VERY BORING IF YOU DON'T FIND LANGUAGES INTERESTING - 2

I came to Poland over five years ago and promised that I would be fluent in the language in 2 years. I was rash, too rash. I have heard that it is the hardest language in the world, and this may well be true. Poles who have learned Japanese say how easy it is to speak (but not write). They are clever people, as they must be to speak their own language 100% correctly and as fast as they do.

English has two genders, but they apply only to pronouns and possessive adjectives. German has masculine feminine and neuter, and the modern Latin languages only two - masculine and feminine.

Polish has, grammatically, five genders in the singular:

1. feminine,
2. neuter,
3. masuline inanimate
4. masculine non-virile (male, alive non-human),
5. masculine virile (male, alive, human),

Grammatical gender affects not only declension, the pattern of case endings, in a language which has seven cases, (Latin has six, Ancient Greek 5) but also how number is expressed.

For example, in 1, 2, 3 and 4, you count one cat, two cats, ditto three and four, but five of cats. Easy.

In 5, you say, 'there is a man outside', but 'it is of two, of men outside' - not so easy. You have to know the genitive of every number, 2 to infinity. Numbers decline, as well as nouns and adjectives.

This is not just formal Polish. Everyone declines and conjugates correctly, in writing and in speech. They talk as fast as Italians.

So, after five years, I still speak execrable Polish, fast, but grammatically abominable.

My comfort is that I know a couple married and living in Poland fo six years, Polish husband, English wife. The wife still has weekly Polish lessons - and problems with the language.

Pronunciation is something else - try saying quickly 'skrzypce' (in English approx: skshiptse) = violin, or 'chcę' (ch - as in Scots 'loch' + tseuwn) = I want.

Hah! Me too!