Polish, easier the more languages you know?

[ayupshiplad]

After reading a thread about the various difficulties between Polish, Czech, Russian, Bulgarian etc would I be correct in believing that Polish would be easier the more languages you know?

Seeing as I know German and Latin, the case system should be easy to understand, and knowing French and Portuguese with their variety of tenses (particularly Portuguese!! My god!) should make Polish easier too?

Also, with the great influx of Polish migrants to the UK, more resources seem to have become available in recent years, which would greatly help in the learning process.

However, I read somewhere that Polish is officially the second hardest European language after Hungarian. Is this a fallacy?!

 

[jester.]

I do not think that Polish is the second hardest language in Europe but I must say that it is very difficult to categorise languages when it comes to their diffculty. There are so many aspects to consider.

If you've never come in contact with any Slavic languages, I'd say your knowledge of German and Portuguese won't help you very much. The fact that you've studied those languages might help because you might already know some learning techniques, but other than that I think you'll start from scratch.

 

[tkekte]

Haha... maybe we should learn it together. Learning Polish is for those who are hardcore to the core.

 

[ayupshiplad]

LOL hardcore to the core eh?! Well, I apparently have a natural gift for languages, but I'm sure that Polish will be the most frustrating one I'll ever learn!

There really is a limit to what you can learn though, and I just seek to have a good conversation in Polish, not study it to a greatly advanced level! So perhaps it will all be ok!

 

[Marga H]

Someone said that the most difficult to learn are the first six foreign languages, after that it is very easy!

 

[ayupshiplad]

I would tend to agree if you're talking about the same language group.

For example, after studying French and Latin, Portuguese is certainly a lot easier!

But I don't think it's truly possible to master more than at most 2 foreign languages. I hate people who say they can speak like 5 languages and it turns out they can speak their mother tongue fluently, then good french, a bit of german, a bit of spanish and a few words of greek!

Would you say that a decent level of Polish (i.e being able to have a conversation) is not too difficult to achieve, and it is only when you want to master it that it becomes highly complex, or is it hard throughout all levels?

 

[tkekte]

Hmmm, that's not true at all. Nowadays, it's common for people to know three languages. I speak Russian, English and Hebrew. I know some guy (online) who speaks Latvian, Russian, German and English.

Btw, people also know English pretty well in the Netherlands, and the Scandinavian countries. They usually know German too, in addition to English and their native language.

So it's totally normal to speak three languages, and if you can speak three, why not 4, or 15. It just depends on the amount of immersion.

So that's where we get with Polish... of course a decent level is impossible to achieve (as with any other language) unless you either:
1. live in Poland for 2-3 years or so
2. read TONS in Polish, so much that your brain learns to chomp it down unconsciously, and then you will spit out Polish by yourself without thinking about it, just like a native speaker. :>

Also, it depends on the type of conversation you want to have... Jeślibym pojechał do Polski, to chyba mogłbym powiedzieć nieco proste, np poszedłbym do sklepu i zapytał "dajcie piwka jakiegoś". A dla dalszych rozmów zapytałbym "czy mówicie po angielsku?" :-D

 

[ayupshiplad]

Ah you're right in a way, but you can never become fluent, I mean TRULY fluent in more than say 3 languages at a time. You can speak maybe 3 fluently and several others well, but only after years and years of practice and continued links with people who have the languages you use as their native tongue.

Seeing as I have never studied Polish at all and was just considering doing it for a couple of years at uni, i have NO idea what you said, but im sure it was friendly!

 

[Jana337]

Ladies and gentlemen, sorry, I'm closing this thread because it is sliding into unbridled chat.

I am sure Cultural Discussions have a few threads about the possibility of reaching fluency in several languages and other related topics.