UK, Ireland / What do you hate about England and English people? [142]

1. NHS, and the tinker GPs + their disgusting consulting rooms with no hygiene

2. traffic:
2. a) lack of useful (i.e. international) road-signs: where to turn, which is your own lane etc.;
2. b) presence of stupid and pythonesque road-signs: frogs and who-cares-what on signs; "dual carriageway ahead" sign (i.e. one lane becomes two lanes) but not ever a "single carriageway ahead" sign (i.e. just go and risk that head-on collision) + SLOW, NO ENTRY, GIVE WAY, KEEP CLEAR etc.

2. c) not to put pedestrian crossings where they are needed vs. put them everywhere else where they are a nuisance for the car and bus drivers

3. English cuisine = curry; pie; veg curry; dry meats + gravy poured on top; more pies; burgers; fish & chips; chips & beans; chips & everything + vinegar poured on top; soup = dishwater; tasteless sausage; tea & milk; some Chinese cuisine; some Italian cuisine; some Indian cuisine; etc.

4. writing in ancient Latin style (FULL CAPITAL WITH NO INTERPUNCTION THE LONGER THE SENTENCE THE BETTER)

5. stupid, non-metric measures

6. stupid trainings and policies; moaning for days about petty things; Asian customer service assistants on the phone with their 10 words/sec unintelligible jabber

7. calling me Polish, just because I am White and non-English

8. the English never wash their hands in the toilet

9. plus other stupid things we don't have to mention (two taps for boiling hot + arctic cold water etc.)

Language / Is rosetta stone any good for learning Polish? [51]

My only problem with this software is that the images have a low resolution. Don’t know if they’ve updated them in recent versions, though.

Language / Recommended for learners: Michel Thomas Method Polish Audiobook [60]

What a flaming topic.

I had a good English teacher and he was not a native speaker. He had an accent, of course, all non-native speakers have. When we started at grammar school, he spent more than a week to teach the phonetics. As a foreigner, you won't ever be perfect, but the miracle lies in the thing that non-native speakers must make the effort and learn the pronounciation as good as they can (regardless the actual English accent they acquire in their studies or neighbourhood). In my experience, most non-native English speakers find it hard to make that effort.

Language teaching in East-Europe has always had an emphasis on grammar. They - nearly literally - pound it in your head. Then you go to England (or anywhere) and you find that they use double negation and the remnants of conjugation are even more non-existent (e.g. "I ain't got none", "he don't", "you was" etc.).

So I ended up speaking Brummie English with a Hungarian accent. :) But my spelling is still better than a native's, thanks to my education.

Language / Poland in different languages? [74]

Marek:
hmm... I disagree in some sense as we have some common/mutual words on a smaller international scale. (The first one being the notorious K word, of course, I don't have to list that. :)

bób = bab
byk = bika
cegła = tégla
cel = cél
ćwikła = cékla
cud = csoda (csuda in archaic/dialectical)
drut = drót (drút in arch./dial.)
dziecko = gyerek
gołąb = galamb
kaczka = kacsa
kapelusz = kalap
klucz = kulcs
kreda = kréta
łańcuch = lánc
mak = mák
niedźwiedź = medve
piekło = pokol
sąsiad = szomszéd
siekiera = szekerce
szabla = szablya
taniec = tánc
teczka = táska
wiadro = vödör/veder
wnok = unoka

To name just a few. Not to mention the most inter-intelligible ones like czapka/sapka, delfin/delfin, pingwin/pingvin, czekolada/csokoládé, kukurydza/kukorica, papryka/paprika, kapusta/káposzta, sałata/saláta, malina/málna, kuchnia/konyha etc. etc. (I'm getting hungry now.)

Language / Poland in different languages? [74]

Can’t really think of an example at the moment, but the English in my class sometimes have problems to understand how to build up a Polish phrase. Starting with “to be”. E.g. you don't have to say “ja jestem” unless you want to emphasise it in the context.

Language / Podcasts in Polish at higher levels than beginner [10]

BloggyPolish offers podcasts and texts for learners at different levels. They seem to update the blog time to time. Use the tags to search for intermediate posts.

+ this is a useful topic to check: Polish Language Learning Links

Language / Poland in different languages? [74]

The basic word order has much in common with Polish. Or at least it's much harder for an English speaker to get used to it. :)

Language / Poland in different languages? [74]

mafketis:
they are different because of the "assimilation". For instance, the past tense of olvasom could have been olvastom in some time before, but the o has shifted to a. And some endings are shortened, pl. mondotta -> mondta ([he/she] said [it]).

I get your point, though. The conjugation charts are made up by linguists, and can be very confusing to follow. Home-made charts are more useful in the early stages, when you just want to grasp the logic of a language, not the actual and "dry" grammar. :)


Yes, because -lak/-lek has something like a reflexive meaning. I.e. olvaslak = I (I'll) read you -- LoL, you never say that in real life. I don't know the grammatical term, but it is used in a person-to-person(s) situation. Megmondalak [téged/titeket] = I('ll) report you / you lot; kihajítalak (kihajítlak) = I('ll) chuck you (lot) out etc.

Language / Poland in different languages? [74]

Magdalena, mafketis (& sorry for all the others for being off-topic ^^):

I can't really argue. Some things to clarify:


Yep, in Hungarian, you can't draw up a table of "cases" like in Slavonic (and Latinic and Germanic) languages. The logic is different. But let's save you from the "off-forum" details! :)


Nearly. :) If I take your example: first, there are no grammatical genders in Hungarian. Second, the grammatical number is much more simple and easier than in Polish. (Or in English! Really, there's only single and plural, and in certain instances we do not even have to use the plural as it is "obvious" - for us - in the context. We have to struggle in English that two cat is not "two cat", but two cats, LoL!)

You're right, though, Hungarian has loads of suffixes. I can see only a fragment of these kinds in Polish. We have "modificator" suffixes that can "translate" verbs, nouns, adjectives etc. back and forth (i.e. verb->noun, noun->adjective etc. + vice versa). That's why we even have stupid, "trendy" verbs like shoppingolni (yeah, that is shoppingować in Polish), as we can simply treat any word as a "root", even foreign ones like that, then "integrate" them in the language.


Elolvastad is the translation for przeczytałeś. Megolvastad has an archaic taste, and it refers to counting ("reading") money, i.e. "you have counted it". (Or "you have counted them", whatever...)

The t is really the past tense marker there. In present tense: elolvasod or elolvasol (as we have two conjugations in present, so-called definitive and indefinitive -- actually the only "feature" of the language that foreign learners can never attain perfectly).

Alles Gute. :)

Language / Poland in different languages? [74]

It's as simple as it is:

lengyel = Polak, Polka; polski, polska, polskie (Pole; Polish)
ország = kraj (country, land)
Lengyelország = Polska(Poland)

(We also use polyák [pojak (poy-ah-k)], but today it may have a little bit of a derogatory sense, just as Madziar in Polish.)

32 cases? (Hmm, is it really that many?) I still think it's nothing compared to the struggle of Polish cases with all the nifty masculine (ziwotny/nieziwotny!), feminine, neuter, plural masculine, plural other genders..... If you take that, you'll easily get about 7×6 cases! :o)

Language / Polish Swear Words [1242]

I'm browsing through this topic but I can't find the answer. Are there any common swear phrases (not just words) in Polish?

The other day my colleague asked me which swearing I found most offensive in Polish - well, I don't know. Do you often say things like "F*** your (wh*re etc.) mother (etc.)" when you're really pissed off? 'Cause one day I accidentally whacked me head in something and managed to shout out like that (po węgiersku), and she went, "Wow, that sounded so long." :)

Language / Polish Swear Words [1242]


:-D

Yeah, there is, but I think you've mistaken the forum. "Pina Linda" would mean "Linda Cunt" -- in Hungarian! Wouldn't be the nicest name for a girl.

:RoTFL:

Language / Listening to music and learning Polish [45]

Krzysztof:
thank you very much!




:D

Language / Listening to music and learning Polish [45]

Hi! Anyone knows the artist & song titles for these? Thank you in advance.

Language / NAMES POLES GIVE THEIR DOGS [76]

No. If it's a bitch, you just give her your mother-in-law's name.

History / Pole, Hungarian, two good friends [58]


Nope, it all goes back to the "extreme political conditions" after the First World War, namely the Trianon "Peace" Treaty. All our neighbours feel antipathy towards us. And antipathy is a very PC word here. The exceptions are the peaceful and lovely Croatia and Slovenia. And Austria, of course, our brother-in-law. :) Poland is totally out of question. I doubt anyone would be negative towards someone with a Polish nationality in Hungary.

Luckily, it all different when we are abroad. I've never had problems with Slovaks in England, and I would have no antipathy towards Serbians and Romanians, if I ever met them here. (Let's just leave our hostilities at home!)

About genetic backgrounds: in my origin, I am Slovak on my mother's grandparents' side. After the 150 years of the Turkish Occupation, Slovakian settlers had been brought into various parts of Hungary at the beginning of the 1700s to re-populate the abandoned areas. Old people are still bi-lingual in my region, they speak both the old Slovakian and the Hungarian language. But very few of the young generations can speak or understand Slovakian. I regard myself a Hungarian.

To put it in a nutshell: I don't think anyone really gives a toss about genetic origins in Central/Eastern Europe. It's more about speaking the language. Compare: you can be an Irishmen/-woman if you can't speak or understand Irish Gaelic. But you can't be a Hungarian, Slovakian, Serbian, Romanian etc. etc. if you don't speak the relevant language!

This is my experience, at least. I can be mistaken. Cheers.

Language / Your perception of the Polish accent [145]

The really disturbing thing is when someone says "Eastern European accent" (or "Central European accent"). There is no such thing. I have a so-called "Eastern European" accent as well, but for my ear, the Polish accent sounds funny when they say things like "mornying", "trainying", "finyish".

Also, the error MareGaea mentioned (the omission of definite/indefinite articles, e.g. "I go to bank") is a "feature" of Slavonian English-speakers only. :)

Language / Polish/Ukrainian words similarities [209]

I would say that Polish is easier to learn than Russian. It could be personal, though. Back in those days "we'd been taught Russian" (i.e. it was mandatory for schools to teach it) and everyone hated the language, because we hated the 'Russkie' oppression itself. In Slavic countries, they were more successful as the language didn't sound foreign. (And, of course, language-teaching was far more less sophisticated than today in our world of the internet and multimedia.)

I forgot nearly everything, but still helps me in my Polish. (Mostly basic things like numbers, names in the family tree etc., but here and there even some more difficult things just "pop in" from my forgotten Russian.) Sometimes we even joke with our "reminiscent" Russian knowledge with my Polish colleagues, ha-ha. :)

There's one thing no one has yet mentioned: the sexual discriminatory nature of Slavic languages. ;o) It still does my head in that everybody and everything is either masculine or feminin or neutral in gender, plus even in plural there's a difference between a masculine and a feminine/non-masculine "they"!

Language / Polish or any Slavic language key to any other Slavic languages? [126]

Interesting topic, hehe. :) As an outsider, a Hungarian who is Slovak on the mother's grandparents' side, I do think that learning one Slavic language is "enough" (I put it in double quotes). I can't speak Slovakian (well, the archaic Slovakian, actually, that elderly people still speak in my region), though with this heritage, plus my primitive Russian (as everyone had to learn it up until before '90.....), I still has an advantage in understanding Polish.


Apart from this, interestingly, we discovered with my Polish friends that we have lots of words in common -- first of all, k*rwa/k*rva, of course. :) Hungarian do seem to have preserved some Slavic loanwords. The above mentioned gołąb - galamb is one of them. (Which is "holub" in Slovakian, we even have people with this surname in my region! It's interesting that the starting "g" is usually "h" in Slovak/Czech and Russian. "Gamburger" always made us laugh at Russian lessons. :)