Languages like Baltic languages, Hungarian, Finnish, Gaelic, Basque (just to mention European languages) are MUCH harder for other Europeans than Polish is for NON slavs.
The only Baltic language that is hard is Estonian (Which is an Altaic language, like Hungarian and Finnish). Lithuanian and Latvian are way easier than Polish.
"Dear" Levy: easy and hard is of course purely relative ;). Have you ever come across Gaelic languages or ... Basque? I do (since in France we have both Gaelic (Breton in Brittany (Asterix's area ;)) and Basque (+ other languages) and trust me, unless you have a knowledge thereof, there is no way to even recognize a single word... Basque has obscure origins... Although very difficult for NON slavs, Polish is "peanuts" compared to for instance Gaelic languages and to Basque (just to remain in Europe).
My native English is so far superior to that of the average Pole who studied English in school, I find it far, far easier to communicate with Poles in Polish!
This way, at least we understand each other.
@Wulkan,
My German is bilingual native and better than your English, no doubt:-)
Indeed, Polish is "difficult", but what language spoken correctly isn't?
I find it far, far easier to communicate with Poles in Polish!
I wonder what's the opinion of those Poles.... "oh look this weird guy is coming, he'll talk in this broken Polish and won't switch to English no matter how hard we try gosh"
Maybe, Wulkan! And in the end, it's usually THEIR loss, not mine, as their English is often so mired in US-ghetto blaster slang (not to mention foul language) that it's damned near incomprehensible, save for another contemporary Polish native speakerLOL
Polish merely LOOKS like the hardest language in the world to learn, English IS the hardest language in the world to learn [right]. Herein lies the difference, or, as Shakespeare put it, "Aye, there's the rub!"
What about the twerps or people who wanted to learn English and failed, huh Wulkan?? You see, there's that fecking double standard rearing its ugly head once again! Why should foreigners who want to learn Polish be considered "weird', for instance, while Poles who were basically forced to learn English from lyceum on up be considered "normal"??! Where's the sense to such logic?
The plain answer is that since the late '60's, conformity to non-conformity aka tradition has been deemed "cool", whilst attention to the literate, the erudite and the aesthetic has been deemed "old-fashioned", "square", "faschist" etc...
The Poles, much like the rest of the Continent, became infected by this sort of idiocy, courtesy of the '68ers, in Poland as well as France (Cohn-Bendit) and particularly Germany (Baader-Meinhof, Rudi Dutschke, Ensslin and the whole pack of white-collar terrorists)!!
Try correcting your own English mistakes before you harp on my Polish ones:-)
What about the twerps or people who wanted to learn English and failed, huh Wulkan??
Wulkan? Ironside not Wulkan. You really should lay off those meds Lyzko. Read the topic of this thread. Tic tack tick tack - got it ? now let it sink in.
My native English is so far superior to that of the average Pole who studied English in school, I find it far, far easier to communicate with Poles in Polish!
As I've said before, your English, while excellent, is rather pedantic and academic. I'm not suggesting that you dumb down, just speak to Poles in language that they understand. They'll appreciate it. If their English is really full of ghetto blaster slang and obscenities, maybe you should find different people to talk to. I've been in Poland for 8 1/2 years and my experience has been very different than yours when it comes to speaking with Poles.
For the umpteenth time there's oodles of difference between snobby vs. vulgar! One can and for that matter should be able to speak plainly, yet clearly and sans f-curse.
Furthermore, yesterday's normal is today's academic, snooty:-) Think about it. No, pal! Things have gotten way out of hand ever since US "educators" fell asleep at the switch of enforcing standardization post-Woodstock era and merrily let the kids run the classroom (...and the world)LOL What a joke. Pity I'm not laughing. We're talking sit-down tragedy rather than stand-up comedy and it looks like I'm the onlt guy who's crying.
By the by, correct Polish bedevils many a Pole, I'm told.
I am not sure if Polish is the hardest of languages but it is one of the hardest out there, certainly. I think maybe Russian is the hardest or Serbian or Macedonian since they have similar grammatical frame to Polish but have the added difficulty of Cyrillic alphabet to communicate in as opposed to Roman used through most of Europe.
I read that it is 3rd hardest, with Traditional Chinese being first, and Hungarian second. It's all relative though. Someone Slavic will find Polish a walk in the park to learn compared to someone English learning it.
According to CIA, Poland is the third/second hardest national language in the Western World, just after Estonian/Finnish.
That can not be true, Russian or Macedonian are harder I say, and many other languages may also be more difficult. Also Poland is not in the western world but between east and west socially and politically.
CIA is not authority for Polish people or the world, academics are, international academics not one country's group of who knows what.
Someone Slavic will find Polish a walk in the park to learn compared to someone English learning it.
Exactly. Czech is just as difficult as Polish (if not more so for English speakers - ř is a dreadful letter and far more difficult than rz for English speakers), yet Polish and Czechs can pick up the languages without much effort.
Then there's stuff like Kashubian, which is downright bonkers compared to Polish.
Czech is just as difficult as Polish (if not more so for English speakers
For English speakers is the key, and that's why so many people are giving different answers on this thread. What is a hard language for someone English, isn't for other people.
I have no knowledge of Czech, but some words are similar to Polish, Stare Mesto and Stare Miasto for example.
Then there's stuff like Kashubian, which is downright bonkers compared to Polish.
Think I'll just stick to learning one other language.........
Russian
Surely not as hard as Polish, it has one less case to deal with after all ;) Although getting your head round the alphabet must be hard to start off with :(
anyone tried to learn Welsh? I found that harder than Polish tbh. Did you know that there is no one way of saying 'yes ' or 'no' - your answer would depend on the question in a 'tag' kind of a way.
eg 'Do you speak English' answer 'I do' or 'I dont' So there are about fifteen different ways of saying yes and no. Then there are the 'mutations' which are like case endings but at the beginning of a word, and seem to be quite random.
Apparently Irish is the same.... No wonder simple English folk consider the Celtic people to be shifty - 'cant get a straight answer!' but the biggest barrier to learning it , is that anyone who speaks it is bilingual and will politely slip into English for you...
I read that it is 3rd hardest, with Traditional Chinese being fir
Chinese is not Western language :)
That can not be true, Russian or Macedonian are harder I say,
Despite using Cyrillic, Russian is not harder than Polish (actually is much simpler).
CIA is not authority for Polish people or the world, academics are, international academics not one country's group of who knows what.
This research was made by CIA Language Centre, which are composed by academics (actually it is the job of the dreams of any linguist in USA due to the high salaries) who train the CIA/NSA staff.
As for the Cyrilic alphabet, it is quite easy to learn. You just have to sit down and go through it and copy the letters like we did with our alphabet as small children.
ha ha yes that would help. My 'learning curve' with spoken Greek was living at the arse end of the town and having to explain to taxi drivers where it was.....
This research was made by CIA Language Centre, which are composed by academics (actually it is the job of the dreams of any linguist in USA due to the high salaries) who train the CIA/NSA staff.
That's a dream in USA not in Poland, again CIA is not authority for Polish people it has to be broader research centre and communicated between international circles of academics from all different countries not just one USA.
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