Language / weź/wej - Pronunciation questions [4]


What people actually say is: "weś-sobie", and it's the neighbourhood of soft s and hard s, which results in this weird "wej-sobie" sound. Similairly in phrases "coś zrobić", "coś zjeść", you hear "coź-zrobić", "coź-zjeść", the voiceless ś becomes voiced and the źz sound gets simplified during normal speech.

You can ask your girlfriend to say "nasz ogród" - people from Northern Poland pronounce it "nasz-ogrót", if she's from the South it will sound "naż-ogrót" :)

History / What nation do Poles feel closer to? [74]

Hungarians.

I've got Hungarian friends and find them very close to Poles in everything... except the language. I've tried to learn a bit of it, but oh boy, the language is scary.

Language / "to be" (e.g. 'be yourself') [23]


I'm sorry, I can't explain it - I don't have teacher's competency but really hope that someone on here will explain it eventually. But I'm a native Polish speaker with a pretty good intuition when it comes to Polish (wish I had it when it comes to English! lol) and I know that it should be: nie potrafisz włożyć w to serca

Over-applying of rules is characteristic for foreign language learners, isn't it? I know it from my own experience. My "killers" are the perfect tenses and the definite/indefinite articles.

I remember once I said to a native English speaker that I "did" something. She said: "Oh, have you? So I asked her why had she used the perfect tense and she said:"Oh, have done or did - it's the same isn't it?" I startled. Thought: Please, after all these hours I spent with my book trying to understand the mystery of the perfect tense,don't tell me that it's THE SAME...!

:-))

Language / "to be" (e.g. 'be yourself') [23]

i don't need to concentrate, i'm telling you how it is.

nie możesz włożyć w to (kogo? czego? - genitive) serca
możesz włożyć w to (kogo? co? - accusative) serce

Love / American woman falls in love with a charming Polish man upon his visit to the U.S. [36]


AGREED.
Does it look better to you? :)

Language / "to be" (e.g. 'be yourself') [23]

you can say "możesz włożyć w to serce", but "nie możesz włożyć w to serca"

Language / "to be" (e.g. 'be yourself') [23]

no: swoje serce

should be: swojego serca

Language / "to be" (e.g. 'be yourself') [23]

Sorry, I should have written:

być sobą - that's the infinitive

but I'm not a teacher, so hopefully there will be someone on here who can give you more comprehensive answer

Language / "to be" (e.g. 'be yourself') [23]


bądź sobą

Love / American woman falls in love with a charming Polish man upon his visit to the U.S. [36]


I think it is crazy to "diagnose" a person as crazy from one or two posts.

In Poland we do not usually end our letters to friends with "Yours". By "Yours" we mean something more than friendship or a very special friendship. But I've noticed that poeple in England do that. Or end a birthday card to a workmate with "Love", which used to look a bit out of the blue to me.


Agreed

Language / Are the languages of Russian and Polish similar at all? [94]


Really? That's interesting. I don't know many Czech people, but the few times I tried to apply Polish-Slovak conversation rules (which is: a Pole speaks in Polish and gets answered in Slovak and everyone is happy) to my conversations with Czechs, it didn't work. Probably mainly on my part, if what you've said is true

Language / Are the languages of Russian and Polish similar at all? [94]


many of us obligatorily learnt Russian as children at school. I haven't used Russian for years, but I still remember quite a lot and understand a big deal - and I'm pretty sure it's because I learnt it as a kid, not so much because of similarities between the languages. Czech is much more similar to Polish, but I understand less of it than of Russian

Language / Cheap way to learn polish [9]

you can try searching for some teaching videos on youtube. It's a very cheap way :) I find them quite useful for learning English.

Love / POLISH GIRLS... wake up and prove you are respectable.... [135]


I would choose the one I love, whether he's poor or he holds a gun. Crazy as it sounds, but that's the honest answer.


The practical (materialistic?) attitude towards life is probably more reasonable, but it's awfully boring. Although it all depends on what one is expecting from life - some have needy pockets, others - needy hearts.

Do you think money should be considered when choosing a partner? Cause I still can't figure it out from your posts.

Love / POLISH GIRLS... wake up and prove you are respectable.... [135]


any other really, I'm sure you can think of a couple ;)

Love / POLISH GIRLS... wake up and prove you are respectable.... [135]


I'm not trying to be nice. I am nice. It can 'sometimes' be a burden though.
People - women or men - are 'always' required to have qualities other than material possessions. Money is often used as a patch where the real values are missing.

Apart from the 'poor/rich guy' matter you are focusing on and which I seem to be unable to explain, I also said in my post:


That's my point.

Love / POLISH GIRLS... wake up and prove you are respectable.... [135]


they do! that's why I've been saying all along that the qualities not the money are important :) I think you've mistaken me for someone who agrees that money should be considered when choosing a partner, while I am whole-heartedly the opposite

Love / POLISH GIRLS... wake up and prove you are respectable.... [135]

@NomadatNet: I said: sometimes. All I meant was that sometimes the lack of money may indicate a lack of certain qualities, but not necessairly. I was trying to say that I understand that from the fact of having money some women may conclude about the personality of a man, yet making it one of the reasons whether or not they would "love" someone does not convince me at all

Love / POLISH GIRLS... wake up and prove you are respectable.... [135]


Love should never be conditioned on the fact of possessing money. If it is, it's not love, it's the selling and buying deal. I understand that sometimes a guy who does not have anything lacks qualities like diligence, resourcefulness or even liability, but there are guys with money who lack the above all the same.

Love / Arabs: "Polish women are easy and stupid" [132]


Exactly

UK, Ireland / Estimated number of Poles in Ireland thought to exceed 200,000 OR over 5% of population. [200]


the Polish didn't lose their identity during a hundred years of the partitions and the Irish have lost their identity during a few years of Polish immigration? wow. your national flexibility is admirable. not so much the strenght of your identity


thank you for your concern, but you need not to worry - they do, believe me

Po polsku / POWRÓT do Polski - od czego zacząć? [22]

o mamo, ja chcę do polski. tu wszystko jest takie SMUTNE.

UK, Ireland / Polish community in Northampton (any success stories / bad experiences?) [20]

i used to live in northampton between 2006-2009. made loads of friends, but most of them were foreigners like me (from all over the world, not only polish). i love many things about england, i even somewhat enjoy the weather :) i truly love the 'english atmosphere' which nowadays you find mostly only in old novels and during holidays for the retired :) i love the english gardens and literature and manners..

yet i find it very difficult to fit in, there always seems to be a sort of awkwardness in my relations with the english. i find the english smile very confusing - never know when it is for real and when it's backstabbing. the slav straightforwardness is often either misunderstood or taken advantage of. i've read the book "watching the english" and it explained a lot to me and helped me to understand the nation. but i can't say i have ever been allowed to feel here at home

i find it a bit easier with the scots, but haven't met too many of them

yes, i have changed. but i wouldn't call it losing my identity, rather a learning and enriching experience.

UK, Ireland / Why can't the poles speak english, if they want to work in England? [35]


right. 'kurwa' is used not only in polish. they could be hungarian, belarusian, macedonian..

UK, Ireland / Why can't the poles speak english, if they want to work in England? [35]


what? are they not nice?? or they aren't polish? well, at least they're funny, is it not similar to being nice? especially for an englishman :)

UK, Ireland / Why can't the poles speak english, if they want to work in England? [35]


really sorry to hear that! not all polish people are as nice as the ones on this forum :( regretfully.. and when one meets an awful person we often tend to dislike the whole nation, sort of a natural human reaction, i guess. i think anyone who lives in a multi-cultural environment knows how it feels

UK, Ireland / Why can't the poles speak english, if they want to work in England? [35]

i live in england and find that some natives here actually enjoy it when poles can't speak english - they find them conveniently despicable. when poles can speak english - they hate them. lol :)