce as a Russian native speaker would:-) The difference between f.ex. "brat" = to take vs. "brat" = brother is still difficult to distinguish, not to mention the problems I had saying a simple word such as 'dver' = door. I must have repeated the latter twenty times in succession, but my native-born Russian teacher kept telling me that it still didn't sound authentic. Same as for Japanese "r" vs. "l", I suppose.

Only putting in my two cents before:-) Not being either Polish or Russian, my input doubtless didn't count for terribly much.

Language / Is Polish an easy language to learn and is there a way of learning it easily? [105]

Yes and no. On the one hand, too much grammar immersion in the beginning may scare off all but the most serious student of Polish! On the other hand, it is admittedly difficult (if not seemingly a Sysyphysian labor) to learn the declensions, conjugation patterns, counting etc. just from listening to conversation on the street.

A pleasant myth, but scarcely realistic!

Work / I have a contract with a Norwegian company as a sub-contractor not an employee, I want to live in Poland [12]

OK. In Germany, there was a call for a very long time to require a sort of general "Deutsche Sprachpruefung" (Państwowy egzamin języka polskiego dla cudzodziemców) for all immigrants to German as a way of insuring their survival language skills. Not sure any longer what came of that, since I haven't lived there in years!

Poland may well be laxer in this regard:-)

Work / I have a contract with a Norwegian company as a sub-contractor not an employee, I want to live in Poland [12]

I presume you don't have a Polish language certificate to allow you to work in Poland. While in Norway, English is so common, it probably wasn't necessary to learn Norwegian, English will most likely not get you as far in Poland, on average:-)

Life / Looking for my old car in Poland (is it registered?) [16]

Poland used to be a veritable graveyard for old, "hot" i.e. "stolen" West German cars way back in Post-Wall times.

As the former "Ossies" used to say, "Bleibt dein Wagen noch gestohlen, such' ihn wieder mal in Polen!" = Your car's been all but stol', AND, you'll likely find it out in PolAND.!"

History / Give Poland back it's lost land ! [132]

Hey, folks! I agree that the base thread is ultra-silly! Yet while we're on the subject of giving, resp. getting "back" lost land, let's at least be accurate about which land allegedly belonged to whom. As such can probably never be proven by some sort of Platonic "Ur-deed" way back when, it'll just plain never get resolved, and we'll all have to deal with it as is, PERIOD!

Think of the old Arab-Israeli Conflict as an analogy. There never was a founding document in Biblical times, only a distant inkling on either side that's festered into a mega- bad case of "G-d said, they said"!!!

History / Give Poland back it's lost land ! [132]

Fine. So long as it is understood, if not accepted, that so-called "German lands" in the "former East", may not ever have been "German" at all, but instead, booty of the Teutonic Knights:-)

History / Give Poland back it's lost land ! [132]

...unfortunately, there's no gander in sight....merely as of yet unrepaid reparations:-)

Language / Polish or any Slavic language key to any other Slavic languages? [126]

In defense of Polish, it has a tenderness, almost more upbeat sounding, whereby Russian sort of oozes along like a viscous river, flowing to it's ineluctible, glottal conclusion!

History / Give Poland back it's lost land ! [132]

"Lost" territories, TheOther?? Hmmm, seems to me that's historically debatable. To be sure, former Germans lands stretched far beyond the more limited region parceled out to them than is the case today. However, many of those were the results of Crusades and conquests by among others, the Livonian Knights during the Middle Ages, so who then is to say that they are actually German, and not originally Polish territories??

:-)

Language / Polish or any Slavic language key to any other Slavic languages? [126]

Yaizindiya,

That's because Polish borrowed all the consonants from Russian, but never bothered to return themLOL

UK, Ireland / Romanian manual labour workers in the UK making Poles look bad. [12]

Romanian manual workers making POLES look bad????!

Sure it isn't the other way 'round?

Language / The differences between these words: Oni plywaja / plyna / biegaja /biegna /chodza /ida [18]

Do yourself(-ves) a really big favor and BYPASS Rosetta Stone!! For the basics it's okay, for the finer points of basic grammar other than everyday conversation, it's not worth bupkis:-)

"iść" in Polish is what is know as a 'determinate' verb, "go" i.e. it indicates an action taking place at the moment, not necessarily on a daily basis. For instance, "Idę dziś popołudniu do szkoły." = I'm going (over) to school this afternoon. (..but I'm not necessarily attending the school).

"chodzić" in Polish is what is commonly referred to as an 'interative' verb and indicates either an action repeated on a daily basis or can be used for the English verb "come". For example: "Chodzę do szkoły." = I go to school (...and am a pupil). vs. "Antosiu, chodź tu!" = Hey, Tony! Come over here!

While there's a heck of a lot more to be said on this subject, Rosetta doesn't even come close. On the other hand, how many standard texts for both Poles or foreigners actually do?

Study / German v.s. Russian, language usefulness in Poland? [54]

..and quite another, to actually speak it fluently:-)

Study / German v.s. Russian, language usefulness in Poland? [54]

Or vice versa with you teaching English if learners came here with some (similar) questions:-)

I also have Polish acquaintances who claim to speak fluent Russian:-) A Polish tourguide once told me that most Poles understand at least some Russian, though nobody speaks it (..on purposeLOL)!

Study / German v.s. Russian, language usefulness in Poland? [54]

Indeed, and to potential embarrassmentLOL

@Polonius, or Pol. "stały" vs. Czech "staly"...
Many Russian words though are not false friends in Polish, as they no longer have an equivalent in that language (if they ever had), e.g. "vremya" (Pol. "czas" > Old Polish "wręmie", and not extant!).

"Tjas" in Russian, of course, means "hour" (cf. Pol. "godzina" with "god" meaning "year in Russian) etc...

I heard from a Polish acquaintance that English has widely been gaining popularity, surpassing even German, among university students ( also for those planning on working in Germany)!!

When last in the Federal Republic, I sadly observed many a frustrated European foreigner, often young Poles, desparately trying to make themselves understood in German, finally throwing in the towel, as it were, and attempting English with their German interlocutor:-)

The results frequently left much to be desired.

Study / German v.s. Russian, language usefulness in Poland? [54]

Apropos my most recent visit to the Netherlands, with my less than fluent Dutch I asked a fellow along the highway from my car window whether he knew where the nearest "uitvaart" is, as I'd missed the exit prior. Thinking "uitvaart" means the identical "Ausfahrt" (wyjazd) in German, the fellow looked at us as though we had two heads and walked on.

Instead of asking for the nearest exit, I was asking for the nearest "FUNERAL"!!!!
LOL

Same difference between Russian and Polish. If I "pukać" at the door in Poland, it's quite different from "pukat" at the door in Russia.

Only the nose knows best:-)))

Life / POLISH YOUTH compared to the youth in other Western countries? [57]

Well, the Polish parliament until recently featured a POLISH-SPEAKING black Nigerian, John Godson. So there you are!
Think you'll find that in such "havens" of diversity such as Germany, Sweden, even multi-culti France???

Study / German v.s. Russian, language usefulness in Poland? [54]

Probably the only logical choice, Wulkan. It's really almost like German vs. Dutch. Netherlanders (except for the French-speaking, non-Flemish minority in Belgium) invariably switch, or at least, prefer to switch to English when addressing Germans, unless the German has a solid knowledge of Dutch, which is pretty unlikely:-))

Typically enough, the language with the greater speaker percentage, e.g. Russian, won't understand much of the neighboring language with the lesser speaker percentage, e.g. Polish. Same with Dutch and German!

Study / German v.s. Russian, language usefulness in Poland? [54]

Probably Russian is easier for Poles, and yet, German for outsiders is likely more widespread (although not as much as English):-)

Many Poles learn German and most in my experience speak/write it light years better than English!

Language / Is math in Polish different than in English? [59]

I find this most enlightening. All I knew before checking out this thread was that in certain countries, counting begins with the thumb extended slightly, rather than than with the index finger. For instance, if I went to a pub in Germany and asked for one beer, but my thumb were still visible (as opposed to tucked neatly beneath the fist of my hand), I might instead be served two:-)

Life / Concerns of a Swede who is about to go to Poland for work [53]

Job opportunities in Poland, I'd imagine, would still be in the area of I.T. Sweden too probably isn't that much different, as is Germany:-)

I also keep up with what's happening on the continent, and it seems that whenever a new start-up grabs the headlines, it's typically an information technology firm!

News / US slaps Poland in the face (Comey Poland) [92]

Your point being? That not all Poles were evil, anti-semitic thugs etc..?

I know that. So do all enlightened people.

Life / Where can I get a good American Haircut in Poznan? [18]

An American-"style" haircut as compared with a kancik.

News / US slaps Poland in the face (Comey Poland) [92]

Vox dear fellow, I think you might not have understood my last post! The point of the story is that the fact that places like Auschwitz-Birkenau, Majdanek and other camps still stand is precisely because far too many European gentiles (who also call themselves Christians, by the way) continue to remind Jews that they are not wanted in their country. When the man said that he was tired of being reminded about Auschwitz etc.., his own bigotry and that of others like him, doesn't permit the Jews of Europe to simply "move on". Herein lies the problem!

The nation which stands out in this sub-discussion is not Poland, but Hungary, whose Jobbik party scares the daylights out of me. Despite all the talk of Polish-Hungarian Friendship, Orban is far more xenophobic than nearly any Polish leader in recent memory.

History / Was the holocaust by Germans in Poland the worse genocide in history? [210]

It does, Vox!

Clearly you're more interested in trolling than in truth, so let's cut the garbage right here and now!
Noone's saying that NO Poles participated, only that the lie that Poland was exclusively victim of the Nazis no longer holds water any more, than the myth of little Switzerland as eternal Heidiland or the poor Austrians who couldn't help bur follow Hitler etc.. ad nauseum

News / Germany provoke Poland using Silesian question. Poland's attitude ? [124]

Then I guess I'm not the wood way, he-he:-) Thanks for the correction!
lol

See you didn't like the pun. Oh, well....

By the way however, apropos of the Polish-German dilemma, the late Guenter Grass considered himself a German, although according to today's geography, he of course was born in that-time Danzig, these days Gdańsk, making him geopolitically a Pole:-))

One of his parents was a Kaszub, the other, German. Perhaps " The Tin Drum" was closer to the truth after allLOL

Sorry, mods!

History / Was the holocaust by Germans in Poland the worse genocide in history? [210]

Shoe's on the other foot, sonny boy!! Your ignorance is frightening; your prejudice even more so:-)

History / Was the holocaust by Germans in Poland the worse genocide in history? [210]

Jedwabne was separate from Kielce! I and everyone here knows that. In the former, the Jews were burned in an abandoned farmhouse. In the latter, they were massacred.

Same difference:-)

Also, I'm not Poland bashing. I love Chopin and Moniuszko, as well as Mickiewicz same as the next person. I also see the horror behind the beauty!

News / Germany provoke Poland using Silesian question. Poland's attitude ? [124]

Silesians are considered Germanic by other Poles, but Polish by the Germans:-)

Ahh, the cruel ironies ("lauter Treppenwitze") of history.