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Will Germans be able to understand Polish enough?


Alien  24 | 5895
22 Jun 2023   #31
Will Germans be able to understand Polish enough?

Between Germany and Poland there is a language barrier as deep as the Marian Trench.
Lyzko  41 | 9650
22 Jun 2023   #32
You said it, buster!
East is East, West is West and never the (Mark) twain shall meet:-)
LOL
Bratwurst Boy  8 | 11873
22 Jun 2023   #33
.....you just need a few more vowels! :)
Alien  24 | 5895
23 Jun 2023   #34
East, West

Yes, now the Oder River is the border between Germanic and Slavic languages.
GefreiterKania  31 | 1429
23 Jun 2023   #35
now the Oder River is the border

Yes, but it used to be Elbe River (Łaba)...

... as educational comic books taught us in our childhood. :)

How ironic in Polish history that these days we have hostile Slavic nations to the east and friendly Germanic nation to the West. And what am I now supposed to do with all the old comic books?

Also, notice how Aryan the Slavic warrior looks like and how slightly Semitic is the Germanic one; all the subliminal messages that we got as kids - unbelievable.
Alien  24 | 5895
23 Jun 2023   #36
what am I now supposed to do with all the old comic books?

Maybe Bobko will buy you back, it would suit him.

how slightly Semitic is the Germanic one;

Well, the Yiddish language belongs to the group of Germanic languages, not Slavic.
Bobko  28 | 2282
23 Jun 2023   #37
Maybe Bobko will buy

I like comic books. I will admit.
Bratwurst Boy  8 | 11873
23 Jun 2023   #38
Also, notice how Aryan the Slavic warrior looks like

He looks like a Viking actually.....and we like a Mongol.....interesting!

But yeah....Vikings are cool! Who doesn't want to look like them! :)

Well, the Yiddish language

Na ja....since yiddish developed as a german dialect by Jews living in Germania for centuries it's not wonder.

...Yiddish was born in the Rhineland more than 900 years ago. A fusion of about 80 percent German and 20 percent Hebrew, it also has incorporated many words from the Romance and Slavic languages, and, in the last hundred years, from English....

...but I doubt that comic wanted to teach THAT.
Lyzko  41 | 9650
24 Jun 2023   #39
Eventually the entire planet will doubtless be speaking Globish anyway, and so it's pointless to ponder:-)

Can't tell you the number of international ZOOM meetings in which I've participated lately, fellow colleagues from Finland, Germany, Japan, India, Denmark,
Poland, France and so forth, each meeting member not speaking the other one's mother tongue, muddling through doggedly, not one of which ever admitting as to much to the remote possibility of any misunderstanding on the interlocutor's part, yet blindly slogging forth, amid arguments, disagreements, until eventually nearly all give up in blank frustration, and the conference is finally over!

All this could have been avoided, productivity could have so easily been facilitated if we simply went back to using interpreters, just as we used to pre-Globalization.
pawian  221 | 25663
24 Jun 2023   #40
Between Germany and Poland there is a language barrier as deep as the Marian Trench.

After all, Niemcy - Polish expression for Germans, comes from niemy which means dumb, ie. not speaking any language that humans can understand.
Lyzko  41 | 9650
24 Jun 2023   #41
Or, as already posted, not being willing to even try to understand the language, thereby labeling it as "dumb" aka "mute".
Alien  24 | 5895
24 Jun 2023   #42
even try to understand the language,
thereby labeling it as "dumb" aka "mute"

Not exactly, from the Polish point of view, German is loud, hard, aggressive and absolutely incomprehensible, unlike the languages of all other countries surrounding Poland. It really resembles the guttural noises made by deaf people.
Bratwurst Boy  8 | 11873
24 Jun 2023   #43
Oh pleeeaaaase.....german is like the softest music.....and it has vowels! :)

I mean....seriously:

SZCZYZ - yeah thats a crazy polish male name, and it sounds as crazy as it looks.

How do you think THAT sounds on foreign ears, heh:)

Grzegorz Brzęczyszczykiewicz :):):)
pawian  221 | 25663
24 Jun 2023   #44
Oh pleeeaaaase.....german is like the softest music.

I like it coz it sounds so dynamic and most of the time I have a dynamic approach to life. :):)
However, most Poles think different. One of my female students, whose mum is a teacher of German in our school, said once she hated German coz even the word butterfly in German sounds like an execution order. Schmetterling!!!! :):))
Alien  24 | 5895
24 Jun 2023   #46
Grzegorz Brzęczyszczykiewicz :):):)

Yes, I know that the Polish language, on the other hand, is a wheezing hissing language for Germans and it is also high-pitched. It's a shame because it's such a romantic language.
Bratwurst Boy  8 | 11873
24 Jun 2023   #47
....that's the reason Germans became "Niemcy"....after all, they couldn't speak this language...they needed more vowels! :)
GefreiterKania  31 | 1429
24 Jun 2023   #48
Schmetterling!

Try "Wahrscheinlichkeitsrechnung" (but not in presence of the elderly, not to inadvertently cause a heart attack). :)

SZCZYZ

That's Szczyż (with "ż" not "z" at the end) - I know the guy! :) And it's a surname, so it can be both male and female.
Bratwurst Boy  8 | 11873
24 Jun 2023   #49
Wahrscheinlichkeitsrechnung

It just flows....how can it not....with so many vowels....like a song! :)

But I agree....since our words can be stacked together there are some real long ones possible, like Lego.... heh:)

That's to beat:

Donaudampfschiffahrtsgesellschaftskapitän

stacked words:

Donau
Dampf
Schiffahrt
Gesellschaft
Kapitän

Every word is fully functional on its own....but together they got famous (and still working efficiently)....that's GERMAN! :)
Feniks
24 Jun 2023   #50
It really resembles the guttural noises made by deaf people.

Alien! How can you say that! Actually I like the sound of both German and Polish languages. It's true, German is a guttural language but it's a language that sounds like it means business :)

she hated German coz even the word butterfly in German sounds like an execution order.

Hahaha!!! 😂
Bratwurst Boy  8 | 11873
24 Jun 2023   #51
Is there a polish translation for "Donaudampfschiffahrtsgesellschaftskapitän" possible?
GefreiterKania  31 | 1429
24 Jun 2023   #52
There is even a translation of Hottentottenstottertrottelmutterbeutelrattenlattengitterkofferattentäter possible, but I'm not sure if I would like to see it in print. :)

EDIT: Hmm... or should it be Beutelrattenlattengitterkofferhottentottenstottertrottelmutterattentäter?
Bratwurst Boy  8 | 11873
24 Jun 2023   #53
...yeah....and it doesn't work so well....it really looks very "made"......just for the length of it, not that good.
pawian  221 | 25663
24 Jun 2023   #54
Wahrscheinlichkeitsrechnung

That `s a beautiful and logical way of creating words.
GefreiterKania  31 | 1429
24 Jun 2023   #56
beautiful and logical

I agree with the logical part. ;)

But jokes aside, the "ugliness" of the German language is perceived by connotation. We all watched tons of films where Germans were the baddies and we learnt to associate evil with the German language. I had this problem when I started learning Deutsch but it passed after a couple of months of listening exercises (I used a trick of selecting audiobooks with female reading voices and watching YT channels with female teachers).

P.S. But still, if a male voice shouted "Wahrscheinlichkeitsrechnung!" behind my back at midnight, I'd probably run for cover. :)
Bratwurst Boy  8 | 11873
24 Jun 2023   #57
.....hmmm.....interesting....together with those comics of yours it seems as if Poles got educated to hate Germans and everything german, right?
GefreiterKania  31 | 1429
24 Jun 2023   #58
it seems as if Poles got educated to hate Germans

No, I wouldn't go that far. After all, the textbooks/comics that we read reflected pretty accurately the events from our history. It was more about cultivating the memory and remembering the past as a warning for the future.

And we all (or almost all) learnt German at school as the third language.
Bratwurst Boy  8 | 11873
24 Jun 2023   #59
After all, the textbooks/comics that we read reflected pretty accurately the events from our history.

The Pole the blond hero and the German the dark Mongol???

Now I too believe a common history book of our both peoples would met difficulties... :)
Lenka  5 | 3529
24 Jun 2023   #60
Well, I started to like German. More and more with age. And that is because the Germans I met were absolutely lovely and not is superficial/artificial way . May help that my beloved Uncle and Aunt live in Germany. That and the fact I come from Silesia.


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