Language / Super fast Polish language learning strategies from internet polyglots [29]

So first you claim you did not devote any meaningful time to study Polish, then you let yourself judge the language's difficulty based on your experience with it. That makes no sense at all.

I still don't believe people can speak 8 languages and be actually fluent. I watched a youtube video where you were interviewed after months of being in Germany and you were not fluent at all. Then comes the


In a social environment you not only discuss weather, but also science, religion, politics, sports, mythology, travelling, movies etc. basically anything of human interest. If you can't pick up a conversation on any random topic you should be familiar with having graduated high school, you should not claim you speak the language.

Language / Super fast Polish language learning strategies from internet polyglots [29]

Benny, while I do believe you that you learn a lot within those 3 months and are able to hold conversation on some topics, you still only scratch the surface of the knowledge/skills you should possess to claim fluency. Besides, I don't know what's the point of studying a language for 3 months only to drop it and move on to the next one. Unless your brain doesn't work like a human brain, you are bound to forget what you learned in the previous period as all the vocabulary gradually disappears from your head or takes forever to recall. Most people study languages to learn them and use them afterwards and that requires a lot more than said three months.

I'd be very interested to talk with you via Skype in Polish, if only to see if you remember anything at all.

Language / 'Ciężko powiedzieć' (anglicism?) - is it a copy of the English 'hard to say'? [51]


And yet pretty much everyone in Poland does.

Haha, I was waching a Polish TV series when a peculiar "on ma teraz ciężki czas" appeared. Now that's an anglicism (the correct and traditional Polish phrase would be "przechodzi ciężki okres").

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


It's not about being lazy at all!

It's completely unnatural not to use cases in Polish, so they are never dropped out of laziness, no one would say for instance Przejechałem się rower pięć kilometry. The problem at hand is that when a foreign word is borrowed, no one knows how to declinate it properly (I hope declinate is the proper verb of declension). Some borrowed words tend themselves well for Polish declension (e.g. menedżer), others - not so much (traditional examples would be menu and jury).

The other one is that once you learn the foreign spelling of the word, it's difficult to change your habit of spelling it that way - e.g. I tend to write billboard in the English way of spelling instead of bilbord as bilbord looks very unnatural to me. However, for the sake of our children, I think we should introduce Polish way of spelling those words as soon as possible so that they don't have to learn several thousand of exception of Polish spelling. When I was a kid, I only had to learn a handful of such words - "menu", "jury", "pointa", "status quo" etc. It'd be a nightmare if there was more of them!

Language / Super fast Polish language learning strategies from internet polyglots [29]

You got it wrong if you think learning Germanic languages is easy for us Poles. Something as theoretically as the concept of articles simple took me long years to comprehend and properly apply both in written and spoken language - we completely don't think about that stuff! I think now Iuse them properly and rarely forget or misuse them, but boy did I see many red "a/the" words written by my English teach in my essays and other homework!

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

I think importing words is OK as long as we use Polish rules of spelling and properly conjugate/declinate all of them. Example - 'feature'. Proposed way of spelling - 'ficzer'. Ostatnia wersja oprogramowania wprowadziła pięc nowych ficzerów.

Germans are much worse when it comes to imporitng words. For example, they say "spin up" or "spin down", whereas Poles would say "spin w górę" lub "spin w dół".

Language / 'Ciężko powiedzieć' (anglicism?) - is it a copy of the English 'hard to say'? [51]

I don't know, depending on the particular item I'd call it kita, frędzel, wisior or dzyndzel. Kutas is not used in that sense anymore.

Life / Uptight Poles [262]


I wasn't serious. You Scots are better at detecting sarcasm in real life conversations...

Life / Uptight Poles [262]

This thread is a trap anyway. If we deny that we are uptight, it means that we are uptight because if we weren't, we wouldn't bother denying. If we don't deny, it means we're admitting the truth.

Life / Uptight Poles [262]


I usually don't approach people who are smoking, so that's a hipotetical situation. And yes, I'm always polite to people even when I'm very pissed (unless someone deliberately ) so I ask in a polite way.


Shouting through megaphone would contribute to (noise) pollution, so obviously I wouldn't do that.

Now seriously, I lived in Germany before smoking in public places was banned in Poland and at first it was amazing that no one was smokingin pubs and no one complained about it, even when they had to go outside to smoke. Majority of people are not smokers so those who do smoke should adjust to the will of the majority. I'd like to be able to fart whenever I want to, but I don't do it out of respect for people accompanying me. Do smokers have to be different?

Life / Uptight Poles [262]

I am not uptight usually, but public smoking is extremely douchebaggey. I f*cking hate the scent and would compare it to shitting someone in the face. So I ask people who smoke in my presence to put out their cigarettes.

News / Kaczyński wants a people-friendly Poland [64]


It's nice to want things.

Language / Państwo macie ..., pan masz ... [5]

Expressions "panie/pani/państwo + verb in second person" are usually meant to express annoyance at the addressed person and also show disrespect while being somewhat formal. Gramatically they are correct though, as long as they're in the wołacz case.

At least that's how I used it several times and heard it used.

Language / Super fast Polish language learning strategies from internet polyglots [29]

You want to speak Polish in 3 months? Just move to Poland and completely stop using any other language - don't even contact your family if possible. That way, your brain will be forced to switch to Polish thinking and will be bombarded by Polish, in conversations, TV, press, books, etc. Probably unfeasible in yhour life, though. :P Either way there are no quick ways, you have to practice a lot, read Polish books, watch some Polish movies, possibly talk with someone on Skype in Polish. If you can commit a couple of hours every afternoon, you could still learn it relatively quickly I reckon.

Po polsku / W co inwestowac w Polsce? [34]

Mieszkasz w Polsce? Dysponujesz już jakimś kapitałem (wypracowanym bądź odziedziczonym)? Jako nauczyciel, ciężko będzie odłożyć na inwestycje nieruchomościowe.:)

News / Poland A and Ukraine B. Compare how far Poland has advanced. [282]

Did someone describe genocide as a way of dealing with barbarism? There are no words.

History / Poles in the Napoleonic era [224]


Won as in captured and managed to secure the territory until truce. And the partisans were fighting not against other Silesians, but against regular German army (however crippled it was at the time). It's time to move on.

History / Poles in the Napoleonic era [224]


Yes, and farmers from the most urbanistic region in the radius of 500km won against industrialised and more numerous city dwellers. I mean, come on. Inhabitants of the eastern part of Upper Silesia were Poles and wanted to join newly created fatherland, I think you should deal with it and move on.

History / Poles in the Napoleonic era [224]

The conslusion to that discussion was there was actually a part of Silesia that did not want to be a part of German and fought hard for it. Not at all comparable to the current 4% scattered throughout the entire region.

History / Poles in the Napoleonic era [224]


I feel like we discussed it somewhere already.

History / Poles in the Napoleonic era [224]


You don't give autonomy to a region because it has a 4% minority that wants that autonomy. That's absurd and no principle can change it.


Again, it was for Prussia's/Germany's own good. Oppression would lead to frequent uprisings, which are an expensive internal war.

History / Poles in the Napoleonic era [224]


Not giving Śląsk authonomy is mostly due to the fact that of the region's 4 millions inhabitants only 200k or so identify themselves as Silesians. I imagine not giving them minority status is of financial reasons (basically Polish governement doesn't want to give money for opening Silesian schools or cultivating cultural activities), similar to how 2 million or so Poles in Germany today don't have a minority status.


Rich as in economically better than the rest of Russia. Basically what I'm saying it was in neither occupants own interes to limit's Poland's economy potential as both those countries benefited from it.

History / Poles in the Napoleonic era [224]


Because Poles being economically active benefited Germans?


Wielkopolska was still one of the poorer regions in Prussia. Poland under Russia was one of the richest parts of Russia. By your logic, Poles were tzar's favorite and most cherished nation.

News / Poland A and Ukraine B. Compare how far Poland has advanced. [282]


It's a Lithuanian city now. It was not one in 1920, though.

News / Poland A and Ukraine B. Compare how far Poland has advanced. [282]

Wilno was only Lithuanian in 1920 because Soviets handed it over to Lithuania after they lost in August. They did it only to stirr up a conflict between Poland and Lithuania and succeeded in that goal. In 1919 Wilno was in Polish hands. As quoted earlier, little to none Lithuanians lived in that area - they had pretty much no claims for that territory other than some abstract XIIIth century traditions.

I find it mindboggling that so many people are against a newly formed country unifying all people of the same nationality within its borders.

News / How Polish diaspora see future of Poland? as ethnic Polish state or just Polish in origin? [120]

Yeah, as long as you can speak Polish and consider yourself Polish, you are Polish. Descendance is secondary in that regard.

News / Poland A and Ukraine B. Compare how far Poland has advanced. [282]


I don't think so, those people might have chosen deputees to Polish parliament but could have wound up within Czech Republic anyway. The effect was only psychological, of no real importance outside of that.


The issue was later resolved peacefully and legally though (but circumstances of that were still dubious). Luckily Poles and Czechs live there together in agreement and mutual respect to this day (unlike eg. Slovakians and Hungarians), so nothing bad happened in the long run.

News / Poland A and Ukraine B. Compare how far Poland has advanced. [282]


You presented them in the wrong context, no surprise here.


Parliament election is hardly exercising sovereign rule. The bottom line of the 1919-20 affair is that Czechoslovakia robbed the regions where Poles were ethnical majority of the option to choose their preferred country. How is that OK for local people?

News / Poland A and Ukraine B. Compare how far Poland has advanced. [282]


The border was to be determined by gmina by gmina case (what's the English equivalent of gmina? County?), not all or nothing. Eastern parts of Silesia were predominantly Polish and obviously the German government wanted those parts as well. These people wanted to be a part of Poland, there were 3 uprisings in 3 consecutive years, they wanted it that much. Is that really so hard to understand?

Support from Warsaw? You've got to be kidding. The situation on the eastern front was so dire that they relly had no resources to commit over a few tiny regions.

News / Poland A and Ukraine B. Compare how far Poland has advanced. [282]


You play the game, but you play it wrong. The territorial split on Silesia was supposed to be decided by poll, which Germans tried to manipulate by including people who no longer lived in Silesia. Keep in mind that Poles on Silesia had little to zero material support from Polish government - they fought on their own as they did not want to be a part of Germany and putting "fighting for freedom" in sarcastic quotation marks is very disingenious of you. The eventual split of the region mostly reflected actual ethnical split, IIRC Germany wound up with 79% of Upper Silesia.


Wilno was Polish and deeply rooted in our culture, too. :( (I w Ostrej świecisz Bramie)
But what's gone is gone and we can't claim them to be Polish anymore.


This is just wrong. The territorial split was again supposed to be decided by poll, but Czech army entered Zaolzie in January 1919 and after a brief period of fights claimed control of the region.


You lost the war that you started. Deal with it.