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I know Russian language - will it help me learn Polish?


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AlperThreads: 2
Posts: 6
Joined: Sep 23, 07 		  Sep 25, 07, 20:49 /  #
I know about the letters but , can you explain more about the difference in grammer ?
thanks a lot!
MichalThreads: -
Posts: 2,408
Joined: Feb 27, 07 		  Sep 26, 07, 09:03 /  #
If you want to learn another language for fun and you want to use your knowledge of Russian you would find Serbo-Croatian or one of those languages much nearer to Russian than Polish is. A lot of words are similar in Polish and Russian of course as they are of the same group of languages just like English and German words are similar (sometimes).
ziboThreads: -
Posts: 75
Joined: Sep 25, 07 		  Sep 26, 07, 09:09 /  #
both languages are very similar.

same with Czech.

so if you know russian already, it will definietely help you learn polish.
MarekThreads: 4
Posts: 1,120
Joined: Feb 15, 07 		  Sep 26, 07, 09:16 /  #
Hi!

Learning a Slavic language such as Russian after having thoroughly learned a related Slavic language, i.e. Polish. makes sense. The question though as to whether it will "help" you to learn the latter, may or may not be the case.

I did the opposite, having learned to read Russian after having already become fluent in Polish. Problems arise if you started to learn Polish as a beginner while not yet being conversant with Russian. Here, the question of false friend vocabulary, differences in pronunciation and even some grammatical variations, enter into the picture. The result then might be that you never actually learn either language completely and from that point continue to be plagued by confusion because both languages were never learned thoroughly enough from the outset.

Marek
MichalThreads: -
Posts: 2,408
Joined: Feb 27, 07 		  Sep 26, 07, 12:38 /  #
Russian and Polish are not particularly close. Czech is closer to Serbian and they are both, in turn, closer to Russian. Probably due to location (near to Germany) the Polish language is quite different in tone and everything else.
PolsonThreads: 15
Posts: 2,812
Joined: May 9, 07 		  Sep 26, 07, 13:15 /  #
Polish : West Slavic language
Russian : East Slavic language

Maybe the relation is like French and Spanish or Portuguese...dunno ;)
MarekThreads: 4
Posts: 1,120
Joined: Feb 15, 07 		  Oct 9, 07, 08:57 /  #
Polson,

Poles can understand spoken Ukrainian (not really so the other way round!) more easily than Russian because of the accent, some grammatical differences and, of course, numerous "false friends" e.g. "pismo/pismo" etc. Ukrainian has many more vocabulary similarities with Polish than with Russian. However, Ukrainian pronunciation is sounds much closer to Russian than to Polish.

Educated Poles can probably READ a Czech newspaper, but are clueless when listening to the same news reported by an announcer on TV. This is not to say, they can understand written Czech fluently by any means, at least what a journalist acquaintance from Prague once told me.

Russians on the other hand can understand both written and spoken Bulgarian as well as Serbian, owing to the simple fact, among others, that the former are also written in the Cyrillic alphabet.

Finally, Poles can understand Russian to a degree with greater facility than in the reverse, certainly in my experience.

Marek
PolsonThreads: 15
Posts: 2,812
Joined: May 9, 07 		  Oct 9, 07, 09:03 /  #
Ok thanks Marek ;)
I heard that a glass of vodka make them to understand each other much better... ;P LoL
About Ukrainian, are there words coming from Polish due to the time of Great Poland-Lithuania...
My mother (who is Polish) told me that she can understand some Russian, but it's quite difficult.
It can be compared with French and Italian for example : when i hear an Italian talking, or read an Italian text, i can understand a bit of what it's said, but not all, sure ;)
MarekThreads: 4
Posts: 1,120
Joined: Feb 15, 07 		  Oct 9, 07, 09:50 /  #
Polson,

Again it's similar to a Portuguese (Brazilian or European!) and a Spanish speaker, a Dutchman and a German, a Dane and a Norwegian etc.

I don't really know Ukrainian. As a modestly "fluent", yet with my disclaimer of not always accurate, Polish speaker, I can recognize plenty of written Ukrainian.
There are though, those ever so tricky false friends.

They abound in some languages. A humorous example between Dutch and German:

UITVAART/Dutch = funeral ("pogrzeb" in Polish, by the way)
vs.
AUSFAHRT/German = highway exit

In Scandinavian languages, namely Swedish, Danish and Norwegian, the differences can lead to erotic jokes!

Marek
PolsonThreads: 15
Posts: 2,812
Joined: May 9, 07 		  Oct 9, 07, 10:10 /  #
Quoting: Marek
UITVAART/Dutch = funeral ("pogrzeb" in Polish, by the way)
vs.
AUSFAHRT/German = highway exit


Aha thanks ;)

Quoting: Marek
In Scandinavian languages, namely Swedish, Danish and Norwegian, the differences can lead to erotic jokes!


I'm learning Swedish and Norwegian, and i think i've seen this situation ;) I love languages ;)
MarekThreads: 4
Posts: 1,120
Joined: Feb 15, 07 		  Oct 9, 07, 10:13 /  #
....."knulla" in Swedish and "knulle" in Danish DON'T mean the same thing--::):)!!!
For that matter, "knappa" (with a-umlaut) in Swedish vs. "knaebe" in Danish can also get you into hot water.......

Marek
PolsonThreads: 15
Posts: 2,812
Joined: May 9, 07 		  Oct 9, 07, 10:32 /  #
LoL ;) Even if many words are very similar between these languages, we have to be careful if we don't want to be in a "difficult" situation ;)

By the way, how many and what languages do you speak Marek ?
randompalThreads: 7
Posts: 431
Joined: Jul 10, 07 		  Oct 9, 07, 10:36 /  #
Russian is harder to understand than Ukranian, and Slovak is even easier. Czech isnt so tough, you can understand most of what they say but there are some funny differences like mentioned above. My favorite is when Czech guys talk about their girlfriends and say: "To moja divka" (That's my girlfriend) but to Poles it sounds like "To moja dziwka" (That's my *****)..
randompalThreads: 7
Posts: 431
Joined: Jul 10, 07 		  Oct 9, 07, 10:37 /  #
***** censored by the moderator was supposed to be wh*re
PolsonThreads: 15
Posts: 2,812
Joined: May 9, 07 		  Oct 9, 07, 10:46 /  #
Quoting: randompal
Czech guys talk about their girlfriends and say: "To moja divka" (That's my girlfriend) but to Poles it sounds like "To moja dziwka" (That's my *****)..


Ok i made the translation by myself ;D LOL
MarekThreads: 4
Posts: 1,120
Joined: Feb 15, 07 		  Oct 9, 07, 10:47 /  #
I "speak", i.e. accurately communicate, roughly in half a dozen. I've learned though in total at the very least ten.

Marek
PolsonThreads: 15
Posts: 2,812
Joined: May 9, 07 		Edited by: Polson   Oct 9, 07, 10:53 /  #
So i suppose you like languages, like i do ;) I'm learning English, Spanish, German, Polish, Swedish and Norwegian (+ i speak French as my mother tongue ;)
LemonThreads: -
Posts: 2
Joined: Oct 5, 07 		  Oct 9, 07, 10:57 /  #
it will help you understand polish but it will be a bother when speaking and writing. Grammar is completely different ^^'' Actually russian is harder i think so maybe it won't be that bad. But declination is creepy X_x native speakers have sometimes troubles with that too xD
MarekThreads: 4
Posts: 1,120
Joined: Feb 15, 07 		Edited by: Marek   Oct 9, 07, 11:02 /  #
Je puis lire francais, malheureurement je ne parle/"chatte" pas francais tres bien, parceque il y'a beaucoupe des anes passes depuis j'ete en France.

Od czasu do czasu czytam gazete po francusku, ale trwa duzy czas i musze uzywac slownik, bo BRAK MI SLOW!!

Tyvaar drojar det, innan jag kommer att kunna prata med andra manniskor paa franska.

Tja, aber kommt Zeit, kommt Rat!

Marek
PolsonThreads: 15
Posts: 2,812
Joined: May 9, 07 		  Oct 9, 07, 11:02 /  #
LoL but i don't plan to learn Russian now...

Quoting: Lemon
But declination is creepy X_x native speakers have sometimes troubles with that too xD


Yep difficult, and even for natives...we should make declination optional ;P
MarekThreads: 4
Posts: 1,120
Joined: Feb 15, 07 		  Oct 9, 07, 11:04 /  #
Polson,

Yes, I love languages being as I'm a translator as well as a foreign language instructor by vocation.

Marek
MichalThreads: -
Posts: 2,408
Joined: Feb 27, 07 		  Oct 9, 07, 11:06 /  #
Quoting: Polson
UITVAART/Dutch = funeral ("pogrzeb" in Polish, by the way)

The Dutch for a funeral is begrafenisstoet
PolsonThreads: 15
Posts: 2,812
Joined: May 9, 07 		  Oct 9, 07, 11:07 /  #
Quoting: Marek
Je puis lire francais, malheureurement je ne parle/"chatte" pas francais tres bien, parceque il y'a beaucoupe des anes passes depuis j'ete en France.


Good ;) i can help you if you want :

Je peux lire en français, malheureusement je ne parle pas très bien français parce que ça fait longtemps que j'ai été en France. ;)

Jeg snakker litt norsk, men kan ikke snakke med norskmennen, du førstår meg ?...

LoL i'm not sure if all is correct ("norskmennen"...) but i'm still learning ;)
PolsonThreads: 15
Posts: 2,812
Joined: May 9, 07 		  Oct 9, 07, 11:09 /  #
Quoting: Marek
Yes, I love languages being as I'm a translator as well as a foreign language instructor by vocation


Okay, that explains, i love languages as a hobby (don't know if i would work with languages someday...) I even created languages ;P (like Tolkien)

;)
MichalThreads: -
Posts: 2,408
Joined: Feb 27, 07 		  Oct 9, 07, 14:47 /  #
Anyway, Polish will not help you much in learning Russian as they are quite different languages. On the whole the Polish do not have much luck in learning Russian.
PolsonThreads: 15
Posts: 2,812
Joined: May 9, 07 		  Oct 9, 07, 14:52 /  #
Quoting: Michal
Anyway, Polish will not help you much in learning Russian as they are quite different languages. On the whole the Polish do not have much luck in learning Russian


And Polish is better... ;) LoL
EurolaThreads: 6
Posts: 2,647
Joined: Dec 2, 06 		  Oct 9, 07, 15:52 /  #
Quoting: Michal
On the whole the Polish do not have much luck in learning Russian.


'luck" has nothing to do with it in this case.
osiolThreads: 59
Posts: 4,714
Joined: Jul 25, 07 		Edited by: osiol   Oct 9, 07, 15:57 /  #
Quoting: Michal
the Polish do not have much luck in learning Russian

On the whole the Japanese do not have much luck in learning Swahili,
but those who decide that's what they want to do, and really give it a go, are a little more successful.

Polish people will probably get luckier learning English, even if, as I imagine, it is more difficult for them to learn.
Lady in red   Oct 9, 07, 17:24 /  #
Quoting: Michal
On the whole the Polish do not have much luck in learning Russian.



Yeah, well am sure most Polish people are happy not to learn the Russian language. Why on earth would they want too.........hey Poland is no longer ruled by Russia !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yippee.

:)
PolsonThreads: 15
Posts: 2,812
Joined: May 9, 07 		  Oct 9, 07, 17:28 /  #
Yep ;) In Poland we speak Polish, that's all. During the Russian occupation, Polish young people had to learn Russian at school...Rrrr !
When Silesia was under the rule of Austria, it was "better", cause they had the right to learn what they wanted ;)
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