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Is it too late for me to learn Polish..?


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ladystardustThreads: 1
Posts: 84
Joined: May 7, 07
 May 13, 07, 05:47    #31
michal, i envy you. you're apparently a genius ;)

telefonitika Edited by: telefonitika  May 13, 07, 06:53    #32
Quoting: Matyjasz
What is the average age of a recent polish immigrant


is between the primary age group of 18 to 35 years old!

Quoting: Hueg
Forget the latin, too much effort mate.


tell me about it i studied it a year at the age of 13 here in the UK at school why i have no idea .. i wanted to do Spanish or German alongside French but got Latin instead.

Quoting: horunPoland
polish language is more similar to slovak language


This is true as Slovikians can understand the Polish when i worked alongside both at Wincanton
MichalThreads: -
Posts: 2,408
Joined: Feb 27, 07
 May 13, 07, 15:33    #33
Sometimes I hear Slovakian spoken in the street and it is difficult to know if it is Polish or not as it is so similar to Polish-six weeks in Slovakia and I would be fluent in this language.
MichalThreads: -
Posts: 2,408
Joined: Feb 27, 07
 May 13, 07, 17:18    #34
Quoting: ladystardust

You know, you must do that on purpose, that "naive/I-know-everything" attitude. Then ha-ha-ha, very funny guy you are.
If not, I am really sorry, I cannot help you, if you cannot read with understanding more than just a sequence of letters, mate.

Why is Czech a difficult language?
sparrowThreads: 4
Posts: 307
Joined: Apr 24, 07
 May 13, 07, 18:48    #35
Quoting: Michal
Why is Czech a difficult language?


It's on the same level as Polish & Slovak.
ladystardustThreads: 1
Posts: 84
Joined: May 7, 07
 May 15, 07, 05:53    #36
Quoting: sparrow
It's on the same level as Polish & Slovak.


No no no :( It's not. Polish and Slovak are similar, Czech is similar on the grammatical level, tricky on the lexical (lotsa words which are written almost the same but mean a different thing, just to name jagoda = PL blueberry, jahoda = CZ strawberry), really challenging on the phonetical level. Pronunciation is a ***** (try this: Vlk škvrzl mrkl mrdl smrt frkl cvrkl krkl plkl prdl vrkl zblbl. Or this: Řežu a žeru, řežeš a žereš, žerou a řežou, žeru a řežu, žereš a řežeš, řežou a žerou. The "Ř" itself is often mispronounced even by the Czech themselves). If you still don't believe me, start learning - you'll be literally crying over an open textbook for the first 6 months :D
sparrowThreads: 4
Posts: 307
Joined: Apr 24, 07
 May 15, 07, 06:34    #37
Quoting: ladystardust
No no no :( It's not. Polish and Slovak are similar, Czech is similar on the grammatical level, tricky on the lexical (lotsa words which are written almost the same but mean a different thing, just to name jagoda = PL blueberry, jahoda = CZ strawberry), really challenging on the phonetical level. Pronunciation is a ***** (try this: Vlk škvrzl mrkl mrdl smrt frkl cvrkl krkl plkl prdl vrkl zblbl. Or this: Řežu a žeru, řežeš a žereš, žerou a řežou, žeru a řežu, žereš a řežeš, řežou a žerou. The "Ř" itself is often mispronounced even by the Czech themselves). If you still don't believe me, start learning - you'll be literally crying over an open textbook for the first 6 months :D


It's on the same level.
glowaThreads: 1
Posts: 305
Joined: Apr 6, 06
 May 15, 07, 06:43    #38
www-personal.umich.edu/~wbaxter/howhard.html

here you've got a classification of languages based on the difficulty of learning by an English speaking student.
ladystardustThreads: 1
Posts: 84
Joined: May 7, 07
 May 15, 07, 08:08    #39
Thanks, glowa.

I find (very personal opinion) languages like English, French and German easier to learn (as I treated them all as a whole new territiory and thus learnt everything without any assumptions). With similar languages, you're tempted to draw conclusions that may be very often misleading. You base your learning on the false assumptions that something must work the same way, only if it is similar. Thus, learning Czech is for me just lots of dead ends and false assumptions ;)
szarlotkaThreads: 14
Posts: 3,349
Joined: Feb 20, 07
 May 15, 07, 08:11    #40
Quoting: glowa
here you've got a classification of languages based on the difficulty of learning by an English speaking student


Yeh, thanks Glowa. Cantonese is out for me then judging by my attempts to learn Polish !
MichalThreads: -
Posts: 2,408
Joined: Feb 27, 07
 May 16, 07, 09:03    #41
Quoting: ladystardust
Quote . Yesterday, 05:53 . #36


Quoting: sparrow
It's on the same level as Polish & Slovak.


No no no :( It's not. Polish and Slovak are similar, Czech is similar on the grammatical level, tricky on the lexical (lotsa words which are written almost the same but mean a different

I think that Sparrow meant that Czech and Slovak are similar in the fact that they are similarly difficult to Polish and not that the two languages are the same thing.
sparrowThreads: 4
Posts: 307
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 May 16, 07, 09:24    #42
Quoting: Michal
I think that Sparrow meant that Czech and Slovak are similar in the fact that they are similarly difficult to Polish and not that the two languages are the same thing.

That's what I meant. I don't know much about it but I asked my dad he graduated in Slavic languages or whatever do you call it nowadays, so I trust his judgement
MichalThreads: -
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Joined: Feb 27, 07
 May 16, 07, 12:38    #43
Yes, I think that he is probably right. All these languages are conected in the same way as English has similarities to Dutch and then the Dutch can understand a lot of German and if you study German you should be able to at least read quite a lot of Swedish. I have looked at some Slovenian words and they are similar to Polish. Slovak is probably one of the nearest living languages to Polish. If you know Czech, you should be able to learn Serbo Croatian fairly easily as it is nearer than Polish is. I have never studied seriously Czech or Slovak but I studied Russian at university and my wife is Polish so if I had to, then I should be able to fill in most of the other slavic languages to some extent.
flissiebellThreads: 1
Posts: 13
Joined: Apr 22, 10
 May 8, 10, 14:52    #44
lol 20 too old to learn, thats funny you should try bein my age of 38 i hope i can get it hahaha
internaldialogThreads: 9
Posts: 425
Joined: Apr 25, 10
 May 8, 10, 15:03    #45
flissiebell:
lol 20 too old to learn, thats funny you should try bein my age of 38 i hope i can get it hahaha


you need perservance and determination with the Polish language i started at the age of 27 and im not fluent as a native yet .... but getting there slowly (my task this weekend is translate an essay ive received this morning from the Hoover Institutte written by my grandfather which is all in Polish from 1942)

just keep at it you'll get there eventually :)
AliloveskrakowThreads: -
Posts: 21
Joined: May 7, 10
 May 17, 10, 22:24    #46
flissiebell:
lol 20 too old to learn, thats funny you should try bein my age of 38 i hope i can get it hahaha


Awww flissiebell, I'm 39 and I started learning Polish last year! You can do it, just find a very good teacher, be patient with yourself and enjoy each little victory.

I started by using a free programme from http://www.byki.com/ it was great to get me started. It combines learning by seeing, hearing and writing, after 8 months I started proper' lessons with a very patient and positive Polish teacher and 6 months on from there I am able to build up simple sentences, read, write and can understand some conversational Polish, though I still don't have a large enough vocabularly to answer:(

Offer to swap languages in your area; English for Polish and if you're able watch TV serials via http://iitv.info/ which has Polish subtitles for popular TV programmes. I find this immensely helpful, for some reason seeing it written down really helps to jog my memory, I've learnt loads of new words this way :)

My advice; saviour those little light bulb moments when suddenly you understand, be prepared to knuckle down and carryon when the complexities of this beautiful language reduces you to tears and most importantly ensure you have a strong motivation to learn.

Stick with it because honestly in a few months time when you know a few words and phrases you will be so pleased with yourself and it really is such a lovely language that you won't be able to stop yourself from wanting to learn more!

Good luck xx
wiktuszThreads: 1
Posts: 9
Joined: May 4, 10
 May 17, 10, 22:34    #47
Aliloveskrakow:
Offer to swap languages in your area; English for Polish and if you're able watch TV serials via http://iitv.info/ which has Polish subtitles for popular TV programmes

Wow! Thank you so much, this is really great! I have been searching for a way to watch Polish Tv online! But what do you mean by offering to swap languages in your area?
internaldialogThreads: 9
Posts: 425
Joined: Apr 25, 10
 May 17, 10, 22:35    #48
here you go
flissiebell:
flissiebell
Aliloveskrakow:
Aliloveskrakow


links for learning:

http://www.polishforums.com/general-language-17/polish-lessons-units-1 0526/

http://www.polishforums.com/general-language-17/collection-learning-re sources-learning-polish-language-31442/ (this one has loads of useful links on and should be first port of call)

also use www.livemocha.com as well has over 34 languages for free on there including Polish.

tv wise look through the threads on this forum many have been posted before :)

a further tip is have on a piece of A4 paper (in different colours if learning more than one language like me) the key words .. so have columns say English and Polish for you all that are just learning Polish and then pin up where you will see them daily ..... repeat those words over and over.
hague1cmaeronThreads: 21
Posts: 1,652
Joined: Mar 30, 10
 May 18, 10, 02:31    #49
Michal:
There are not 40 million people in Poland and I was in Radom recently and the streets on a Saturday, which used to be full are now almost empty as people have gone abroad to work and very few now return. Czech is an even smaller country though their economy is in a better shape-the language is just an old fashioned version of Polish. Languages have never been very important in the U.K but there are lots of languages in Eastern Europe not only Polish. There are many Polish people working and living abroad-where do you all think that WE come from!! We come from Czestochowa and are now in Surrey.

You talk some tremendous amount of crap, do you realize?
AliloveskrakowThreads: -
Posts: 21
Joined: May 7, 10
 May 18, 10, 15:27    #50
wiktusz:
But what do you mean by offering to swap languages in your area?


Mmmm well as for the language swap, I posted an ad on a local noticeboard website under 'language swaps' offering Polish people a chance to practice their English and in return to teach me a bit of Polish for free! It's been very good, I have made a few nice friends and improved my Polish this way. http://krakow.gumtree.pl/
AliloveskrakowThreads: -
Posts: 21
Joined: May 7, 10
Edited by: Aliloveskrakow  May 18, 10, 15:46    #51
Internaldialogue
Hej Internaldialogue, thanks for the links they are great! Funnily enough I found Janusz's videos on Youtube about a year ago when I was searching for all things Polska related so it's really nice to now discover that they were born from this forum. What a generous person.

Incidentally and because I am very nosy, what other languages are your learning?! :)
internaldialogThreads: 9
Posts: 425
Joined: Apr 25, 10
 May 18, 10, 15:57    #52
Aliloveskrakow:
what other languages are your learning?! :)


Estonian principally behind Polish and i know a few words in German and Dutch too :)
mtczajkaThreads: -
Posts: 5
Joined: May 17, 10
 May 18, 10, 22:22    #53
Newbie:
As a complete novice, can anyone suggest and exercise books from which I can test my progress. I have purchased BYKI deluxe and find it useful, but would like more.



I am trying to learn some Polish for my trip there in the fall. I'm thinking 20 is not too old - I'm hoping 50 isn't either!

I've been using Pimsleur's Polish CDs and really like them. I have Rosetta Stone and personally, I don't see how you can learn a language with them. I know it's supposed to be patterned on how we learn our first language, but I no longer have a child's mind, my learning pattern's are different than a baby's mind.
STFUThreads: -
Posts: 122
Joined: May 13, 10
 May 18, 10, 22:54    #54
It's never too late to learn Polish, and you're pretty young so you've got all the time in the world! It's hard to learn the language without a teacher though, because some words are hard to remember, and even harder to pronounce! But if you're going to practice a lot and try to speak it frequently, then I'm sure you'll get there!

:)

Good luck!
SzenkUK88Threads: 1
Posts: 15
Joined: Mar 10, 10
 May 19, 10, 12:19    #55
I started to learn Polish properly at 20, my dziadek taught me very little as Italian and English were the dominant languages in our house.

Once you get a grasp of the fact that there are a million different ways of saying one word, (was at church the other day and didn't realise there were at least 3 different ways to say Cross.) Everything starts to fall into place.

If you have someone to help you along it helps a lot as well, as I tend to translate literally and then my fiance shows me where I go wrong. Soon as I learn Polish enough to read and write I'll be back in Poland.
richasisThreads: 5
Posts: 833
Joined: Jul 25, 09
 May 19, 10, 19:43    #56
I'd give my right arm to learn Polish - of course, I did that to learn Korean, so it would now have to be my left arm :)
zuczekThreads: 4
Posts: 165
Joined: May 10, 10
 May 19, 10, 20:05    #57
I lived there for years and never learned it beyond a basic level. I found most expats were the same. It is just so hard and you can always seem to manage without it. Doesn't help either when people you are surrounded by want to speak English all the time. So I just kind of gave up.

But since I plan to go back there long term I really need to learn it. I just get overwhelmed every time. I don't have that problem with German, French, Spanish etc...I can study those and not feel intimidated. But Polish is just so "weird" to me. Sounds I don't like...grammar that is ridiculously complicated. Ugh....not looking forward to it but it is necessary.
espanaThreads: 40
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 May 19, 10, 20:09    #58
Freedom:
I'm really disappointed that my family didn't continue to use Polish in the household and let it gradually die

this is normal for the poles to disown their roots


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