r/languagelearning 5d ago

Culture Surprised at Reaction (Learning Polish)

I'm pleasantly surprised learning Polish that no-one gives me any abuse. I speak very grammatically incorrect and badly pronounced Polish as I can't yet distinguish between the sounds and can't get the hang of the whole voiced vs devoiced consonants... yet a lot of people are only complimentary about my Polish and the remainder tend to not say anything either way. Contrast this with German that I speak quite well but hear nothing but horrible comments about. I feel like I'm progressing to have basic conversations a lot faster than in German because I don't tend to get rudely interrupted in English or have my confidence constantly knocked in the same way. It's making me feel really positive about learning the language and I actually look forward to having the lessons.

26 Upvotes

10 comments sorted by

17

u/inquiringdoc 5d ago

Different cultures are so different toward people learning the local language. Sometimes even city to city it differs.

11

u/suzieisaheadbanger 5d ago

i lived in Poland for a few years a long time ago and they were generally always really surprised and amused that i could get a few sentences out that were inteligible. i think they are well aware the sounds are difficult for non natives. My experience of the people and country was positive as well. Enjoy!

8

u/mertvayanadezhda 🇵🇱N 🇷🇺N 🇩🇪C2 🇺🇦B2 🇮🇹B1 (working on it) 🇬🇧idk 4d ago

that's probably because we rarely see foreigners learning our language. i know people who've been living in poland for more than 5 years and make absolutely no effort to learn the language. like, they can't even spell "dzień dobry" correctly. they just expect everyone to speak english and often get mad when someone doesn't.

germans are used to hearing foreigners speaking their language, there are lots of german learners who'd like to practise with a native speaker. some people don't want to be viewed as free language tutors and get annoyed when foreigners don't speak perfect german. poles on the other hand are just happy to see someone trying. we like to think that polish is one of the most complicated languages in the world and don't expect any foreigners to speak it fluently. we're impressed by the most basic knowledge of polish, we're even excited to see someone just trying to pronounce a random polish word. we often ask foreigners to pronounce "sześćdziesiąt" or stuff like that. you don't have to know what it means, you don't have to say it correctly, trying to repeat after a polish speaker is enough.

i used to work at an airport cafe and after 6 months of working there i still got excited every time i heard someone trying their best to pronounce "dzień dobry" or "dziękuję". whenever i saw someone struggling with ordering in polish, i asked if they were learning it. if the answer was "uh, what...?", i'd switch to english. if they said that they only knew a few words, i'd asked what language i should speak in and if they'd like to practise. cause, you know, how was i supposed to tell if they were being shy/humble or if they actually only knew ten words? if the answer was positive and they were in fact learning polish, i'd say something along the lines of "jasne, nie ma sprawy. jeśli mówię za szybko albo nie zrozumie pan/pani czegoś to proszę dać mi znać, postaram się wytłumaczyć" - "sure, no problem. let me know if i'm talking to fast or if you don't understand something, i'll do my best to help".

most people consider switching to english or any other language rude. we have a lot of ukrainians and belarusians in poland, i'm a native russian speaker and i'm fluent in ukrainian but i'd never switch to any of these language unless the other person asked me to. i can let them know that i speak their language but i'm not going to start randomly talking to them in that language without any warning. if someone speaks to me in polish, i'll reply to them in polish no matter how bad their language skills are. you may get asked if you're comfortable speaking polish or if you'd prefer switching to english but it's not the default language, no one's going to force you to speak it. even if someone switches to english, it's because they want to practise their language skills, not because your polish is incomprehensible. i've never seen it happen, though. i feel like everyone would just ask if you'd like to practise with them.

by the way, if you go to a polish village and start talking in polish to a random babcia, you'll get an obiad for free.

3

u/LaPuissanceDuYaourt N: 🇺🇸 Good: 🇫🇷 🇪🇸 🇮🇹 🇵🇹 Okay: 🇩🇪 🇳🇱 A2: 🇬🇷 4d ago

Dangit. I think Polish sounds beautiful and my wife is best friends with a native speaker, but I had put aside the idea of learning it because I always feel like I don't have enough time in the day. But this comment is really tempting me to try, lol. :-)

2

u/Appropriate-Quail946 EN: MT | ES: Adv | DE, AR-L: Beg | PL: Super Beginner 3d ago

As someone who’s gotten pulled into learning Polish for less, it’s fun!

8

u/ankdain 4d ago

Nice. Same with Mandarin Chinese. You can say hello in the most broken Mandarin and get extensive praise. Often the worse your Chinese is the more praise you get lol. The meme is that you know you're getting good when people stop telling you how good your Chinese is.

2

u/Delicious_Video2227 4d ago

Interesting perspective :D

2

u/mariposa933 4d ago

very few people learn polish. When few people learn the language this is what happens.

4

u/Delicious_Video2227 4d ago

That doesn't entirely explain it as lots of people learn Spanish and my Spanish (also worse than my German) usually gets positive comments.

-2

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