PolishForums LIVE  /  Archives [3]    
   
Posts by pernumba  

Joined: 17 Dec 2017 / Male ♂
Last Post: 10 Jul 2018
Threads: Total: 4 / In This Archive: 3
Posts: Total: 1 / In This Archive: 1
From: Warsaw
Speaks Polish?: conversational (B2 according to School & a practice CEFR exam)
Interests: everything

Displayed posts: 4
sort: Oldest first   Latest first   |
pernumba   
17 Dec 2017
Life / Pretending you don't speak Polish - Poles have a strong preference and love for English [18]

So the title of this thread is a little misleading, but here's the gist of it:

I've been here in Warsaw for about 6 months, I'm from the US, and I speak Polish pretty decently. I can talk about basically anything but I mess up the przypadki and grammatical stuff a lot if I'm not paying attention. One thing I've noticed is that people DO NOT want me to speak to them in Polish. Especially young people. As soon as people hear me speak, even if I say something quickly and fluently with no mistakes, they switch to English immediately. I don't even have an "american accent" I roll my 'R's perfectly and have been told I sound italian or spanish when I speak Polish>

expats in other countries say how important it is to learn the local language; in Poland it is reversed. I know a guy who speaks Polish perfectly, and English extremely well (considering it's not his first language.) and he talks to everyone in English even when they don't speak English 1/10th of how he speaks Polish.

maybe poles have this love for the English language or something, I'm not really sure.

Like I've said, I've only been here 6 months, but this is the strangest thing to me. I've been to over 20 countries and speak 6 languages not counting Polish and I have never experienced such a strong preference and love for English anywhere in the world. At least in northern europe they are literally just speaking to you in English because it is the most effective means of communication, but here people's eyes light up at the chance to speak English, you can literally feel someone waiting to say something to you in English with such strong anticipation.

It's convenient for me in terms of quality of life, but inconvenient cuz sometimes I think to myself while studying Polish, "why am I doing this, even if I hit C2, people are just going to be disappointed that their English speaking machine is no longer available, and it won't make my life better socially, or logistically."
pernumba   
26 Feb 2018
Language / Why 'walczy' and not 'walczą' - Polish language question [20]

Hey everyone! It's my first post here, and it's a Polish question.

I have the sentence, "w tym filmie dwóch mężczyzn walczy na skrzydle podczas lotu." I found it in a grammar book, and I'm not sure if it's correct, shouldn't it be Walczą because it's 3rd person plural?

Dzięki :)
pernumba   
15 Jun 2018
Language / Ways to say "bring" in Polish, and differences between them [12]

nosić
nieść
donieść
nanieść
obnieść
odnieść
podnieść
ponieść
przenieść
przynieść
roznieść
unieść
wnieść
wynieść
wznieść
zanieść
znieść

These are some of the ways to say "to bring" in Polish. Does anyone have any links to any good resources for getting better at this? Understanding is not the issue, it's just that I am never really sure which verb to use. I know the prefixes generally follow the same rules as the prefixes for "iść" / "jechać" the "go/come" verbs etc. But I would really like a comprehensive look at this. If anyone has any resources, online, or books that are available online, let me know.

Also, if any non-slavic learner has "mastered" this, please let me know what you did, and how you went about it :)

Dzięki Wielkie :)