Living in an environment where people speak another language, makes you reflect a lot on the human ability to learn different languages...I've already noted that Poles seem quite devoted to becoming multilingual, with languages being taught in schools at a very young age, and private language schools all over the place. I've also noted that they seem quite shy to try to speak English even when they have studied it and can read and understand it. I'm told they are afraid to make a mistake. This is too bad, because if you don't speak, you can't communicate and you never develop your speaking ability.
On the other hand, I've been willing to try to use Polish (although I've only been learning the language for less than a year) in various situations, including posts on this blog. I've noted that cab drivers, and many others have often (kindly) corrected my grammatical errors, but it makes me hesitant to use my Polish because I'm afraid someone will always correct me. (Although I appreciate efforts to correct my Polish, corrections without explanations are not very helpful).
This whole issue of making mistakes (my fear and the Polish concern) is a real problem to for people trying to communicate. When concern about verb tense or word form gets in the way of sharing ideas, its a loss for everyone involved. It results in everyone speaking and sharing less, and not knowing each other as well. Adam even stopped trying to use Polish on his facebook page several weeks after we arrived because some of the kids made fun of his grammar.
Don't worry, Poles are too sensitive about language.
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