Zafrira
16 Dec 2009
Life / Russian Language - is it offensive if I speak it to Polish people? [69]
I don't think people in Poland would find it offensive if you spoke Russian to them. Personally, I sometimes do it for fun - pretend I'm a foreigner and go shopping, ask for way etc. - noone ever was unhelpful just because of the language I used.
The vital thing is that while using English is by far the best way to communicate with young people, the older generation, especially not well-educated individuals, is much more likely to speak better Russian than English, as they learned it at school. In this case, it's more than appreciated to use Russian.
Or if your reason for speaking Russian is not the will to practise it, but just a conviction of its similarity to Polish, then you should know that it won't work - a Pole who doesn't know Russian won't understand you at all :)
I don't think people in Poland would find it offensive if you spoke Russian to them. Personally, I sometimes do it for fun - pretend I'm a foreigner and go shopping, ask for way etc. - noone ever was unhelpful just because of the language I used.
The vital thing is that while using English is by far the best way to communicate with young people, the older generation, especially not well-educated individuals, is much more likely to speak better Russian than English, as they learned it at school. In this case, it's more than appreciated to use Russian.
Or if your reason for speaking Russian is not the will to practise it, but just a conviction of its similarity to Polish, then you should know that it won't work - a Pole who doesn't know Russian won't understand you at all :)