Why do you suppose the Polish guy I'm dating refuses to speak Polish?

Please help me out here. During the past few months, I've been dating a Polish guy on a casual basis. I've asked him how to say various phrases in Polish. He tells me that he really doesn't like speaking Polish; he only speaks it when he's visiting his family. It makes no sense, especially when I know how proud he is of his Polish heritage.
I wish he'd be more open-minded and tutor me a little.

My sense of it is that he has forgotten a lot of the Polish language and doesn't want to admit it. Do you think my assumption is correct?

I'm like that. I know how to speak it but I hate doing so. I'm much more comfortable speaking english. If we meet up this week with Larry, I'll be speaking english :)

I only speak polish to my dad cause his english isn't that great, but when my mom talks to me in polish I reply in english LOL

It's always been a problem when I say YEAH and she hears NIE... LMAO!


I think I sound funny when I'm talking in polish :)

Thanks for the feedback Goonie. What you said does make a lot of sense.

the last time i met a dude who refused to speak the language of his native country, it turned out it was because he was lying to everyone (men and women) about where he was from.

that was funny.

he was turkish and claiming to be finnish. for some odd reason.

The Turkish and Finnish languages are related in some way.

Anyway, the most likely reason is that he isn't Polish. A Turk would say he's Finnish and a Russian would say he's Polish for the same reason - both are in the EU and he can work here legally.

Thanks for your input guys,

I do in fact believe he's Polish. He also has a mile-long Polish surname!
I think he's just lost touch with his cultural ethnicity a little bit; what a shame.

I heard of a similar thing a few years ago, of someone working in Sweden, I think. They were English speaking for the first 25 years of their life and after living in Sweden for 5 years, started to forget a lot of English. Perhaps this is the same situation?

Thanks for your advice Big Rob. Actually I'm kind of tempted to test his Polish-speaking skills again, when I see him this weekend.

I have also found that some guys do not like speaking their native tongue, I also wondered why? When you ask them to say something, they appear reluctant to do so... why?? Listening to someone say soomething in another language is ...good!

I agree with you Goldie. I think it puts a little spice in the conversation!

if i was with you i would love to speak polish to you.

I know a Latina, who's married to a Polish man. He only speaks Polish to his parents. She feels at times they may be talking about her, when they speak Polish infront of her.

I explained how I previously had a Polish boyfriend,who'd also only speak Polish to his family. I'm glad I don't have to deal with that issue any more. I dumped him later in the month of June (for other reasons.)

Did you dump him in English, Polish or a mixture of both?

I dumped him in English. My Polish really sucks big time.

Just learn on your own. That's I did. When he saw how serious I was and that I was doing it with or without him, he got interested. Now he even goes over my lessons with me :)

My boyfriend refuses to teach me any Polish... I went paid for 10 lessons, and got stuck in a class with all guys - they only wanted to learn Polish to pick up girls on stag weekends or obedient girlfriends here in London.
I think I'm going to find someone on Gumtree to teach me!

Why don't you use some of the resources on this site ?

Theres a few good software programs out there also.

Byki.com has a free download to get you started:)

Thanks for that sledz, have just downloaded it and had a go, it's really easy, especially for the basics. Thanks!

Reminds me of stories I read about British fellas in early 1940's, who pretended Polish accent to pick up dates in England. The popularity of Poles (thanks to Polish pilots) put them (briefly) out of the dating market.
Nah. Unless by that you mean they use the same organs of speech, in which case Polish is related to Swahili.

maybe he dont know polish too well

Maybe he don't, innit? LOL