I’ve just seen this (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ad0OisgcPc4) and wondered if Czech people can understand Polish, perhaps not just in a face to face conversation including no face time or Skype where body language is present, I mean how far can a conversation on the phone in which he or she only speaks Polish, knowing the fact they have a phone number from Poland.
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I’d say that it’s something between 70-80% for me when it comes to listening. When it comes to writing, I’d say that it’s around 50-65%. This of course might differ for other Czechs though.
On a phone call it would be maybe 10 % of words to me…
I can somehow understand written, but almost none of spoken.
Ne
We tried it with our Polish friends and we understood about 70 percent. They understood Czech about 40-50 percent. We were wondering why and we figured out it might be because we understand Slovak…
I live in Prague so far from borders and I feel completely lost in Polish! I would get a word here or there but would fail to understand the message.
No way.
Not really. If you speak really slowly (as in word by word), we probably will get the general message you are trying to get across, missing out on some detail. With Polish spoken at regular pace – I think most people will only understand like 10% of what you are saying.
No
With little practice yes, for people from around the border it’s pretty common and easy to understand each other. From what I was told maybe bit easier for us than for Polish, similarly to Portugal and Spain.
I mostly can, surprised to see lot of people say they can’t
I can understand around 90%, however, that’s because of years of prior exposure to the Polish language. (I live in Silesia.)
Both spoken and written, I can only understand the common words between the two languages, but I’d never know what exactly you’re saying.
I live in Polish ghetto and still can barely understand 😀
I have not been exposed to Polish language and to me it is unintelligible when I encounter it first. It takes some time and adjustment to understand it.
Written Polish is hard to read. I would need google translate to read https://wyborcza.pl/0,0.html. I had neighbors who were originally from Poland and we communicated in English.
Largely depends on where in Czechia you live
If you live in Czech Silesia, then you will understand the point of almost every sentence and most of the confusion will be from different meaning of similar words
Only “kurwa”
Bardzo ciężko, prawie nic mnie zrozumieją. Potrzeba tak że dwóch, tych tygodni żeby się przestawić i już wtedy idzie lepiej.
W tym filmiku to na przykład widząc że ten facet w pomarańczowej kurtce miał jakieś kontakty z polskim.
Source: ja, mieszkam w Pradze
Yes. Some of us do to some extend.
We can deduct based on the written form and also basically how the word is similar, but no, personally, I would not understand polish person, at least the spoken Polish language.
It very much depends on the vocabulary used. Say a basic sentences with words sharing similar roots in both languages and people can understand 100 %. Use vocabulary that has no similar roots or very little and people will understand 10 % to none. It is that simple.
With polish people in the room I usually understand the topic of the conversation, sometimes even details, so I would estimate I understand 50-100% of the words being used. I dont know how much worse It can be with a call.
As others pointed out in other comments, the extent of understanding is influenced by the person’s background, place of living and exposure to Slovak, which in my opinion definately helps.