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Infinite
Joined: 05 Jan 2013 Posts: 235
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Posted: Sun Jun 26, 2016 12:04 pm Post subject: Re: erm |
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Master Shake wrote: |
dragonpiwo wrote: |
OK, so I'll just say that most people I meet these days, in fact everyone under 40-ish speaks good English. |
Not at all my experience. " |
Yea, see, this is the problem with mr dragonpiwo. His experiences in Poland are so vastly different from anyone else that it's staggering at times. I've conducted lessons at so many gov't and corpo institutions here and had upper echelons as students pretty much throughout my entire teaching career yet my experience is this - I'd say about 30% are fluent while the rest struggles.
There are serious underlying reasons for that which stem from education and things like - lektors on TV... or... native drunks and druggies who come here to "teach". |
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dragonpiwo
Joined: 04 Mar 2013 Posts: 1650 Location: Berlin
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Posted: Sun Jun 26, 2016 4:07 pm Post subject: erm |
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I am in my garden in Poland right now with 9 Polish friends. 5 speak English fluently, 2 very well, 1 is elementary and 1 a beginner but fluent German speaker.
Was out the other night with Poles, some of whom I had never met, and they all spoke English well.
That is how it is. My son is 17 and all his school friends speak intermediate English.
My friends have young kids and they are all learning English already.
I do not know who you hang around with but all the Poles I meet here, well nearly all, and in Abu Dhabi speak good English. |
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delphian-domine
Joined: 11 Mar 2011 Posts: 674
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Posted: Wed Jun 29, 2016 9:52 pm Post subject: |
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Infinite wrote: |
Anyone saying that being multi-lingual does nothing for your wealth is a moron. The more languages you know, the less you actually have to work and the more you get paid and that's a fact. |
I can only speak in my experience, but knowing Polish has been the difference between stable employment and working in Jim's Honest Language School. |
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No Place Like Home
Joined: 27 Apr 2016 Posts: 20
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Posted: Tue Jul 12, 2016 6:22 pm Post subject: |
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Making an effort to use your Polish definitely gets you more respect, and in my case is the only way I have managed to continue in State schools since 2001 because you need a good command to get through all the Ministry admin if nothing else. I live in a really small village and teach in two other even smaller villages, it's really necessary in these communities to use your Polish because in the sticks you rarely meet people in everyday life who know more than a little English. |
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Master Shake
Joined: 03 Nov 2006 Posts: 1202 Location: Colorado, USA
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Posted: Fri Jul 15, 2016 6:04 pm Post subject: |
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Yep, the further away from the bigger cities you go, the more of a necessity Polish is. Socioeconomic status is also a major factor. In Warsaw, just a across the river in the working-class Praga district, English is much less common. I know; I lived there for a couple of years.
Poles are also overly self-conscious about their English skills, probably more so than any nationality I've ever met. In Poland will people who are B1 or even better tell you they "don't speak English". My Polish isn't that great, B1 at best, but I often found myself speaking Polish to B1+ speakers of English simply because they didn't feel comfortable speaking English out of fear of making mistakes.
The idea that most people in Poland speak English well today is just wrong. It may look that way if you visit upscale restaurants and shops in cities, but step out of that bubble and you'll quickly notice that the real Poland's English ain't so hot. |
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dragonpiwo
Joined: 04 Mar 2013 Posts: 1650 Location: Berlin
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Posted: Sat Jul 16, 2016 5:22 am Post subject: erm |
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Some of you must really live in the bundies. Even the beggars are getting pretty good at English lol.
I think the Poles you are on about will never want lessons, so they'd be off my radar. |
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