I've been searching for a useful language to (in modern Britain) and settled on Polish, due to the fact I seem to hear it every day. The pronounciation doesn't seem too diffult, apart from words with lots of 'c's and 'z's. I've got a really good set of cds for total beginners, but one word I just can't figure out, as the CD says it too quickly: it is 'jeszcze', as in the question 'Cos jeszcze?'
I say this as "Zhosh jeesc-eh", but I know the second word is totally wrong. Any Poles able to enlighten me?
I'm Russian, not Polish, but I think it'd be something like "yesh-che" (approximately: [jɜʃtʃɜ])
Thanks, I've been doing some research, and I think you're right, as sz = sh and cz = ch.
I've also had a look at the grammatical genders, and wow! There are a lot: personal masculine, animate masculine, inanimate masculine, feminine, and neuter. Thankfully, I've studied latin, and I've found that I quite enjoy inflected languages.
Also, I have another question: I wish to travel to Poland to improve my language skills, preferably through working, but I'm not sure what kind of job I could do? Any ideas?
Polish in Britain?! I never would have guessed. It comes in handy in Chicago, which has the most Poles outside of Warsaw.
Sadly, I cannot speak it despite my family being relatively new Polish immigrants. If I had the time, I'd love to do it, though.
I wouldn't have thought it was useful either, perhaps 10 years ago (although I wouldn't have been thinking about it much at the age of 8 anyway), but Poland joined the EU a few years ago, and there are currently about half a million Polish immigrants living here. There have always been Poles here, as a result of those stationed here in WW2, but this burst of economic immigration has had a major effect on UK & Polish society, so I feel learning it would be pretty useful.
Many do work that is far less skilled than what they were trained to do in Poland, but still pays better, e.g. there is a janitor at my University who was actually a concert pianist, but no one knew until a music lecturer spotted him playing Chopin one night!
Chrząszcz ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrzaszcz )
W Szczebrzeszynie chrząszcz brzmi w trzcinie
I Szczebrzeszyn z tego słynie.
Wół go pyta: „Panie chrząszczu,
Po cóż pan tak brzęczy w gąszczu?“
Pronounciation (.ogg file):
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/5e/Chrzaszcz.ogg
=D
>>5
Half a million? Try 2 million.