What I learned so far about the Polish language.

Hello all,

I am learning Polish at the moment. (Yes, I have introduced myself here before if you were wondering. But oh, well, I will do it again - I am Naomi. I am from India. And I am 21.) This thread is just to share my excitement about the whole process with you.

I made a few great Polish friends on here. I am already in love with Polski. But my friends made me fall for the people too.

The language is no doubt complex, especially if you are doing it without a tutor. But I have some good resources to help me out. And of course my friends help me with the finer word usage details that books/softwares don't carry.

I will share here what I learnt in the 10 hours that I devoted to learning the language. Maybe you could correct, add to this or encourage me.

I learnt the sounds of the 32 alphabets and affricates.
I learnt the basic idea behind the 7 cases,5 genders and numbers; and how words forms change according to these parameters.
I learnt about the pronouns - On, Ona, Oni, One
Also how to identify the genders of some words.(most nouns ending with consonants are masculine, those ending with an 'a' are feminine and with 'o' are neuter.)

I also learnt a few basic words and phrases like dziewczynka, stol, powodzenia. (The spelling is so difficult! I downloaded a virtual Polish keyboard by the way)

And oh! A few cuss words as well. :P

I am learning Polish, Medicine, basic keyboard, advanced guitar all at one time! I am probably gonna go nuts at the end of this! Totally loving it!

Anyway, thanks for reading and ermm... I have a suggestion for the mods. It would be great if you remove the racists comments/threads posted here by some,well, racists. I think they should have no place on this website where people from all around the world come to learn about Poland. It simply reflects bad on the country. If someone talked shit about me or my country here, I will probably not fight back, but I will just know what kind of a place they come from...

\m/

Naomi

Hello there!

You get respect for attempt to learn Polish (and it does lok like a real attempt judging on your description).
I totally agree with your post and wish you success in mastering this hard (but beautiful) language where there's sometimes more exceptions from grammar rules than the applications of this rule:).

cheers

our language is difficult, unfortunately, we sometimes have a problem with it to a certain age :)

We all think so. Probably the forum owners have less broad definition of racism, that's the problem.

of course you're not alone here, if you want to learn Polish to success.
Polish grammar is difficult but manageable. the biggest problem that we have with the Polish language is spelling. the best way to learn is by writing, speaking, reading in that language.

Completely agree with that! :) But I will try.

Thank You, Naomi. :)

if you are trying to infuriate 'someone' here, if you are trying to infuriate 'someone' here, I tell you, it is not working.

Just stating the facts, I personally don't give a rat's ass about your state of mind.

Here's what I was talking about:

Nigerian Girls and Polish Guys

Serwus, Naomi!

Jak się masz? Oddawno już nie dostałem e-mails od Ciebie.

Trust the sisyphysian task of learning Polish hasn't proved too much of an uphill battle for you (..no pun intended here, he-he)!

Powodzenia!
Marku

Mam się dobrze, EG. :) A ty? I dziękuję for all your help. I will be writing in frequently after a month's time. I have been bardzo busy with school.

Talk later. :)

Dzień dobry

I think that's totally awesome that you are learning Polski, Naomi!

And, I missed the bad comments, but props for standing to anyone who posed a bad comment.

Dziękuje, Naomi! Tak sobie. Także byłem zajęty (busy masc. 'zajętA' fem.-:)), ale czy znowu masz czas korespondować, bardzo chętnie dopisać.

Sounds as though your Polish is coming along!

Yours too ;]

Ale: bardzo chętnie bym popisał (tryb przypuszczający!)

dopisać - to write additional lines/pages to an already existing text!
popisać - to write something casually/for fun
popisać się - to show off (usually used in imperfective form popisywać się)

Widzę, że coraz wytłlumaczę z niemieckiego na polski a jeszcze nie myślę w języku polskim, tak ty i wielu Polaków wytłumaczają z polskiego, gdy pisują po angielsku! Ale pilnie codziennie czytam po polsku, nie tylko gazety, lecz książki o różnych tematach.

ciągle - still
coraz + przymiotnik/przysłówek w stopniu wyższym, na przykład coraz lepiej = better and better, coraz więcej - more and more, itp.

tłumaczyć - to translate
wytłumaczyć - to explain
_________________________

Keep on the good work! - Tak dalej!

Dzięki za Twoją pomoc! Czy umiesz po niemiecku też? To nie ważne, ciekawy jestem-:)

Koala, when I was studying resp. learning Polish, I used an excellent primer printed in Germany for Germans learning Polish. Wish I still had it.

A minor point, but whereas English makes a distinction between "to study something" (studiować) vs. "to learn [how to do..]" (uczyć się), one can study a language on one's own. In German, this is not possible; "studieren" is what you do at university/college, "lernen" is what is done by oneself.

A German guy I once knew, enjoyed practicing his English (although he knew I spoke German fluently) and would always make the same error: "Marek, I don't go this night into the cinema, I must learn!"

Translation: Mark, I'm not able to go to the movies this evening because I have to study!

Marku, nie potrafię pójść dziś wieczór do kina, bo muszę uczyć się!

I think you misunderstand the Polish meanings of these words. :) "Studiować" means "to be a university student" or (less often) do a research in one specific area. The equivalent of English "to study" is uczyć się (to spend time trying to obtain new knowledge/skills etc.), while "to learn" is nauczyć się (to acquire knowledge or a skill by studying).


It's sometimes ambiguous, eg. yes/no questions have the same structure as normal statements, so if someone puts stress incorrectly, you are not sure if he's asking or stating something. :) And Polish grammar is very flexible.


Not as much as French though :)

Sadly, Koala!

Koala, sorry, I do not agree:

Starannie przestudiował papiery.
He perused documents.

That looks like an exception only, Antek. What Koala said was fine.

It is not an exception.
It is one of the official definitions of the word studiować, not flagged as an exception.

I used the wrong word, I think. I wanted to say that it didn't follow the logic of what Koala was describing as Antek was focussing on another use of it. They are both right.

I'm not really sure why you put equality sign between studiować and przestudiować. I mean, you might say "Studiuję papiery" or "Studiowałem papiery" and be understood, but it sounds really off, at least to me. I never hear it used in such way.

edit:


While "Słownik języka polskiego" from PWN is generally well esteemed, it's not official and definitions there are arbitrary. In any case, Antek's definition really is the third definition given there, but I think it should beapplied carefully.

lyzko - Poles are not proud enough orFrench are too proud? :P

beats a post on polishforums


indeed, all words have to be used with care, but the position on the list doesn't mean the word's usage is an exception to a rule

While the French may indeed "go overboard", as we say here in the States, better too much pride in one's mother tongue than too little-:)

god mixed up languages and thus it is wrong to fukc with that.

Not sure I catch your drift, Darek. Not sure you caught mine either-:)

Are you subscribing to the Tower of Babel thesis, perhaps?

Keep in mind I didn't check SJP until after I connected your word "official" with SJP. I was in fact very surprised that my two definitions almost exactly match those in SJP. Either way, it's still important not to confuse Polish "studiować" with English "to study".

That was a joke. Hectic because of the nature of communication on a forum.


Definitely.
Polish "studiowac" indicates greater depth in the acquisition of knowledge, than English "study". Rounding things a little - in Poland pupils learn things first, before the are capable of studying them.