Polish becomes England's second language

[Martinus]

Now that I think about it, one of the guys is named Vlad and I don't think that's a Polish name.  But I have seen him talking to another guy who I KNOW is Polish (his name is Wojciech) in what I assumed was the same horrific-sounding language.  Is it possible that some Slavic languages are mutually intelligible?

Slavic is the last major Indo-European language group to diverge into different languages back around 1000AD, so I'd think so.

Very good, Timmy. This works more or less as you would guess-Czech-Polish-Rusyn& Ukrainian-Russian. One can often understand simple conversations to the left or right, and many have education in Russian.  South Slavic languages are a bit different due Balkan influence.

Russian and Polish are not similar (not sure if that's what you are saying or not) as they belong to different language groups. Polish, Czech and Ukrainian can be understood mutually, though.

Ukrainian sounds very harsh to native Polish speakers - it has very "hard" pronunciation, compared to Polish.

[Syt]

Heck, most native Brits are barely intelligible. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BncDeMO_en0

[CountDeMoney]

I think we found the source of Britain's productivity decline mystery.

Considering Poland has one of the faster growing economies in the EU, not sure what it is.

Piling rocks must be an improvement over the usual mud farming.

[Grinning_Colossus]

Now that I think about it, one of the guys is named Vlad and I don't think that's a Polish name.  But I have seen him talking to another guy who I KNOW is Polish (his name is Wojciech) in what I assumed was the same horrific-sounding language.  Is it possible that some Slavic languages are mutually intelligible?

Slavic is the last major Indo-European language group to diverge into different languages back around 1000AD, so I'd think so.

Very good, Timmy. This works more or less as you would guess-Czech-Polish-Rusyn& Ukrainian-Russian. One can often understand simple conversations to the left or right, and many have education in Russian.  South Slavic languages are a bit different due Balkan influence.

Russian and Polish are not similar (not sure if that's what you are saying or not) as they belong to different language groups. Polish, Czech and Ukrainian can be understood mutually, though.

They're East and West Slavic, respectively, but then the same is true of Ukrainian and Polish. If Polish and Ukrainian are mutually intelligible, and Ukrainian and Russian are as well, then they can't be that distantly related.

[mongers]

I really hate the sound of Polish, but Russian has a real bipolar charm to it, and Czech has a harsh near-Celtic  appeal. I just love the Czechs, though. Favorite small European people.

Especially as they invented Chess and always want to be you best friend. 

[Queequeg]

Russian and Polish are not similar (not sure if that's what you are saying or not) as they belong to different language groups. Polish, Czech and Ukrainian can be understood mutually, though.

Ukrainian sounds very harsh to native Polish speakers - it has very "hard" pronunciation, compared to Polish.

I meant one to the left or right.  I'd be surprised if Czechs could understand Ukrainian that well.

Most of the Slavic languages aren't that far off.  The Slavic migration out of eastern Poland/western Ukraine/Belarus only happened about 1400 years ago.