Language / Polish words difficult to translate into English [66]

it doesn't make sense to look for the english equivalent of certain words because in some countries they simply don't have certain types of buildings, or food, or anything else for that matter, so naturally they cannot have a word for something that doesn't exist in their country. common sense.

how can you say there is no translation in english for "kurwa"? it's f@ck, only in English, we have many more forms of "f@ck", like with an ing, ed, etc. Like usual, Polish has one word when English has several, all with slightly different meanings, but Polish simplifies it all to one word. A million examples of this in Polish. Anyway, back to Kurwa and F@ck:

na przyklad:

"F@ck, I woke up, f@ckin' took a shower, had a f@ckin' cup of coffee, f@ckin' drove to work, then came the f@ck back..."....so on and so forth.

i've yet to come across a word in Polish that didn't have an English translation, excluding of course things that don't exist in English speaking countries but exist in Poland.

Language / Polish words difficult to translate into English [66]


my dictionary says "kindness" or "friendliness".


sure there are other words/variations, but I can say the same thing about english. no different.

Language / Polish words difficult to translate into English [66]


this certainly can be true.

regarding "pogodnie", i always found it strange to hear Polish people say, "we had weather", but apparently in Polish, to say you "have weather" is enough to indicate "good weather", so pogodnie i guess would mean something along those lines.

i have a question:

how do you say, "it fits you" when talking about say a shirt or something, as in "the shirt is the right size".....?

people tell me, "ta koszula pasuje ci" but this seems to be more like, "that shirt suits you" as in it is a good shirt that matches you in some way, but not specifically related to size.

furthermore, what about basically anything else when you want to say that something is the right size for something else, like "that square peg doesn't fit into a round hole"....?

Language / Polish words difficult to translate into English [66]

frd, if you go back to the original post about "kurwa", you will see the example sentence that is given by the poster, using the word over and over. for all those instances in his example, "fuck" is the direct translation, every time, which I demonstrated by re-writing it with "fuck".

for instances where "kurwa" is just thrown into a sentence just to be vulgar, to make it sound stronger, etc., which was the example the poster gave, "fuck" is the translation.

when did i say "polish is different"?

Language / Polish words difficult to translate into English [66]

ok, let's go back, if it's even worth it. i'm sure our private little tiff is boring others.

Polish has one form of "kurwa", as far as I know. that is "kurwa". no "kurwa'ego", "kurwach", etc. etc.

jebac, pierdolic.....these are different words, not different forms of kurwa.

English has fuck, fucking, fucked, etc. More forms of the same word.

i was misleading when i wrote "different variations/meanings". what i meant by that is there are different ways of swearing that may be comparable to "fuck" or "kurwa" in both languages.

kumasz?

another thing worth noting is that variations of swears in English very often involve 2 or more words, whereas in polish, there is often times a prefix added to the word or of course a completely different word. for example:

if you take "fuck", you can say fuck off, get the fuck out, fuck up, fuck all, fucked over, fuck me, fuckin' A, etc. etc. They're spun off the same core swear word but have completely different meanings.

i'm far from fluent in Polish and could certainly learn a lot from people such as yourself frd, but i seem to be on the right track regarding this.

Life / 3 reasons why you hate Poland. [1049]

1. Nothing is convenient in Poland

2. Overpriced

3. The country's mentality is still stuck in the communist era

4. Customer Service is non-existent

5. The only good food in Poland is Polish food

6. The country's language is painfully difficult compared to nearly every other language in the world making assimilation frustrating and for many, futile.

7. Lektors on TV

8. Public transport is downright filthy and inefficient

9. Polish weather is crap. 4 months of sun and warmth, 8 months of gray, cold, wind and wet.

10. The complete lack of business sense

i could go on forever.

Life / 3 reasons why you hate Poland. [1049]


are you suggesting that in every country, the only good food that can be had is the national food?


I've never been to the UK. Regardless, Polish public transport is as I stated.


I've been here 3 years and I'm sharing with you things I don't like ("hate" is a bit strong) about Poland, which is what the OP had asked for. Every country has it's flaws. I could write a list for my own country, but that would be off topic.

Life / 3 reasons why you hate Poland. [1049]

Getting back to food, another problem with their international food attempts is they don't follow simple rules. they do it to themselves.

Pizza should have TOMATO SAUCE, not ketchup. mozzarella cheese, not the rubbery crap trying to imitate mozzarella cheese. and please, please, hold the corn. pizza was NEVER meant to have corn.

Sushi should NOT have Philadelphia Cream Cheese or mayonnaise. the only time I have ever seen that is in Poland, and trust me, the Japanese do not use either of those ingredients in their sushi.

I was recently in Pizza Hut and decided to order pasta in an alfredo sauce. absolutely disgusting. i can personally guarantee you that if you were to go to a Pizza Hut in America and order the same dish, it would be a completely different meal, and rather tasty.

poles try to "polish" everything in the restaurants, which not only kills the food's authenticity, but the taste as well. this is not a money issue, it's a mentality issue. when they start wising up to this, the tourism will reflect it.

i can only speak for my own country, but the misconceptions Poles have about America is absolutely baffling. their only exposure they have to Americano is what they see and get in Poland, which is this twisted, jaded view filled with half-assed attempts and failed imitations. my students still are amazed when I tell them Coke/Pepsi/Mountain Dew are crap in Poland, but delicious in America. "You mean they taste different???? How??!!!"

on and on and on.

Life / 3 reasons why you hate Poland. [1049]


uhhmmm.....not really. At the very least, the entire country of America knows this. in America, I have never seen ketchup put on pizza. ever.

Life / 3 reasons why you hate Poland. [1049]


I never said it was poland's fault. And for what it's worth, I was an avid Mt. Dew drinker in America, drank a can of the stuff nearly every day, and I can attest that Mt. Dew in Poland is basically not Mt. Dew, it's something completely different. Again, this has nothing to do with fault, it has to do with fact, but this is getting off of the original point i was making.


it's Poland's preference. Poland makes a conscious decision to use ketchup instead of tomato sauce, cream cheese in their sushi, etc. because they think it's what will sell. If the Poles are buying it, then hey, it's a good business decision, but for tourists/expats, they consider things like sauce-less pizza with corn on it and cheese that resembles something like rubber from a car tire, as gross. That's all I'm saying.


Never, but I've had the next best thing: Italian immigrants in the NY area. Imported Italian ingredients, real meats and cheeses, absolutely delicious, sold to me by a guy with a thick Italian accent.

Life / 3 reasons why you hate Poland. [1049]

woooooooow. well, i guess some people are more patriotic than others.

let's go step by step here, because these replies are just off the wall.

comparing transportation in america vs. poland is laughable, and because you tied this comment in with relative convenience of a country, i'll approach this response like this: literally everybody in america, in their late teenage years, gets their driver's license and a car to drive. EVERYBODY drives in america. if you live in a major city, plenty of public transport, but again, many people even in the cities own cars. what could be more convenient than having your own car with big parking lots in every place you want to drive to? if you prefer to stand in the cold waiting for a filthy smelly tram or take those dreadful polish trains, prosze bardzo.

prices......YES, other countries in this world are different. enough said.

customer service: i can't believe you would even suggest that polish customer service is quality, and your example essentially is a worthless statement.

english menus??? wow, you are really starting to make some assumptions here, and you know what they say about assuming......
regardless, the fact of the matter is.....the only good food in Poland is Polish food, whatever the reason for it may be.......and it's a reason for a tourist/expat to complain about the restaurants. when you go to an Italian restaurant, you don't want to eat crappy Italian food. This is the point that is being made.

man, it's exhausting commenting on all these silly responses from you, they're so incredibly myopic that it's actually irritating to read, but I'll go on.....

I can't learn the language? Again, an assumption. Have you ever spoken to me in Polish? Fact of the matter is, you have no idea what my level of Polish is, and for what it's worth, it's most likely leaps and bounds beyond 99% of the other posters on this forum. With that said, I still reserve the right to say that Polish is a royal pain in the ass to learn, and this would fall perfectly into the criteria of this thread. Why is that so difficult to see.

Lekors.....UUUHH....again, what a non-statement you made. Listen up everybody, turn on your TV, get to a movie other than a Polish one, and tell me if there's a Lektor. What? There is? Ok. Let's move on.....

Public transport again.......and of course, yet again, a wrongful assumption from you, my dear. I have been living in Poland for 3 years, and STILL do not own a car. That's right. My horse is left foot/right foot, trams, buses, trains....you name it, I've ridden on it to get to work/friends/family/etc. I know what polish public transport is like, I don't need to try to convince anyone of it otherwise.

weather......are you even attempting to suggest that Polish weather is not total crap? Your basing this argument on an unseasonably warm November? I'm almost embarrassed for you at this point.

and as for business sense........not worth it, it's way off topic, and again, your evidence of this is not only inaccurate, but not applicable. even if it were true that most cars on the roads in poland were new, it has nothing to do with the country's business sense. honestly.

Life / 3 reasons why you hate Poland. [1049]

Uuuuuuuuchhhh! just awful, people. you can't argue with blind patriotism. the same crap i see in America. I struggle to have conversation with most of the general population there as well for the same reason.....blind patriotism. arguing with this mentality is futile.

let me guess Delphian, you walk around saying how unhealthy america is and that we all eat at fast food joints, yet at the same time, you visit your mom on the weekend and she fries you up a foot long kielbasa with some greasy pierogi on the side. Oh, then it's time for cake. Sorry for the assumption, but it's my 1st to your several ;)

for those of you waving your polish flags, convinced it's great here and that my complaints about your country are false or inaccurate, misguided, "just another American with that typical attitude", then be my guest, go on thinking that way. after all, it's people like you in the population in Poland that keep the country going. as for the mass exodus of poles to other countries once Poland became part of the EU along with the open border policy now, along with the 4-5 million Poles living in America (imagine how many Poles would be there if America didn't require VISA's....), ask them what they think of good ole' Poland.

i didn't want this to turn into a comparison war, but as an American, it's always the inevitable responses one will get from Poles because they automatically assume you're saying outright, "America is better than Poland in every way," and take every criticism of their precious Poland to mean just that. But, in Poland's defense, for every ultra-patriot i meet here, i meet another Pole who can tell it like it is and speak honestly about their country.

Life / 3 reasons why you hate Poland. [1049]


no, it's the norm.


why is america unhealthy. why.

other questions: how long have you lived in Poland? why are you here? what's your occupation?

Life / 3 reasons why you hate Poland. [1049]

Delphin, by your blatant disregard for my questions in my last post which you conveniently skipped past and commented on another post immediately following mine, until you respond, I can only assume that the information I asked for would lessen the credibility of your posts and be in some way self incriminating. you did nothing but challenge, quite directly, every other post of mine before that, but after a direct challenge, you have, thus far, balked on it.

still patiently waiting......

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

Excellent.

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


define "fully".

Life / Fat People in Poland? [161]


is this a joke?

in general, the avg. polish man/woman under the age of 25 seems to be thinner in Poland, but it's merely lifestyle, not the food. have you taken a look at Polish food lately? everything is with bread, butter, fried, lots of meat and potatoes....hardly weight-loss food, and most Polish people eat it. the "other" food is too expensive.

in America, you can choose to be thin or fat, and eat all different kinds of food for around the same price, a big difference between America and Poland. also, there are over 300 million people in America, meaning if 20% of the population is fat, that's larger than the entire population of Poland, so fat people simply appear more in the media due to the sheer number (and size, haha) of their fat asses.

getting back to lifestyle: in America, once you are of driving age, you get a car. everyone in America works once they're 16-17 years old....owning a car is a necessity, not a luxury. in Poland, most people don't get their first car till they are at least 26-27 adn don't get their first job till they're finished with their "master's", so they all walk everywhere till they can finally afford an old used car.

The American infrastructure is set up to be fast and convenient. If you want to exercise, that's also easily accessed and readily available. some decide to exercise, some don't, but for the ones that don't, because of the infrastructure, the American will tend to be fatter simply due to less movement.

Also worth noting, when i'm in America, regardless of what city, you see runners and cyclists EVERYWHERE. In Poland, they're few and far between, especially amongst the older residents.

something I love about Polish culture if I may add is the number of times I hear, "i was in the mountains this weekend." outdoor people are OK in my eyes. they really have an appreciation for forests, trees, mountains, etc., and it seems to be countrywide.

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

Seanus wrote:


i think the point was that if it takes so long to learn Polish, what's the point of putting in so much effort if the payoff isn't there.

in the end, if you're not marrying a Polish person, or plan on staying here for your whole life, there are better, more productive and certainly more lucrative things to learn than Polish.

just off the top of my head, if I had chosen say France and lived there for 5 years, I'd come back to America speaking absolutely fantastic French, and I could probably find a job with it in a big city. Polish.....you can't even become fluent with it in that amount of time, let alone find a job with it in America....certainly not one that's gonna pay well.

Basically, in today's times, it's difficult to convince someone to study Polish, even when they live there.

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

Mafketis wrote:


for 99% of all people who claim to speak some polish, this is exactly the case. they learn polish and disregard all declensions, proper usage of the polish numerical sytem, gender, miejscownik, which verbs require which case, etc. etc. and in the end, their Polish is crap. my first year in Poland i did nothing other than study basic words and grammar grammar grammar till I puked from grammar. in the end though, what it gave me was a grammatical basis for all new words I learned thereafter. After 3+ years in Poland, my vocab is still small but my grammar allows me to adopt new words and use them rather quickly. The hard part is mostly over and now I mainly study vocabulary for the grammar comes quite naturally now, aside from maybe counters of words I haven't heard yet.

Seanus wrote:


saying "you don't need to think about the endings all the time" and "Polish" in the same sentence is an outrage.

I don't know a lick of Japanese, but if I had to guess, I doubt that when you say "with nihon" or "on nihon", or "i don't have "nihon", it's still "nihon", every time. not the case with good ole' Polish.

2 bottles = dwie butelki
with 2 bottles = z dwoma butelkami
on 2 bottles = na dwóch butelkach
I don't have 2 bottles = Nie mam dwóch butelek

You can never take a number for granted because at any moment while in context, it can change which not only makes speaking properly difficult, but comprehension tough because you need to get used to hearing someone say the exact same damn word but in several different forms.

I'm sure you've seen the web page discussing how Polish is the hardest language in the world where the author displays the "17 ways of saying the number two" in Polish. The kicker is there are 17, not including case changes, meaning he doesn't list drugiego, drugiej, drugim, drugich, drugą, etc. etc. putting you well over twenty forms.

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


excellent. i stand corrected, i forgot there's a feminine forum.

i guess you further proved my point. it's THAT easy to make a grammatically incorrect sentence in Polish, especially with numbers.

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

Mark Twain didn't speak Polish, therefore, I disregard his comment.

Lyzko wrote:


i can't go along with this argument. of course, someone who speaks a romance language is going to have an easier time learning another romance language, but when looking at languages as a whole, some are simply less complex than others.

Lyzko wrote:


again, i gotta disagree. do you know how many times I've asked Polish people "how do you say, "______", and they simply had no clue? I'm not talking about something complicated or a difficult English/Polish equivalent, but the simplest things. Or better yet, getting 3 different answers from 3 different Poles. OR, the countless Polish people living abroad that left Poland in their late adolescent years or early teens, and now, when in their 20's and 30's have lost their touch and cannot decline their words properly anymore. Again, not making this up, but I speak from experience with meeting people that match that exact description.

For example, I recently asked a native Pole, "so if the name of the town is Szewce, how do I say 'I'm going to Szewce' and 'I'm in Szewce'"? That question to a speaker of nearly any other language would look at you and say, "That's the dumbest question I've ever heard, you simply say (in whatever language) "I'm going to/I'm in Szewce!!!" BUT, when I asked it, the native Pole looked at me, chuckled and said, "I don't know! I gotta think about it....hmmm....." And to me, that's absurd po prostu.

Basically, Polish in my opinion is utterly inefficient. I would never make a claim like that without being thoroughly convinced and after hitting the books and seeing countless instances where Poles are struggling to say the most basic thing but can't because they're getting hung up on the grammar....but I see it all the time.

Whether it's a Spaniard or an Irish guy or an Indian woman or a Puerto Rican or a Korean man or Dutch woman or an Italian man.....every single one of them after studying Polish for a few months is going to come to the same conclusion: Polish grammar is utterly ridiculous.

I've never studied Hungarian, Finnish, Czech, etc., but I don't really think it matters. I'm simply talking about Polish, and I think I'm pretty on point with what I'm saying about it, at least most Polish people seem to agree.

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

Of everyone on this forum, I would be willing to bet not one of you, excluding the Poles of course, even comes close to FCE level in Polish, regardless of how long you've been here.

There. I win.

Next thread.

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

Rikad wrote:


and this, as you have just seen Rikad, simply should not happen in language. imagine if you were to tell your friend what just happened, that a gaggle of poles were standing around arguing how to say, "I'm going to Szewce/I'm in Szewce". Those exact situations I have seen soooo many times.

if you are writing things like this Olaf:


...than you are simply missing my point.

I am not talking about asking an average Englishman something like, "could you give me a quick and concise explanation of when to use past simple and when to use present perfect?"....I am talking about simple, silly stuff that a 5 year old should have command of, yet adults often times do not because of no other reason but the inefficiency of their language.

and for those of you touting B2 and above proficiency levels in Polish, puff your chest out all you want, but rest assured, if native speaking Poles are getting stumped on silly meaningless sentences, you can be most confident that you are subject to this happening to you 100 fold.


we already discussed "Szewce", but for the hell of it, I'll give you another one, just for $hit$ and giggles:

One of my first experiences with the absurdity of Polish grammar was when I asked random Poles throughout the course of 2-3 days, how do you say "5 ears"?

I received 4 different answers to that question from I'd say 7-8 Poles. Yuck it up all you want about how they "probably weren't educated" or some crap like that, but every one of those people had the infamous Polish "master's degree" and were over the age of 25. Besides, even if they were 14 year old kids, something that basic has nothing to do with education level. Just pure common sense in your own language.

Inefficient folks.

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

Olaf wrote:


no, it's not my style. pappy is a regional thing where i'm from, it's no different than buddy.

Olaf wrote:


this has nothing to do with sarcasm. i wasn't suggesting there was any.

just asking good ole' Delph to answer the same questions he's been refusing to answer for months. what's the matter Delph? credibility concerns?

watch and learn. he'll duck the questions, yet again, by cutting and pasting some stuff I wrote earlier by strapping on his aforementioned Captain Sidetrack suit. it's old hat for me by now.

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

Regarding Polish, I think what makes it, at the very least, seem horrendously difficult is the mountain you need to climb in the beginning. That's Polish in a nutshell. Polish gets easier and easier for me every day because I hit the books hard during my first year to learn the seemingly impossible case system. For most people, they never accomplish that.

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

s_darius wrote:


3 to 5? no way.

I go.

I'm going.

I went.

I was going.

I have gone.

I've been going.

I will go.

I will be going.

I had gone.

There's 9, and I don't think an average day has gone by in my adult life not using all 9 of those.

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

z_darius wrote:


Me? Avg. education. And of course I go beyond 9. I simply stated the basic ones to show that 3-5 is an awfully inaccurate estimation.

z_darius wrote:


I couldn't agree more, but there are several people on this forum that won't agree with that statement.

z_darius wrote:


you're dead on with that.


why? how is it less complex than Irish English, Scottish English, Australian English...?

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

you can, however, count radios.

5 radios anyone?

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

what a completely absurd and pointless argument you all are having.


call it what you want. i call it inefficient.

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

Seanus wrote:


pies is a masculine word, hence "ten pies", but when using a verb to refer to more than one in the past, it is in the feminine form, but still a masculine noun technically. for example, "podobaly mi sie te filmy". film is masculine, but you don't use a masculine form.

Gregrog wrote:


dzis, przyjechali dwoch mezczyzn.

Delphiandomine wrote:


funny you should mention.....are you ready to answer my questions now Delph?

EVERYBODY has seen that you ducked them all.....again. You must have them memorized by now, along with the rest of the forum pappy, but here we go, round and round.

Dear Ole' Delphiandomine, I would like to know, because you love to talk about who's qualified to have what job, or talk about certain subjects, etc. etc., please tell me, for the umpteenth time:

Where were you born?
How long have you been in Poland?
Do you have any Polish blood?
What is your nationality?
What is your native language?

when you answer these questions, maybe i'll consider commenting on your constant assumptions about how qualified or not I am.

COME CLEAN my dear.