History / Do Polish people in general dislike Russia or Germany more? [369]

Factually correct, Freeespirit, though quite honestly I think that nowadays especially, Poland is far more afraid of as well as resentful of Russia, not Germany! I've known over the years umpteen younger to middle-aged Poles who have studied and in fact speak German, visit Germany often and have zero issues with their neighbor to their west. Rarely, except among seniors, have I ever encountered a Pole who either speaks Russian fluently or even admits to knowing Russia!

Language / Polish was chosen the HARDEST LANGUAGE in the world to learn... :D [1558]

German is also the EASIEST of the extant Germanic languages, compared say, with Icelandic!!! By contrast with the seeming "regularity" of German adjective endings (whereby the nouns often remain "untouched"!), Icelandic is a nightmare:-)

English on the one hand is morphologically "simple", yet orthographically complex.

German and particularly Icelandic are exactly the opposite.

@I really should modify my remarks. Icelandic is the most intricate of the extant Germanic languages, more complicated even than German which is moreso than Dutch,, Danish, Norwegian or Swedish.

can EVERYONE keep to the topic please, we are talking about POLISH language.

Jan Movie,

Polish has a moderately consistent pronunciation, and so I'm not surprised by what you commented concerning Portuguese.
In addition, Polish is generally pronounced as it is written/spelled, therefore posing little of the orthographic challenges for, say, an English native speaker of, for instance, French:-)

Language / Polish was chosen the HARDEST LANGUAGE in the world to learn... :D [1558]

Jan Movie, it is also said that Westerners in particular can indeed easily "pick up" various Asian languages, such as Mandarin, Japanese and conversational Korean. Surely, while this may be the case, the ability to both fluently AND functionally communicate in WRITING and READING along with merely conversing in the language is the acid test for having an accurate, usable knowledge in any language. Many people claim to "know" German, for example!. These people can converse easily enough with German native speakers etc. Writing a business letter or reading, say, >DER SPIEGEL< is usually way beyond them.

Language / Polish was chosen the HARDEST LANGUAGE in the world to learn... :D [1558]

Most enlightening, Magda!
Many, many thanks, once again:-)
Have to re-read the section you highlighted.

Language / Polish was chosen the HARDEST LANGUAGE in the world to learn... :D [1558]

As opposed to "pisać" - "pisYWać" - "NApisać" - "POpisać" - "POpis(y)Wać"etc........ ALL meaning more or less "to write"!! Less "devilishly" difficult????!

Food / Traditional Polish Foods [140]

As I said, I offered my wife one of my pyza and she fell in love with Polish cooking too:-)

Food / Traditional Polish Foods [140]

Pizy can also be quite delicious, though not alone (in my humble opinion). I enjoy them as a side with a main dish of nice wędlina and kapusta!

After the meal digestive of choice?? Well, there's always a shot ot two of Żubrówka following dessert and some good strong coffee:-)

Gettin' myself famished here, he-he!!!!

Food / Traditional Polish Foods [140]

Bigos, or "hunter's stew" consists of pork sausage (kiełbasa) sliced, picked cabbage etc. and is perhaps the most iconically Polish dish with which your's truly's familiar:-)

I love the stuff, could eat heaping helpings of it (..washed down of course with a solid Polish beer such as Żywiec).

Life / Do Polish people have a problem saying "I don't know" or "no"? [13]

I've noticed though that the European regression is still going in a different direction as compared with that from which it originated. Europeans are frequently mired in their academic arrogance of thinking that they know better because they've LEARNED better. American ignorance is to believe that they too know better precisely because they HAVEN'T learned it, and therefore are mired in their lack of knowledge to begin with.

Neither option's that good,4eigner, I'm with you on that:-)

Life / Do Polish people have a problem saying "I don't know" or "no"? [13]

Indeed, Solaris:-)

Sadly, we here seem to bow down to ignorance.

Life / Do Polish people have a problem saying "I don't know" or "no"? [13]

Many Europeans don't wish to appear at a loss for correct information, imagining somehow that this makes them seem stupid or ignorant instead of merely human:-) Americans are on the whole, far less concerned with the opinion of their fellow citizens as regards intellect or cultural knowledge. Heck, we voted for W. twice, didn't we?LOL

News / Der Spiegel: "Poles are now the masters of Europe" [49]

I never suggested they were perfect, but cut 'em some slack for heaven's sake! Come to think of it, how's the air in Wrocław?

lol

News / Der Spiegel: "Poles are now the masters of Europe" [49]

To anybody who doubts the veracity of the SPIEGEL article (which I've yet to read, by the way), I suggest they check out the news clipping "Kraków: Cud nad Wisłą" from several years back and to which I've aluded on previous occasions right here on PF. It's also available in English (Cracow: Miracle on the Vistula) and shows the amazing resilience of this once proud capital city.

The Cracovians can really pat themselves on the back!

Language / Polish was chosen the HARDEST LANGUAGE in the world to learn... :D [1558]

Wow! Many, many thanks for this great link, Magdalena! I must print it out as soon as I can:-)
Hardly to nitpick, but a contrastive analysis between Czech and POLISH would have been even more useful. Don't suppose there's any shortage of eitherLOL Would appreciate a heads up on that authored in either the Czech, Polish, English or German language ^^

Will at least slog my way through the first))

Read and re-read your link, Magda! Unless I'm missing something, I still don't see how Czech grammar is "more" difficult than Polish. They're both aspectually challenging, I'll say that for them:-) Haven't as yet discovered any particularly Czech wrinkles that distinguishes it substantially from Polish.

Perhaps I'm simply slow ^^

Language / Polish was chosen the HARDEST LANGUAGE in the world to learn... :D [1558]

Exactly what do you think constitutes the greater level of difficulty in Czech, I'm curious?

Language / Polish was chosen the HARDEST LANGUAGE in the world to learn... :D [1558]

Quite right, to each his own. See? We can still be of different mindsets and yet nonetheless respect the other's point of view.

Just an aside though. Pomposity fifty years back, while still pompous, was not looked upon the way it is these days. I'm still old enough to remember how my grade school friends would interact "way back when" (he-he!!) and I honestly don't remember the sort of brain-dead junk as I hear it today among average fourteen to fifteen year olds. One must admit that standards everywhere were higher back then than now. I recall being constantly challenged by both peers and profs to get the correct word out and failing to do so usually meant merciless (if never vindictive) ridicule. But hey, we got over it, sucked it up and owned up to our inadequacies like young men and women rather than overgrown children.

Spanish I won't touch. Polish would read:

DobrY wieczór! Mam na imię Jan.(N.p. Mam na imię Bogdan ale nazywam się Lipiński) Jestem z Austrii i mieszkam we Wiedniu. Mówię po niemiecku, po angielsku, po hiszpańsku a trochę po polsku.

I must say I'm impressed by your cache of languages:-) Forgive my Polish "corrections", but as you are fond of saying "Wie du mir, so ich dir." = Tit for tat

Take it my earlier remarks concerning your English weren't misunderstood.

Good luck!
Powodzenia!
Buena suerte!
Viel Erfolg!

You could just as easily introduce yourself with "Jestem Jan." = I'm Jan. (Ich heisse Jan). "Nazywam się Jan" again would sound odd to a Pole. In this way, Polish and German differ from, say, English. In English, "Hi, my name's Mark. We understand "name" to be either the full name, the surname or just the given name. In Polish as well as German, "name" (unless specified as "first name") almost always means the last or family name.

:-)

Just to back up a ways. I certainly didn't mean to imply that "Nazywam się Jan." is in any way wrong, merely that both the latter as well as "Mam na imię Jan." is equally possible as well. Often my fingers race faster than my thoughts:-)

Language / Polish was chosen the HARDEST LANGUAGE in the world to learn... :D [1558]

Scottie, let me reiterate. What you all seem to call "bombastic", "pretentious" English is merely your misguided perception as a result of the watered-down excuse for 'World English' which we have today. This same language some fifty years prior, was considered literary, delightful and perhaps just a trifle highfallutin:-) The questions REALLY is, what's wrong with that? Oughtn't language challenge our sensibility and rouse us from our self-induced torpor? The answer to this blatantly rhetorical question is a resounding YES!!

Compare any YouTube program from the late Jack Paar TV talk show with Conan, Letterman or Leno and I think you have your answer.
Your generation has become so anesthetized by mediocrity that the bad sounds good, the good sounds "weird", i.e. no longer recognizable, and all that once smacked of class is denegrated.

There used to be a gentleman named Monty Woolley who was known for his supercilious, skewering, ascerbic wit. Rather than being reviled by others as an irritating, homosexual pain in the ass, it seems that people loved his skewer wit and often would skewer right back at him; it was all good, clean fun. He's been dead since 1964 and methinks to myself that we need more like him today.

O' George Carlin, where art thou?

Language / Polish was chosen the HARDEST LANGUAGE in the world to learn... :D [1558]

I repeat my guffaw, TheOtherLOL

Genealogy / I have Jewish DNA, but only know of Polish ancestry . [120]

Some think of Judaism as a religion, others as an ethnicity.

It can go either way. Frankly, "Jewish DNA" does sound a bit strange to me as well:-)

Language / Polish was chosen the HARDEST LANGUAGE in the world to learn... :D [1558]

Typo!

Language / Polish was chosen the HARDEST LANGUAGE in the world to learn... :D [1558]

I respect your opinion, Paulina. I wasn't aware that I was being nasty, merely mildly sarcastic.
My apologies!

Language / Polish was chosen the HARDEST LANGUAGE in the world to learn... :D [1558]

I only ask the same standards be applied to me as to any other on this forum. Can you honestly say that my paultry errors in German are any "less" egregious than Jan's occasionally off sentence structure??

Let's just keep things on a more or less equal footing. If Jan and others here are ready,willing and able to admit their errors, then I am certainly as glad to admit mine:-)

Language / Polish was chosen the HARDEST LANGUAGE in the world to learn... :D [1558]

And what would YOU have preferred, pray tell?? So far, JanMovie hasn't commented.

Love / Are Polish men handsome to you? [182]

Eckenpfeiler:-)

Language / Polish was chosen the HARDEST LANGUAGE in the world to learn... :D [1558]

Same thing, dude! Just a different stand. All of us appreciate correction, so long as it's done constructively.

Love / Are Polish men handsome to you? [182]

Quite so, McDouche! Let's have a looksie: wars, plagues, holocausts, crusades, destruction..

Have I left anything out, old man?
)))))))

Language / Polish was chosen the HARDEST LANGUAGE in the world to learn... :D [1558]

My point entirely. How is the lad to progress if he isn't corrected? I was being a tad sarky in the sentence you quoted, it's true. I only meant that how he's unwittingly mangling the English language, hopefully he isn't doing to the other languages he's learning as well.

My college profs could be snide as all hell on my papers. Didn't bother me a bit, 'cause I was thankful for the help!

Language / Polish was chosen the HARDEST LANGUAGE in the world to learn... :D [1558]

Oh, but there was! I specifically stated that my aim was to "slow Jan down", not deflect the focus of his interests.
Indeed, he seems as interested in improving his English as well as his Polish, Spanish and who knows which other language skills.

Since when is forty old? I think of myself as middle-aged:-)

Language / Polish was chosen the HARDEST LANGUAGE in the world to learn... :D [1558]

The assertion is not the issue, Pam, but rather the direction of his comment. I think it's great that he enjoys learning languages, just like the rest of us. I simply wished to gently caution him that while he has stated other times that he considers himself solid in English, having been learning it since the age of ten, his English still has plenty of gaps of which he should be aware before going ahead with Polish, Spanish or what have you.

In applying the "brakes" so to speak, my intention was scarcely to dampen his enthusiasm:-)

Language / Polish was chosen the HARDEST LANGUAGE in the world to learn... :D [1558]

A foreign language enthusiast I definitely am. I merely wished to slow JanMovie down a little. While his English is generally quite fluent, he still makes umpteen interference errors to which I merely wanted to draw his attention:-) Like yourself Wulkan, Ironside, Paulina, Patrycia and many other members on PF, Jan was practicing his English, much as I enjoy posting in Polish to practice my language skills. Likewise, I was under the impression that he too would appreciate some correction. I take it I'm right!