Language / What is your biggest problem with Polish language? [158]

Back to the thread topic question, I guess what I still find difficult is knowing what is considered perfective or completed action to a Polish native speaker and what isn't! While in general, I finally think after all these years that I have it right, mistakes, even basic ones, do crop up in both my writing as well as my speaking from time to time. Frequently, I find myself thinking in Polish, although on other occasions, I don't.

Although nobody's ever said that they can't understand what I've written, I realize it could be said differently, that is, better.

Language / What is your biggest problem with Polish language? [158]

Merely different, Rich, surely though neither better nor worse.
Every language has its own spin on life. That's what makes language learning both practical, not to mention, so endlessly fascinating!

In the above instances, those two words I gave as examples, German is oodles more compact than English, hands down:-)

Language / What is your biggest problem with Polish language? [158]

Quite the contrary I'd say, Rich!

In German, "Gemuetlichkeit" needs ZERO explanation or addenda; one word speaks nicely for itself.
Try it yourself. "A feeling of cozy familiarity, often in a relaxed setting within the warm, bosom company of lifelong friends with whom you can just be yourself...." YUCCCHHHHH, what a mouthful:-)

Or try "Feierabend". In English, "quitting time". And yet, it's much more than that in the German. The English doesn't do it justice. It really means, almost literally "celebratory evening.....[well deserved after having busted your hump from nine 'till five!!]"

Nope, just can't swallow your arguments there, buddy.

Life / How to really meet Polish people in Poland and actually socialize with people in their Late 20s/Early 30s? [34]

@Lenka,
I'm glad we agree:-)
As to what I'm "on", I've only had one cup of coffee so far today and so it probably isn't caffeen.

Life / How to really meet Polish people in Poland and actually socialize with people in their Late 20s/Early 30s? [34]

Explained indeed, though surely not to anyone's satisfaction!
What you did say was that no Brits with whom you'd spoken ever criticized your English, that's something entirely different though:-)

Life / How to really meet Polish people in Poland and actually socialize with people in their Late 20s/Early 30s? [34]

My question as to whether or not your story was inconsistent with the truth.
Again, if you claim that Brits in London mistook you for English because you spoke/knew it so well, who the heck am I to argue:-) If true, and I'm not doubting it is, my hat's off to ya.

Likewise, when I say that I was quite briefly in Szczecin, visiting acquaintances of my Polish teacher on the outskirts of the city, who are you to claim otherwise?

Language / What is your biggest problem with Polish language? [158]

Without a dictionary, right off the bat, I'd translate the above roughly as "One fifth of which earnings?".

@Rich et al.
As far as Polish seeming as though it were a "barbed wire fence", while I do like the analogy in fact very much, at least from a literary viewpoint, just please try if you can to imagine how English must look to the average foreign learner:-)

Moreover, in terms of "no other language coming to the point" as English, I can think of several examples off the top of my head where certain expressions in German, for example, where one word is worth at least a sentence of explanation, e.g. "Gemuetlichkeit" and "Feierabend"!

Life / How to really meet Polish people in Poland and actually socialize with people in their Late 20s/Early 30s? [34]

My story is no more consistent or inconsistent than any similar one which you've told concerning Brits' reactions to your English.
It's your word against theirs:-)

And yet I am decent enough not to call you a liar! Herein lies that crucial difference between us.

Language / What is your biggest problem with Polish language? [158]

RIGHT ON, TORQ!

In addition, the motivation for say, a Pole, to learn English is entirely different from that of a native, college-educated Anglophone. The former learns English much the way the rest of us dullards learn arithmetic - with great difficulty and no special talent for numbers whatsoever. As untold numbers of people count on the fingers instead of in their head as we've been taught, the random Pole has a similar ability with English, in my varied experience!

Somebody from abroad might actually try and get rid of their foreign accent when speaking another language. Yet, this seems to dog most European speakers of English, with exceptions precious few and far between.

Language / What is your biggest problem with Polish language? [158]

By filling them with pierogi, bigos, assorted golabki and other heart attacks on a plate?
Hmmm, I take it then you're referring exclusively to Polish women:-)

News / Polexit? Almost half of the Poles believe that Poland would be better off outside of the EU [548]

See my private message. You're on the money, Tacitus.

News / Polexit? Almost half of the Poles believe that Poland would be better off outside of the EU [548]

I concur.

Language / What is your biggest problem with Polish language? [158]

The best way to a person's heart is through their stomach:-) Rich needed to expand his waistline!

Language / What is your biggest problem with Polish language? [158]

I qualified my answer with "foreign language majors". The latter are scarcely your rank-and-file Anglophones, forced into learning high school foreign language requirements! However, for the masses, at least here in the States, I would have to agree, unfortunately.

Method aside though, we don't as often hear about lazy Europeans who speak lousy English:-)

News / Polexit? Almost half of the Poles believe that Poland would be better off outside of the EU [548]

Yet, Delph, can you or anybody name us a country such as the former GDR that successfully made that transition from "planned" to "market" economy?

In complete honesty, I can't think of one! Slovenia comes close, yet still hasn't quite attained the level of capitalist neighbors.
Hungary under "Goulash" Communism? Maybe, yet still a tough sell from my point of view.

Language / What is your biggest problem with Polish language? [158]

The only difference is that Poles, French, Germans, the whole bunch, are literally inculcated, year after year after bloody year with mind-numbing hack English instruction by sinecure monsters sponsored through state-sponsored bribery to even get such government jobs! Typically, they are native speakers of their mother language, not English, and consequently, Europeans in this case, learn English with no particular desire to "sound like" Anglophone out of some desire to reproduce the aesthetics of the English tongue!

A skilled and diligent Anglo-Saxon foreign language major at university from the UK or the US is a different animal all together. They are in my experience from college often ravenous to devour as much of the best which foreign languages have to offer.

Therefore, many on the whole speak a foreign language better than their foreign interlocutor knows English.

Language / What is your biggest problem with Polish language? [158]

In studying Korean, for example, one learns to communicate in the client's language!
Remember that old wisdom. The most important language in the world is neither English, nor Chinese, nor Russian, nor Spanish, but the language the customer speaks:-)

The "payback" as you call it, is the satisfaction of knowing that one is contributing to an increasingly global economy. Look how many Koreans study English. Yet how many native Anglophones learn Korean! It's all a matter of supply vs. demand. The demand for foreign language speakers world wide is increasing, more today than ever, only folks such as you don't know it.

Your observations are short sighted at best, in a word, typically American.

My analogy before was meant to say that you can try through years of study to turn a Polish speaker into a future English speaker, not though into an English thinker. You can take the boy out of the country......

Life / How to really meet Polish people in Poland and actually socialize with people in their Late 20s/Early 30s? [34]

As a matter of fact, Russian, and not German or even English, was the daughter's major at university at the time.
Her goal was to become a foreign language correspondent upon graduation:-)

When we met, she introduced herself as Annuszka.
I did drive, but not in Europe and actually train service was better than I had expected.

Language / What is your biggest problem with Polish language? [158]

Oh, I agree in theory!
But ya can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear, it ain't gonna happen...in our lifetime anyway:-)

News / Polexit? Almost half of the Poles believe that Poland would be better off outside of the EU [548]

I guess I was referring more to the that time BRD:-)

Life / How to really meet Polish people in Poland and actually socialize with people in their Late 20s/Early 30s? [34]

In fact, kaprys, Bartek would take us, his wife and daughter, along to Szczecin for shopping.As far as how I "entertained" myself for just two weeks or so, like any visit, I would join the family in whatever they did. As Annuszka was a teen ager and I was in my early thirties, I mostly spent time on my own, taking any of the local buses into town.

As it was intended to be a sort of language "immersion"/vacation excursion, I enjoyed discussing current events with Bartek to the extent that my Polish would allow. In addition, since it was barely just under two hours to Berlin by train, towards the last day of my stay, I took a bus into Berlin, spent several hours there, and than arrived back to Bartek's house (can't recall the name of the village to save my lifeLOL) more or less in time for podwieczorek:-)

Still in touch with the family, although for mostly family reasons, I haven't returned to Poland in so long.

News / Polexit? Almost half of the Poles believe that Poland would be better off outside of the EU [548]

Just curious, B.B. Would you consider one of your former Chancellors, the late Dr. Erhard, to be an "austerity" leader?

Language / What is your biggest problem with Polish language? [158]

@Rich,
Language dissection is no end captivating, I must roundly disagree! Furthermore, NO country will ever become "completely" any-other-language speaking apart from her own mother tongue. Yours is a pipemare aka pipe dream nightmare, because language is actually little more than a thought process in the long run, and NOT merely a speech utterance:-)

If you bother to inform yourself concerning linguistics prior to posting flip answers, read Pinkert, Chomsky, Vygotsky and others concerning both the development as well as the practical application of language in everyday life. A Polish speaker speaking English, is still thinking in Polish with English coming out.

Multiply that by any other country's language!

@Wincig,

Exactly right. You took the words from out of my mouth. Just because Rich believes that nearly every country will soon becoming English speaking, that surely doesn't mean that it will necessarily also be English thinking.

News / Polexit? Almost half of the Poles believe that Poland would be better off outside of the EU [548]

Fru Thunberg is seen by many, both abroad, perhaps at home as well, as some sort of tool or spokesperson for the Climate Change Movement, whose words are solely politically motivated.

While I'm not quite as cynical as some, it's only natural to be suspicious of anybody's motives which seem so pure:-)

@Spike,
What you say makes a degree of sense, but again, we'll simply have to wait and see what happens.

Language / What is your biggest problem with Polish language? [158]

Perhaps that's why, Rich!

I'm presently learning Korean. Asking my native-born teacher about particles in Korean would almost be like asking the everyday, even educated, American
English native speaker to describe for a foreigner when to use tenses.
Unless you're an English TEACHER, chances are you won't know and you won't care much since it's second nature to you:-)

Life / How to really meet Polish people in Poland and actually socialize with people in their Late 20s/Early 30s? [34]

?? I couldn't have had a more relaxing, not to mention, comfortable time, kaprys!
Odd how you came to the exact opposite conclusion without even knowing what it was actually like:-)
I not only found how practical my Polish turned out to be, as nobody in the household really knew much coherent English, but as it happens, the brother-in-law had lived in

Berlin for a number of years, and so spoke fluent German. If ever I was at a loss for a Polish word, he could supply the German.

I had a chance to socialize some with their neighbors, and so on the whole, it was a lovely experience. Furthermore, Monika, Bartek's wife, was a fabulous cook. I imagine

she still is.

News / Polexit? Almost half of the Poles believe that Poland would be better off outside of the EU [548]

Spike,
Just how would said "disassemblage" then take place?

News / Polexit? Almost half of the Poles believe that Poland would be better off outside of the EU [548]

I maintain that a Polexit would be an even more disastrous, precipitously unthought out move for Poland than Brexit for Britain.
The former would merely be shooting herself in the foot!

Life / How to really meet Polish people in Poland and actually socialize with people in their Late 20s/Early 30s? [34]

@kaprys,
I was in Poland for a total of two weeks, several hours in Szczecin this is true, subsequently though, on the outskirts of town at the home of my Polish teacher's brother-in-law! Albeit not a long time in the scheme of things, yet more than enough for my purposes at the time as well as my pocket bookLOL

Surely, perfunctory comments about their own home town oughtn't have been that overwhelming for those whom we met and preferred to speak English. I can only attribute their reaction to cultural differences.

Language / What is your biggest problem with Polish language? [158]

Undoubtedly for me, the biggest problem with Polish remains my frequent doubts as to when to apply perfective vs. imperfective verb forms:-) For whatever reason, vocabulary, even the counting, doesn't confound me to the same extent.

Rather as with German, the language with which I grew up and currently teach, unlike Polish, foreign learners must decide when (often why) certain verbs take their respective cases. In Polish, as an adult foreigner learner (being nearly thirty before my first Polish lesson!) I continue to grapple with those aspectual issues.

Then again, I can only speak for myself.