I’ve read recently that
according to 3 major sources: the Internet, the public and the American
scientists, Polish is one of the most difficult languages in the world. Last week I had a pleasure to meet Peter,
who’s from the UK and he’s living in
Poland for a couple of years now. He said that even though he’s been learning
Polish for eight years, he thinks he’ll never be really fluent because Polish
is actually an extremely difficult
language. I know that many of you want to learn Polish so I’ve read a couple of
articles on the Internet about Polish and I think that some of them are fake so
I’ll try to deal with some myths.
I’ve learned that the first
known full sentence in Polish comes from a chronicle from 1270 and relates to
the description of a daily life at that time. The husband supposedly said to
his wife Daj, ać ja pobruszę, a ty poczywaj
(which means more or less Relax Honey, today I will do the dishes). Looks like
Polish feminism dates back to the 13th century.
1. The Polish language belongs to the Slavic languages group...
... but it
doesn’t mean that every Pole can speak Russian. I don't know why but some of my friends from western
European countries think that if I speak
Polish, I also understand other Slavic
languages like Russian or Czech or Slovak, just like Italians can easily understand
Spanish. That’s so not true. Even though the languages come from the same
group, they’re significantly different. There are of course some similarities
and it’s possible to get the sense of a conversation in other Slavic language but it’s not a rule. E.g. when
I was in Croatia, I could have understood
some words and it’s generally possible to connect with a Croatian but it
doesn’t mean that we can freely communicate. And yes, it would be easier for me
to learn another Slavic language like
mentioned Croatian than for a German or Brit. I think that my favorite Slavic
language, apart from Polish, is Czech. The Czech
language is for us a bit funny because
they have some words that sound the same but have completely different meaning,
e..g frajer in polish is a naive person
while in Czech it means a handsome boy.
2 Alphabet has many more latter that in other countries that use the Roman alphabet.
The Polish alphabet, like
almost all European alphabets, is based
on the Roman alphabet and consists of 32 letter. However, 9 of them are
characteristic for Polish language and you won’t find them anywhere else - they
are called diacritics (ą, ć, ę, ł, ń ó, ś, ż, ż). What’s more, we also have
digraphs e.g. cz, ch, sz, rz, dz, dż and dź to mark specifically Polish
sounds.
I know that these rustling letters often keep you away from learning Polish but there’s nothing to be afraid of. Once you learn how to pronounce them properly, you won’t be having any problems with it in the future. Do not trouble yourself if you can’t pronounce properly phrases as Chrząszcz brzmi w trzcinie w Szczebrzeszynie because trust me, lots of Poles have a problem with that as well.
It’s worth noticing that Poles
are very found of ‘Polish’ sounds. For many years the most beautiful words
according to Poles are prażynki, rzęsiście, źdźbło (a blade of grass), szeptać
(to whisper) or szeleścić (to rustle).
3. Poles love to use lots of diminutive forms.
To be honest, I have no idea
where is this coming from. We certainly do not use more of diminutive forms of
popular words (herbata - herbatka, banan
- bananek, kawa - kawusia) than any other nation. I think that it simply depends on a person - some people
just like using the softer, more childish words all the time. However, it is
true that in Polish one name (e.g. mine - Katarzyna) can have plenty of
diminutive forms - Kasia, Kasieńka, Kasiula,
Kaśka and so on. All of them stand for the same name but they are not used on a
daily basis. Most of my friends just call me Kasia which is the most popular
shorter form of my name (similar: Aleksandra - Ola, Joanna - Asia, Anna - Ania etc.).
4. There are more than 17 versions of the word ‘two’.
Ok let’s make this clear once
and for all - there are no 17 different words to say 2. This famous meme all of
you know is, however, true. Polish is inflective just like all Slavic
languages, which means one word can have many forms. In English, there are two
and second, in Polish dwa, drugi, dwoje,
dwie etc.
But it’s still the same word, just used in a different context. If your a
beginner and you always use ‘two’ because you don’t know which form is correct,
that’s fine, people will understand you (it’s what matters after all, right?)
and the right wording will come with time.
5. Pronunciation
The truth is Polish pronunciation is not that difficult
at all. If you learn diacritics and digraphs, a couple
of general rules and the rest is just a piece
of cake. The general rule is you read what you see, which makes it much easier
than English. And yes - pronunciation might be difficult as long as your
muscles don't get used to pronouncing some sounds.
The most troublesome feature
of Polish is what linguists call complex consonant clusters ‒ series of
consonants without any vowels. They occur in many languages, including English;
for example, in the word ‘shrug’ the letters shr
form a consonant cluster. But while English usually draws the line at three
consonants, Polish sometimes joins as many as five consonants, a phenomenon
called the Polish syllable structure, which is allegedly surpassed only by
Georgian in terms of complexity.
So who cares that ci is
pronounced just as ć, which is quite similar to dź. The problem is most
foreigners can’t even hear the difference, not to mention pronouncing it. Well, I guess it’s just the risk that comes
with learning the new language - you have to simply embrace the fact that
perfect pronunciation or perfect orthography is out of your reach. Remember
that practice makes the master and try to sound the best you can.
6. Dialects
I’ve read in one of the
articles that there are plenty of dialects in Poland and that’s what makes it
so complicated. Say what? Ok, there are a couple of dialects (_) and even
languages (kaszubski, śląski) but
EVERYONE speaks basic polish (not like with Spanish in Catalonia). You DO NOT need to learn any dialects and do
not listen to people who come from
different parts of the country. There's very little dialectal variation in
Poland, nowhere near e.g. England. People from some regions (like Silesia) do speak with a bit stronger accent but it’s
not hard to understand them. It can only be a problem if you plan a trip to the
mountains - some of Highlanders in
Zakopane do speak their own dialect on a daily basis and even I have problems
with understanding them.
7. Grammar & orthography are hellish.
Ok, that one is actually true
- they are hellish! I guess that both grammar and orthography are one of the
most difficult among all Slavic
languages. Maybe you’ll find a bit of consolation in the fact that many (and when I say MANY I mean it)
Poles make dozens of mistakes on a daily basis. The number of possible
constructions, weird to every non-native speaker, makes dizzy even the native
speakers. Dictations at school are a nightmare
for most of the students. Even I do make mistakes sometimes (even though I’m
native and I was always top of my class). My best advice is - accept it. Make
sure you have a great teacher or a well-written workbook to learn. You
will make mistakes even after learning Polish for 20 years so it’s not a
surprise that you make them after a couple of classes only.
8. Word formation is a nightmare.
I wouldn’t exactly say
nightmare but we do add lots of prefixes to different words (verbs especially).
For example, from the verb lecieć (to fly) we can create odlecieć, przylecieć,
wylecieć, nalecieć, ulecieć, przelecieć etc.
and they all have different meanings! It works just like in English with
phrasal verbs (which are a true nightmare for me). It’s impossible to learn a
word with all prefixes that can be added to it and its meanings. It just comes
with time and experience, just like in any other language.
I hope that now you won’t be so afraid to take
up Polish. Do not believe in everything you see on the Internet as it’s full of
crap. If you have any further questions, feel free to ask 😊
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