Comments on: i want to visit POLAND, but really can’t speak polish, will ihave much trouble getting around?

By: mb3698

mb3698 — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 07:36:45 +0000

Many of the popular tourist sites are now multilingual. It depends on which city or cities you want to visit. The most difficult thing about Poland is getting around. The trains and buses aren’t that great. You can drive, but be careful of the more remote areas as you will encounter a lot of narrow roads and fast drivers. I recommend Krakow and Wieliczka. Krakow has some beautiful cathedrals, historic buildings and shopping. Wieliczka has an underground salt mine tour and museum that is a lot of fun. To the south the mountains of Zakopane are very nice.

By: celticreject

celticreject — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 07:36:45 +0000

More or less the same amount of difficulty that a polish person who spoke no english would have if visiting an english speaking country

By: tj

tj — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 07:36:45 +0000

i lived in france and england for ten years combined and ive been to poland and i dont speak polish u will get around if u kno a little bit but ppl in europe are keen on learning english so lots of ppl will be able to direct u around in english but dont expect them to be perfect

By: Allan K

Allan K — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 07:36:45 +0000

my girlfriend is from poland. I think in the major cities and main tourist routes you will find that a good proportion of polish people can speak and understand english quite well (most kids learn it at school along with russian and german) so you shouldn’t have too much trouble communicating I. don’t know about ukraine. Of course it means alot if you learn a few important words and phrases like dzien dobry (pronounced jen-dobreh) dziekuje (jen-koo-yeh) and przeprasam (psheh-prasham) which means hello, thanks and sorry – just to keep the locals sweet

mb3698 – i know what you mean about the narrow roads and risky drivers overtaking on blind corners! Scary stuff!

By: Justin N

Justin N — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 07:36:45 +0000

Im polish i spoke little polish, when i went to pland its easy to get aroud the people there are very helpfyl. like when i was in the airport the kid on the shuttle showed me my passort and half english/ half polish told me to take it out for customs ans showed me where it was. but many many people there speak english. if you try a little polish they will understand and help you.

By: bogdan

bogdan — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 07:36:45 +0000

if you know Ukraine you never gone have problem with polish,also many people speak English’s

By: liker_of_minnesota

liker_of_minnesota — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 07:36:45 +0000

You could get by speaking English as many people in Poland speak English as well as Polish, but a precaution, it is helpful to use a Polish phrasebook or learn the Polish language before you go to Poland. Here are a few phrases.

Czesc-hello
Jak sa mas- how are you
Dobrze- very well

By: Sheila Z

Sheila Z — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 07:36:45 +0000

You should be fine. I live in Poland (about a year now) and speak very little Polish. I have also traveled alot in the former eastern block countries. (It is cheaper than the western part.) Beware – the US dollar is in the dumps, so your conversion rate will stink.

I totally disagree with the comment about buses and trains– you can get to just about any remote place by bus, and the trains run frequently.

By: danigirlnj

danigirlnj — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 07:36:45 +0000

I;m living in Poland for 4 years know(and still counting) and you shouldn’t have a problem with getting around (in big cities of course) because there are plenty of people that will answer you in english
If you have trouble along the way the best places to ask for help you can find in coffee shops or good clothing stores because they mostly not always requier to nkow the english language to have contact with the customer
And yes it would be wise for you to learn some polish and buy a pharse book .

By: maggie

maggie — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 07:36:45 +0000

I’m Polish. Believe me, a lot of Polish people know English, especially younger people (teens, children), because it is now mandatory in school. When Russia was running the Polish government, Russian was mandatory and many of the middle-aged and elderly speak Russian, meanwhile. A lot of products are translated into English and many other common languages on store shelves, and Poland is pretty tech-savvy and you can probably bring a laptop and use programs like Babelfish to translate signs, or just buy some basic language tapes to know how to say basic sentences.