History / Poland and Lithuania [161]

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!!!

History / Poland and Lithuania [161]

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?

History / Poland and Lithuania [161]

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:)

UK, Ireland / Intercultural experiences of Polish migrants who work and live in the UK [26]

"In Poland they talk about WWII, Wałęsa, Piłsudski etc......"

.....that is, more about intellectual rather than the submental stuff which passes for conversation in most of the States, if the people are under thirty!!

One person's 'being stuck in' is another's 'being in touch with'. Hard to say which way is better. Will say this though; need an antidote for insomnia, just turn on US prime time entertainment. It'll put ya out like a light.

Is there really much of a contest as to which is more worthwhile discussing, Brad Pitt's underwear size vs. the merits of Mickiewicz vs. Victor Hugo??

I rest my case. I'm an efite snob, you'd say?? You f_ _ _ _ _ g bet I am, and proud of it. At least one of us $%^&*bastards will stand up and admit it!!

Apologies for the rant, folks. Little meltdown here :) he-he
No hard feelings. (Guess I needed to take my medication, just kiddin') LOL

Actually, the rising tide of mediocrity has long since crested. So I guess, the best thing to do in that case would be to just sit back and enjoy the ride (...to Hell in a handbasket...) -:)

Life / Polish movies - what they are like? [34]

Early Wajda and Andrzejewski, from the fifties up until the early to mid-sixties, really do it for me. I find they reflect the 'Polish soul' (dusza Polskiej) more than other directors from a later era. Perhaps though, later films show the state of turmoil in which Poland has found itself post-Solidariność.

'Popiół i Diamanty' or 'Kanał' though, are, for me, the most riveting post-war Polish films. Are you familiar with an old wartime film from the fourties, 'Zakazane Piosenki', featuring many resistance songs, among them, the 'Warszawianka'?

UK, Ireland / Intercultural experiences of Polish migrants who work and live in the UK [26]

You get five Poles together into one room, you'll have six (or if you're lucky, only seven LOL) different opinions.

I've found most Poles, at least from the intelligentsia (hardly an oxymoron any longer :) ), to be contagiously emotional and often get worked up over nationalistic topics. During heated discussions, when Poles feel they are in danger of losing their national identity, it seems the words from the first line of their national anthem 'Jeszcze Polska nie zginęła' or the phrase 'Niech żyjye Rzeczpospolita Polskiej!' practically draw tears from many eyes, in a way ridiculously unimaginable from any present country I can think of.

In brief, Poles seem more in touch with their history than Americans or English people. Maybe I'm wrong.

UK, Ireland / Intercultural experiences of Polish migrants who work and live in the UK [26]

You're right, Osiol. 'Anglo-American' would have been a better choice :) After all, most Americans, at least where I'm from, are hardly 'Anglo', much less 'Saxon' LOL

Language / Correct Polish spelling [69]

Even, though admittedly rather old-fashioned nowadays: "Paniusiu!" from the rather plain, formal 'Pani' etc.

Hungarian as well as German both do something similar, but not as charmingly :)-:)

Language / Correct Polish spelling [69]

...and in the endearing diminutive 'Kasiu!'. Poles, like other Slavs, go nuts over these affectionate forms, from bosom buddies to close relatives: 'Mama > Mamo > Mamusiu!' and so forth :)

UK, Ireland / Intercultural experiences of Polish migrants who work and live in the UK [26]

Patrycjiu! :)

I'd be glad to 'go on', it's only that the differences are so much greater on the surface from, say, Brits/Yanks vs. Germans or Swedes, f.ex. that it's not a simple answer.

The key differences lie in the sense of humor between the Poles and the Anglo-Saxon/American people. I get most of the jokes, yet they are really untranslatable, i.e. untransferrable into a non-Polish context!

Language / Correct Polish spelling [69]

....likewise: Barbara - Basia = Barb or Babs
Katarzyna - Kasia = Kate or Kat
Elżbieta - Eliza = Liz
Halina - Lina = Halie
Danuta - Danka = no English equivalent! etc.

UK, Ireland / Intercultural experiences of Polish migrants who work and live in the UK [26]

No, wiele różnicy kulturalne jest między Polakami i Amerikanymi, prawdopodobnie jak w Anglii.

Continuing in English (posting rules here at PF), there are numerous differences, such as the tendency to more indirect in the Anglo-Saxon culture regarding disagreements, whereas Polesm like many continental Europeans, tend to be much more direct.

This post could go on and on, so I'l stop now:)

Language / Correct Polish spelling [69]

Keith, there's 'Kasia' and 'Kazia'. Both are diminutives for different names.

Life / How do you Poles feel about the fact that so many Poles work abroad? [145]

On the front page of today's NYTimes there's an interesting article of the large number of Polish immigrants working in Ireland. Apparently, as the Irish birthrate sags, for the first time lamost ever, the Poles, rather than leaving due to lack of work, are staying instead, doing the odd jobs the young, upwardly mobile Irish, don't want to do.

Quite a switch from generations past, when it was usually just the opposite; the Irish were poor and emigrated to the UK or the US to get work. Since the Celtic Tiger began roaring after the nuclear energy as well as the Internet boom of the 90's, the situation has reversed itself and now the Irish are staying at home, while others from abroad, such as the Poles and the Romanians, come to Ireland in search of better jobs and and economic prosperity!

Language / Polish Conditionals (okresy warunkowe or zdania warunkowe) [23]

Michał, I've found the Americans use the conditional even more than the Brits: 'If I WERE you.' (US) vs. 'If I WAS you. (UK)

Language / Correct Polish spelling [69]


I second that, having known many Russians and Poles whom I only knew by their nicknames, Gosia, Kasia, Stanek, Lolek, Bartek, Dima, Leira, Grischa etc.

Language / Pronunciation difference between Ź and Ż / RZ [83]

I only hope that others in this forum using it to 'bone up' on their English skills take your advice equally to heart. When in Poland for the first time, I encountered so-called "English-language" students from the local university whose pronunciation was dreadful!! When I corrected them (after they took great liberties to correct my Polish, also unsolicited, by the way LOL) they replied that theirs was the standard way they recall having heard it. Trust me, it sounded more like a cut-rate imitation of President Bush singing country-western than the correct official American broadcaster diction of Walter Cronkite, Charles Collingwood etc. They, however, merrily insisted I was wrong and they were right :)

Now, is that the tail wagging the dog, or what?

I miswrote yesterday. I meant 'potoczna mowa', not 'wymowa potrawna' which of course makes no sense:)

Language / Pronunciation difference between Ź and Ż / RZ [83]

Tak clouddancer, masz rację a orthographia nie jest samo też. Ale wymowa potrawa jest prawie samo, n.p. 'potrzebuję' jak 'poczebuję' itd.

Colloquial phoneme reduction often elides consonant clusters in ordinary speech.

Language / Pronunciation difference between Ź and Ż / RZ [83]

This entire thread reminds us of how 'phonetic' Polish is :) --:)LOL!!!!

Trzy muwisz po polskó?

Boli mi rząb!
etc.....

News / What does Poland mean to you? [66]

I heard a talk in the early 199o's given by the one-time Polish Consul in New York, the late Wojciech Adamiecki, on the rather discursive subject (in Polish!): 'Polsko, dokąd idziesz?' (Polonia quo vadis?) In his lecture, he asked the same rhetorical question, not expecting an answer. He said that what Poland meant to him, was that of a nation/state overcoming its recent past, tackling the Jewish question, bracing for the future. Not being an English speaker, I thought him a rather odd choice for Consul in such a multi-cultural area as Manhattan. I then realized that, like Karol Wojtyła, he had his own struggles with the above issues.

When I finally went to Poland several years later, I met many Poles who, like Adamiecki, were eager to shed Poland's image as a backwater and xenophobic country.

This is what Poland means to me!

Language / Polish Onomateopia [26]

A good one too! Sounds that way to me as well :)

Language / Polish Onomateopia [26]

Come to think of it, 'brzmieć' = to buzz, make a noise/sound, as in the famous and oft repeated Polish tongue twister (łamacz językowy) is actually onomotopaeic. It almost does sound like buzzing, when pronounced correctly by a native speaker, of course -:)

Language / czy../trzy.. - Full assimilation in Polish [22]

Bondi,

I don't speak Hungarian really, but I'm sure that there are examples of consonant clusters in that language, e.g. spelled 'RakoCZi', but pronounced 'Rakotsi' or the family name 'Czerny', pronounced 'Tserny' etc. As far as standard assimilation, would you consider 'ny', elided as in 'Dohany', spoken as though it were 'dawwhAYn', rather than 'dawhani', etc.?

Language / What's the difference between 'swoje' & 'moje'? [35]

Same as in many languages, except for English. German, for instance too: "Ich putz' mir g'rad' die Zaehne!" = I'm brushing my (lit. 'THE') teeth right now!

Language / What's the difference between 'swoje' & 'moje'? [35]

'Moje' means 'my' for the neuter singular and plural inanimate nouns, i.e. 'moje książki' (not: 'moi studenci' etc.) 'Swoje' is reflexive 'it's', 'his' 'hers'. E.g. 'Ona ma swoją książkę.' (She has her own book), not 'Ona ma jej książkę.' = She has some other female's book.

Language / The words kres, skraj, granica - synonyms? [10]

Much appreciated, as always! I was thinking the same regarding the latter e.g. 'naD RenEM' (on the Rhine, i.e. along the banks of the Rhine) etc.

Language / The words kres, skraj, granica - synonyms? [10]

However 'brzeg' can also translate as 'edge', though perhaps more in the sense of 'river bank'/ the river's edge. I have often seen 'na brzegu rzeka' = on the bank(s) of the river.

Language / czy../trzy.. - Full assimilation in Polish [22]

Probably! My error. -:) :) LOL

Language / czy../trzy.. - Full assimilation in Polish [22]

I recently glimpsed through a "Dictionary of Highlander Polish" (Słownik Gwara Góralskiej) and saw that on the pages after pages of listing all the variations between standard and mountain words, Polish 'zegar' is rendered as 'godzinnek' in the Highlander dialect.

How cute, I remember thinking! -:)

Language / czy../trzy.. - Full assimilation in Polish [22]

The mountain regions of Poland as well, the so-called 'Góral'/Tatry area, are said to speak a Polish at tremendous variance from the Warsaw standard. Here though, is more a question of dialect usage rather than pure slang, I should think!