Polish was chosen the HARDEST LANGUAGE in the world to learn... :D

We shouldn't "mess" with people who are a bit special and of course a born genius. Remember the last time we had a visit from one? here ;)

I don't think there's such thing as objectively difficult. The student's background is of highest importance in determining the language's difficulty - a Slovak would speak Polish in no time, whereas a Chinese would probably struggle to grasp even some basic concepts. But ultimately anyone can learn any language, commitment is the key.

Yeah, funny is that brat is also a way of addressing to a monk. So Brat Pitt sounds pretty funny.


Why do you have to be so unpleasent?

Brad Pitt

My little sister was calling other kids "kupa głowa", when I asked why, she quickly assured me that “kupa głowa” means shithead. That's how some of you sound on here.

Ok, whatever. It's not worth me getting upset over. Have a great one!

lol.... priceless

That post is a load of BS. Polish is harder to learn than Mandarin? Yeah, right.

Europe consists of 3 large family languages (slavic, germanic, and romantic).

Polish is a slavic language and thus is similar to many of the slavic countries. (yes it also has obvious differences).

The fact is that even countries inside Europe are more difficult to learn.

For example the Finno/Ulgric langauges are very rare in Europe. I would think languages like Hungarian and Finnish are thus probably more difficult to learn and/or master.

Those languages and Estonian, Euzkadi (Basque), and Turkish are the only other Non-Indo-European national languages in Europe today.

What about Welsh (Cymraeg) and Irish Gaelic and Breton?

Celtic languages are Indoeuropean - simple as that - they are most closely related to the Italic languages (including Latin) - indoeuropean languages spread to western Europe from eastern and central parts of the continent - the Basque is the sole remaining pre-Indoerupean (non-Indoeuropean) language in western Europe - Britain was conquered and settled by Celtic tribes in a couple of waves - Celtic languages spread over the isles and replaced all former languages spoken there (which were most probably non-Indoeuropean)

ok I probably missed your point - yeah legend forgot about the Celtic languages

......aaaannnd don't let's forget about the Iberian tongues, once widespread throught all of present-day Spain and Portugal, or even Etruscan LOL

D'ya know Wiki has a web page IN ETRUSCAN???!!

uh, who can teach me this one???:]

Friends,

I have been shown this forum and this thread by an American friend living in Poland. He perceives Polish as a hard language like most of you. Is it really so difficult?

I'm now fifty and have been learning English since I was sixteen. I've been using English for last twenty two years in my profession. I've been to large part of the world and tried to pick up some local languages. Still, I experience problems with using indefinite/definite English articles, applying proper tenses and vocabulary. Reading hundreds of English books had hardly improved my English; it is perceived as bookish and rather weak by native English speakers. Speaking English in places such as Texas, Philadelphia, Liverpool, North England always meant understanding problems. And I don't get most of slang.

Should you despair then on difficulties of Polish? On contrary, you shall be proud of your efforts. Poles are very friendly towards foreigners. I'd even say we're shy about foreigners and respect them according to the saying "Gość w dom, Bóg w dom" /The guest to the house is the God to the house/. Don't try analyzing the language up to the scientific level. Yes, it's true: If you ask someone here about rich and complex phrase (which is not in common use), we'll be trying to find all possible alternatives. This is futile gesture though. Nobody ask you to be Professor Miodek. Yes, if you address the audience with "jin-dovrah", there might be occasional laughter. However, your attempt to speak Polish will be appreciated.

Now, I'm not sure if the youth slang of today's Poland had been already addressed. Watch this funny video on YouTube and only read the subtitles:

youtube.com/watch?v=pazQoQbe8UY

The subtitles are current clubbing slang. Do you get it? You have to be aware that any native Pole would get the complete meaning of the subtitles. If you do not get it, don't worry. I do not understand Jive, either. ;-)

Carry on your good working!

For a native English speaker, Polish would probably be one of the hardest European languages to learn.

Finnish would probably be the toughest language to learn because it has such a complex grammar system. This would be difficult to grasp since English has very simple grammar and thus many Finnish grammar concepts would seem foreign.

Also, to whoever said that Russian is harder than Polish because it uses the Cyrillic alphabet, I'd say that's a bad reason. Reading and writing in Russian is done mostly phonetically so it's definitely not tough like reading English or Arabic. I think any decently intelligent person can become proficient in reading Cyrillic within a week.

I thought Greek was easy until I've been told there are five different Greek characters for "i". And I though I knew the Greek alphabet as an engineer....

Why did you quote me?

Because you said Cyrillic was easy, and one could become proficient in reading Cyrillic within a week.
I happen to speak Russian and I can tell you knowledge of an alphabet does not have anything common with proficient reading. The good example is Greek. I thought I knew the alphabet so I could read Greek. I've tried with several words given to me by my Greek friend. Try with. If you think you can read it properly because you know the alphabet, you're wrong.

Same with Russian. You do not read "Vsyego dobrogo", although the Cyrillic alphabet suggests so, right?

^My point was that Russian is MOSTLY phonetic. It's no where near as tough as English or even Arabic which has no vowels.

I NEVER said that learning an alphabet guarantees you proficiency in reading any language that uses it. I meant reading Cyrillic for the Russian language doesn't take too long to learn to read.

Point taken, Ogien.

Now, I had been learning Russian for 10 years, that is, 4 grades in the primary school, 4 grades in "liceum" and then 2 years at the University. Since Russian was my second language I learnt first, I was quite enthusiastic about that and was decidedly not lazy. To be left with reading proficiency, weak speaking capabilities and almost no writing skill. You might say learning Russian should be a trifle for a Pole. It was not.

I just want to say Ogien no language is really easy unless you really need it.

Conversely, Ogien, for a Polish native speaker, English would have to be intuitively one of (if not THE) hardest languages to master competely and effectively!

First of all, unlike most languages represented here, US-English at any rate, has almost no standards any longer. We've become the cesspool dumping ground/catch basin for any or all who can swear like sailors with little accent. Therefore, Americans especially expect precious little, evincing none of the linguistc pride shown by the Poles, the Hungarians, the Russian, even the Germans, and above all, the French-:) The Brits are slightly better than we are in this respect, but have been losing ground. Compare for instance a short clip of young Prince William, scarcely thirty-one, with his father Prince Charles some thirty years prior. The differences are striking; the latter spoke and speaks the King's English! William or Kate? vs. Charles or Di?? It's still English, yet mightily weak and watered down.

English slang is often hit or miss. There seems barely rhyme or reason for most of our locutions, plus our grammar is as confusing in its way as either Polish or Icelandic, only we do it with tense vagueries instead of morphological chaos LOL

Don't be fooled! To speak English on a low level? The easiest and most practical language around. To speak on a higher level, not satisfied with lazy second, third best?? English use worldwide rarely passes muster!

I don't really understand what you mean by that, I'm afraid.

To znaczy, że terazniejszy poziom angielskiego nawet w Anglii zostaje bardzo niski. N.p. porów język angielski Kżięzyćiu (??)Charles'a z William'em!

Fixed. I hope you don't mind it, I figured you're studying Polish and the corrections serve educational purposes, not to humiliate you Study the subtle differences between stać się and zostać!

perhaps he means youger generations of Brits talk differently to the older generations and usually the language of the older people (King's English?? - I just don't know) is much easier to pick than more modern varieties of the British English - to my ears hearing Mrs Tatcher speak or most older Britons is a pleasure contrary to that new-English sometimes bordering on stuttering

"Porównaj język angielski książąt Charlesa i Williama". Sorry for correcting you.

Since Magdalena (ahoj!) is here, I'd like to refer to differences between Slavonic languages and problems Slavs experience learning next Slavonic language themselves.

I spent a number of years travelling to Czech Republic and Slovakia. Especially, Czech seemed so different! I was later explained the restoration of the Czech language in the 19th century was based on local dialects with strong avoiding of polonisms and germanisms (Am I right, Magdalena?). After couple of years, I started speaking broken Czech and Slovak. Actually, I was perceived a Slovak in Brno, and a Czech in Bratislava, due to mistakes made constantly.

After some time, I was in online/phone session with my Russian colleague. He preferred speaking Russian to English, so I joined him thinking it would be useful to refresh my Russian. At some moment, I wanted to tell him I'd need a minute to make some coffee. So I said: "Padazhdi minutochku, ya paydu i sdyelaju KAVU". After long while I could hear him speaking uneasily "Chto eta abaznachayet 'KAVU'?" ... long break, then "Ahhhh! KOFYE!". So much about language similarities.

Also, anybody thinking high-Czech is a modern language is wrong. Oppositely, the language is based on ancient Slavonic words, say "kovo", "ocel", "lahev" or "strecha" while Polish uses borrowed words such as "metal", "stal", "butelka" or "dach"... Right Magdalena?

it gives variety - and variety is fun :)

That's a rather embarassing mistake I made correcting someone else!

Slavic languages wouldn't be different languages if they were all the same. They are still easier to learn for other Slavic language speakers than for Germanic or Roman language speakers, since the grammar concepts and a lot of vocabulary are similar. That doesn't matter that the student can or should slack off, it just means he might have easier time memorizing grammar structures and vocabulary.

Gumishu ma rację! Zgadzasz się Madźiu?

-:))

Correction is much appreciated. Sure makes more sense to speak with Poles in Polish than in English!

Ślicznie dziękuję!