Language / The Polish language - it's bloody hard! [210]

I do not know how easy it is to find now but Poland produced a very good book in the 1960's entitled Mowimy Po pOlsku. It came with records but is a very good course if you can get hold of a copy. There is a course called Linguaphone and their Polish course is very good, Perhaps you could get a copy from a library? Polish grammar is logical and is not so difficult as French.

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

Russian is much harder than Polish because the stress moves in the words unlike Polish, which is fixed. Czech is more like serbo croation. If you know Russian you could learn these languages easily. I think that slovak is nearer to Polish as someone above has already written. I thought Russian to be the hardest not really very phonetic and the stress moves in genetive and plural forms. I do not know Ukranian but I have been told that about 80% of the words are similar to Russian. Polish grammar is difficult at the beginning but once you get used to it it is like a set of mathematical tables you never really forget.

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

The russian past tenses change like polish. On byl, ona byla, ono bylo, oni byli. True, polish has an addittional one one byly for feminine plural in the past but ja rabotal odako ona rabotala torze so why is there no difference in the past tense? Ja goworil, ona goworila, ja skazal, ona skazala i to samo po polsku ja powiedzialem, ja mowilem i tak dalej.

The Russian numeric system after five is also the same as in Polish.

Study / Good cheap course to learn Polish in Warsaw [44]

There is a very good little course of Polish produced a long time ago called Mowimi po Polsku. It was written in the 1960's and there was a set of records with it. I would strongly recommend it if you can get hold of a copy. I would think that it might be out of print now. The Berlitz travel guids are very good for information on the country and give an excellent vocabulary. you could learn a chapter per week and set yourself a target but it is not worth paying for lessons. I would never pay for language lessons. Po prostu nie warto. Rob wszysko sam!

Language / The Polish language - it's bloody hard! [210]

There is a good book by B.W. Mazur called Colloquial Polish and it is very good. Otherwise there is a book called Mowimy Po Polsku written in the 1960's. It too is very good. No one course can teach you everything though Polish is not difficult and you should certainly not have to pay for lessons to learn it-that would be the worst thing you could do. The language is logical and phonetic and produces few if any problems for the learner.

Language / Polish/Ukrainian words similarities [209]

The matter of a different alphabet in Russian does not in itself make Russian easier or more difficult than any other language. Russian is not at all phonetic with a shifting stress patern, which makes it much harder to learn that Polish. Polish stress is almost always set on the last but one vowel.

Language / Polish/Ukrainian words similarities [209]

Are the Polish nasals 'a' and 'e' a difficulty? Is the stress pattern of Polish difficult? To me, I find it quite logical. Why is the subject of Polish such a problem? Why have you got to use language like ' intricate morphology', 'phonological structure' and 'proto-slavic'-good God, do you think like this every time you drive a car? When I visit Slovenia I will remember at the border to tell the customs man when showing him my pasport about their 'vestigial "dual" form! Why is it necessary to make simple slovanic languages so unbearable complicated and boring?

Language / English borrowings in Polish [38]

If you come from the airport in Warsaw and drive in towards the town centre, you will see loads of bill boards with advertisements for cars ect. It is interesting to see how the Polish people have so successfully destroyed their language since the fall of Communism. Why does someone need to do a BA or Phd to see the corruption in the language? There is no 'przepraszam' only the English word 'sorry'-very, very strange. I wonder what the reaction would be in Guildford if I go in to shops and say 'przepraszam'!! There is the English word 'marketing' and 'leasing', I am sure that I could think of hundreds of other examples if I had the time to think about it. After all I speak very good English-ja jestem nativespeakerem!!!!!! The Poles never had much pride in their language or culture.

Language / English borrowings in Polish [38]

The fact is, the Polish Language must adapt its languages to embrace new needs-otherwise it will end up like Latin and it will not be able to adjust to new technology and social needs. There is an institute in France, of course, which tries to see that the French Language is kept pure. Maybe Poland will have to do more on the same lines. Polish dance groups and singing is very nice but the decay in the Polish Language is seen everywhere in Poland now. First generation emigrees will have lubs ect but it is the third and fourth generations that go their own way-and I suppose that it is natural for them to do so. There used to be a thriving community of Polish in Sheffield but their club now looks very sad indeed. Not a word of Polish is spoken, if fact out of all the drinkers there now I doubt if one could even point out on a map where Poland is! When you have time , watch a programme like to M jak Milosc! The English words that have come in to the language 'casting' is just one that springs to mind.

Language / Polish Past Tense [47]

Dlaczego znowu 'ta piosenke'? You write like lech Walesa!!!

I would imagine that the examplesi given by Ivonka have been coppied from a book as the English is very good with small mistakes. Nie jestem pewien ale wydaje mi sie, ze...

News / What's the stupidest question asked about Poland? [414]


You really seem to have an inferiority complex. Who is so concerned about Poland or the Poles in general? When you say 'repay in kind' that is quite aggressive talk.

News / What's the stupidest question asked about Poland? [414]

In England too, we have a strong and thriving Polish community. We have burial sites for the Polish as well as statues and memorials for the Polish dead of World War 2. In Ealing and generally that western area of London there is a thriving Polish community with their own shops and churches.

News / What's the stupidest question asked about Poland? [414]

What sort of a question is that? What does that mean?

Language / Polish Past Tense [47]

Is 'it's me' bad English? I ask as I say it all the time all my life. I have never really thought about it but when I hear ir said or say it myself I am not aware of making an error. Iy is always good to learn something new.

Language / Polish Past Tense [47]

I think in fact that most of what Ivonka writes is coppied out of a Polish grammar book. Some of her examples of English sentences are also incorrect. I am not sure though of everything-I too make mistakes-its just me!!

Language / Polish Past Tense [47]

Yes, I have proof, I make mistakes all the time. If you are talking about the examples that Ivonka gave, I would imagine that they have come from a standard Polish text book as I think that I recognize some of the examples, but it is of no importance where they come from as long as they are right but sometimes they are not. Yes, I have proof that they are not right. Does that answer your question?

Language / Polish Past Tense [47]


I do not think that it is a question of complaining and yes, I agree it is very easy to read something and look for mistakes but one or two of your examples are not written in good English. Are they your own examples or do they come from a text book of the English Language? Some of the examples look very familiar to me.

Prawde, mowiac, ja jestem anglikiem i mieszkam w Anglii pod Londynem. Nie mam zadnej kropli polskiej krwi.

If you prefer for me to write lessons on grammar, I will gladly make a contribution but as I have already said, there are lots of good text books and you can go to any library and learn Polish 'inside out' for yourself. It is not a very difficult subject, after all.

Language / Polish Past Tense [47]

You are right! I can also talk to my Polish wife in Polish too when she comes home from work in about an hour's time!

Language / Is it too late for me to learn Polish..? [65]

Learning a few words of Polish should not be very difficult if that is your final aim. At 20 you should not be too old, after all, a lot of people only start university at around 20. Your memory may start to fail you though when you get to around 90!

Language / Is it too late for me to learn Polish..? [65]

It is really a wast of your time though as the language is dying as so many of the young are moving out of Poland. A lot of work for little if any real return. What about Chinese? A very interesting country and the future world dominant power. The Poles do not even produce the Polonez motor car any more!!

Language / Is it too late for me to learn Polish..? [65]

There are not 40 million people in Poland and I was in Radom recently and the streets on a Saturday, which used to be full are now almost empty as people have gone abroad to work and very few now return. Czech is an even smaller country though their economy is in a better shape-the language is just an old fashioned version of Polish. Languages have never been very important in the U.K but there are lots of languages in Eastern Europe not only Polish. There are many Polish people working and living abroad-where do you all think that WE come from!! We come from Czestochowa and are now in Surrey.

Language / Is it too late for me to learn Polish..? [65]



It is not very nice being called an ******* but the truth is is that we have many Polish people in England now-they say that we have something like 600,000 in the U.K and Ireland. As he has Polish roots then of course he can study Polish and he is free to do so. However, why so many Polish want to come to England is strange. When I was a student in Russia twenty years ago, the Polish (and there were many in Moscow at the same time) never had a single good word to say for the English. Churchill sold Poland to the Russians and so on and so on. Juz wystarczy...

Language / Is it too late for me to learn Polish..? [65]


How can the Brits be dying out? Czech is just an old fashioned Polish country language. It is very easy to learn.

Language / Is it too late for me to learn Polish..? [65]

Some years ago I met a lady who came from the Czech Republic as a guest of one of my friends in London. I spoke Polish and she spoke Czech as well as German (which I do not speak) and we had no problem in understanding each oother. After about twenty minutes I was understanding easily 80 per cent of all her words.

Language / Is it too late for me to learn Polish..? [65]

Sometimes I hear Slovakian spoken in the street and it is difficult to know if it is Polish or not as it is so similar to Polish-six weeks in Slovakia and I would be fluent in this language.


Why is Czech a difficult language?

Language / Is it too late for me to learn Polish..? [65]


I think that Sparrow meant that Czech and Slovak are similar in the fact that they are similarly difficult to Polish and not that the two languages are the same thing.

Language / Is it too late for me to learn Polish..? [65]

Yes, I think that he is probably right. All these languages are conected in the same way as English has similarities to Dutch and then the Dutch can understand a lot of German and if you study German you should be able to at least read quite a lot of Swedish. I have looked at some Slovenian words and they are similar to Polish. Slovak is probably one of the nearest living languages to Polish. If you know Czech, you should be able to learn Serbo Croatian fairly easily as it is nearer than Polish is. I have never studied seriously Czech or Slovak but I studied Russian at university and my wife is Polish so if I had to, then I should be able to fill in most of the other slavic languages to some extent.

Language / Where can I find audio of polish words [24]

They are expensive to buy but you can go to a good library or buy in perhaps on line? There is a series called EuroTalkinteractive-I am sure that you can pick them up in Computerworld but they cost nearly 20 pounds. I have one on Maltese, which cost me one pound at a car boot! They are really good and are easy to download. If you are in the U.K you may be able to get it on order via your central library. It will teach you lots of basic words and you can slow down the speed of the recordings. There are about three different levels but for you, the basic one would be just fine.

Language / Where can I find audio of polish words [24]

I think that most courses which are teaching basic vocabulary will sound a bit robotic but they seem to be good at teaching someone the basics of at least how a language sounds.

There is also a Teach Yourself book with a set of tapes and a Colloquial Polish by B.W. Mazur also with tapes that is very good. I bought a brand new copy, unused for £1 pound fifty pence at my local car boot! I will never use it and you can have it for free if you want. I have even got Learn Polish Now for a computer which I never use and you can have it too. I have loads of stuff, which I will never use again and will probably throw away.


Should be just up your street then!

Language / Where can I find audio of polish words [24]

I simply suggested a good starting point in learning Polish words-a course entitled Eurotalkinteractive and you say that you do not recommend the course as it sounds robotic. Earlier, Matyjasz said that my Polish was good but sounded robotic so I imagine that your words are a copy of his. That is all!