Actually: This word is a false friend because in English it does not mean something is happening now. Instead it is used to say that something is true despite surprise or disbelief. If someone’s dream was to visit Budapest, they might say that they couldn’t believe they would actually have the chance to finally go after they had bought the FlixBus tickets.
Note that misusing this word could lead to some accidental rudeness. For example, a Polish person might reply to the question when something would be ready by saying that “I am actually working on it”. They would mean that they were preparing it at that moment, but it could come across as quite passive aggressive or sarcastic to an English speaker since it would sound like they thought the person asking the question had assumed they had been neglecting it.
A good adverb to use instead of aktualnie is currently, and if it had been used in the example above, it would have been fine.
Propose: Proponować actually does have a fairly similar meaning to to propose in English (see what I did there?). But in English, this word is used quite rarely and in quite specific ways, the main three being business proposals, wedding proposals, and the early 90s drama starring Robert Redford, Demi Moore and Woody Harrelson, Indecent Proposal. So it can be a bit surprising when a friend or client in Poland proposes to me. Note as well that a business proposal is specifically a written offer from a seller to a prospective buyer and not just any offer.
A better way to say proponować in English would be to suggest.
Solution
In English, solutions are only used to fix or solve specific problems. For example, if you want to make pancakes but you don’t have any milk, or you are facing twenty years in prison for a crime you didn’t commit. I hear a lot of people talk about things like finding a solution to make an IT system faster or a bureaucratic process easier, but unless it was broken before, that is really just making an improvement, which is the word you should use instead.
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When I proofread emails or presentations for my Polish clients, I often see them telling their own clients what they will try to do, or what they would like to achieve. Typical examples would be something like “We want to get the best possible results” or “We aim to satisfy our partners”. You should not do this.
In the UK, we often contrast success with effort. When I was in high school, nearly every child got a prize at the end of the year. The ones who had done well got one for achievement, and the rest got one for effort. We even have sayings like that it doesn’t matter how successful you are as long as you try your hardest and that what is important isn’t whether you win or lose but how you play the game. This probably isn’t how your clients feel though. They would probably expect you to win.
So in English language culture, talking about what you try to do, implies that you think you may not manage. When you talk about what you hope to achieve, you aren’t trying to lower expectations and mitigate the loss of face your likely failure will cause by stressing how good your intentions were, but you kind of sound like you are. You’re not insecure about your work, so how can you avoid coming across like someone who posts a lot on social media about how proud of their personal growth they are?
Will-power
Don’t tell people what you want to achieve, tell them what you will. In the first example I gave at the start of this article, having said “We will get the best possible results” would have sent a much stronger message without accidentally implying some lack of confidence or possibility of failure on your part. In a lot of other cases, the phrase referring to your intentions can simply be omitted, such as in the second example where “We satisfy our partners” would be enough, aim to only adding doubt.
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