Can most people in Poland speak Russian?

Would people in Poland from 20 years old to 40 years be able to speak Russian?

Some would most wouldn't

No.

On the other hand, it's gained popularity as a foreign language in some circles. The aesthetics of Russian and parts of Russian culture appeal to many Poles (but politics get in the way....).

all people older than about 30 now were taught Russian in schools (in my time it was obligatory both in elementary school and in secondary schools (licea and vocational school) - it was obligatory untill 1990 and was still pretty common a couple of years after that time) - my brother who was born in 1979 already had no Russian in liceum.

Russian bears a lot of similarity to Polish. For me it was pretty easy to learn it (the amount I learned: my Russian - especially spoken - is not nearly as good as my English) (Russian language course used to start at the age of 11 typically)

Do those Poles who learned Russian in school have good command of it? Hmm. Not really. I believe most will struggle to understand basic day-to-day Russian. Sure some words will be familiar because of education (some will be familiar because they are similar in Polish and in Russian) - I think it is similar to the case of French taught to the British kids - most can't understand nor speak any reasonable French a couple of years out of school. However there are plenty (those with better learning abilities/skills and memory and those attracted to the Russian language and culture in some way or another) of Poles who will understand and even speak a lot of Russian.

Polish people since 1990 were hardly exposed to Russian language and culture (like very few Russian films on Polish TV). This influenced equally the proficiency of those who learned it and familiarity in the younger generations. Younger generations can not understand even basic Russian because they were never taught the basic phonetic phenomena of the language in comparison to the Polish language. They will be able to get only the words that sound the same or very similar to their Polish counterparts and that's just a fraction of Russian vocabulary.

I actually had Russian in secondary school but the teacher was not demanding (witch is good) so I don't understand russian at all.

It's still very common in rural schools for Russian to be a main language - I know at least three different schools where they're teaching Russian alongside English and not German/Spanish/French.

i always thought it depended on whereabouts you live in poland.some of my friends speak russian, and some german. not understanding either language, i dont know how well they speak it. friends from east poland were taught russian, and others from south and west poland were taught german.

Polish accent in Russian is funny.They can make you laugh by it.

And vice versa, I'm sure-:)

A Russian colleague who speaks Polish pronounces "doskonale" as "DA - SKA - NALEH" instead of DAWHH -SKAWHH- etc.. Russians tend to have much more relaxed struent vowels than Polish. They tend to sound as though they're pushing out the sounds from inside them, like moving along a slow, viscous river, rather than a babblig brook, full of chirpy little sounds as in Polish.

Exactly this is funny when polish women speak Russian.They try to make these elongated sounds with vowels and polish intonation which is different from Russian.In some cases it sounds like Ukrainian.

A related question to the thread, why is Russian so popular in the Ukraine but not in Poland? How come the Ukrainians don't like speaking Ukrainian?

Western Ukrainians tend to be are fiercely patriotic and prefer Ukrainian. It is the Russified eastern Ukrainians, President Yanukovych included, who are partial to Russian.

Re Poland, I recall and old PRL-era joke. A father sees all 4s and 5s (very goods and excellents) on his young son's report paper, then notices a 2 (failing grade) next to Russian and remarks: 'Tak trzymać synku!' (Keep up the good work, son)..

Many people speak Russian in Ukraine because there are around 5 million ethnic Russians in Ukraine who mainly live in the eastern and southern parts of Ukraine. Also when all of Ukraine west and east were part of the Russian empire Ukraine was heavily Russified the same with Belarus. Genetically there is no difference between a Pole, Ukrainian , Belarusian or Russian person all have the same founding fathers. You can google it and read all about it for yourself

so why there are general diffrences in apearience between people from those countries, especially between Poles and Russians?


Poland wasn't the part of Soviet Union so Poles were not forced to speak Russian and Polish isn't that similar to Russian as Ukrainian is.


What the hell is that?


truth, when you speak Russian with Polish accent you don't sound like Borat...

Poles and Slavic Russians look the same

Not really - there are definite differences.

I don't see it

Spend time in both places and it's easy to see.

Same and I don't see it. In my view most slavs look the same

In my view they don't.

Because for some reason you don't want to see it, what are you trying to prove with this nonsens? Its like saying all people frome countries like Portugal, Spain, Italy, France and Romania look the same cause they speak romance languages

You live thousands of miles away, so of course you don't see much difference.

that because of your heritage

It's a phonetic transcription of "Doskonale" for foreigners, Wulkan. Don't you recognize your own language?

Poles, Russians and Ukrainians all look somewhat different. Poles are almost instantly recognizable sue to their facial structure, typically square-jawed, with high cheekbones and light eyes. Russians on average have slightly more elongated faces and generally are auburn in hair color. Ukrainians tend to have mostly blue or bluish-green eyes, with broad, expressve faces. The men especially tend also to be quite tall and muscular looking. Peasant types of course, will look a bit stockier.

Polish men are often recognizable by their ruddy faces, usually from excessive drinking, unfortunately!

eh? Jewish men are often recognisable by their pale faces, usually from excessive indoors activities, unfortunately !

Poles look more germanized than Russians but less germanized than Czechs.Ukrainians from western Ukraine look closer to Poles than Belarrusians from western Belarus.Generally Slavs have attractive features.

ROFL :)))) That was a hillarious tit for tat.

Well at least we're sober enough to enjoy them.
LOL

Very few.

More than you think - there's plenty of people in their mid 20's without Communist baggage who learnt Russian in school and who are capable of using it.