# To the foreigners learning Polish



## The Cure

Hi, maybe my post is not about any linguistic question but I was always wondering why are foreigners studying one of the most difficult languages exisiting... ? ;-) 

I recently pondered over all those prefixes existing in my language and all, and I thought what a luck it is to be born Polish 'cause you don't have to learn this language ;D

Thanks for answers


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## Ben Jamin

The Cure said:


> Hi, maybe my post is not about any linguistic question but I was always wondering why are foreigners studying one of the most difficult languages exisiting... ? ;-)
> 
> I recently pondered over all those prefixes existing in my language and all, and I thought what a luck it is to be born Polish 'cause you don't have to learn this language ;D
> 
> Thanks for answers


 
It is not enough to be born Polish to be able to speak good Polish. Many people have a big problem with speaking and writing a reasonably good Polish, even though they are born in the country. But it helps to start learning any language early in the life. By the way, all languages are difficult to speak really well if you are a foreigner. If you do not make declension errors as in Polish, you will certainly make other errors in English. Many people think they can speak a foreign language correctly, because there are not many different word forms the language.


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## The Cure

Yes I know and surely I make a lot of mistakes ;D

but I think if I was a foreigner and realized how many inflections etc. one has to master to be more or less fluent in Polish, I'd surely give up. 

I admire these people honestly.


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## Cynthia F

My reason for attempting to learn the language, is that my partner is Polish. So he speaks to me in English and I am trying to learn his language.

However, in the UK at least, there aren't many opportunities to "formally" learn Polish. Well not that I know of. Unless, it is being taught in schools, which it certainly wasn't when I went. The opportunites we had were to learn French and German, possibly Spanish. However, this was some (many) years back.

So resources like this forum, are invaluable to those of us, who are "teaching ourselves" as it were. Or at least trying to pick up the basics, of your very complicated language! However, it's a beautiful language, with so many different elements. 

That being said, why does anybody learn a language? For personal fulfillment, to learn and acquire news skills. I guess it helps if you have a personal interest in the place or people. I doubt I would have even tried to learn the language, had I not met a person who I wanted to communicate with and share language with.


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## Piotr_WRF

To Slavonic native speakers learning Polish shouldn't be that hard. It all depends on what your native language is. I find it kind of amusing that many Polish natives are somehow proud that Polish is in their opinion a hard language to learn, as if it were an amazing achievement to learn the language your parents and all the other people in your country speak.


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## emjo27

We have had a number of Polish colleagues working here for 3 or 4 years, and I knew how to say the basics i.e. please, thank you, Friday (!).

I decided to start learning properly about 5 months ago, not quite sure why.  Like Cynthia said, there are not many opportunites to learn the language on a formal basis in the UK, at least not where I am.  So, I am teaching myself, very slowly.  Luckily, I have someone at work who I can practise my Polish on and the resources available online, like this forum, make the learning process much more bearable!!

Sometimes when I look at all the different word endings, I ask myself "why?", but then when I get something right, or can manage to do something without looking at my books it feels like such an achievement.

It is a beautiful and very interesting language.


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## majlo

The Cure said:


> I was always wondering why are foreigners studying one of the most difficult languages exisiting... ? ;-)



I believe one of the main reasons -or maybe even _the _main reason - is the one mentioned by Cynthia, that is acculturation. I remember how keen I was on learning Urdu, Slovakian, Arabic or Akan when I lived and worked in London. If you have a genuine interest in people, and you come across people of various nationalities, it comes sort of automatically that you want to learn their language; just as you want to know something about their background, customs... Well, culture in general. I always try to get at least a smattering of a language when I am abroad, and I couldn't leave the country if didn't learn some words or phrases.


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## The Cure

Piotr_WRF said:


> To Slavonic native speakers learning Polish shouldn't be that hard. It all depends on what your native language is. I find it kind of amusing that many Polish natives are somehow proud that Polish is in their opinion a hard language to learn, as if it were an amazing achievement to learn the language your parents and all the other people in your country speak.


 
I'm not "proud" in this sense. I feel a relief that I'm spared the effort 
It's nothing of an "achievement" when you learn a language since your first days on earth, it comes naturally...

oh, emjo27 wrote it is a very beautiful language. i sometimes pity i can't perceive my language as foreigners do. I can't really enjoy its beauty because I'm used to it.


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## majlo

The Cure said:


> I'm not "proud" in this sense. I feel a relief that I'm spared the effort
> It's nothing of an "achievement" when you learn a language since your first days on earth, it comes naturally...
> 
> oh, emjo27 wrote it is a very beautiful language. i sometimes pity i can't perceive my language as foreigners do. I can't really enjoy its beauty because I'm used to it.



I'd always preferred English to Polish, but some time ago I sort of "found", or extracted, the beauty of our mother tongue. I believe that if you try to master Polish (as a native speaker! ), "master" meaning try to get to know every detail of it, exceptions, miscellanea etc., you can appreciate it anew.


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## The Cure

To be honest throughout recent years I was very much occupied with English and German and various other languages to various extents and I didn't read in Polish at all

After several years I picked up a book in Polish and it stunned me somehow because I saw it as a "language". Haha, as almost a "foreign" one. 

I begun to read in Polish again and wondering over it and re-discovering it

I must say studying languages with Germanic structure made my Polish "poor". 
I sometimes cannot find the words to express myself properly. 

It's very weird. 

At the same time I consider this language as "known" and taken for granted, on the other hand not much so...


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## Thomas1

A thread that may be of some interest to you:   All Slavic languages: The degree of difficulty.


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## sokol

Mod note:
This is a somewhat chatty topic, don't you think? Not quite a linguistic topic either. 

Thus, sorry but I'm closing here, you may continue discussion on that other thread about degrees of difficulty. 
Cheers
sokol


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