Polish / Polski

[Melaszka]

Originally Posted by zarenka

I am not surprised : P Polish people love teach this word, tourists :P they say [edit] is "Good Morning" in english!".

People were a bit kinder to me - they told me "Wynoś się" was "Good morning"

[CellarDoor]

Next year in April I'll be 5 days in Krakòv as part of my school trip, and I'm planning to learn a little bit of Polish before, given that I don't like experiencing a country without knowing anything about its language and culture.

As of now I only know a bunch of words (most of them are food-related, apparently ), but I look forward to delving into the grammar - as soon as possible, I hope - even though, I must admit, it does look a bit scary!

In the meantime, do you have any suggestions on what I should do/see while in Krakòv?

Dziękuję in advance!

[JohanT]

Czesc! I don't speak Polish, but I am familar with Czech and Slovak, though I am aware that the pronunciation of the Polish language is very different from the other two. I have been able to pick up certain phrases here and there, because they are very similar to some Czech phrases. I would love to learn this language!

Milo Cie poznac! (Forgive me for the lack of accent marks)

[Pan_Kleks]

Other Poles? How wonderful!

Anyway Johan, it's quite alright. As for Czech, the pronunciation is quite different. While in Prague I found I could guess most of the signs correctly but when the people spoke it was Greek to me, I tried speaking Polish only twice while in the Czech capital and after getting some seriously dirty looks I remembered that their was a chance that some of the older Czech's might not remember Poles too kindly, especially after 1968.

W ogóle jestem z Poznania, chociaż mieszkam teraz w Kanadzie.

[JohanT]

Originally Posted by Pan_Kleks

Other Poles? How wonderful!

Anyway Johan, it's quite alright. As for Czech, the pronunciation is quite different. While in Prague I found I could guess most of the signs correctly but when the people spoke it was Greek to me, I tried speaking Polish only twice while in the Czech capital and after getting some seriously dirty looks I remembered that their was a chance that some of the older Czech's might not remember Poles too kindly, especially after 1968.

W ogóle jestem z Poznania, chociaż mieszkam teraz w Kanadzie.

Not to worry, I've gotten dirty looks for speaking Czech in one country (I won't name it, it might stir something up . It wasn't Poland, though). Anyways, I am quite happy to say that I understood the gist of what you were saying. If it were spoken to me, however, it would probably go over my head.

[Pan_Kleks]

I'd love to travel to Czech Republic again, although I think I'd make it my priority to go to Brno, Plsen, Ceske Budejovice, Karlovy Vary; not to mention I'd like to go to Slovakia. See Bratislava.

[Noleme]

I can't say I know Polish very well- I can understand most of what's written but cannot produce more than a few words on my own; I second the guys here who said that the spoken language is much more difficult to understand than the written.
Sorry about your Prague experience Kleks, I would have loved to try to understand some if I met a Pole here, just to practice. Funny that the thing that got me really interested in Polish was a HP fanfic. It just wasn't (and still isn't) available in English, so I just plunged in and tried to decipher it the best I could, asking the author about a couple of essential words that I didn't get. There's no such help as fandoms when it comes to learning foreign languages.

[JohanT]

Originally Posted by Pan_Kleks

I'd love to travel to Czech Republic again, although I think I'd make it my priority to go to Brno, Plsen, Ceske Budejovice, Karlovy Vary; not to mention I'd like to go to Slovakia. See Bratislava.

Yes, I've actually never been to Bratislava. I would definitely love to go there sometime as well! Sadly, I don't live in the Czech Republic anymore , so the trips to European countries are not frequent.

But, once I get out of high school, I am planning on making a trip to Prague, and hopefully I can stop by Poland! I have never been there before.