WHY DO POLES USE ENGLISH WORDS IN CONVERSATION?

What the ****.... don't compare the Irish always with us Poles, we are a completely different country on a very different spot on the globe

It was hardly a comparison, monika. This is about English and pron is a part of that.

You don't want anything to do with English-speaking countries then don't use our words. Kapisz?

OK I don't have to justify any pretenses. Everyone has freedom of opinion, you know except my name and my nationality nothing about me, so do not judge about something of which you know too few

Ah, Seanus, still in denial......

There was no judging involved, monika. Too little, not too few. I was addressing the thread. If you don't want to be associated with us 'Westerners' that use English, don't.

Not in denial at all, thanks.

What have you a bee in your bonnet about?
Only a complete idiot would think Poland and Ireland are the same country, are you such a person? you sound like it.



You're both in the Nile, the Irish use of the English language is the hybrid, youz are the dregs ;p

Seanny, you'll be used to such outbursts by now. They come from nowhere. Some women here seem to have permanent PMT/PMS. Time of the month? Time of the day more like ;)

Yes but you can't tell me quite a few Irish folk don't pronounce it more like poob :) I knew quite a few Irish folk that did.

I don't mind so much when they at least make some kind of sense but come on... ;)


A Pub by any other name is still a Pub.

Actually the Irish English and British English are more the hybrids of the English Language. American English is truer to the 17th-18th century English in that it is not so progressive.

I would say Poles use a lot of English in Polish due to it appearing more Western under Commie times, plus actually there are a few expressions that are just easier to say in English.

The most "Classical English" I have ever heard from any country was in South Africa.
Those lads have been left alone for faaaaaaar too long.
They call traffic lights 'robots' for crying out loud! hahahahaha.

People use English in many languages all over the world because America is the world super power. This will change of course as super powers come and go.

Ahhh - the Irish deep "u" sound. Very handy. Good with making very distinguishing vowel sounds we are. : )

You see, if there were such a word as "pab" many (Southern) English people would pronounce it almost identically to "pub".

Case in point: poor, pour & paw.

The Irish prounounce each of these words completly differently - many people from the south of England pronounce them all the same way.

I've lost count of the amount of Poles who thought that stuff and staff were pronounced the same way becasue of their RP English teacher.

Very true! Poles benefit from Scottish teachers like me who can clearly articulate their vowels. A and U are very distinct for me but not for Poles. They learn effectively that way.

I can just imagine it. Teaching English lang with a Scots accent: "the ca' sa' on the ma' ahm tellin' ye". Just kidding Seanus, couldn't resist it.

People do the same thing in English: Ciao, hola, c'est la vie, gesundheit. It's an influx of English-language culture (music, movies) that have a big effect on the rest of the world. We like to call it "Soft Power."

English is the universal language, it is really the same in all countries.

such as?

lunatykowac.

awesome.

I can bet it came from French.

Latin.

not luinatic but lunatikus? ;)

Ha ha - maybe!

But I've just realised the "false friend" problem here with: lunatic/lunatyk !

yes. it's common mistake.

This is probably one of the most common word formation processes. It's called borrowing and is a huge sources of new words in English, that is the adoption of words from other languages – ‘piano’ is Italian, ‘robot’ is Czech and ”yoghurt’ is Turkish. Poles talk about ‘sport’, ‘klub’, ‘pub’ and many others...

Jestem Driverem .... HAHAHAHHAHAHAHA
Egyptian ,,Polish speaker.

Let's eliminate all the English words from Polish! Then all the French and Russian. Then of course, we have to get rid of the Latin and Greek. Get rid of ALL the foreign words. Then we have to resurrect all the archaic words, or we'll be left with a vocabulary of 12 words.

It is so true. People would often say "cash flow" rather than "przepływy finansowe", a formal Polish term. But then they would say "dodatni/ujemny cashflow" instead of "pozytywny/negatywny cashflow" (from the interview in Polish of the French president of the plc Petrolinvest, Bernard Le Guern, to TVN CNBC channel)

Adam Mickiewicz already complained in the 19th century of the borrowings from foreign languages. But these come and go, since only one out of the four he mentions, has stayed as others dissapeared along with such types of troops.

Wojsko! Mówią, że polskie! lecz te fizyliery,
sapery, grenadiery i kanonijery,
Więcej słychać niemieckich tytułów w tym tłumie
Niżeli narodowych! Kto to już zrozumie!
(By the way, the "titles" he mentions are of French, not of German origin.)

cashflow? oh come on!

the whole thing is funny for me being a native english speaker. day in, day out in poland i would hear an English word being introduced into Polish.....i mean it seemed like every day there was a new one, yet day after day, i would read english news online......not a single polish word being introduced.....at all. you get the occasional new french/german one in there but even that is rare these days. i simply can't relate to something like this; having my native language constantly bombarded by another one....the same one....over and over.

I was surprised though when my in laws came to visit this summer. all these new words being thrown in there every day, yet they seemed to know all of them. sure, the teenie boppers, 20 somethings, 30 somethings, i would expect them to catch on and either use them or at the very least, not use them but know what they mean.....but they apparently pump these words into Polish mass media enough to where even the 50-60 somethings can identify it right away because my in laws identify them and even use them often times.

Yeah, 'cause 50-year-olds are generally Alzheimer-riddled senile drooling idiots. What sort of world do you live in? The people who are 60 today were young in the Sixties and I bet have experienced more than you ever will ;-p

I can never understand this condescending tone toward anyone over 40. Intelligent people don't suddenly stop learning new concepts or expressions just because they have lived a certain amount of years.

BTW, what exactly are these magic "new words" that you speak of?

Magdalena wrote:


hold your horses there, bucko.

can we not all agree that older generations use different words than younger ones because of what they were exposed to growing up? do younger kids not use new words in their vocabulary more than their parents? can we not all agree that since the coming of the internet, DVD players, cell phones, various other new concepts (in Poland's case DEMOCRACY) along with the fact that people in their 50's and 60's weren't taught english in school whereas the younger generation learns english first and foremost would be reason enough to say that people in their 50's and 60's are "different" in many ways to the younger generation's vernacular?

my in laws just started using the internet last year for cryin' out loud.

Not true. Some were, some weren't. Stop generalising.


That doesn't mean they didn't know what internet was, or that they wouldn't be able to use the word "internet".

You are confusing two completely different issues here. I cannot make architectural drawings, yet I immediately recognise them when I see them. I cannot solve math equations, but I know what their structure is. I could go on. An older person can easily recognise and name items of new technology, but may be reluctant to use them. They will understand most of the newest vocabulary without necessarily feeling the need to employ it. It is the young who are at a disadvantage - they have no knowledge of technologies, concepts, or vocabulary which have preceded their arrival and are now seen as outdated. ;-p