Wlodzimierz
6 Nov 2013
Life / Do you think that Polish people are rude? [951]
You're NOT welcome (..both in response to your thanks as well as on this forumLOL)!
You're NOT welcome (..both in response to your thanks as well as on this forumLOL)!
Wlodzimierz
6 Nov 2013
Life / Do you think that Polish people are rude? [951]
Sounds like a trolling post to me too.You could just as well substitute "..young German...", "English...", certainly, "Dutch..." people and probably come up with the same stereotype of generalized behaviors:-)
We Yanks ain't so hot abroad either, hence the expression "ugly American"!!
Sounds like a trolling post to me too.You could just as well substitute "..young German...", "English...", certainly, "Dutch..." people and probably come up with the same stereotype of generalized behaviors:-)
We Yanks ain't so hot abroad either, hence the expression "ugly American"!!
Wlodzimierz
2 Nov 2013
Language / Polish was chosen the HARDEST LANGUAGE in the world to learn... :D [1558]
For whatever it's worth, the first time I heard (Brazilian) Portuguese spoken, it sounded superficially like Russian, better yet, Italian spoken with a Russian accent, because of those palatalized final dental "t's", the liquid "l's" and that sort of drawling quality of Russian.
European Portuguese may be a different story.
For whatever it's worth, the first time I heard (Brazilian) Portuguese spoken, it sounded superficially like Russian, better yet, Italian spoken with a Russian accent, because of those palatalized final dental "t's", the liquid "l's" and that sort of drawling quality of Russian.
European Portuguese may be a different story.
Wlodzimierz
1 Nov 2013
Language / Polish was chosen the HARDEST LANGUAGE in the world to learn... :D [1558]
Portuguese, I've heard from both native as well as non-native speakers, is by the far the most complex Romance language apart from Romanian! While Portuguese doesn't have the burden of Latin declensions like the latter, nor the confusing-looking clitics of Scandinavian, Albanian or other Balkan languages, it's tense system is much more intricate than either French, Itialian or Spanish:-)
Do you agree?
Portuguese, I've heard from both native as well as non-native speakers, is by the far the most complex Romance language apart from Romanian! While Portuguese doesn't have the burden of Latin declensions like the latter, nor the confusing-looking clitics of Scandinavian, Albanian or other Balkan languages, it's tense system is much more intricate than either French, Itialian or Spanish:-)
Do you agree?
Wlodzimierz
31 Oct 2013
Language / Polish was chosen the HARDEST LANGUAGE in the world to learn... :D [1558]
Most likely it does. Amazed to observe a twinge of self-effacement in this last post:-) Keep it up!
Most likely it does. Amazed to observe a twinge of self-effacement in this last post:-) Keep it up!
Wlodzimierz
31 Oct 2013
Wlodzimierz
30 Oct 2013
Language / Polish was chosen the HARDEST LANGUAGE in the world to learn... :D [1558]
Contemporary German inflectional morphology PALES by comparison with Polish:-) Where German's four cases are often quite repetitive, the seven active cases in Polish differ from one another at the drop of a hat, rarely repeating! Although there is to be sure a certain regularity in certain noun declensions, the same can scarcely be said for the numerals.
Verbal "perfective" vs. "imperfective" aspects can also be a not so gentle challenge for the foreign Polish learner. Even in languages such as English or German which are governed typically by 'tense' not 'aspect', learning to distinguish their usage in Polish is sometimes enough to drive even the clearheaded among us to distraction:-) Mostly, this is because what English speakers see as requiring a completed action, for example, in Polish do not!
An analogy with German might be case governance. Even my advanced students would still have to sit and ponder why certain verbs which seemed like direct object (Accusative) actions in English, required the indirect (Dative) object in German, e.g. the verb 'folgen' (to follow) etc..
I continue to make mistakes in Polish aspectual distinctions.
Contemporary German inflectional morphology PALES by comparison with Polish:-) Where German's four cases are often quite repetitive, the seven active cases in Polish differ from one another at the drop of a hat, rarely repeating! Although there is to be sure a certain regularity in certain noun declensions, the same can scarcely be said for the numerals.
Verbal "perfective" vs. "imperfective" aspects can also be a not so gentle challenge for the foreign Polish learner. Even in languages such as English or German which are governed typically by 'tense' not 'aspect', learning to distinguish their usage in Polish is sometimes enough to drive even the clearheaded among us to distraction:-) Mostly, this is because what English speakers see as requiring a completed action, for example, in Polish do not!
An analogy with German might be case governance. Even my advanced students would still have to sit and ponder why certain verbs which seemed like direct object (Accusative) actions in English, required the indirect (Dative) object in German, e.g. the verb 'folgen' (to follow) etc..
I continue to make mistakes in Polish aspectual distinctions.
Wlodzimierz
29 Oct 2013
Language / Should I learn Polish or she learn English? [83]
Depends on the type of correction! Every other word?? Certainly not, I agree! However a gentle, corrective 'recast' after a particularly faulty sentence will only help to reinforce the model in the learner's mind, so that they aren't aware of the correction:-)
My first Polish teacher would correct me at nearly every bend and turn! Sure I'd get frustrated in the beginning, but after a while, I realized it was necessary. After all, I was learning as an adult, not as a child and so reinforcement was an absolute must in order to (literally!) "cement" in both the structures as well as the noun's gender. I still have to think on occasion about the gender of a noun. This admittedly is much more important in writing than speaking.
Depends on the type of correction! Every other word?? Certainly not, I agree! However a gentle, corrective 'recast' after a particularly faulty sentence will only help to reinforce the model in the learner's mind, so that they aren't aware of the correction:-)
My first Polish teacher would correct me at nearly every bend and turn! Sure I'd get frustrated in the beginning, but after a while, I realized it was necessary. After all, I was learning as an adult, not as a child and so reinforcement was an absolute must in order to (literally!) "cement" in both the structures as well as the noun's gender. I still have to think on occasion about the gender of a noun. This admittedly is much more important in writing than speaking.
Wlodzimierz
29 Oct 2013
Language / Should I learn Polish or she learn English? [83]
Above all, speaking and being CORRECTED by an educated native speaker is key to learning another language successfully, that is, ACCURATELY as well as merely "fluently":-)
Above all, speaking and being CORRECTED by an educated native speaker is key to learning another language successfully, that is, ACCURATELY as well as merely "fluently":-)
Wlodzimierz
29 Oct 2013
Language / Should I learn Polish or she learn English? [83]
Delphiandomine, most immigrants, as opposed to visitors or exchange students, may never get their new language up to speed. This isn't their purpose. They prefer to "communicate", period. Let the chips fall where they may!
Delphiandomine, most immigrants, as opposed to visitors or exchange students, may never get their new language up to speed. This isn't their purpose. They prefer to "communicate", period. Let the chips fall where they may!
Wlodzimierz
29 Oct 2013
Language / Should I learn Polish or she learn English? [83]
True enough, McDouche! Though why confine this complaint to the Poles??
True enough, McDouche! Though why confine this complaint to the Poles??
Wlodzimierz
29 Oct 2013
Language / Should I learn Polish or she learn English? [83]
There IS however a sort of middle-ground English accent somewhere between a working-class Russell Crowe (an Aussie however, not a Brit!!) and a super-efite Alan Corduner as Sir Arthur SullivanLOL
Things needn't be so bloody black-white, people!
There IS however a sort of middle-ground English accent somewhere between a working-class Russell Crowe (an Aussie however, not a Brit!!) and a super-efite Alan Corduner as Sir Arthur SullivanLOL
Things needn't be so bloody black-white, people!
Wlodzimierz
28 Oct 2013
Language / Should I learn Polish or she learn English? [83]
Wulkan, "RP" is an artifice! It's as much a construct as Polish stage diction and sounds utterly ridiculous nowadays, trust me on that one:-)
Films such as "Topsy-Turvy" in the late '90's were all but sleepers in the UK, having their widest audiences OUTSIDE Britain.
Motto: NOONE SPEAKS LIKE THE QUEEN EXCEPT HER MAJESTY!!! (....and I might add, "NOR WANTS TO")
Wulkan, "RP" is an artifice! It's as much a construct as Polish stage diction and sounds utterly ridiculous nowadays, trust me on that one:-)
Films such as "Topsy-Turvy" in the late '90's were all but sleepers in the UK, having their widest audiences OUTSIDE Britain.
Motto: NOONE SPEAKS LIKE THE QUEEN EXCEPT HER MAJESTY!!! (....and I might add, "NOR WANTS TO")
Wlodzimierz
28 Oct 2013
Language / Should I learn Polish or she learn English? [83]
Perhaps an English male hoping to meet and marry a girl in Poland ought to speak with the "unaccented" Polish of, say, Andrzej £apickiLOL
Perhaps an English male hoping to meet and marry a girl in Poland ought to speak with the "unaccented" Polish of, say, Andrzej £apickiLOL
Wlodzimierz
28 Oct 2013
Wlodzimierz
28 Oct 2013
Language / Should I learn Polish or she learn English? [83]
dantun22,
Personally I'd opt for learning Polish, at least at the beginning. While it is clearly incumbent upon your girl friend living in England to eventually learn the target language, knowing some basic Polish certainly can't hurt. Just so long as a bilingual household doesn't become a crutch for her siphoning benefits off of the state and remaining a perpetual dependent:-)
dantun22,
Personally I'd opt for learning Polish, at least at the beginning. While it is clearly incumbent upon your girl friend living in England to eventually learn the target language, knowing some basic Polish certainly can't hurt. Just so long as a bilingual household doesn't become a crutch for her siphoning benefits off of the state and remaining a perpetual dependent:-)
Wlodzimierz
8 Oct 2013
News / Poland and Germany should unite, says Lech Walesa [102]
Watch the rants, Valisz! They're most unbecoming:-)
And while we're on the subject of "German" scientists (German-Jewish symbiosis notwithstandingLOL), there were plenty who were not only gentile, but fervidly anti-Nazi, witness: Max Planck, Walther Nernst, Otto Hahn, Fritz Strassmann (both of whom split the atom), Erwin Schroedinger (an Austrian, but "Germanic" nonetheless I guess), Klaus Fuchs (a Communist and later naturalized Brit!!!) etc..
As far as being a "crap hole", sounds like more filth coming out of your (com-)posts than anywhere in either Poland or Germany.
Always gave you Czechs credit for being a tad more enlightened. I see I was mistaken ^^
Watch the rants, Valisz! They're most unbecoming:-)
And while we're on the subject of "German" scientists (German-Jewish symbiosis notwithstandingLOL), there were plenty who were not only gentile, but fervidly anti-Nazi, witness: Max Planck, Walther Nernst, Otto Hahn, Fritz Strassmann (both of whom split the atom), Erwin Schroedinger (an Austrian, but "Germanic" nonetheless I guess), Klaus Fuchs (a Communist and later naturalized Brit!!!) etc..
As far as being a "crap hole", sounds like more filth coming out of your (com-)posts than anywhere in either Poland or Germany.
Always gave you Czechs credit for being a tad more enlightened. I see I was mistaken ^^
Wlodzimierz
8 Oct 2013
News / Poland and Germany should unite, says Lech Walesa [102]
The Drang was NO myth! As to who "invited" whom, this, as with ever so much supposed history, remains subject to debate. I've yet to see reliable sources for such (and I DON'T necessarily mean Wiki either)!!!
The Drang was NO myth! As to who "invited" whom, this, as with ever so much supposed history, remains subject to debate. I've yet to see reliable sources for such (and I DON'T necessarily mean Wiki either)!!!
Wlodzimierz
8 Oct 2013
News / Poland and Germany should unite, says Lech Walesa [102]
Those same hard-working Germans are interestingly enough the most "vacation-rich" nation on the continent, with more paid time off than almost anywhere else I can think of. "Hands off our holidays!" (Haende weg von Urlaubstagen) was one of the first things with which Ms./Dr. Merkel had to contend as newly appointed chancellor. Many at the time felt she was "Americanizing" Old Germany just a liiiitttttlllle too quickly and ought to follow suit with the more Socialist-friendly of her seasoned predecessors, such as Gert Schroeder and Kohl, for instance:-)
A United States of Germany and Poland???! Naah, it'd be a marriage of (in-)convenience made in HELL!!!!
Those same hard-working Germans are interestingly enough the most "vacation-rich" nation on the continent, with more paid time off than almost anywhere else I can think of. "Hands off our holidays!" (Haende weg von Urlaubstagen) was one of the first things with which Ms./Dr. Merkel had to contend as newly appointed chancellor. Many at the time felt she was "Americanizing" Old Germany just a liiiitttttlllle too quickly and ought to follow suit with the more Socialist-friendly of her seasoned predecessors, such as Gert Schroeder and Kohl, for instance:-)
A United States of Germany and Poland???! Naah, it'd be a marriage of (in-)convenience made in HELL!!!!
Wlodzimierz
7 Oct 2013
News / Poland and Germany should unite, says Lech Walesa [102]
Historically correct, Crow old man! "Der Drang nach Osten" of course predates the last century by quite some time:-) One can indeed trace this Germanic thirst for border lands comprising present-day Russia back to around the period of the Livonian Knights, round about the early 11th or 12th centuries or thereabouts. In those days, the Teutonic Knights as they became known were greatly feared by the Slavs, much as the Germanic Vandals were feared by the Romans some thousand or so years earlier.
Historically correct, Crow old man! "Der Drang nach Osten" of course predates the last century by quite some time:-) One can indeed trace this Germanic thirst for border lands comprising present-day Russia back to around the period of the Livonian Knights, round about the early 11th or 12th centuries or thereabouts. In those days, the Teutonic Knights as they became known were greatly feared by the Slavs, much as the Germanic Vandals were feared by the Romans some thousand or so years earlier.
Wlodzimierz
7 Oct 2013
News / Poland and Germany should unite, says Lech Walesa [102]
Guess my eye's just got glued together, bud:-)
To quote Einstein, putting your hand on a hot stove for even two seconds can seem like two hours, looking at a cute girl for two hours can seem like two minutes.
Length is as relative as history itself ^^
Guess my eye's just got glued together, bud:-)
To quote Einstein, putting your hand on a hot stove for even two seconds can seem like two hours, looking at a cute girl for two hours can seem like two minutes.
Length is as relative as history itself ^^
Wlodzimierz
7 Oct 2013
News / Poland and Germany should unite, says Lech Walesa [102]
Pan Lech did just turn seventy, kidsLOL
Then again, he may either have been on his meds when he shoulda been off 'em, or off 'em when he shoulda been on 'em.
Or, he's just joking.
Anyhow, considering that most Polish territory was only distantly "German" and has long since been in Polish hands, (let alone consider for a moment Herr Hitler's desire for total annexation!!!) let's do chalk his comments up to plain ol' shock value and leave things at that, huh?
Pan Lech did just turn seventy, kidsLOL
Then again, he may either have been on his meds when he shoulda been off 'em, or off 'em when he shoulda been on 'em.
Or, he's just joking.
Anyhow, considering that most Polish territory was only distantly "German" and has long since been in Polish hands, (let alone consider for a moment Herr Hitler's desire for total annexation!!!) let's do chalk his comments up to plain ol' shock value and leave things at that, huh?
Wlodzimierz
21 Sep 2013
Language / Extremely Hard - Polish the hardest language to learn [226]
Indeed!
"Ja dziękuję w awansowanie" = I thank you in advance vs. "Dziękuję z góry." along with numerous similar English to Polish word-for-word translations??? They think it's Polish, but it AIN'T!!!!
Hysterical, no?
Indeed!
"Ja dziękuję w awansowanie" = I thank you in advance vs. "Dziękuję z góry." along with numerous similar English to Polish word-for-word translations??? They think it's Polish, but it AIN'T!!!!
Hysterical, no?
Wlodzimierz
21 Sep 2013
Language / Extremely Hard - Polish the hardest language to learn [226]
That actually happened to me in Germany, but never in Poland. As I was going through customs in Berlin returning to the States when the customs official called me aside and damned near INSISTED that I speak the language of my (US!!!) passport because he didn't believe I was American:-) He had to satisfy his curiosity as to why a native-born Yank spoke German like a German.
Poles on the other hand, knew I was not Polish (yet never guessed where I was from). They spoke nothing but Polish with me, including those who knew English, and seemed to understand me about as easily as I seemed to understand them.
Because, McDouche, there's basically no standard for English in Poland, much as is the case unfortunately throughout the rest of the non-Anglo-Saxon world. Germans too often claim to speak excellent English, yet make such egregious errors as to make the shackles of one's hair stand on end!!
That actually happened to me in Germany, but never in Poland. As I was going through customs in Berlin returning to the States when the customs official called me aside and damned near INSISTED that I speak the language of my (US!!!) passport because he didn't believe I was American:-) He had to satisfy his curiosity as to why a native-born Yank spoke German like a German.
Poles on the other hand, knew I was not Polish (yet never guessed where I was from). They spoke nothing but Polish with me, including those who knew English, and seemed to understand me about as easily as I seemed to understand them.
Because, McDouche, there's basically no standard for English in Poland, much as is the case unfortunately throughout the rest of the non-Anglo-Saxon world. Germans too often claim to speak excellent English, yet make such egregious errors as to make the shackles of one's hair stand on end!!
Wlodzimierz
21 Sep 2013
Language / Extremely Hard - Polish the hardest language to learn [226]
True enough. Fortunately, that never happened to me. Just lucky I s'ppose!
True enough. Fortunately, that never happened to me. Just lucky I s'ppose!
Wlodzimierz
21 Sep 2013
Language / Extremely Hard - Polish the hardest language to learn [226]
Same with any language, other than a fairly large speaker percentage such as German, French or Spanish.
Try attempting to speak Hungarian or Lithuanian without the accepted accent/grammar and folks'll look at you like you've got two headsLOL
Same with any language, other than a fairly large speaker percentage such as German, French or Spanish.
Try attempting to speak Hungarian or Lithuanian without the accepted accent/grammar and folks'll look at you like you've got two headsLOL
Wlodzimierz
21 Sep 2013
Language / Extremely Hard - Polish the hardest language to learn [226]
Cute, smurf. Don't quite see your point with it though:-)
Cute, smurf. Don't quite see your point with it though:-)
Wlodzimierz
21 Sep 2013
Language / Extremely Hard - Polish the hardest language to learn [226]
Absolutely on the money, Magdalena! I couldn't agree more.
English starts out easy and gets harder, Polish starts out hard and gets much easier.
Absolutely on the money, Magdalena! I couldn't agree more.
English starts out easy and gets harder, Polish starts out hard and gets much easier.
Wlodzimierz
21 Sep 2013
Language / Extremely Hard - Polish the hardest language to learn [226]
Probably English is the "hardest" language in the sense of correlating phoneme/grapheme/pronunciation:-)
Probably English is the "hardest" language in the sense of correlating phoneme/grapheme/pronunciation:-)
Wlodzimierz
10 Aug 2013
Work / Working in Poland without speaking Polish [75]
It wasn't apparent to me at first, only that the person is clearly a foreigner.
It wasn't apparent to me at first, only that the person is clearly a foreigner.