UK, Ireland / ARE BRITS MEANER AND LESS HOSPITABLE THAN POLES? [79]

I just went round to a neighbour's house to borrow the spare key. An hour an a half later I emerged after two cups of tea, a long natter and with a free bag of kiwi fruits (Actinidia chinensis).


Yawn yawn yawn.

Life / Indian moved to Poland [532]

I actually met an Indian chap in Warsaw a few years ago. It was at some big Christian event (no, not my usual cup of tea). I was unused to the idea of an Indian Christian, and even less used to an Indian in those kind of circumstances who doesn't speak a word of English. I think he spoke French.

post edited to save the relevant bit from Randomisation

Life / Indian moved to Poland [532]

Back to something a little closer to the original subject, I spotted an Indian family wondering around the town square in £omża. Quite striking to see a sari in such a place. Now if you want to stick out as a tourist...

Language / Cases: What is Nominative or Accusative and when do I use those? [14]

The word "what" can crop up again and again just with different prepositions, so when it appears on its own, it is ambiguous. I'm fairly used to seeing it put this way, so I am getting used to it, although I learn the cases by knowing ways of actually using them. I hope I'm not just babbling away pointlessly (although I do this a lot).

An example of how to use these cases, that doesn't fit in with this scheme:

Czego szukasz? - "What are you looking for?" rather than "Of what are you looking for?"

However, help is always appreciated.

Language / Cases: What is Nominative or Accusative and when do I use those? [14]


This seems to be a common way for Polish people to describe cases. I'm not convinced it's a useful method for English speakers.

UK, Ireland / ARE BRITS MEANER AND LESS HOSPITABLE THAN POLES? [79]


Yes, but you didn't quite catch what I meant. Better than catching some nasopharyngital germs I suppose.

UK, Ireland / ARE BRITS MEANER AND LESS HOSPITABLE THAN POLES? [79]

Guilt where guilt is due, but nowhere else please. Mea culpa.

If you enter someone else's house, eat their food and drink their vodka, you want to give something in return, especially when they can't appreciate your great English wit! Oh well, perhaps that's actually a blessing in disguise. I keep them entertained, and I think I'm going to cook them all something next weekend (that's if I survive this weekend).

UK, Ireland / ARE BRITS MEANER AND LESS HOSPITABLE THAN POLES? [79]


No. I feel guilty about not buying anything and I just hope they understand how guilty I feel.


How could I not be aware of that?

UK, Ireland / ARE BRITS MEANER AND LESS HOSPITABLE THAN POLES? [79]

I assume also that they should understand feelings of guilt - something that seems quite common amongst Catholics I've met.

UK, Ireland / ARE BRITS MEANER AND LESS HOSPITABLE THAN POLES? [79]


I had a tough time in £omża when attempting to buy a round of beers for my drinking companions. They all wanted to give me the money. I always find it difficult buying beer for Polish people. When I'm visiting friends, they also give me the money for the beer if I go to buy some, even though I feel it's the least I can do to pay for drinks in return for their hospitality.

If you regularly visit people, is it okay to bring some drink with you? I've heard that Australians have no problem with people bringing food to throw on someone else's a barbeque they're attending, but I'd be horrified by that idea. Could Poles be a bit like that with drink? That you're kind of insulting the level of their hospitality by providing someone yourself?

UK, Ireland / Here comes the Anti-Immigration marches.... [114]


What about unqualified Brits? What about Brits with families? What about Brits with mortgages?
What about equality?

Playing on some sort of "guilty for only being able to speak English" is no argument here.
I know I have the ability to learn another language enough to be able to work somewhere else, but I am (like most people) not available to just get up and move. Also, I happen to hold no qualifications, just a vast knowledge of the line of work I am in right now. My best bet is to stay exactly where I am (half way up in a small company where I won't be one of the first to go). Sadly for me, the first to go seem to have been my Polish colleagues who were only taken on through an agency. But that's no headline.

Language / Teaching polish to my baby [6]

If you speak Polish at home, that's the best start. The only problem could be too much exposure to one language to the detriment of the language of every day life in the outside world. One good compromise would be Polish in the house and English (I assume) everywhere else. That would help to keep it clearly defined which language is being spoken when. Don't forget to read stories too!

Language / Rok vs. Lat [30]

I have a tendency to imitate. I was asked about some sort of "rok" so I responded with a "rok" but it turned out it should have been a "lat", or possibly a "lata". As I've forgotten the example, I won't even know for next time.

UK, Ireland / TRUTH AND DELUSION ABOUT POLES IN UK [65]


I was too young to go paddy-bashing back then. It does actually suprise me. It's the sort of thing I could imagine from the 1950s or before.

UK, Ireland / TRUTH AND DELUSION ABOUT POLES IN UK [65]

A friend of mine in a very Polish town could be beginning to feel the disillusionment. Perhaps when more of the more mobile Poles move back to Poland, there will be less competition for jobs. When there are a lot of jobs around, being able to speak English is of lower importance than now when there is a lot more competition. Anyone want to hire a Polish-speaking driver / horticultural manual labourer?


In all my life, I have never seen or even heard of such a thing. Which decade are we talking about? Perhaps which century?

Genealogy / OBSCENE/FUNNY POLISH SURNAMES [5]

I know there are some funny Dutch surnames like that. Are people putting themselves down as Jedi as well?


What about Kutak? Looks dangerously close.

What about Głowaboli?

Quirky, humourous surnames are common in Dutch, where people have names with meanings like "born naked" or "little sh!t". This was due to people there not having surnames until the idea was imposed on them under Napoleon. People there didn't think surnames would stick and allegedly that's why it happened in the Netherlands. Could there be a similar reason for these odd Polish surnames?

Language / Pan/Pani...usage changes for case distiction? [23]

I am editing in these first two sentences after posting the rest of it. Wait for a professional because I may have omitted some important information or even made one or two mistakes.


jestem, jesteś, jest, są...
pod, nad (under, over - not so common when talking about persons)
z (with - quite a common one this, I reckon)


Often used with negation, but also with some verbs where one might expect accusitive.
Bez... (without...)
Nie ma... (This isn't...)
Szukać... (to look for...)


I don't know. Fall back on this one if the thing or person is the subject of the sentence.

Love / KISSING ON THE LIPS (problem with my Polish in-laws) [17]

The number might actually balance out if you put them all together and divide by 10.

Love / KISSING ON THE LIPS (problem with my Polish in-laws) [17]

To those who say that it is not normal for family members to kiss on the lips, I have two responses:

1. In most parts of the family, I really would not expect it.
2. I would hope husband and wife to kiss on the lips. I know things can often change when couples get married, but one would hope that this isn't something that would come to an end.

By the way, how many fingers do they have between them?

UK, Ireland / TRUTH AND DELUSION ABOUT POLES IN UK [65]


I wouldn't say that there was no choice for many Poles. I have worked with Poles who already had jobs in Poland before leaving (eg. mechanic, schoolteacher) and some who could not find work where they were living in Poland. Nobody forced them to choose the UK. Moving to another part of Poland may have been enough for some. Many chose to do all the necessary paperwork, others either didn't know or didn't care, but to get a reasonable job, proper worker registration is essential.

UK, Ireland / TRUTH AND DELUSION ABOUT POLES IN UK [65]


Who would accept a job with no contract? Who would move to another country to work without bothering to go through all the correct procedures? I have known one or two, but I know that if I were to move abroad, I wouldn't put myself at such risk.

I've seen some Poles living in very cramped conditions yet others who try and even succeed in living a reasonably comfortable life here.

News / WHAT POLISH THINGS COULD/SHOULD BE EXPORTED? [27]

No. Some of Britain's ales are the best. German and Belgian beers are pretty good. Some Polish beers are very nice, and a refreshing alternative to many of the standard brands found in supermarkets. Have you actually tried Polish beer, noimmigration?

USA, Canada / WHY SO FEW POLISH RESTAURANTS IN AMERICA? [44]


You've never eaten any of my fine cooking!

I just get fed [sic] up with people making derisory remarks about British food, when all they do is talk about processed food and this-and-that with chips. I never cook chips, only occasionally have chips from the chippy. I never eat processed food, but other than the faux-Mediterranean things I cook, everything I do make in my kitchen is English, none of it with chips, very little of it slop.

I've eaten loads of delicious Polish food, but much of this on special occasions. After a while, the basic day-to-day fayre is not particularly interesting, although I do appreciate how many good recipes have survived the years.

I had haggis, swede and mashed potato this evening, served without whisky, but with a whisky-based sauce. Tomorrow I will probably have roast pheasant, with moussaka or some sort of pasta-with-bolognese, maybe a quiche or something later in the week.

I WANT MY FISH FINGERS AND CHIPS! My Osiol!

USA, Canada / WHY SO FEW POLISH RESTAURANTS IN AMERICA? [44]


This isn't about processed food versus home cooked food. Just because America is supposed to be the land of junk food and fast food, with the UK close behind, it doesn't mean they are our respective national dishes. I find the popular Polish kotlety with mashed potato particularly uninspiring, just as much British food is also uninspiring. That doesn't mean neither country can't come up with some absolutely splendid dishes. Lir, you were raised in a Polish family, so you never had good quality British food, so just being raised in this country doesn't make you an expert, I am sorry to say.

Surely there is plenty of good food and good restaurants in the US. You might just have to look a little harder to find them lurking behind all the fast food outlets that not every American actually eats in.

Feedback / How come we can not delete our own posts ? And other questions... [26]

I think it's better to know that someone has said something, then removed the content rather than the whole post. But then "bad" posts are moved away and eventually deleted, sometimes dragging otherwise reasonable responses with them.

Feedback / How come we can not delete our own posts ? And other questions... [26]


en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_post

I don't remember a time one didn't have to type something when using the URL button.
I feel I am missing something here.......

UK, Ireland / Rise in race crimes linked to attacks on Poles [50]

A former workmate of mine made the mistake of stepping into an altercation between a man and his girlfriend on a station platform that was turning nasty. Because the violent man was of another colour, when the police arrived, my former workmate was arrested, charged and found guilty of racially-motivated affray. Incidents like this add to the numbers of so-called racially-motivated crimes. It undermines notions of equality. On the other hand, I am yet to see trouble between Polish and British people with my own eyes. That doesn't mean I don't believe it exists, but I do rhetorically ask: "What makes news?"

UK, Ireland / Polish Communism Attacking England? [9]

I work for a small company that deals mainly with even smaller companies. We have less than 50 employees (sometimes a few of these are Polish) and most of our customers are self-employed people, and very few employ more than five or six people. In many sectors of business, anything approaching the communist model (whatever that is) are impossible. Now talk about the NHS or something and that's a different game entirely. But then, numbers bigger than about 12 mean very little to me. We people of the soil are simple folk.

Genealogy / Why would someone lie about their age? [26]


I agree, but I still think it is likely that people would have lied about their age to get into the army.

Language / Ponieważ and "bo wcześniej " [11]

I thought że was that (which can be the same as therefore, but usually isn't).
Wherefore all this confusion?