Problems Polish People Have with Learning English

Seanus:

The Poles use double negatives where we don't, e.g nic nie wiem whereas we say I don't know anything or I know nothing.

<Malagmyr> This linguistics professor was lecturing the class.
<Malagmyr> "In English," he explained, "a double negative forms a positive. In some languages, such as Russian, a double negative is still a negative."
<Malagmyr> "However," the professor continued, "there is no language wherein a double positive can form a negative."
<Malagmyr> Immediately, a voice from the back of the room piped up: "Yeah..... right...."

octopus39Threads: 1 Joined: May 29, 09	May 29, 09, 19:11 / #
What problems do Poles have with English ? Do you have (in)definite articles like we do ? Do you use tenses in the same way ? Are there sounds/words/grammar constructions that don't exist in Polish ? How different is the Polish alphabet to the English one ? Any help greatly appreciated ! Thanks

SeanusThreads: 22 Posts: 30,158 Joined: Dec 25, 07	May 29, 09, 19:19 / #
The Poles don't have articles like we do. We have a broader range of tenses. The Poles use double negatives where we don't, e.g nic nie wiem whereas we say I don't know anything or I know nothing. The Polish alphabet has many specific marks, like ź, ż, ó, ę and ą for example. Any further help needed, please ask.

SashaThreads: 2 Posts: 1,597 Joined: Apr 19, 08	May 29, 09, 19:33 / #
Seanus: The Poles use double negatives where we don't, e.g nic nie wiem whereas we say I don't know anything or I know nothing. That reminds me of bash.org: <Malagmyr> This linguistics professor was lecturing the class. <Malagmyr> "In English," he explained, "a double negative forms a positive. In some languages, such as Russian, a double negative is still a negative." <Malagmyr> "However," the professor continued, "there is no language wherein a double positive can form a negative." <Malagmyr> Immediately, a voice from the back of the room piped up: "Yeah..... right...."

TorqThreads: 65 Posts: 4,024 Joined: Apr 10, 09 MEMBER	May 29, 09, 19:49 / #
Sasha: Immediately, a voice from the back of the room piped up: "Yeah..... right...." lol Good one, Sasha! Also remember that "Preposition is something you should never end a sentence with."

niejestemcapitaThreads: 3 Posts: 666 Joined: Jan 3, 09	May 29, 09, 20:32 / #
Torq: Also remember that "Preposition is something you should never end a sentence with." this is bullcrap up with which I will not put...:)

SwiteziankaThreads: - Posts: 525 Joined: Jun 17, 08	May 30, 09, 22:54 / #
Main problems: -articles - Polish doesn't have any -constructions with perfective aspect - no equivalent in Polish. You can either translate the so-called 'Present Perfect' into present or past tense. -th and ng sounds -words ending with voiced sounds. Instead of 'eggs' most Poles say 'axe' and instead of 'and' - 'ant', and so on -phrasal verbs

SeanusThreads: 22 Posts: 30,158 Joined: Dec 25, 07	May 31, 09, 12:38 / #
Just like non-Poles grapple with irregular plurals, i.e 6 butelek and not the logical 6 butelków, the Poles do the same with furniture, advice, evidence, news and knowledge to name but a few. Advices is so common. Yes, advice can become countable if you put words of or pieces of but, by itself, it's an uncountable noun. In fact, it's so noticeable that Poles have problems even recognising the 's'. When they read, they often ignore it which confuses me.

ZiemowitThreads: 10 Posts: 1,063 Joined: May 8, 09	Edited by: Ziemowit Jun 1, 09, 12:32 / #
That's true: advices, furnitures or evidences look very silly. But the fact that we use such forms, isn't it beacause of poor quality of teaching? And it could have been sufficient to evoke to those Polish learners who use such forms some Polish nouns that behave exactly in the same way as English uncountable nouns. One of them is the noun "pieczywo". We never say: "dwa, trzy lub cztery pieczywa". We may say "dwa rodzaje" or "dwa gatunki pieczywa"; one might even say "dwie sztuki pieczywa", which can serve as a perfect example for promoting expressions like "two pieces of furniture" among Polish learners as the only correct way of saying it in English. When I stayed with my British friends in London as a student, I used to say: "I'm going to make toasts". All Her Majesty's subjects being indeed very reluctunt to correct foreigners with their usage of English in England, my friends have only recently reminded me that I frequently made this mistake - and it was not until they had arrived in Warsaw to pay me a visit that they felt safe enough to do so.

eldark	Jun 12, 09, 22:43 / #
Are their any teaching techniques that are particularly effective for correcting these common mistakes? Particularly the pronunciation? A Polish friend also told me that she found it hard to abbreviate things the way we do in English. Not individual abbreviations as such. The example she gave me was that she would say 'The boss wants to/would like to speak to you.' when we would just say 'The boss wants you.' It's a small difference but across throughout conversations it makes a big difference. Any advice on how to help someone get used to this?

WroclawThreads: 77 Posts: 7,404 Joined: Apr 1, 06 [Moderator]	Jun 12, 09, 23:05 / #
eldark: Are their any teaching techniques that are particularly effective for correcting these common mistakes? For the 'th' sound... try reading this simple number: 33,333 thirty-three-thousand-three-hundred-and-thirty-three. You need something that you can have fun with. Try some tongue twisters. ______________________________________________________________________ ____ It doesn't matter how short you make a word or phrase. A native speaker will always come up with something shorter.

SeanusThreads: 22 Posts: 30,158 Joined: Dec 25, 07	Jun 12, 09, 23:18 / #
That's Fast Show talk, that is ;) ;) Does Missus like it? Would missus care for a bit of rough? Does she want it? ;) ;)

dtaylor5632Threads: 49 Posts: 4,459 Joined: May 2, 09	Edited by: dtaylor5632 Jun 13, 09, 19:44 / #
Also prepositions usually trip them up. Quick lesson; The general rule is that we use- At with clock times (at 4 o'clock) On with days of the week (on Monday) and with dates (on May 21). In with with months of the year (in March) and with years (in 2003). We can expand this rule as follows- At for meal times (at lunch time);points of time (at night); festivals (at Christmas). On for parts of specific days (on Monday morning); particular occasions (on that day); anniversaries (on your birthday); festivals (on Christmas day). In (=during) for parts of the day (in the evening); seasons (in (the) summer); centuries (in the 19th century); periods of time (in the holidays, in Ramadan).

SeanusThreads: 22 Posts: 30,158 Joined: Dec 25, 07	Jun 12, 09, 23:13 / #
Poles need to be reassured also that pronunciation is mixed and varied. For example, take Wrocław's valuable advice for a start. Ask many Irishmen to say 33 1/3 and see how differently they say it from many other native speakers. Tirty tree and a turd, LOL Abbreviations come with instinct and practice. The boss wants you could have another meaning ;) ;)

niejestemcapitaThreads: 3 Posts: 666 Joined: Jan 3, 09	Jun 12, 09, 23:14 / #
Seanus: The boss wants you could have another meaning ;) ;) oohh he wants you nowwww......

plk123Threads: 30 Posts: 6,412 Joined: Aug 29, 07	Jun 13, 09, 08:52 / #
eldark: The example she gave me was that she would say 'The boss wants to/would like to speak to you.' when we would just say 'The boss wants you.' It's a small difference but across throughout conversations it makes a big difference. that's interesting as i find it the opposite. mainly because polish doesn't have the articles and polish has a plethora of suffixes that take a whole sentence in english to get the same meaning.. Switezianka: -th and ng sounds w and v.. vater... :D also a.. in polish a pretty much sounds the same wherever it is in any word.. in english there are a few versions.. r -- polish r is rolling.. in english it's much more throaty.. hard to get right. personally, i still have issues with diction of certain words.. there is a lot of good info on this forum in regards to PL language.. look around..