Polish people: did you struggle learning English - differences between both languages

English is a pidgin. Pidgins, as a rule, are usually simple languages. It has its share of difficult things, but why do you think English is so popular as an international language?

Actually, which language is difficult is just a matter of perspective. I have seen an arbitrary (but scrupulous) list of 100 most difficult languages. Polish was second - I don't recall English even being recalled there.

Your inflection is practically non-existent, there isn't much to learn in English. It's the differences we have to learn about - they are pretty difficult, like the fixed word order, creation of compound nouns, future/past infinitives, tenses reflecting different view of chronology etc. But in the long run, I can say that English is actually very easy, at least for me - I have been learning almost a dozen foreign languages so far, from three continents, English is the easiest so far.

But then again, it takes years to master a language, including English - I still happen to make pretty nasty mistakes after 12 years... At least English learning framework is highly developed :-)

English is much easier than Polish is.

jeez let this thread die already. Some total numpty is posting some random bollocks and everyone are trying to convince him otherwise ; o

I'm a native speaker of English and have taught English in Poland. I have a degree in English language/linguistics and a teaching degree. I would say that basic English is much easier than basic Polish because of the grammatical complexities of Polish. Polish is an inflected language as English used to be at one time. This means that words, in particular nouns, constantly change their form and you can have up to 14 different forms of the same word if you include plurals. But once you get to intermediate level, English is much more difficult because of our idioms, the numerous dialect words and the flexibility of grammatical 'rules' which are not ast strictly observed in spoken English as they are in Polish. However many speakers of English as a second language never get very far beyond the basic level so remain unaware of the complexities of more advanced English. That's why they think it's 'easy'.

I wouldn't say this makes English more difficult than Polish - or any other language for that matter - because I yet have to come across a language without idiom, slang, dialect etc.

On the other hand, you are right in pointing out that the English learning curve is much gentler at the start, but then abruptly shoots upwards with the introduction of more sophisticated vocabulary, phrasal verbs, the more complicated verb forms etc.

English works great as a "survival language" and many people leave it at that. That's a pity, but also it's the only reason English now has the status of a lingua franca. Believe me, I would really struggle if I had to study French or German for global communication ;-)

(I did study German and gave up at the adjective + noun inflection stage) ;-(

Plus NEWSFLASH: eng is obviously a troll, but quite an enjoyable one, wouldn't you agree?

I had an English student from Poland many years ago who, for the life of him, just couldn't break the 'invisible' wall of English article usage and how their omission could change the entire meaning of a sentence, for example "He's been in THE office since around 2pm," vs. "Governor Patterson's been in office since 2009." To him, a Polish teacher in Radom, by the way, both sentences sounded maddeningly alike:-))))LOL

Probably, he understood the difference in the end (intellectually), but conceptually, continued making the same mistakes with articles by the end of the course as he had at the beginning. His other professors lamented the same!

It seems, an analogous problem for us Anglos, is those pesky aspectual verb pairs, huh guys?

Much more to follow on this for sure (....I hope).

...or how about:

I saw a couple rowing from my window. = A man and wife were in a rowboat together.

I saw a couple rowing from my window. = A man and his wife were arguing loudly.

Aside from the flexible placement of 'from my window' in English, the meaning is unclear without more context clues.

Easy English, he-he!!!

I fully agree with this type of analogy.

English speakers are probably unaware that using articles might be a problem to anyone. Likewise, Polish speakers are unaware that using the proper aspect of a verb might be in any way problematic (I myself only realised that after having read posts from learners of Polish on this forum).


Indeed, it is a striking example of a change in meaning. So striking that in Polish you would have to use two different nouns to translate both phrases: the former [in the office] should be rendered 'biuro', whereas the latter [in office] will require a noun like 'stanowisko'.

Are you kidding? Using articles correctly is very difficult for anyone whose native language doesn't contain them, and every teacher here in Poland knows that. In my opinion, it's the single most difficult thing for students to learn, even more so than verb tenses and phrasal verbs, so guess what we start working on in my classes from day one? (One article, one phrasal verb, in case anybody cares.)

i always have a problem with that... :(

Degree of language difficulty is dependant on IQ of its inhabitants and the expansion of its use.So german,polish,czech,japanese,chinese etc which are spoken by high average IQ individuals tend to be rather difficult languages.English on the other hand is easier than it should be due to widespread use so that everyone in colonies should be able to speak english.The same happened in greek,classical greek was an extremely touch language which was later simplified when it became means for global communication in meditaranean coast.

Scandinavian languages are also simplified despite the local high IQ and no widespread use because of geographical factors.(people speaking them were living in great distances between each other and had to be easily understood).

Rubbish. It all depends on your mother tongue, and how much you want to learn. Unless, as in my case, you grow up fully bilingual from the moment you start to learn to speak.

Japanese is easier for Chinese speakers to learn than Polish is, and French is easier for an English speaker than Kiswahili is.

icls.com/FLD/ILRlevels.htm

And if, as is often alleged on here and elsewhere, certain ethnic groups have low IQ, then how come those ethnic groups mostly speak at least two or three languages?

By the way, multilingualism is more common than monolingualism, so if anyone should be regarded as "thick" or "low IQ", then it would be monolinguals. But this is not true!

cal.org/resources/Digest/digestglobal.html

If you notice how Turks in Germany speak german you will understand how based is my theory.

In that case, you missed a semi colon in that sentence...

grammar, not grammer

I was born to a Polish mother and father. I was then given to an Australian (English mileau) where I learned to speak only english up until the age of 5. After that I was introduced into a Polish mileau until I left home but still love the language. I speak both fluently, I spent 14 weeks in Poland without any difficulty except to come to the understanding that Stacja is really a Dworzec. I would never, repeat, never say Carpeta when I meant Dywan. I could at one time do simultaneous translation Polish to English. I find you can lie more easily in english than Polish.

Until you see something written you don't really know it's meaning. eg. przemoc wzięła Even though I had sung it many times I had no idea what it meant until I saw it in print. So there are lots of gaps, I'm more practiced in English but would love to spend extended time in Poland to get both languages working well. (Dream time thinking at my age). Whichever language gets laid down first is the language you will most probably cling to and find easier.

Janek

Are you kidding me? English is pis* easy - any schmock can learn it (as you can
find out reading numerous posts on this forum ;)).

Greeks aren't any better.

Torq, precisely because English is so perceived as you put it, she has long since become the dumping ground for all the toxic waste with which people such as yourself gladly fill it. Perhaps yours' and others' gross misspellings and errant usage are intentional, only to get a rise out of qualiity fanatics like me, yet somehow I doubt it; fact is, you really DON'T know the bloody difference between 'shmuck' or 'schmock', 'beg' or 'bag' etc.. and it's a crying shame!!!

I wonder if I would ever grasp any meaning in Polish words and statements. They look so strange, and appear as impossibility in learing and understanding...I would be coming to Poland this year (September 2010)...God help me.

Alwayzaround, Poles feel the same way about their first encounters with English. Anyone who denies it, is lying!

I learned English and Polish simultaneously..
From school English (and Polish when I lived in Poland) and at home Polish.

You then are a rarity: a true bilingual, equally at home in both languages, almost like two separate and distinct mother tongues. With me, it's English and German.

my kids are true bilinguals. We speak Polish and English at home and they go to a bilingual school. From birth this is what we decided to do. In our house language is important and it is free knowledge for our kids.

Children can assimilate up to 6 languages before the age of 6. Anybody that doesn't speak with their child in their mother tongue is doing a real disservice to their children.

Zupełnie zgadzam się, Pip! As a bilingual myself I couldn't agree with you more-:) My mother insisted that my German-born nanny speak to me in German right from the outset. I therefore have no accent in either German or English, having learned to count at practically the same time in both languages.

Polish I didn't start with until approx. thirty LOL

I presume that in your house, one of the spouses is a native English speaker to counterbalance your native Polish, yes?
-:)

Was recently teaching an ESL class and heard something so hilarious (if unintentional, I'm almost certain),
I nearly lost over thirty years of schoolroom cool and had to chortle a belly laugh:

Yours truly: In my spare time, ahhemm, in my free time, I enjoy painting in my studio But I must buy a new smock! Do you know what a "smock" is?

Katarzyna: Yesss, ai know it. Ai gave bad man smock in face.....

Thought I was going to lose it big time, I swear!!!

Oh stop tooting your horn. I learned your language, idioms and all within ten years. Articles are still an issue for me though. Drives me mad when I miss a "the".

@Bobko
The weird articles are terrible! They make no logical sense.

Exceptions abound, Bobkoshka.
As Russian has no "the" or "a" concept, of course it'll never become truly second nature, forget about learning correct American pronunciation!

All I meant was that the basic rules of standard English grammar are far more generally transparent for, say, Russian, German or certain other foreign native speakers than, for example Finnish, Hungarian or Italian would be for a monolingual Anglophone.On the other hand, we've been speaking exclusively about European native speakers up till now. The run-of-the-mill Chinaman, Korean or Japanese will find English next to impossible to master.

Exposure, dedication, and internal motivation are always sure fire elements in anybody's success in mastering a foreign language. The relation between any given language only tends to ease the process.

This is indisputable. It's kind of you to group Russian in the European group of languages instead of Orcish. What's helped me most is understanding how many Russian and English words are French or German in origin. Studying Italian in college gave me an appreciation for the Latin foundation. Being wary of false friends, these have been amazing guides.

@Bobko,
I already know rudimentary Russian, problem is that were I to mail you privately (which I might well do), I'd only be able to type in phonetically aka Latin rather than in the original Cyrillic script, which for a native Russian speaker such as yourself is a royal pain the tooches LOL

Most Russians whom I've taught also struggle for years with the definite vs. indefinite article, not to mention with English "to be" vs. "to have", both essentially defective verbs in Russian, as they are sometimes known:-)

tarsape@gmail.com