Poland and Lithuania

What do polish people think about lithuania? :)

Poles say very little about Lithuania. I have asked and Poles seem to be very neutral on this matter.

hm... interesting cause a lot of polish people lives in Vilnius :)

Aha, but I bet there aren't many problems. A lot meaning 1,000,000? I doubt it!!

who talks about problems? :)

British people. That's my point. What's ur perception of ur own country in short?

well my own opinion about my country.. i love this place, the place we are (geography) is great, but the people has to grow and learn so much (not saying that all) and the goverment has to work A LOT.

That sounds like many countries really. The Scottish government has improved markedly in recent times tho. Please name me some famous Lithuanians.

haha people who likes basketball all knows Sabonis.

Hmm..(scratches head)

Anyone else?

ok. Mamontovas, Kernagis, Igoris Kofas. Thats people i like here :)

I really don't know much about Lithuania, only in the context of EU Environmental Law policy did I encounter ur approaches to certain matters. U can teach us a lot. Most Poles don't know that much about the Baltic states. They may disagree but they'd be mistaken.

Hey, it used to be Poland: "Litwo, ojczyno moja! Jesteś jak zdrowie." so begins the first line of "Pan Tadeusz" and Adam Mickiewicz was born in Litwa or Lithuania.The Poles consider him Polish, yet he was techincally not born in present-day Poland:)

I agree. I've just had this discussion with my girl (1 min ago) and I think he's Lithuanian too. She, of course, doesn't.

I have drunk Pan Tadeusz and the truth is there.

i dont understand polish. can you translate? :D

Lithuania, my fatherland, u r like health (health-giving)

I think

Please give us some Lithuanian

Well, the first part means simply (actually, nothing is so simple in European history)
'O Lithuania, land of my forefathers....!' The rest is less important to the seemingly endless historical debate: What is this guy? One of them or one of us?

Warmth won't break your bones.

This is a Lithuanian proverb. How do u say it in Lithuanian?

ok, thanks :) lithuanian? Aš nemėgstu istorijos :D

How do u pronounce that phonetically?

its not what you asked, i wrote it and just then saw what you said :D sorry, it means i dont like history :) š letter sounds the same as sh in english and other sounds not sure how to describe..

Mickiewicz was a Pole with Lithuanian roots.

Lithuania is Polish...

a part of it was for a while. I've met many Lithuanians and they have totally different opinion about Polish-Lithuanian relationship. To be honest, it didn't sound like they felt Polish.

Mickiewicz, Polands "National Poet", was actually of Lithuanian birth, yet on historically Polish soil, who might well have evinced partly Jewish ancestry!! :) LOL What a slap in the face to Mościcki, Rydź-Smygły, even Paderewski, and other (though not necessarily anti-semitic) Polish nationalists, who claimed that only a true Pole, i.e. a Catholic, could reflect the 'duch narodowy' of her people.

BZDURA!!!

From what I understand, Poles have a warm but complicated relationship with Lithuania. Together, the two countries formed one of the most powerful nations in Europe and now, they scarcely have anything to do with each other. There is some bitterness becuase some Poles saw Lithuania deserting them and hitching their wagon to Russia, but all and all, I'd say Poles have a deep respect for Lithuania, as their histories intertwine so.

IME Polish people have generally warm feelings toward Lithuania but Lithuanian feelings toward Poland are much more .... complicated. A friend was in Vilnius and noted that a lot of people reacted negatively to Polish people (I've known other visitors who didn't encounter any hostility).

In the 90's there was some friction over the language of education for the Polish minority in Lithuania and the Lithuanian population in Poland. Both are theoretically bilingual but strongly wanted as much education as possible in their native language and not the national language. I think that's mostly been resolved. There was also an attempt to force Poles in Lithuania to adopt Lithuanian names but that didn't get very far and a compromise was worked out.

Some years ago there was an interview with someone from the Lithuanian government who said that there's a tendency in Lithuania to see Poland as more of a cultural threat than Russia. The reasoning is that Russian language and culture were forced on them and resistence was strong enough that they could be accomodated. On the other hand there was a long history of self-Polonization in some parts of Lithuanian society (Mickiewicz and Miłosz both came from Polish speaking Lithuanian families) so it was felt to be the bigger threat.

Also, at some point Lithuania modified it's alphabet to make it less like Polish and more like Czech (with letters like ž, è and š instead of ż, cz and sz)

FWIW

Sabonis could be a Pole.

I know Sabonis.. he played for the Portland Trailblazers in the 90's. Good guy but he never learned English which made interviews interesting. Without Sabonis the Soviets dont win so many titles.

lol :) Fear that their citizens are going to chose Polish heriatge and be Polish is unsupported. From the other hand, very interesting :P Poland has beautiful history :)

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I like Lithuania.