Is it common for Polish people to speak English in Poland?

Do people in the UK write "should off"? In the US "should of" is a common way of writing "should've" (almost no one actually says "should have" except in very, very formal situations).

no but they do often say/write 'should of'

1. aye, it should be "should of" not "off" as I've written above (my mistake)- yeah, it's common for "should've" etc.

2. having studied for both I must admit they are... different. Sure, both marks ones knowledge (or proficiency) of English (and, therefore, they are a bit similar) but they do it in a vastly different way, their approach differs. And, apparently (according to NQF) FCE equals (roughly) D-F in GCSE, CAE equals A*-C and CPE is an equivalent to A-levels... But it's really hard to compare those two exams- one is made for people for who English is a foreign language, the other one is made for its native speakers.

Oh gawd. Should have is the only correct form. If it wasn't off topic, I'd explain.

it is fine Roger, you got the wrong end of the stick, nobody thinks it should be 'of' and nobody needs you to 'explain' thanks.

What's wrong with should've? It's what everyone says most of the time. Who pronounces the h in have in that expression?

In extremely formal writing (where you do no use any other contractions) then maybe should have is the only acceptable form but in more informal writing should've is fine. In very informal writing should of is fine.

He was right.


Roger I feel your pain.


Maybe not, but RubasznyRumcajs thinks it's acceptable, in as much as he can't see any reason to correct it.


I believe Roger is referring to that abomination 'should of'.

People who write 'should of' need compulsory reeducation, along with those who use question marks at the end of affirmative sentences, and those who don't know how to use 'however' (i.e. just about everyone nowadays).

but Roger, if people say should of instead of should've (which they do) and then they use it in writing, who really cares that much? After some time customary usage becomes 'correct'. If you are going to start blustering and getting all upset about it, you might do yourself an injury at your age, dear.

Well the point is that both "should've" and "should of" are pronounced the same ( [ ˈʃʊdəv ] in phonetic transcription)

People who get upset about "should of" in informal writing (letters between friends, message boards and the like) are pedantic twits. On the other hand, people who write "should of" in formal usage are indeed demi-literate.

well maybe so, but does that actually mean they should be taken outside and shot? They might be good at other things....

"Should of" for "Should've" aka "Should HAVE" etc. is merely one of many effects the cancer of texting and growing illiteracy is having on the foundations of English. Many of my college-age, though not college-LEVEL, students write solely as they text or hear/speak and rarely if ever as they read.

Very soon, I fear, we shall return to a time just around when Caxton brought printing to England, whereupon everyone will be writing as they speak (since few at the time could even read OR write!) and there will be zero uniform standard to the written language. Along with the Normal Conquest in 1066 AD, the former is one of a handfull of reasons why English orthography and pronunciation are so hopelessly chaotic, both for foreigners as well as natives:-)

It's possible that I might do myself an injury, bombarded as I am by terrible, sloppy language. Some experts might regard me as a pedantic twit (I won't trade insults) but I see it as my job, literally, to offer a model of standard, educated English. Yes, if enough people use 'wrong' language for long enough, it becomes 'right', but as far as I am aware the illiterates who use 'should of' are still in the minority.

Lighten up, I'm often a pedantic twit. Pedantic twits of the world unite! You have nothing to lose but your shame!

damn right!! I tell you what really annoys me, is when people use 'myself' and 'yourself' instead of 'me' and 'you'. It is real telesales talk!

Roger you know I am not that serious!! I really have to rein in my natural pedant these days!

@Rogers5, that's been my battle cry for years now! Sloppy's starting to look neat.....and, worse yet ever more quickly, neat's starting to look weird for far too many of us:-)

I would agree with this. I've been told on a couple of occasions that English in comparison with Polish is a ' lazy ' and not a 'proper' language. While this is true in that English doesn't have the complexity of the Polish case system, and can usually still be understood even if it's being badly butchered, in contrast to Polish where it's very likely one can be misunderstood quite easily, it's still not as easy to master as people think. Although not overly important, the misuse of articles is a case in point.

By far my experience of Poles speaking English, is that they are just not that confident doing so. Most commonly they worry they will be laughed at for making mistakes, or they put themselves down constantly.

I have one friend who I would say is fluent, but she still thinks her English ' isn't good enough', because she doesn't know every word!

>>>>damn right!! I tell you what really annoys me, is when people use 'myself' and 'yourself' instead of 'me' and 'you'.

This annoys me as well. I then think that a person who has no grasp of English grammar cannot have a grasp of anything else.

"Garbage in, garbage out", that's the deal here! Small wonder that so much of Europe these days speaks mostly bubble-gum English; who are their role models?? The faceless. interchangable young and hunky on US-TV offer little to promote snappy patter, pounding dialogue or challenging chemistry between stars as was the case in Hollywood's glory.

Gloria Swanson's ONE SIMPLE LINE in "Sunset Boulevard" said volumes more than any multimillion-dollar dumm ass show today:

Bill Holden: Mrs. Desmond, you used to be so big!

Gloria Swanson: I still am big!! It's the pictures that got small.

Not only on the Poles, but most other Europeans, not to mention the majority of younger Americans, is such dialogue completely lost.

I don't really think the US is the role model you think it is. A lot of what I call Euro Crap English feeds and grows on itself without much in the way of US (or UK) input.

The general situation is that knowledge of English is continent wide but extremely shallow (again, most don't need and/or are not really interested in achieving anything like really fluent status). Not a problem. Not nice to listen to for most native speakers but what are you gonna do?

Well I'm glad to hear somebody out there admit it! My G-d, I suddenly feel villified:-)
LOL

Why come you feelin' that way ese?

If I had the knowhow I'd create a random non-standard American English generator that you could type a regular sentence into and receive a "translation" into a random assembly of non-standard usage (regional, ethnic, slang, foreigner talk etc).

...i.e. from "ENGlish" into "GLOBish" and back again:-)

Let's try it, shall we?

20-something male Polish barkeep (Warsaw Radisson): Hi! You guys good? = Well, now! Anything I can get you folks?

20-something (German, French, Italian) patron: Yeah, we good! = No thanks, we're just fine!

etc..

Hey, this is fun.

This then contradicts "Garbage in, garbage out!" This is more "Garbage in, clean stuff out".

The situation had changed rapidly. A few years ago, it was quite rare to find anyone speaking English, yet now it is very common. In face, Poland is now scored as one of the best countries when it comes to speaking English, according to the English Proficiency Index. I think Euro 2012 changed Poland a lot.

A startling stat, if true!

Education has made inroads in many former deprived areas, and so with English training, I suppose this too will follow suit:-)

The English Proficiency Index is a self-reported survey run by a company hawking correspondence courses, not very credible.

I agree once again with Maf! It's awfully hard to gauge English standards internationally nowadays. What passes for English is often nothing other than garblish aka "globish garbage":-)

Recently, I was called in as a translator at a student conference for exchange students and the following interview took place between a young Italian engineering student and an Austrian national who was discussing job prospects in Europe:

Austrian rep.: Why you like to become engineer in Austria?
Italian woman: Languages is like, really crazy stuff, and like, uh, I really love English, and uh it's gonna be really
crazy working in another country 'cuz uh,......

Try rationalizing that, why don't youLOL

Not many do and really Why should they? I have found if I go into a shop and quickly explain I am English so I speak little Polish but try with what I do know alot of people will try their best to understand and sometimes speak their little English in return. We laugh alot.

I'm sure...and usually it is THEY in the end who have the last laugh, I'm afraid:-)

Mimickry and caricature works both ways, you know! Why is THEIR language any more sacred than yours aka ours??!

I won't get into an argument over US English versus British English. Lol.