difference between Polish and Russian
pawlowsky 2009-10-20 17:25 | difference between Polish and Russian Hi! I am just wondering if there is such a huge gap indeed between Russian and Polish language. I studied Russian some years ago. Will this help me somehow? |
jk.andrew 2009-10-21 11:28 | Yes, definitely, both languages are very similar so it helps you a lot. The same with Czech and Slovak. If you know some of these languages already, I am sure it will help you learn Polish. We had a guy from Russia in our group and he was learning everything much faster than others were. |
pawlowsky 2009-10-23 14:59 | Thanks, it is good to hear that. I will start soon. |
mdzierzanowska 2009-10-25 10:30 | It is not so obvious unfortunately. I think if you want to learn another language and you want to use your knowledge of Russian you should try Serbo-Croatian or one of those languages much nearer to Russian than Polish is. A lot of words are similar in Polish and Russian of course as they are of the same group of languages just like Spanish and Italian words are sometimes similar but there is always a question of false friends. |
nicki4 2009-10-25 17:57 | I don’t agree, dorota_k. I have learned Russian before studying Polish and it helped me more than impeded. Maybe it depends on the person… |
mdzierzanowska 2009-10-26 11:28 | Problems arise if you started to learn Polish as a beginner while not yet being conversant with Russian. Apart from false friends there are the differences in pronunciation and even some grammatical variations. The result then might be that you never actually learn either language completely. |
nicki4 2009-10-26 18:02 | I don’t have such experience. My Russian was quite fluent when I started learning Polish. |
polonistka 2009-10-27 10:47 | Of course if you know Russian it will help you to understand Polish. It is true that Russian is not the closest language to Polish (Slovak or Ukrainian are much closer) however there are still many similarities. Also grammar of both languages is in many cases very similar and you should be able to understand the idea of Polish grammar much faster than somebody who has never studied any Slav languages. But on the other hand you must be very carefull as there are false friends and there are still many differences in grammar. But don't be discouraged it will definitely help you. Good luck. Powodzenia! |
pawlowsky 2009-10-27 18:02 | I am not so sure now if I should try Polish or not :( Can any teacher take the floor? |
pawlowsky 2009-10-27 22:19 | Thank you for your answer. That is very useful information before I start the course! |
frdalloway 2011-01-13 22:44 | I used to learn Russian, few years before I started to learn Polish, and for me it was helpful. Some words are really similar, the pronunciation in Russian is definitely "softer", but I think to some extend it may also be useful. But don't get confused - there are many "false friends" in Polish-Russian translations. |
