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Polish - what do you enjoy about it? | ||
Tags: Reasons for study | Polish | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| B-Tina Tetraglot Senior Member Germany dragonsallaroun Joined 5532 days ago 123 posts - 218 votes  Speaks: German*, English, French, Polish | Message 9 of 50 22 June 2011 at 4:36pm | IP Logged |
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meramarina: yeah, Polish Grammar still creeps me out at times. Don't start with the numerals... When I was in Wrocław, I bought the Book "Hurra!!! Discovering Polish: A Learner's Grammar" by Liliana Madelska, which is one of the best grammar books I know.
Oh, and don't freak out when you realize that most verbs have a counterpart - exposure's going to handle that. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| H.Computatralis Triglot Senior Member Poland Joined 6309 days ago 130 posts - 210 votes Speaks: Polish*, French, English Studies: German, Spanish, Latin | Message 10 of 50 22 June 2011 at 4:58pm | IP Logged |
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Well, it's my native language and since I grew up in Canada I never actually studied it. It's only thanks to
my parents, who insisted that we speak Polish at home, that I can speak it so well. I must say that I'm quite surprised to see so many people interested in my language. It's not a language that is often studied by foreigners unless they plan to actually live in Poland. About mentality, it's hard for me to describe. We're sometimes described as "hot tempered" like some of the mediteranean people, but we also like to complain a lot and often project a pessimistic image. We are usually very hospitable but we also like to show off, which is nicely illustrated by the saying "Zastaw się ale postaw się", which roughly translates as "Take on debts (if you have to) but make a stand". @Mooby: It's true that we often use the polite form Pan/Pani, but ironically it's not always a sign of politeness. Sometimes it's used for exagerating the degree of formality and sounds snobbish. Similarly, the vocative case is usually used only in formal situations, but also when insulting people - "Ty idioto!", "You idiot!". About language difficulty, it's true that Polish grammar is challenging, as most Slavic languages are, and it has some archaic features. For example, the gender system can be analyzed as having five genders (the masculine is split into personal, animate, and inanimate). But the pronunciation is also not the easiest and even native speakers acquire a distinctive accent when living abroad for a while. Don't despair though. It can be done and if you learn to speak Polish well the Poles will love you. I wish you all luck and I would be very happy to hear from you, in Polish oczywiście. :) 4 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Teango Triglot Winner TAC 2010 & 2012 Senior Member United States teango.wordpress.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5561 days ago 2210 posts - 3734 votes Speaks: English*, German, Russian Studies: Hawaiian, French, Toki Pona | Message 11 of 50 22 June 2011 at 5:09pm | IP Logged |
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Polish has been on my hit list for a good while, and I'm definitely considering taking it up once I've made good progress in Russian. I'm lucky to have lived amongst Polish communities for years and made excellent friends along the way. All the Polish people I've got to know have proved to be intelligent, warm-hearted and sociable, with a wonderfully wicked sense of humour to boot. Therefore my biggest motivation and enjoyment would be getting to know the people better and sharing in their culture and community. Edited by Teango on 23 June 2011 at 1:03am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Cabaire Senior Member Germany Joined 5604 days ago 725 posts - 1352 votes | Message 12 of 50 22 June 2011 at 10:05pm | IP Logged |
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From my point of view, Polish is by far the best language I know for tongue twisters.
Say for example: W Szczebrzeszynie chrząszcz brzmi w trzcinie, i Szczebrzeszyn z tego słynie, że chrząszcz brzmi tam w Szczebrzeszynie. You will have the fun of your life. I mean all "How much wood would a woodchuck chuck" or "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers" etc. are ridiculously easy, a child's play, compared to this. PS. The only serious rival may be Czech: "Tři sta třicet tři stříbrných stříkaček stříkalo přes třista třicet tři stříbrných střech." Edited by Cabaire on 22 June 2011 at 10:05pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| B-Tina Tetraglot Senior Member Germany dragonsallaroun Joined 5532 days ago 123 posts - 218 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Polish | Message 13 of 50 22 June 2011 at 11:20pm | IP Logged |
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Cabaire: Polish is by far one of the best languages to make fun of :) Edited by B-Tina on 22 June 2011 at 11:21pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Vos Diglot Senior Member Australia Joined 5571 days ago 766 posts - 1020 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Dutch, Polish | Message 15 of 50 23 June 2011 at 12:43am | IP Logged |
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“I hear hissing, rustling and hushing, and my ears are bleeding...” - Oscar Wilde on Polish.
Hahaha... But seriously, thanks for all the replies thus far guys. Also B-Tina, lovely work with your language blog! Quite a joy to read. How long have you been studying Polish? Did you spend much time in Poland learning it? And Paranday, if that is true, which I'm guessing is meant to be a bit of jesting yet with a hint of truth to it, then dear god. I've definitely got myself in for one hell of a journey! Nothing like a good challenge. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| B-Tina Tetraglot Senior Member Germany dragonsallaroun Joined 5532 days ago 123 posts - 218 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Polish | Message 16 of 50 23 June 2011 at 11:55am | IP Logged |
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Vos: thanks a lot for the compliment! :)
I've started studying Polish seriously in March 2009. My university offers a program that goes "from zero to B 1". It lasts about 6 months and consists of about 8 weeks studying full-time plus 3 semester hours during the summer term. After B 1 I went to Cracow, but interestingly enough I made only little progress - I wasn't really immersed since all classes at university were held in German and most people around me spoke either German or English. All in all, I spent 5 weeks in Poland that were really dedicated to learning the language (3 weeks in Wrocław thanks to the B 1 program and 2 weeks in Cracow after the summer term had ended). Back in Germany I started to work with the material (flashcards, books etc.) I'd gathered in Cracow and began attending classes at our Institute of Slavic Languages. By now, I invested about 1000 hours of learning Polish, and assume that I am at a comfortable B 2 level. I understand most of the stuff people tell me and can converse freely. However, there's still a lot of work left to do... 1 person has voted this message useful |
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