It is in the polish culture something that is shocking for every foreigner, and yet it keeps repeating OVER and OVER AGAIN.
Me and all my friends and every foreigner living in Poland must have heard this phrase and its different variations THOUSANDS of times by now.
Though I still do not know what to answer to it, because there seem to be no good answer ?
The phrase that all polish girls repeat over and over and over again is annoying, crazy, driving people insane :
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"Please I am really very sorry, my english is so terrible, please excuse my english,
I am very sorry for my english it is so bad and full of mistakes, please excuse me,
I know very little english, my english is very bad and I am shamed of it"
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All of these spoken in perfect english of course.
In an english that is at least 99% more accurate and better than the english spoken by any italian, spanish or german... and with very good clear accent.
This must be the most annoying thing that every foreigner hears in Poland hundreds of times every day, and there seems to be no stop to it...
I wish there would be a solution... what to say to these girls when they start this crazy phrase that unfortunately they seem to really believe in it deeply inside of them.
Has the polish education system destroyed so much the self esteem of girls in Poland?
You're just another useless anti-Polish troll. I can say 对不起,我不能讲普通话 (Sorry, I can't speak Mandarin) in clear, easily-understood Mandarin Chinese, but I can't speak a word of it, except for the most basic of greetings. The most annoying phrase used by Polish women is "po prostu", which only Polish women appear to use, and they simply have to use it several times during every conversation. If you knew anything about Polish people and Polish language, you would know this.
Yes, Polish people are not the most confident. This is actually a big problem - most of my cousins have decent education, some speak quite good English and they don't seem to get anywhere with it. Sometimes I think that the only reason why I'm not like that is that I left Poland for few years very early and basically had to fend for myself. So I had to learn how to be confident.
A lot of Polish young adults still live with their parents - that's not good for confidence either as Polish parents (especially mothers) are very patronising.
to pierniczki you are POLISH and not foreigner. so obviously nobody says this annoying phrase to you
if any foreigner is reading this thread, they can confirm.
I forgot to add that also the conversation with the girls always continue, they speak PERFECT ENGLISH without mistakes, we talk on different subjects but it is IMPOSSIBLE to make them stop saying from time to time this absurd kind of phrase which is just insane:
"Please I am really very sorry, my english is so terrible, please excuse my english,
I am very sorry for my english it is so bad and full of mistakes, please excuse me,
I know very little english, my english is very bad and I am shamed of it"
It's all about comfort. This is something the ladies say in the very beginning. Once you make they feel comfortable around you they stop this. I always try to funny, move the topic from their english and bam, its done. Never hear it again.
BTW take it easy, it as not nearly as bad as described in your thread, get annoyed much???
I think what the OP is trying to say is that polish girls have extremely low self esteem, and when you hear the same phrase from EVERY SINGLE PERSON that you meet, you start thinking there is something very WRONG with this nation
polish girls even write that in emails, even after they slept with foreigners, they continue their relationships with them, while constantly saying that their perfect english skills are in fact "terrible:" and they are "ashamed of how full of mistakes their english is"
There is nothing really you can do to change the way they think about their language skills. Unfortuantelly, Polish people have that mentality that everything has to be perfect otherwise you are stupid and uneducated. Polish people are picky yet have so called 'low self-esteem'. They like to criticise both themselves and others( especially). For them trying is not enough. This is the way we are and I hate it with all my heart and soul. :)
everything has to be perfect otherwise you are stupid and uneducated. Polish people are picky yet have so called 'low self-esteem'. They like to criticise both themselves and others( especially). For them trying is not enough.
THAT is what I would assume from my fiancee and my language buddies. Specially my BF. When he is well rested there is accent only on certain letter combinations and his vocabulary is FAR better than average American or even my German friends.
Sure is clearer than my own Asperger twisted Souther-ese english! Though it was not my first language either. But he also calls himself lazy and various other negatives that simply are not so. And he definitely has his depressed phases. LOL
I am a thwarted perfectionist that has had time to get over it (kids mostly wore that edge dull).
It's not just Poland. I also got really tired of hearing this at the start of English Assessment Screenings. Back in December (in another FSU/CIS country) I did roughly 350 verbal assessments for a client's recruiting drive. It was bad enough that so many students were coached on what our scripted questions were but it was clear that some felt this compulsion to apologize as they sat down to begin testing.
My answer was that we would let the test and the conversation determine their level and I always advised my students to NEVER apologize for their English.
In personal communication I don't hear it nearly as often. When I do I don't tolerate it. My reply is usually something like "Nonsense, but if you don't want to talk take care and have a good day." At least that seems to lower the likelihood of repeat offenders.
hahahaha damn true! but ive heard some other annoying phrases: 'Life is brutal/cruel' but yeah 90% do say that their English is bad. But come on doesn't matter so much, although sometimes, people should actually downgrade their level of English (using very simple and direct words/sentences) for them to feel comfortable. I've been with some mates out and seen that the girls were like 'what did he just say?' .... just lowering your English skills would actually make things better and have a good convo!
try that next time! for me it works perfectly and goes down well! because atleast they tried to speak another language. so , no disrespect to them!
hahahaha damn true! but I've heard some other annoying phrases: 'Life is brutal/cruel' but yeah 90% do say that their English is bad
Yes, "Life is brutal" is my pet hate. Whoever taught this to Polish people needs a good beating IMHO... I don't know why, but it drives me crazy! I hate this saying! lol :)
I am very sorry for my English. It is so bad and full of mistakes, please excuse me.
The best response is just to tell the girl that she speaks English very well (even if she doesn't), then say to her (preferably in Polish) that if she would prefer it, that you can talk to her in Polish...
Better still, why not speak to her in Polish first and then you can apologise for how bad your Polish is (even though it's "perfect")?
yep, indeed mate!!! why say that everytime I wonder? It's like depressing! the kinda look I give them- *I am sorry for you* lol
yes... anyway... thank you for your confirmation ;)
you might have even noticed that after sometimes they don't say it again! It depends how close they become to you!
to be honest, sometimes I am so used to talk with some mates and like- i flipping do many mistakes like they do, just because been hanging out too much with them without correcting them!
... and full of zasadskas! awww.. believe it or not, it's a literary quote. It was my motto when I was leaving Poland. I'm sorry to hear it has fallen to such a disfavour.
The phrase that all polish girls repeat over and over and over again isannoying, crazy, driving people insane
I think the reason for this is that if a Polish person speaks Polish badly they are looked down upon as being uneducated and stupid. By saying that they speak English badly they are not setting themselves up to be ridiculed or laughed at.
I have very little patience for people that repeat themselves. Second time they say the same thing, I go "you already said that". Third time, I may tell them a little story about an engineer we had to fire because he kept repeating himself. The concern was that either he was losing his mind, or he thought that we were.
