Life / Is it common for Polish people to speak English in Poland? [122]

And so "Vot miinss diss vawrrds? Aj tawk eenglish lonkvich vitch yu. Vaj yu lajk sao mach Poleesh?" is "spot on" pronunciation??

I suspect you're teasing... which is ok, incidentally. I ought to be used to it by this time:-) My Polish pronunciation "Dawbrrij vyechoor, pajnstvuh! etc.. I'd say is more or less as close to the authentic as their attempts at EnglishLOL

Life / Is it common for Polish people to speak English in Poland? [122]

That thought did cross my mind, actually:-)To be honest though, don't see how "Dobry wieczór, państwu! [They were a mixed group, after all, plus my lady friend along with myself] Bardzo nam miło zapoznać! To nasz pierwszy raz w Szczecinie." could be misunderstood anymore than their response in (what to some passes for..) English: "What means this words? I talk English language with you. Why you like so much Polish?" etc..

History / What Was Happening in Poland around 1905? [73]

Around the turn of the last century, Poland was STILL not independent! The Austro-Hungarian stranglehold would continue for years to come, its cultural influence indeed long after 1918:-) The great concert pianist Paderewski was elected Premier of Poland round about 1910 (??) and was considered a much-needed patriot for the nationalist cause.

Sadly, Poland was surrounded by all sides, the Austrians and Germans to the West, the Russians to the East. Geopolitically, Poland remained under the Russian yoke until roughly 1989!!

Ooops, I got the date(s) wrong for Paderewski's period in office. It was 1919, (following Poland's independence) NOT 1910!

Surprised nobody picked that up:-)

Life / Is it common for Polish people to speak English in Poland? [122]

In fact, I'm NOT speaking for only myself, but for scores of others too! Why so defensive, rozumiemnic?

Back on thread, I found that on average more Poles imagined their English to be better than it actually was! Albeit Szczecin's not Warszawa or Krakow by a long stretch, my travelling companion from Berlin (for whom I acted as "interpreter") and I were accosted in the hotel bar where we were staying by a friendly-enough group of twenty-something year olds, eager to practice their English with us. Figuring correctly that we probably spoke English being day tourists from the West, they began speaking to us in English. Although my friend knew some English, I decided to speak in Polish to our buddies, meanwhile translating for my companion. Without asking us whether we knew English or not, they refused to speak a syllable of Polish in reply! Their English was poor to often plain incomprehensible, resolutely refusing succor in their native language.

I found this annoying scenario played out time and again, in the Old Town Square, in the hotel lobby and even on our return trip to Berlin. While as polite as I could be, I had to say at one point that I honestly couldn't understand their English, and could they PLEASE speak in Polish.

Finally, the young ladies in the group conceded:-)

This is not to generalize concerning similar encounters throughout Poland, since I only know this one small area of the country.

Life / Is it common for Polish people to speak English in Poland? [122]

Precisely the point, dr._rabbit! Those Poles (and others) who only read English classics in translation, usually miss the point, not to mention the flavor and texture of the original. It's sort of like the difference between taking a VIRTUAL luxury cruise vs. an actual one; you'll derive some degree of vicarious pleasure, yet the impact of the experience will be lost on you!

All I know is that while a German grad student in German language, all of us were required to read German authors IN GERMAN, never in translation. Those of us who did this sort of thing naturally, i.e of our own volition, were far more successful in the long run than those who didn't:-) Face it, the level of English in particular worldwide has been dumbed down beyond measure, therefore less is expected of both native as well as foreign English speakers.

@
Wulkan, I didn't post that comment to which you referred, I merely replied to it ^^ As far as backpacking trips I've taken in Europe, up to now never even once encountered a RomanianLOL

Please stick to the thread title. I am having to remove far too many of your posts.

Life / Is it common for Polish people to speak English in Poland? [122]

How "good" was their English? Accurate, communicative or generally fluent? I realize it's often hard to tell how another person's English is if it's not YOUR native language:-)

I found especially in Germany that most younger people wanted desperately to practice their English (usually with mixed results!). Same in Poland. Often I'd be answered in English even though I

always made the overture in Polish. After several tries though, my Polish partner usually got the idea and decided to stick with his native tongue! They'd sometimes even correct my Polish, which I thought was great. Sadly,as elsewhere in Europe, it didn't work in the reverse; most thought their English was "good enough" (...while my Polish needed to be perfect)LOL

Language / A little Polish grammar. Masculine, animate objects. [64]

This recalls the old joke: "Dog bites man." - not news. "Man bites dog!" - Now THAT'S news!

Where case determines meaning, rather than either tone of voice or word order, this could easily sow confusion for those not yet familiar with case driven languages like Polish:-)

On the other hand, certain placement of words in a sentence probably sound more usual, i.e. natural, than others!

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

This makes perfect sense.

Language / Speaking with wrong Polish case endings? [94]

Polish has fewer idioms??? I can't believe that! Polish, like every language, is doubtless as rich in vernacular and idiomatic usage as any:-)

Perhaps you meant that Polish is generally used in a more standard way than English which has a constantly shifting vocabulary and in which few Americans, for instance, even know the standard, much less are able to adhere to it.

Life / Is it common for Polish people to speak English in Poland? [122]

I'd certainly have to concur with the KochanaPatrycja! Women typically pick up language much faster than men. I've found this as a language instructor over a long period.

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!

Life / Is it common for Polish people to speak English in Poland? [122]

Sorry 'bout that, modsLOL

Smurf,

How's about we try next time (unless you already have...) when you enter a store, shop, official or semi-official business, or any of the above "Czy mówi Pan, resp.Czy mówi Pani, resp. Czy mówią Państwo po angielsku?" FIRST, before assuming that they all speak and understand fluent English, huh?

I'll bet somehow you'll get a heightened response:-)

PS
Are you at least able to chat a little in Polish about the weather as well as other simple, daily stuff??

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:-)

Life / Is it common for Polish people to speak English in Poland? [122]

How many POLISH words do you speak, smurf? Just curious, I mean, so long as you'e over there:-)

Language / A little Polish grammar. Masculine, animate objects. [64]

Each of the seven cases correspond roughly to Nominative (naming case - what things are), Genitive (VERY USED case in Polish, showing possession), Dative (indirect object), Accusative (direct object) and I'll stop right there! The problem here is that in learning any case=driven language, what requires a case, say in Polish or German etc.., might seem totally "illogical" to a non-native learner.

More to follow!

Case usage (not to mention the case endings themselves!) unfortunately has to simply be absorbed through applied, contextual practice. There are rules, of course, yet learning to THINK in Polish becomes the challenge:-)

Life / Is it common for Polish people to speak English in Poland? [122]

As in many European countries today, the majority WANT to say that they "speak" English, but only a minority in my experience actually do:-)

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 / A little Polish grammar. Masculine, animate objects. [64]

Yep. Wiki does it again:-) Not a bad overview at that.

Genealogy / Polish version of my name -Sławomir? [17]

...Zdizdisław, Bogusław (my own favorite!)....

Language / A little Polish grammar. Masculine, animate objects. [64]

Polish often has as many 'exceptions to the rule' as it has examples of it:-) Tough sometimes to remember what the rule is, much less how an exception deviates from the original! Little is hard and fast in Polish grammar. We just saw above that noun singular endings in"-dź" will vary in their plural formation depending upon whether the noun is masculine (łabędź - łabędziE = swan - swans) or feminine (odpowiedź - odpowiedzi = answer - answers) etc..

There's usually no way of telling for absolutely sure until the individual noun has been learned! The learner must be guided by example.

Language / A little Polish grammar. Masculine, animate objects. [64]

Equally tricky again can be those bleedin' diacritical marks as well as those 'fleeting' vowels, e.g Nom sing. "pączek" vs. Nom. plural "pączki" rather than (logicalLOL) "pączEki" etc... Why the f****k does the "e" disappear, for instance? And then there's "odpowiedź" vs. "odpowiedzi", "łabędź" vs. "łabędzi" seemingly ad infinitum.....

Study / Anyone know if any college in Poland offers programs for Liberal Arts in English? [5]

Do you mean college courses given in the English language or regular Polish-language university courses offering the study of Anglistik i.e. Anglo-American literature? Many Polish universities do offer courses given in English by both English as well as non-native speaker staff, generally in political science, biology, mathematics, I've been told:-)

The Jagiełłoń University in Cracow I'm sure does. They also have a reputed institute of Polish language for foreigners which just so happens to be linked with the Kościuszko Foundation in New York and has sponsored numerous exchange for years.

Classifieds / Is anyone interested in learning Japanese with the intention of forming a study group in Warsaw? [14]

@raph222,

Your profile appears to state the opposite. Not that I care:-)
Was merely curious as to which 'lingua franca' such a study group would choose for all practical purposes.

Travel / Is Gdansk worth a visit in Poland? [33]

Moleyball,

If you've ever seen or visited the Hansa Cities of Northern Germany, I think you'll find Gdańsk rather similar. I'm speaking principally of the architecture. Having never been myself either, but from photographs etc. this is just my impression.

Classifieds / Is anyone interested in learning Japanese with the intention of forming a study group in Warsaw? [14]

Would you be learning Japanese in English, Polish or French? Curious as to how many takers there'd be in Poland, except perhaps at a university specializing in both linguistics as well as specifically Asian studies.

Language / How to say 'more' in various contexts [9]

Nice round off to the other explanations, lunacy:-)
Thanks!

Language / How to say 'more' in various contexts [9]

For example, your Polish teacher gives you a very specific assignment to do, with the final proviso "Nic więcej!", meaning "Nothing more (.... than what I've assigned). Or "Coraz więcej ludzi jest (here: NOT "są") bezdomne." = More and more people are (rather than "is"!!!) homeless. etc.

Make sense?

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 [42]

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