Do expats living in Poland speak Polish?

is there even anyone trying to counter this statement? More speakers of the language = more words being created daily = evolving... it's not rocket science really.. and there's no magic to it..

Exactly!

I'm only 17 and I've just moved to Poland a couple of weeks ago. I'm half Polish so I know some Polish from growing up, enough to hold conversation, but sometimes I find I don't know the right word/phrase for what I want to say, in which case I'll ask in English if they could tell me the Polish for the word/phrase.

I quite like the Polish language, but I never learnt to read/write in Polish, so this is something I'm now trying to learn. Hopefully GaduGadu will help there :P

As for whether people should speak the language if they are living here? Of course, at least try to learn. Even if you find it hard and don't learn much, people will really respect that you've made the effort to learn. I find it nice to see how many Polish people have a good grasp of English, so I'm sure Polish people like it just as much when they see someone who can speak some Polish, even if it's basic.

Our whole perception of the world is shaped by language. Without language our view of the world would be much more linear. It is vital to at least attempt to learn the language for the area in which you live if you truly wish to understand the people there for who they are :)

Good luck with the learning and welcome to the forums : o

Thanks :)

While we're on the subject, does anyone have any tips for some good ways to learn the written language? Spoken language is easier to learn for me as I can pick it up by talking, watching TV, listening to music, etc. Written language seems a lot harder as with other languages that I learnt (French and German) I was taught them at school, now I have no tutors so I'm having to teach myself :P

Welcome in Poland!


All the best with that. Hopefully GaduGadu will help, but don't forget to practice - try to speak as much as you can. And don't worry if you sometimes don't know how to say something - give it some time!

As for good ways to learn the written language, try reading - newspapers, magazines, books. It helped me!

Haha that's a really obvious idea that I didn't think of, thanks for the tip :)

So an interesting question, those of you who moved to Poland a while ago and have a pretty good grasp of the language now, how long did it take you?

I already know the language well enough for most every day conversations thanks to spending a lot of time in Poland when I was younger, but as for the written language, I'm starting from scratch :P

I wouldn't know that Słonko, I'm Polish :) I meant other language when I said that it helped me.


That's great, we're proud of you! Your parents did a good job :)


Do you have any friends, family you could write e-mails, or letters with? You can write poems as well.

Albo od czasu do czasu możesz pisać z nami, jak chcesz :)

Moje rodzice nie uczyli mi tego :P

I guess I must have just picked it up by listening as I was very young at the time.

I have some friends here that I've known for years, and soon I'll have a lot more, so we'll be talking on GG and by email in Polish when we need to.

The hardest bit for me is getting the grammar/spelling right, as I never really learnt grammar when listening to people speak :P

There you will be practicing your writing, so no worries, I'm sure you'll pick it up quicly. Just make sure that you don't use spell check, or do copy / paste when writing your e-mails. If you are not sure of how to write a word, look it up in a dictionary and write it yourself.

Again reading is very helpful - pick a magazine about something you like, and read it regularly.
Also, there is a Polish language section on here, maybe try to ask for some more advices there?

Powodzenia nasze 17-letnie Słońce :)

Dzięki :)

Ah I only just saw the language forums, I'll check them out :)

Hey guys. I thought it would be impossible for me to learn Polish. I was wrong. A friend of mine told me about a cool Polish school called polish courses. I've met great people there and had a good time. We still go out together to social meetings in our favourite cafe and practice Polish. Polish people are usually kind and encourage you to speak Polish. If you like exchanging your thoughts and language skills, there's no better way but to go to a good language school like Prolog, where you can start to believe you can actually learn Polish. I still remember my lecturers. I honestly thought I have no language skills. Now it seems that I understand a lot and speak quite well.

Sure Marco, I bet you don't work for them at all :D

oh Prolog, didn't they do some fake advertising here before?

Expats living in any country other than their own should ideally learn the language of the country in which they are living, despite how "fluent" in English as the natives may appear to be:-)

@Lyzko: Expats are sent abroad by their employers and stay there only 2, 3 or 4 years (as the case most often for instance in Poland) so how can you expect them to learn local languages? A western executive for instance spends 2 years in Poland then 3 years in Nicaragua and then another 2 years in Finland so the guy should learn Polish, Spanish and Finnish???? Expats are working in a given country only on temporary basis....

Still no excuse for ignorance, InPolska! Your point is well taken, however. The thing is that expats miss out on so much by not at least knowing the basics of the target language, be it Nicaragua, Poland, Russia or Sweden. Sure, chances are far, far greater that an expat being transferred to Stockholm will find many more average people who speak at least superficially fluent English, sometimes even French or a bit of high school German, than say, in Novosibirsk, part of respect for the people with whom you're doing business is a modicum of knowledge regarding their mother tongue, unbalanced as the playing field may be:-)

@Lyszko: 1. they have other priorities and 2. they do not have time

just a question here, do you think it is a `must` to go for a language course to learn Polish or you think it would be possible to learn it from books, cds, etc at home? I am slowly coming to my fourth year and after all still I have basic Polish skills, so that I seriously started to think to make some effort to learn.

Polish is such a difficult and precise language... I think it worths it to go to a (good and dynamic) language school ;)

Allegedly, but I met the old CEO of Allegro and he had managed to get to a very high level of Polish. If he could manage, there's no excuse for anyone else here for the long run.

It doesn't bother me at all if some language schools are doing 'fake' advertising. Surely, it's a great idea and exactly what I'll do. Only been here from the start of the year but at some point after summer I'll go to a course. Let me know, if you know of any. It's probably even possible to find a girlfriend there as well.

What bothers me is that not everyone living abroad is an expat but for some reason many people think so. I'm just a guy from abroad and was sent by me and therefore I'm not an expat.

@Delph: it is ... ONE ;). Yes most expats (by definition termporary visitors) don't see need to learn Polish or whatever other local language(s).