Unfortunately, it's not usually an option offered in most English schools. Here in the Cleveland, Ohio area there's a large population of Eastern European ancestry (my dad's side of the family is Polish and Lemko-Rusyn. Krakow-region and the Carpathians in the Malpolska region, respectively, as to origin back around 1900 or so from what I've been told in researching the family tree. Annoyingly the French branch, which is the smallest part of my mother's ancestry, has proven easiest to trace) but still the typical high school curriculum only offers students the opportunity to learn German, Spanish, or French (occasionally Latin) and pretty much always as an elective rather than requiring a second language be taken.At the college level around here, the options are a little more varied...but still not fantastic. The most common are: German, French, Spanish, Italian, Latin, Chinese (Mandarin), and Russian. Personally, I'm surprised they haven't added Arabic to the list given geopolitical events....but that's another subject entirely.So, unfortunately opportunities to learn the language, outside of self-study or language schools, tends to be pretty limited except for recent immigrants who teach their children or grandchildren. Still, at least we kept the food around: pierogi, kielbasa, paczki, stuffed cabbage, potato pancakes, poppyseed cake/roll (afraid I don't know the non-English name for those last few)...(Btw, this is my first post here. Just picked up the game a few days ago, and figured I'd check out the forums and found the subject line on this thread interesting. )Lyc said:Though out of curiosity - are Polish taught English in schools? Or is it optional? I was wondering as it appears a lot of the Polish here speak very good english, while the average English speakers apility to speak polish has a lot to be desired.
*snickers* Eh, I think that varies with individual in any language, honestly. You've always got some folks who get annoyed at the mangling of the language, no matter how minor it may be....and on the other hand, you've got folks who are just happy to see an effort being made and will happily help the non-native speaker improve if asked. Elsewhere on line in the past, I and some friends have had to repeatedly tell German and Mexican posters that their English is better than some native speakers and to stop apologizing for it. ...course, we've also gotten into arguments with the Brits as to what qualifies as "proper English" in the first place. ....and then you have folks like my great-grandmother (Lemko-Rusyn immigrant to the US) who know the language but simply like being stubborn and using their own language no matter what the setting just to annoy folks (Though my father informs me that 'every so often some English would creep in'. Like 'television' and refering to dad and his cousins as 'idiot-sku' when they were misbehaving)If they did open a "lean polish" section, I wonder how long it would be before the native spakers go on a rampage after hearing/seeing the English spears mangle their language for the 10000 time.