Polish people vs English language

I was wondering how many (maybe percentage?) Polish people can speak English? I live in the US and met some polish people here and they seem to speak English very well. Do they learn English in Poland (I know my father used to learn Russian only ..

I think it depends - Polish people are fast learners and adapt quickly "), so quite a high percentage knows English very well. Nowadays children in Polish schools learn many "Western" languages, including English, German, Spanish, or French so the percentage of young people from Poland who knows English is high.

On a side note, for some unknown reasons many Polish people understands (not speaks) English very well (even though they never learned English at school)

I'm Polish myself and I know those who really NEED to learn English -- they most certainly will. But those who live in the Polish neighbourgood (in Chicago or NY) -- some of them don't need to learn English since they can easily "survive" without it.

It's not a big deal to know English; everything is available in English after all ;). I know a lot of Polish/Russian people watch p2p movies in original (English) versions so they have a chance to learn it this way too...

i`m Polish, and i know some english language, but only from movies, news etc. i think that for someone who realy want too learn english, all kinds of lessons are usefull. SU

http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/pl.html

good stats but nothing about english as a second language

ok I am going to ask this , only because maybe someone can help or knows
someone who might be able to help I recieved a numerous amount of
baptismals, marriage, death records from the parish where my grandfather was born in Nowogrod , Podlaskie Poland. I was so happy to get them La la!!
then I get them and they are in Russian script I was so upset. all the
time spent, all I want to know was who my great grandfathers parents are
and I have all of these I cant read!
I was born in USA, Polish Decent on all sides, cant read or speak polish
but I am! I thought they would come in Polish, cause I do know Polish
friends who speak it, and can get that read, but it is not polish!
does anyone know anyone who has had russian classes, or is russian
and would be willing to help at all?
I have a scanner, I can email them the dates are old, I am told they are
readable -if you read russian. some of the lettering is fancy, that is the
only problem, I had three done, but a friends exchange student, but she
went back home to russia and so now I am stuck!!
help Pweaseeeeeeeeee.. ??

Patricia
Nightwhisper19@aol.com

English speaking ratio is not so high in Poland currently but rapidly increasing due to a good substructure of education system inherited from the social system, in which 100% of people are virtually literate ~Can

go to bellaonline.com and look for geneology forum. there is a whole load of information there but the drawback is patience and lots of research. Good luck to you.

Try the usenet group
pl.hum.tlumaczenia
it's about translation. There are two or three native speakers of Russian living/working in Poland who are active there so they will know the language & any culture-related information that can also be important. Depending on how much text there is, they may or may not ask you to pay for the translation.

can someone tell me what to expect from polish men are they kind loving and caring

Being a polish guy i can say that im sensitive and yet im kind of an serious/strict guy, but im very kind hearted and loveing. But im just speacking for myself.

Polish guys are hard working, sometimes possessive. Yes, they are loving and caring (some exemptions apply of course).

Some of them - but mostly those who live in Poland, not abroad - like to drink (but don't think all Polish guys drink a lot; it's sort of stereotype). They usually have a good sense of humor and are family-oriented.

Peter

polish guys are the same like other nations but for example I know one guy, ex husband who never helped me with kids, never cooked, never tidyed, when was at home only watched tv, very lazy, and when I was serious ill didn't helped me. So, be carefull.

If you speak polish thats great:)

There are 35 letters in the Polish Language but only 26 in the English(American) language. The Polish phonics are different than English phonics. The Polish languge does not contain articles such as, a, an, the, thee, thou.

These facts make it difficult for a Polish persons to translate their Polish thoughts into English.

For example:
pies is Polish for dog, it can be translated to "a dog" or "the dog".

Yes we do learn faster in Poland but, it's nice to know English to.

oh man ain't that the truth.. in chicago some don't speak any english at all.. but it's totaly doable just like in little mexicos in almost every other town. :D

Actually, thee and thou are not articles. They are personal pronouns, mostly archaic, and they do have Polish equivalents.

You probably meant the alphabet, since languages do not have letters, but sounds, and often there are more sounds in a given language than there are letters in its alphabet.

Official Polish alphabet has 32 letters (Q, V i X are used only in foreign words or borrowings)

yup.

kinda.. these two "words" in english actually have slightly different meaning

yes, here it's everything English-Spanish.... some people don't speak English at all because they can communicate in Spanish everywhere...

it's odd that somebody from ex. Mexico lives in the US for 20 years and doesn't learn English... you don't have to even try because you hear it everywhere...

My wife is a nurse. Once the admitted to the hospital an Italian lady who had lived in Canada since 1955. She didn't speak a word of English. The nurses needed to communicate with her though, so a few of them, after two weeks, could speak more Italian than that lady could speak English after almost 50 years in Canada.

there is no need if one is from Quebec.

Over the past couple of years there has been a large influx of Polish people here in my city of Liverpool. I can relate to what you say. There tends to be a lot of Polish Men who are bus drivers here. I got on a bus last week and asked the driver who was Polish if the bus went to a certain part of town. He couldnt answer me as his Englsih was not so good. I for one minute dont think that it was the drivers fault at all. Infact the man in question looked embarrassed and I felt his frustrations. The bus company shoud pay or any company for that matter should pay for English lessons for their staff which should be funded or at least subsidided by The Goverment.

Communication leads to Coperation.

Ps. Infact I thought the whole incident was rather amusing. :-)

I think you meant IN Quebec ;)

A side note: a good number Quebecois don't consider themselves as living in Canada. That approach sometimes spills over to people in other provinces.

well, every new language seems more difficult than your own one but when it comes to comparing English and Polish - English is much less complicated when it comes to grammar so it is easy for Poles to learn English. i guess it is not so easy the other way round.
i may say that now about 80% of children at schools learn English, thats why so many Poles can speak it quite fluently.

Heh, this reminds me of a couple of weeks ago when i was in the supermarket, and I asked a staff member about something that was on special offer. She didn't understand, so I asked her if she was Polish. When she said yes, I asked her again in my bad Polish about the offer. We communicated in Polish and english. Now we greet each other in the shop and exchange a few words sometimes.

Communication is what it's all about.

Polish learners in Silesia are very motivated. I am a TEFL teacher and a sizeable part of my role is just to encourage.
Good pronunciation skills apart from the obvious problems with long vowel sounds - very hard working, great fun to work with. Quick to learn, and I learn from them every day.