PF users - do you speak the Polish language?

JimmuThreads: 2 Posts: 152 Joined: Aug 26, 11 ♂	Nov 24, 11, 13:52 #91
Teffle: non native speakers I'm interested in how many people on the board speak Polish. Whether native or not. Maybe the OP is too. Would it be cheating if we asked the OP?

TeffleThreads: 28 Posts: 2,105 Joined: Aug 26, 10 ♂	Nov 24, 11, 14:47 #92
Jimmu: Would it be cheating if we asked the OP? Be my guest : )

pamThreads: 22 Posts: 463 Joined: Oct 11, 11 MEMBER ♀	Nov 24, 11, 17:46 #93
Jimmu: I'm interested in how many people on the board speak Polish. i can speak it but its not great..i will always have a problem with grammar...but then so does everyone else! can actually read and write it better than i can speak it, probably because i learned to read it first. however i have a very long way to go...and i will never be fluent!!

rozumiemnicThreads: 4 Posts: 1,019 Joined: Nov 16, 09 ♀	Nov 24, 11, 18:07 #94
never say never pammy. My Polish is terrible, all I have learnt is baby language, hooligan speak and terrible words that I have been told never to repeat in polite company. So I won't..;)

pamThreads: 22 Posts: 463 Joined: Oct 11, 11 MEMBER ♀	Nov 24, 11, 18:25 #95
rozumiemnic: terrible words that I have been told never to repeat in polite company lol!! yes i am a victim of terrible word syndrome as well. i told myself that kurwa and kurde were great words for practising how to pronounce the letter r in polish. now i stick to rower instead. even my lokator doesnt swear anymore, he says rower as well!!

strzygaThreads: 4 Posts: 985 Joined: Apr 30, 08 ♀	Nov 24, 11, 18:35 #96
pam: rower Try: hrabina.

ShAlEyNsTfOhThreads: 8 Posts: 232 Joined: Feb 5, 11 ♂ [Suspended]	Nov 25, 11, 07:04 #97
twas my first language... russian my second... english 3rd unfortunately for me, upon moving to canada at a very young age, i refused to go to polish or russian school to further learn the languages, and learned them via my parents.. surprisingly, i speak polish very well, little bit in russian... i tend to mix the two (thanks to my mother)...and with the proper accents, too. :D

♂

Nov 25, 11, 09:41 #98

pam:

however i have a very long way to go...and i will never be fluent!!

With being fully "immersed", I'm sure you might become fluent. But you have to have such a desire first. If you do, you are in a priviliged position living in a country of your foreign language. Constant repetition in different contexts is essential for acquiring a foreign language and it is something which is being offered to you in abundance and free of charge when living in a foreign country. Another condition for an adult to be able to speak as a native is to study and practice phonetics; imitating foreign sounds on hearing them only is not sufficient for the purpose.

Sticking to these rules, and having lived in England for about four months only, I was occasionally (mis)taken for a native speaker of English there! This, however, was only true for the conversational contexts where the language used did not have to be too sophisticated or too colloquial. But I'm sure that I could have reached the native speaker level, had I lived in good old England for some longer time!

♀

Nov 25, 11, 10:11 #99

Ziemowit:

With being fully "immersed", I'm sure you might become fluent. But you have to have such a desire first. If you do, you are in a priviliged position living in a country of your foreign language. Constant repetition in different contexts is essential for acquiring a foreign language and it is something which is being offered to you in abundance and free of charge when living in a foreign country. Another condition for an adult to be able to speak as a native is to study and practice phonetics; imitating foreign sounds on hearing them only is not sufficient for the purpose.

I don't think I will ever be fluent either. I have to speak Polish because I own a shop in Warsaw- there is no way around it. We also speak two languages at home. My kids and husband are completely bilingual- including idioms and slang. I don't have the understanding of Polish idioms and slang- this has to do with me learning as an adult.
As for somebody thinking you were a native speaker in the u.k.--In October I was in Oxford and this guy was helping me with directions- he asked me where I was from- he was shocked when I said Canada---he thought I was Irish.

♂

Edited by: Ziemowit Nov 25, 11, 10:59 #100

So many different accents in England. Easy to tell where someone is from? A friend of mine, a British lawyer and a native speaker of English as well, once met a person at a conference in London. He couldn't guess which part of England that person was from; his English was exceedingly good, but with some very subtle trace of a local British accent, my friend thought. - "Where do you come from", asked him my friend. - "I live in Paris; I am French", said the guy.

TeffleThreads: 28 Posts: 2,105 Joined: Aug 26, 10 ♂	Nov 25, 11, 11:03 #101
pip: he was shocked when I said Canada---he thought I was Irish. Ziemowit: but with some very subtle trace of a local British accent, my friend thought. - "Where do you come from", asked him my friend. - "I live in Paris; I am French", said the guy. I've found this is quite common in England. Many are useless at identifying even their own regional accents.

rozumiemnicThreads: 4 Posts: 1,019 Joined: Nov 16, 09 ♀	Nov 25, 11, 12:01 #102
Teffle: I've found this is quite common in England. Many are useless at identifying even their own regional accents sooooo true....somebody thought I was Welsh the other day, when in fact I have a distinct estuary twang. Actually she had made an assumption, due to our location, and was not actually listening very much. Probably quite common tbh.

ZiemowitThreads: 10 Posts: 1,063 Joined: May 8, 09 ♂	Nov 25, 11, 16:00 #103
rozumiemnic: sooooo true....somebody thought I was Welsh the other day, when in fact I have a distinct estuary twang. It doesn't matter if you are Welsh, English, Scottish or Canadian. You all march together towards a brighter future under the watchful eye of Queen Elisabeth II (God save her, but not for too long, otherwise her only son will be buried as a mere Prince of Wales).

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