Language / Should I learn Polish or she learn English? [83]

I submit you were too old when you arrived in the States to fully adapt linguistically or culturally
to the American experience! Most people lose their foreigner accent before or up to no later than
the age of twelve.

F-bombs and Woodstock culture alone do NOT an American make (paraphrasing Mark Twain on a separate topicLOL).

Language / Extremely Hard - Polish the hardest language to learn [226]

Right about the fact that my English is way superior to yours, that's what.

News / Will PiS be happy if AfD wins elections in Germany? [1440]

Quite, Alien! Don't even dignify such shock value with a response.

Food / Traditional Polish Foods [141]

My favorite traditional Polish dish(s):

Zurek (or Chlodnik, depending on the season!)

Bigos

Language / Should I learn Polish or she learn English? [83]

Therefore old enough to have already been ingrained with the Polish language.
Tough to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear, Rich. Once a Pole, always a Pole.

If I'd gone to Germany at 24, having scarcely any underpinning in German, save
for a light high school course taught by some random American, I'd barely have been
prepared for what I encountered when I arrived there at roughly 25:-)

I grew up with German, you didn't grow up with English, and therein lies the key difference!

Language / Extremely Hard - Polish the hardest language to learn [226]

Thanks, Lenka.

@Rich, you know I'm right and it just galls you, doesn't it!

Language / Should I learn Polish or she learn English? [83]

How old were you though when you left Poland with your folks, Rich?

Language / Extremely Hard - Polish the hardest language to learn [226]

Yes, Johnny. You do that.

Language / Extremely Hard - Polish the hardest language to learn [226]

It isn't, actually!
More of a pun, albeit apparently unsuccessful, on a Polish candy bramd produced to look like mini barrels LOL

Language / Extremely Hard - Polish the hardest language to learn [226]

Amen, Pawian!

@Rich, my English is superior to yours any day of the bloody week. Polish? There, you've clearly got me over a barelka, he-he:-)

Language / Should I learn Polish or she learn English? [83]

Rich, as always, it's your word against that which actually happened!
Obviously there must be a rational explanation for your protracted bitterness
against Poland, and somehow, I can't believe it's because of Gomulka's politics LOL

Language / Should I learn Polish or she learn English? [83]

A common tongue, you mean. Yes, I can't disagree with that statement.
Sort of reminds me once more of that short, cute little scene in "Casablanca":

Man: And now we speak only English in America. You, treasure! Please, how
much watch?

Woman: Six watch.

Foreign Observer: I see you will both fit in perfectly in America!

Language / Extremely Hard - Polish the hardest language to learn [226]

Protestations to the contrary, one's mother tongue remains one's
mother tongue for the rest of one's life!

Although I've never heard you speak, based solely upon brief
samples of your English posting here on the Forum, there are still
clear, if isolated, examples of first language interference in the way
you express yourself in English, especially when angry, which seems
quite often these days:-)

Above all, you came to the States essentially as an immigrant, not
a visitor, and so ridding your accent as well as trying to linguistically
adapt at leisure to the cultural nuances of American English
and the like, were probably the last things on your young mind.

A language is much like an iceberg. It seems normal on the surface,
yet beneath the ice, there's a hard chunk below the water.

Maybe you spent hours just watching American TV for as long as
possible. That doesn't necessarily mean that you absorbed the language
like a native speaker. There're always bound to be gaps and holes.

Hate to burst your bubble.

Language / Extremely Hard - Polish the hardest language to learn [226]

@Rich, while I can't substantiate your experience in Poland
and would scarcely wish to claim you're not being truthful,
unless you were either completely soused on bimber or
were looking at pretty women's skirts (which I could well understand),
I somehow can't believe that you had zero comprehension issues
not speaking Polish in Poland, furthermore, that somehow American
English will become the "second language" there in the future.

Simply put, I think you were on something, dude!

Language / Should I learn Polish or she learn English? [83]

Ideally, you both should learn each other's language,
at least, practice speaking the other's mother tongue.

Off-Topic / PF members MEETUPS.....everyone welcome! [122]

"Glasses", "classes". You rhymed, he-he!

Study / Jagiellonian vs University of Wrocław for a master's degree in English? [15]

Actually, you're right about that!
Although only briefly in Poland, I did notice greater confidence when I
returned home.

Language / Extremely Hard - Polish the hardest language to learn [226]

Or how about "niedzwiedz" LOL
(Missing several diacritical accent marks however, sorry!)

News / Will PiS be happy if AfD wins elections in Germany? [1440]

@Rich, you're either a plain ol' troll or just plain nuts.....or both!

News / Will PiS be happy if AfD wins elections in Germany? [1440]

I couldn't concur more roundly, Miloslaw.

Study / Jagiellonian vs University of Wrocław for a master's degree in English? [15]

The only waste is obtaining a degree of English in a country in which English is not only not
the mother tongue, but more to the point, taught by professors whose first language isn't even
the language in which they are teaching. If the courses are in fact being taught in Polish, this
would seem to defeat the entire purpose of pursuing a degree in English instead of Polish.

News / Will PiS be happy if AfD wins elections in Germany? [1440]

"Sucking up" to whom, pray, Johnny Reb??
Perhaps to the forces of democracy and humanity?
The only brownie points we gain here would be the
satisfaction of having done the right thing against the
enemy of infantile gratification and cynicism!

News / Will PiS be happy if AfD wins elections in Germany? [1440]

Scarcely, but rather a return to something resembling FDR's New Deal, although far from perfect.

News / Will PiS be happy if AfD wins elections in Germany? [1440]

And if the majority just happens to be dead wrong??
Germany once thought Hitler was the answer. They turned out to be in error and
as a result paid the ultimate price for their error!

News / Will PiS be happy if AfD wins elections in Germany? [1440]

On the other hand, if what the majority wants is simply flat wrong, bad for the country, objectively speaking,
the government of either nation should intervene and set things right!

Israel's another case in point. Netanyahu's clearly becoming a deficit for his party through his obstinance
and hide bound hawkishness.

News / Will PiS be happy if AfD wins elections in Germany? [1440]

Seems to me Germany's pro-migrant policies are placing her in similar danger
to Biden's failed border policies. Scholz wants a place for migrants in the FRG
and the AfD doesn't. Biden wants to integrate Mexicans along with certain other
Third Worlders into the US and Trump doesn't.

News / Will PiS be happy if AfD wins elections in Germany? [1440]

....but not in the NS-past, B.B., therein lies the difference!

News / Will PiS be happy if AfD wins elections in Germany? [1440]

Frankly, I don't think the AfD has much of a chance of winning.
I believe most German voters want to live in the present and for
the future, not revisit the past.

Work / tram driver foreigner [31]

Right on, Maf!

News / Will PiS be happy if AfD wins elections in Germany? [1440]

@Alien et al, the Church in Germany plays precious little role in
state politics, its local importance in Bavaria notwithstanding.