Friday, February 14, 2014
Minimal time to learn Polish?
Minimal time to learn Polish?
I would love to learn Polish, I want to a foreign exchange student in highschool to go to Poland for a year to learn the language and live the culture.
Languages - 2 Answers
Random Answers, Critics, Comments, Opinions :
1 :
Polish is a language with a very complex grammar. You could probably learn enough vocabulary in a year to get by. The pronunciation is also very difficult. It can take decades of intense study to be able pass as a native, and at least 2 or 3 years of intense study to become fluent.
2 :
It will be relatively easy to learn how to read Polish, because spelling is phonetic (if you see a word, you can read it in only one way) - I would start with this. However, like in English, when you hear a word, you can often write it in several ways, eg. /mozhe/ can be spelled "może" or "morze" with two separate meanings. About vocabulary - basic vocab is not so easy, but lots of more advanced words are borrowings from Latin, Greek or English - so it gets easier with time. Grammar - nightmare (for English speakers). Lots of inflections, seven cases of nouns :) Pronunciation - forget it! It's impossible to pass for a native speaker if you weren't born in Poland (well, almost. I've never met such a person myself, but I saw a few on TV who could pass for a native with a small speech impairment). LOL. But if you just want to make yourself understood, it's not so difficult. Generally - Polish is relatively easy if you want to get by and don't worry too much about grammatical correctness and pronunciation. A year in the country is enough to get by.
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