Would you learn foreign language

[Bateluer]

There are some Polish novels that are supposed to be pretty good, they were the basis for the upcoming game 'The Witcher' English translations aren't due out for a while yet though.

 

[Orsorum]

Yes, Latin, Koine Greek, and Mandarin, in particular.

 

[Bateluer]

How long you reckon it'd take me to learn to read Polish?

 

[Orsorum]

Originally posted by: Bateluer
How long you reckon it'd take me to learn to read Polish?

Not sure, what other languages do you know? Might be worth it to wait until the English translations come out.

 

[Bateluer]

Originally posted by: Orsorum

Originally posted by: Bateluer
How long you reckon it'd take me to learn to read Polish?

Not sure, what other languages do you know? Might be worth it to wait until the English translations come out.

Just English, and I'm not exactly a young child, makes it harder to learn a new language.

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

Sure. I plan on learning Japanese so that I know what the Fullmetal Alchemist sound track songs are about. Plus, I have free college money anyway.

 

[2Xtreme21]

It's harder than you'd think to become completely fluent in a language when you have no real world basis to use it (other than this book).

 

[Crono]

I want to learn ancient Greek, so I can better understand the New Testament

 

[imported_goku]

Hmm, thats a tough decision, I'd have to go with 'no', however if you happen to have any polish relatives, that could be an incentive.


The problem with a lot of things in life is that in order to do them, you need to have a drive to do them, if you've got little motivation to keep you going, it's going to be next to near impossible to do anything you need/want to do. Sure, you could WANT a million dollars but if you don't have the drive to figure out a way to obtain that money (especially legally speaking) then you'll never achieve it, even if you want it.

 

[chusteczka]

The difficult part would be the multiple endings for the same word, that can provide a different twist to the meaning of the word. So even if you have an excellent translation dictionary, the multiple endings will not be documented, thereby making it difficult to understand the author's specific meaning.

Much of Sienkiewicz's work has already been translated, some with accompanying movies. You could start there if you wanted.

Wikipedia Sienkiewicz, Polish version.


EDIT:
Wikipedia Andrzej Sapkowski
Wikipedia Movie: The Witcher or The Hexer
Official Website The Witcher
IMDB The Hexer

There may be a Polish video store near you that may have the movie. The movie may contain English subtitles. I have seen this movie from a video store here in the Chicago suburbs.

You may like, With Fire and Sword. This is a captivating story of the Ukrainian uprising against Polish rule in the 17th century. IMDB.com summary This movie most likely has English subtitles and is generally considered one of the best historical movies from Poland.

Amazon.com
Fire and Sword
Hexer
The main actor of both these films is Michal Zebrowski.


EDIT2:
Your best option to learn Polish would be a school in a local Polish run Catholic church that has a Saturday school teaching Polish to American children. Another option would be a community college or university. I am having difficulty finding Polish tutorial books at the moment.


EDIT3:
I suppose a search for Polish at Amazon.com would help.

 

[xanis]

Polish is an odd language. I think your best bet would be to find someone who knows the language and start reading up on the basics online.

 

[MrDudeMan]

Originally posted by: Crono
I want to learn ancient Greek, so I can better understand the New Testament

good idea. ive started to learn some greek and it makes a lot of things easier to understand.

 

[Bateluer]

Originally posted by: chusteczka
The difficult part would be the multiple endings for the same word, that can provide a different twist to the meaning of the word. So even if you have an excellent translation dictionary, the multiple endings will not be documented, thereby making it difficult to understand the author's specific meaning.

Much of Sienkiewicz's work has already been translated, some with accompanying movies. You could start there if you wanted.

Wikipedia Sienkiewicz, Polish version.


EDIT:
Wikipedia Andrzej Sapkowski
Wikipedia Movie: The Witcher or The Hexer
Official Website The Witcher
IMDB The Hexer

There may be a Polish video store near you that may have the movie. The movie may contain English subtitles. I have seen this movie from a video store here in the Chicago suburbs.

You may like, With Fire and Sword. This is a captivating story of the Ukrainian uprising against Polish rule in the 17th century. IMDB.com summary This movie most likely has English subtitles and is generally considered one of the best historical movies from Poland.

Amazon.com
Fire and Sword
Hexer
The main actor of both these films is Michal Zebrowski.


EDIT2:
Your best option to learn Polish would be a school in a local Polish run Catholic church that has a Saturday school teaching Polish to American children. Another option would be a community college or university. I am having difficulty finding Polish tutorial books at the moment.


EDIT3:
I suppose a search for Polish at Amazon.com would help.

Thanks for all the links. I think the best option is to wait for the English translations or watch the movies in subtitles for now. Unfortunately, I don't have the time to sit down and learn a foreign language right now, too much to do.

 

[Rudy Toody]

Originally posted by: Crono
I want to learn ancient Greek, so I can better understand the New Testament

I had a friend who learned ancient Greek and Hebrew for the same reason.

He started questioning all the inconsistancies and the Bible College he was attending expelled him for heresy.

 

[Feldenak]

uld you learn foreign language simply to read a book?

No.