Polish or any slavic language key to any other slavic languages?

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May 10, 09, 13:30 #61

PennBoy:

Ukrainian if very similar to Polish i'd say about half or almost half the words are the same, my Ukrainian friend was talking with her mother i understood half of what she said, she didn't believe me, so repeated her conversation in English she was shocked as i was at first how similar in fact the languages are.

Hehe
when I visit Przemysl ! I speak Ukrainian, most Poles
understand me without any problems! moving west! well no so much!
I also can 40-30% can understand Polish

temporary	Aug 24, 09, 23:18 #62
beach in Polish and Spanish.

gość

Aug 25, 09, 00:53 #63

spell of bliss:

if i've studied polish, will languages like ukrainian or russian or czech be easier to learn? i wouldn't expect them to function identically to polish but will learning any 1 of them be much easier than sum1 who doesn't speak or know any other slavic language? or not really?

If you did your homework then you would know that the slavic languages have even more similarities in common then for instance the germanic languages. Therefore: yes, it's easier to learn other slavic languages if you know Polish already.

♂

Aug 25, 09, 11:47 #64

spell of bliss:

if i've studied polish, will languages like ukrainian or russian or czech be easier to learn?

The fact that you're non-native speaker of Polish makes it easier for you to learn other Slavic languages than for native Polish speakers. Similarity plays a bad role in this case turning into a false friend since you tend to pronounce similar words the way they're pronounced in your native tongue. For instance the word "grad" depending on stress means different things in Serbian ("town" or "hail") whereas Russian doesn't have so-called "musical stress" and can't differ those two words (we guess it on context).

Nomsense	Aug 26, 09, 01:04 #65
I love these tales about the intelligibility of Russian to a Polish person. I am Polish and I can assure you, I can't understand Russian. I think that most people who do just learned some Russian at school.

SashaThreads: 2 Posts: 1,558 Joined: Apr 19, 08 ♂	Aug 26, 09, 05:42 #66
Nomsense: I am Polish and I can assure you, I can't understand Russian. I think that most people who do just learned some Russian at school. It's very individual. Plus it strongly depends on many factors such as person who you talk to, your own perception of the language etc.

OsiedleRuda

Aug 26, 09, 23:05 #67

Magdalena:

I really don't want to rain on your parade, but very unfortunately I must inform you that "pigeon" is simply HOLUB in Czech. And so it goes on with these supposedly Czech words that most Poles like to ridicule. The truth is that Poles *think* they understand Czech when in reality they haven't got a clue. Actually I'm quite mad, I wouldn't have thought that those idiotic pseudo-jokey ideas about Czech vocabulary that I heard so often in primary school would actually perpetuate themselves onto a forum such as this :-(

<applauds>

and isn't it dahovy obsranec, anyway?

And let's end the "Polish is mutually intelligible with Czech" myth right now. It may be to some extent, but only to some extent. If not, then good luck trying to get some musztarda (hořčice) to go with your šunka, or ordering some herbaty (čaje) because your group didn't want kávy ;)

JustysiaSThreads: 15 Posts: 2,868 Joined: Oct 14, 07 MEMBER ♀	Aug 26, 09, 23:15 #68
OsiedleRuda: and isn't it dahovy obsranec, anyway? i heard that in Czech a squirrel is drevnyj kocur ;D

OsiedleRuda	Edited by: OsiedleRuda Aug 26, 09, 23:34 #69
JustysiaS: i heard that in Czech a squirrel is drevnyj kocur ;D Drevny kocur :) hehe, it's actually quite close to Polish - veverka ;) Chinese for English speakers is possibly funnier though - one wonders whether names like Lee Ho Fook, Mong Kok and Ming Kok are serious. Until you go to Ikea and see KRÅPP toilet seats, haha.

♂

Aug 27, 09, 11:16 #70

Having studied some Macedonian before I came to Poland I found some vocab was easier to learn/understand BUT there were also a lot of "false friends".

Example "utro" in Macedonian is "morning". "Godina" is "year". When I started with polish I kept these mixing up with "jutro" and "godzina". People got a bit puzzled when they asked me how long I'd lived in Poland and I said "jedna godzina", or being asked when I had arrived somewhere, I'd answer "jutro".