Work / Advice on Teaching English in Poland [709]

Sounds like just one more English-certificate "diploma" mill to me:-)

Language / Polish regional accents? [141]

Essentially, the Shetlanders speak Norn, a language all but extinct, and yet never entirely expunged from the lips of older native speakers! Even the local speech of 'Northerners' in England, such as Yorkshire, Liverpool, especially Northumberland "Geordie", is often so loaded with ancient Nordicisms from Viking times that outsiders literally need an interpreter. I know I did. Frequently too, their English contains so many quaint turns of phrase, like "Oh, it'll be a tidy walk!" if wishing to answer a visiting stranger that a particular place is quite a distance on foot etc.

Jardinero,

Wouldn't it be "Agencja Polska"?? I guess misswritten Polish signage is as irksome to you as it is in reverse for me:

"MEDITRANEAN FOODS SELLS HERE" (a non-Poglish sign in Flushing, Chinatown)
:-)

Language / Polish regional accents? [141]

Thanks for the correction, Lenko!

Language / Polish regional accents? [141]

Co panu podać???? Czym mogę służyć is more correct!

Language / Polish regional accents? [141]

Just this morning we were in Greenpoint and I heard what later turned out to be a Polish speaker on his cellphone, almost having sworn that he was speaking Russian, when in fact it was neither Russian nor Ukrainian, but clearly some regional variety of Polish:-) While I can't even remember what he was talking about, it wasn't the words, but the way the "l" sounded continuously "flat", like the Russian "dark l". Only the breathlessly repeated "Co?" and "Wiesz?" oriented me within a few seconds that I was actually hearing Polish:-)

Language / Variations of the verb Chodzić [11]

Think in terms of e.g. "zachod" (the Occident = the West, land(s) of the setting sun) vs. "wschod" (the Orient = the East, the land(s) of the rising sun).

In Czech incidentally "zachód" means an outhouseLOL What a hoot!!!

Life / Why are the Italians and Polski so much alike? [90]

In our Italian lessons there's a lady from Poznań, an English teacher in Poland, and she often says that Poles have such an easy time pronouncing Italian as opposed to English, French or German. She gives the soft, yet mildly open Italian vowels as the main reason she sees for this, such in "Capri" or "caffe" etc.

Language / A little Polish grammar. Masculine, animate objects. [64]

Kręcik,

What you meant was that in mochadot18's sentence, "To jest moją matką." should be governed by the Instrumental, rather than the Nominative, case:-)

Language / Why are Happy Easter & Merry Christmas the same in Polish [26]

Very useful, Magdalena! Many thanks. I suppose the person to whom I addressed the Easter greetings might have supposed I thought her to be a religious person:-)

Language / Why are Happy Easter & Merry Christmas the same in Polish [26]

"Happy Easter!" specifically among more observant Catholics I've heard as "Mokrego Śmigusa Dyngusa!"

Language / Perfective vs Imperfective - grammar [150]

Actually, Polish has fewer tenses than English! Its verbal aspects compensate for them, For instance, English has simple past, past progressive (continuous), present perfect and pluperfect. In Polish, it's either "pis(-yw)ać", "napisać" or "popisać", hence eliminating the need for "will have been writing" etc...

USA, Canada / Polish Language Newspapers available in the US [21]

Polonius, "Nowy Dziennik" has long since moved to Garfield, NJ (along with their great, convenient bookstore). Other than that, an exhaustive and useful list:-)

The defunct "Polski Dzień" simply ran out of advertisers, plus there was the competition from Super Express, not to mention, Nowy Dziennik.

I prefer "Rzeczpospolita" personally. Unfortunately however, it's not available readily, and so must be shipped from Poland (or, of course, read on-line).

Language / Perfective vs Imperfective - grammar [150]

Codziennie w kursie on się uczy dziesięć nowych słów na pamięć.

???

@lunacy,
Thanks again! I always reverse "na" instead of (correct!) "w" podróży. Guess it's the German interference once again (AUF rather than IN Dienstreise)...

Language / Perfective vs Imperfective - grammar [150]

Thanks, Lenka! Unfortunately (as per usual), I recognized my typo only AFTER I'd sent itLOL

"Right church, wrong pew", we'd say about that:-)

Plus, I miswrote "....podróżY służbowej.."

^^

Language / Perfective vs Imperfective - grammar [150]

Następnego miesciąca JEŻD-Ę na podróże służbowej do Warszawy. vs. Codziennie JADĘ do Warszawy. / DOJADĘ pociągiem do uniwersytetu na zajęcia.

The first sentence is clearly PERFECTIVE [next month] compared with the second and third sentences IMPERFECTIVE [every day], [to class].

News / Germany returns WW2 loot to Poland [14]

A German acquaintance of mine once remarked that the way in which German troops ("allegedly") treated Russian prisoners of war was nothing compared with how cruelly the Germans themselves were treated while incarcerated in Russia during the last years of the war:-)

Apropos "booty art" (Raubkunst), this issue cuts both ways and obviously continues to stir up strong feelings almost sixty-five after the war's end! It also entails all sorts of side issues such as confiscated property of Germans who lived for generations in what is today Poland.

Language / Variations of the verb Chodzić [11]

"chodzić" is always "iterative", "iść" indeterminate and "pójść" determinate in Polish!

Chodzę do szkoły. (codziennie = every day), Idę do szkoły. (teraz = now) and Pójdę do szkoły. (jutro, później, w przyszłości = tomorrow, later [on], in future)

News / Germany returns WW2 loot to Poland [14]

In the case of post-war Germany, much of the looted art was in fact looted from both German-born Jews living in Germany at the time, as well as art from Polish collections (public as well as private) which were plundered by the Nazis (especially one Nazi, the "art lover" Field Marshall Goering!) during the war.

News / Germany returns WW2 loot to Poland [14]

I know that. I also know that his reputation was severely tarnished after the war. Though only a quarter Jewish, this nevertheless didn't prevent him from playing both sides of the fence!

News / Germany returns WW2 loot to Poland [14]

Hildebrandt Gurlitt played footsies with the Nazis!! Don't tell me all that stuff's legit.

Language / Variations of the verb Chodzić [11]

Obchodzić święto = to celebrate a holday/festival (among those definitions)

"przybyć" means "to arrive"/"come", inspecific, but probably on foot in formal Polish. Otherwise "przyjść" (perfective)/"przychodzić" (imperfective). Polish is pretty specific in this way (like Russian) compared with English:

"I CAME by air." "I CAME by car." etc... In Polish "przylecieć" (perfective - dokonany)/przylatać (imperfective - niedokonany) = to arrive by flight, "przyjechać" (perfective)/przyjeżdzić (imperfective) = to arrive by car, train etc..

News / Germany returns WW2 loot to Poland [14]

There's probably enough looted art in this fellow Gurlitt's Munich flat to fill an entire museum, much of it doubtless taken from Poland:-)

News / Priest from Poland claims Lego is "a tool of Satan" [35]

Believe only half of what you hear and even LESS of what you read:-)

News / Priest from Poland claims Lego is "a tool of Satan" [35]

Is this by chance the same dude who also claimed on "reliable authority" (I'm quoting directly!) that the Jews are taking over the world, etc.???

What'll he think of next. The things people will say just to get attention:-)

Excuse me, but it sounds like an April Fool's gag to me.

Language / Speaking with wrong Polish case endings? [94]

Polish, like many other European languages, still tends to "go by the book" in terms of generally correct usage, again, especially on television and/or radio. American English nowadays in particular is all over the place, so to speak, regarding both style, grammar AND usage! Frankly, except in perhaps the hallowed halls of Harvard or some such places, most Yanks here at home wouldn't know a conditional (subjunctive) from a bloody hole in the ground, nor would they care!

Life / Is it common for Polish people to speak English in Poland? [122]

Once more, it's all a matter of expectation. The majority of my fellow citizens (myself the exception, of course!) are indeed woefully ignorant of foreign languages, much less their own. This doesn't however mean that because some random Dutchman, German, Austrian, Pole, whoever, can manage a "F****k you, man!" as though they were born in the San Fernando Valley or some other colloquially Inappropriate vulgarism, that they know the English language on even a comfortably "communicative" level (unless one is communicating with ignoramuses).

By the same token, does my knowing how to pronounce, e.g. "Dupa!" etc.. in perfect Polish, necessarily make me a "fluent" Polish speaker????

Life / Is it common for Polish people to speak English in Poland? [122]

As to the latter observation, Poles could understand my Polish, as could Spaniards understand my Spanish and German speakers my German. Each of the latter invariably had the sense to respond in their respective languages, rather than English. The simple truth is that the Poles whom we met flat out refused to do so, owing to, what I call, "the Homer Simpson effect"; Americans are SUPPOSED to be ignorant of foreign languages, therefore, they are! And so, once again, (mis-)perception becomes reality:-)

Admittedly too, your experiences with English-speaking Poles has been more positive than mine. To that, I can only add, more power to you!

Language / How hard is it to learn Polish? [178]

Trust some out there will remember the old quip by Mark Twain: "To learn English takes thirty days, French, thirty weeks, and German.....thirty years!" Add to that, "...Polish, thirty lifetimes."

LOL

I'm only kidding, folks. Then again, as I've repeated ad nauseum, language ease vs. difficulty is such a relative matter.

Life / Is it common for Polish people to speak English in Poland? [122]

Hate to disappoint you, but Wlodz isn't "trying to convince us" of either! Not only did I never ONCE profess to speaking Polish perfectly, but I already stated that I've always been pleased to practice my Polish with native speakers in as far as they also desired to (seriously!!!) practice their English with yours truly. When it ceases being the proverbial "two-way" street, they and I soon part company.

Kindly don't paraphrase or second guess what you supposedly understood that I meant:-)

Life / Is it common for Polish people to speak English in Poland? [122]

As literally ANYTHING is possible, folks, it's just possible in this case that my Polish acquaintances were purposely caricaturing their native accent(s) speaking English, that's all. There remains nonetheless the issue of intelligibility. Sans voice simulcast on PF, I'm quite certain that my Polish pronunciation was clear and that the people whom we met were merely having a little harmless jest.

Again, there was and isn't a thing wrong with my hearing:-)