My visit to Poland - Likes & Dislikes.

You still hear Stallone speaking English because dubbing=/= voiceover.

NMP, it's near Ruda Śląska, the centre of all things ugly ;) Familoki :( :(

Raising moods here is a work in progress. I really get on very well with those that have natural energy. My female colleagues at work, for example. They love to speak English, even though they could use Polish with me. They are naturally full of life but they have a hard job lifting some students out of their catatonic stupors.

Oh... you don't know what does it mean to teach in gimnazjum! Whenever we were having a trainees in gimnazjum we were throwing at them piles of papers... yep, diffinitely not a job I wish to do (ever in my life!)

we were bored and sleeping... enjoy Seeanus!! :)

everyone in Poland is so fascinated with familoki (even in Lodz we have something resembling familoki - "Księży Młyn", and it's even in unesco register) and you think it's ugly? Strange...

Well, I'll hardly be investing in sth like that anytime soon :)

I've taught gimnazjum groups and they were hard but rewarding in a way. If you can handle them then you are one step closer towards handling the mad babcia brigade. That, however, requires many extras that involves full-time training ;)

You stink. I can hardly understand anything you write.

:p

You're basically talking the Netherlands and Scandinavia, speakers of the languages closest to English). I've been to other subtitling countries (Greece, Portugal, Romania) and the level of English is certainly not all that impressive. A friend who was in both Finland and Norway (within a short time) said that Norwegians spoke much more and better English than Finns.

Generally, while I prefer watching subtitled entertainment (when I can't understand the spoken language) I think dubbing is much more fun. I think it's cooler to go to Hungary and see House speaking Hungarian rather than hearing him in American with funny scrawls at the bottom of the screen. ymmv.


Traditionally, Poles listen to music in English as if it were instrumentals or opera. They don't pay attention to the lyrics and often don't want to know what they mean. They just use it as mood music and fill in the emotions themselves. There are exceptions but that seems that most Polish people most of the time.

And, Poles have English in school because that's what the government decided. That doesn't mean they're especially interested in it (beyond vague ideas of seeming modern and up to date). And .... one of the dirty little secrets (one of many) of language teaching is that mass teaching doesn't necessarily produce people who can or will speak in a foreign language on command.

Remember any time you're in a foreign country, locals are basically doing you a favor if they choose to speak English with you. Be grateful and don't expect them to spend six years learning a foreign language so they can take your hamburger order or sell you a train ticket.

Not in the countryside but a very small city so almost the same...
It was a little more complicated than 'no English teachers'. There were others factors involved like:
- many teachers of Russian
- lack of money in schools.

So schools couldn't just replace Russian teachers (social issues, strong unions, Russian teachers as an old employees were often in school management).
It was gradual process wich was taking place in entire 90'. So for example schools were increasing a number of English hours in line of Russian teachers reaching retirement age and number of English teachers on the market...

So in case of a child of a breakthrough like me from a province with one leg in communism era and the second one in the modern era it was like this:

- primary eduaction -> one language = Russian
- secondary education -> two languages = Russian and English (teachers = a Pole and two North Americans from Peace Corp, very nice ladies btw. )
- uni -> whatever I liked and manage to sign for, so English and Russian again was my choice :-)

Other similar routes in Polish school system were German + Russian->English, or more rare French + Russian->English.

To sum things up, switching from Russian to English in polish schools was a long process which was taking place in entire 90', where things like rarity of English teachers and abundance of Russian teachers was a main driving force.

So don't expect much of English in older generations :-) Besides everybody knows that in the long term German and Russian are more important languages to a Pole ;-) They are around much longer and always are coming back... ;-) Before it was Latin, then French for a short time, now it is English, next one will be probably Mandarin, but our mighty neighbours will remain the same probably :-)

Depends on the country though. Often they are doing themselves and their country a favour in terms of tourism revenue.

E.g.The economies of Spain, Portugal for a start would have collapsed a long time ago if English wasn't as widely spoken as it is.

Yup, it's all just clicks and whistles to me.


Thanks for that writeup. It's all a bit more complicated than it looks from the outside.

I heard that many don't speak English in Spain, Portugal and Italy. Once I was trying to speak English to a nurse in Italy who was a memeber of hotel staff (I was fevering and our Polish doctor went on the beach) but she even didn't get so simple words as "hot" (she did not understand the word "fever" as well so I was trying to show her my forehead saying "hot").

Well you heard wrong! ; )

Obviously not everyone can speak English, but many do and usually pretty well.

Not sure about Italy though - I would imagine there is a bit of the French syndrome there.

There is attractive weather for a start knowledge of languages is secondary to their tourist industry but still important.

There are plenty of countries with attractive weather.

My point is that the two are very closely linked. If English wasn't spoken widely not nearly as many tourists would go there.

Spain: It depends on how you define 'English' there's a lot of people who can string English words together in ways that are generally understandable, but things like "I saw him to enter the car" "no can help" "you must to leave the room" etc don't really count as 'English' to me. On the other hand, I know Spanish well enough (that is I can string Spanish words together in ways that people usually understand) that I don't need to ask if people speak Englsh, my data is all from overhearing.

Portugal: More than in Spain and better pronunciation (maybe weirdo Portuguese pronunciation makes English easier for them?) but it runs out quickly and is mostly limited to stock answers so if you need more info then boa sorte (good luck).

Italy: Never been but I've heard from more than one person that French gets you much farther in there than English.

Not in EU, and not that close to sun hungry people,
Yes, I agree with point you made but I would put more emphasis on the fact that first English speaking tourists started going Spain and then people in Spain started to learn English which in turn prompted more tourists to go to Spain!

However, there must be some preconditions for a tourist industry to attract tourist, widespread knowledge of English is not enough on its on!

Could we all try to get back to the topic on Poland please?

So she liked some parts and aspects of Poland while she disliked others. What's the big deal. Her visit, her impressions.

It's not like she lives in paradise. After all there are enough people who dislike her hometown and consider it ugly.

People will like and dislike whatever city they want. I only beenn living in this city for over a years. its not the best looking but there is alot of caring and friendly people and resouces here. its what is in the city that counts. I come from a large city origianlly that has a big mixture of poeple. there is alot of reasons why Eastern European people come immagrating and runnig to USA why because have alot.this is my opinion.

why did you use the word "dislike" in the title of this thread... it's negative... why didn't you start from the positive "likes"?

I didnt I dont know how it got there. I ment to say My Visit to Poland. I dont know how that other part got up there. there things I liked and disliked about Poland but that goes for everywhere.

How could i fix it I hate that part. sorry about that PGTX.

LAGirl


LAGirl, what city are you originally from??

What a load of BS.

I am on my second time of living in Poland. Is it new? No! Is it gritty, Yes! To me that is a big part of the charm. I am not from a fake city like LA. I am from the rust-belt city of Detroit and maybe that's why I feel right at home.

I don't expect people to speak English or kiss my rear end. I have found the people here to bend over backwards to help, much different then my Germany trips.

There is beauty everywhere, sometimes you just haveto look.

I am from LA but live in Buffalo New York. where my best friend and boyfriend are from Poland, they lived here half of their lives. I like both cities Buffalo and LA.

As for you lowfunk, if you live in Detroit then going to Poland is like your home.I dont expect people to be kissy or all speak English but they listen to American music and want to be westernized so they should know some at least a few words or two. I spoke Polish while I was there, infact I had visited my boyfriend,s brother and his family and they only knew Polish, I talked in the best Polish I could and we all got along very well, infact I still talk to them to this day.I love the Polish language and would like to eventually be really fluent in it.I saw alot of beauty in poland. I thought that the western and southern part of Poland was absolutely beautiful.

Dislikes : how my Scottish money in Krakow is worth 0.60 zloty less than English money.

krakow has changed

One dislike is the door slamming aspect. In my last flat, I had to get the landlord to put his foot down to stamp it out. I don't mind if the wind blows it and you miss catching it before it shuts but these morons actively slam their doors. It's like they are frustrated but they don't seem to realise that they live in a shared block. It isn't called 'wspólnota' for nothing. After moving out last November, it has been the same in the new place. My wife, rather than rise above it, does the same and her dad reprimanded her for doing so. How widespread is this in Poland? I get the impression that there are many spiteful and selfish sorts that fail to acknowledge the effects of their actions on others. Am I wrong? I would love to believe that the majority don't do this but I think, given the mentality of quite a few of those that live in blocks, that it is quite common.

And leaving dogs locked up all day and barking, plus loud groups of young people talking animatedly on balconies at night.

Yeah, the balcony phenomenon is one I've heard about more than experienced. I hear the lads above my parents-in-laws' place and they could tone it down a lot. However, the housing estate is generally quite quiet, safe and people are well behaved.

Which seem to echo off the other blocks, like canyon walls. Especially frustrating when you are trying to sleep on the fault line of the in-law's pull out wersalka....

Last night I was walking through one of those garden squares in central Warsaw (near ul Warecka) and there were three seperate groups of young people, probably fresh from one of the bars on Nowy Swiat. They were talking so loudly it seemed each group was in competition with each other. It's hard to imagine anyone in the hundred or so flats around being able to sleep, and they were ignoring the one lady who was pleading with them to be quiet. The police generally just warn them.