Feedback / The "Poland Polls" feature has been released [18]

I haven't seen the original questions of Kowalski, but this poll about "mean Poles" sucks big time. It's like asking have you ever met a fat person in a country of 40 million? What's the point of such questions? Are we supposed to be Pleasantville or what?

Food / Russian pirogi ("pierogi ruskie") or Polish pierogi? [15]

as Seanus explained "pierogi ruskie" is just one type of pierogi (with the filling he described), besides centuries ago "ruski" (Ruthenian, today's Ukrainian or partly Bielorussian) could be simply referring to eastern parts of Poland (just like Mazovian, Silesian etc.), because those lands were incorporated into the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

UK, Ireland / Tracking a package from Poland to the UK / Delivery time [3]

pocztex.pl/dokl_inf_telef.php

after you type in the parcel number and click SZUKAJ (Search)
you'll see another window with the following info:

Parcel number: xxxxxxxxxxx
Shipping country: Wielka Brytania
Destination country: Poland
Received:

and below:
Events regarding the parcel:
Data (Date)
Godzina (Hour)
Miejsce zdarzenia (Location of the event)
Zdarzenie (Event)
Informacje dodatkowe (Additional information)

Life / Dungeons & Dragons - big in Poland?/Who here plays it [45]

you mean the board game?
probably not played at all Poland (although heard about, because of various references in Hollywood movies or US TV series)

Life / How much is a bag of chips in Poland? [28]

LOL @ this whole thread, communication breakdown

anyway, I bought today a bag of chips (especially for this thread, well, not really, but I had an excuse): 33 grams, (Frito Lays, Paprika flavour), 1.00 złoty.

Life / Receiving UK TV in Krakow [20]


220-230 V, 50-60 Hz

plugs:

Life / How much is a bag of chips in Poland? [28]

still not helping :)
I can eat both 22 grams bag or 50 grams at once, no such thing as "single serving" in Poland.

If I asked how much for a beer in US, what would you answer?

(I'd be having in mind 0.5 l bottle, as it's the most popular size, but I guess your first thought could be different, don't know if you buy beers mostly in 0.5 l bottles, but I guess not)

Life / How much is a bag of chips in Poland? [28]


and what the heck is that? how are we supposed to answer such question :)
do you have chips sold in one size bag only?
in Poland the prices start at 0.70-1.00 zł (for a 20-22 grams bag)

Life / Children's clothing in Poland? [14]


you mean 2 grosze (not 2 złote)?
btw, in Poland we rather say "moje 3 grosze"

Genealogy / Female names ending in 'A'.... why? [23]


only if you have a typical Polish surname ending in -ski, -cki, -dzki, and even then she would rather have a choice, because it would complicate her life abroad, and with you being a foreign citizen, I guess the rules would allow her to receive your surname in an unaltered form.

Generally (for official purposes) only the surnames ending in -ski/-ska and -cki/-cka and -dzki/-dzka (in total about 35% of Polish surnames) have different forms for males females.

Surnames like (I mention only top 20 entries from the most popular Polish surnames list, but the rule is the same) Nowak, Wójcik, Woźniak, Mazur, Krawczyk, Kaczmarek have only 1 form, no matter what sex is the person.

A more complicated situation exists with surnames that are adjectives (addjective in Polish normally have different forms for each gender), some of them them are used in both (m/f) forms, some (it's probably a newer trend) only in the base (masculin) form, it's probably up to the person who carries such surname to decide what version she wants in her documents, but I'm not sure (I don't know the laws in that matter).

For example
Biały/Biała (= White)
Czarny/Czarna (= Black)

Historically most (maybe all) surnames existed in feminine forms, for example:
Nowak - Nowakowa (wife) - Nowakówna (daughter).
You can find them even in the writings from before WWII.
Today, these forms are still in use in everyday language (the "daughter form" mostly by older people), but not for official purposes.

Language / Difference between Polish Imperf. and Perf. forms "pierdolic" [58]

perfective - imperfective verbs have been discussed on this forum several times.
Of course it's a extended argument, but if you need more info and would like to know a little more - use the search function or simply browse this section (Grammar & Pronunciation) and maybe also the other (General Polish Language) for some older threads.


that's highly exaggerated (thus confusing for beginners or intermediate learners), it may have some humoristic value, but still you're not helping :)

Travel / Looking for a good b&b or resonably priced hotel in Nieporęt area [9]


I never said that!

The whole scene is a 90-second dialogue, between the main character and the military guy who transports all this equipment on a horse-car, but we don't see the actual of Nieporęt. Still, Zezowate szczęście is a famous comedy, produced in 1960, so most people would have seen at least once in their lifetime.

Genealogy / Female names ending in 'A'.... why? [23]

about a woman marrying a man named Polański - she would change her surname to:
Polańska - if the marriage was in Poland (according to Polish law)
Polański - if the marriage was outside of Poland (according to foreign law), simply because in USA, UK, Germany etc. you don't have this male/female distinction, so the law doesn't allow such female forms as -ska, -cka.

The Czech and Slovak citizens had problems because of this a while ago, some hotels in the tourist resorts (in more strict islamic countries) didn't want to accept a couple checking in as for example Mr. Hantuch and Ms. Hantuchova, because they thought those were 2 separate surnames.

About Boniek - the female form would be Bońkowa, but that's what you could hear in colloquial speech only, especially among older people, normally she would be called Boniek, without any changes.

About given names, I have no idea why all female names (both of Slavic and Latin or other origins) end in -a, must be some medieval tradition. But the -a ending is the most natural ending for the female gender (not only in Polish, also Latin, Italian, Spanish) so it was quite natural. For the male gender nouns/adjective there's no one such dominant ending (-e, -o, consonant) partially because most languages dropped the neuter gender, preasent in the Latin, and merged it mostly with male gender.

Currently, however, you're allowed to use different names, (for example Carmen/Karmen), which don't end in -a.

Travel / Looking for a good b&b or resonably priced hotel in Nieporęt area [9]

it's an old movie (a comedy), the Nieporęt scene is set during WWII and there's a dialogue with a guy who's going in circles around Zegrze with some modern military equipemnt (which can't be opened, because there's noone to give such order), so he just goes (for days) to Nieporęt, then to Struga, then to Praga (part of Warsaw, on the right bank of Vistula), and then back to Nieporęt, then to Struga, and then to Praga :)

sorry for off topic, but I don't really know the area, so I don't have more useful info for you

History / Zygmunt Szendzielarz, Polish Innocence [25]


LOL, Magda you must have forgotten how the Russians write "history" in their (school) books.

Travel / Looking for a good b&b or resonably priced hotel in Nieporęt area [9]

Nieporęt
haven't you seen "Zezowate szczęście"?

News / When the currency of Poland to change into Euro? [14]

that's a misquoting, I didn't write that :)

News / When the currency of Poland to change into Euro? [14]

not before your trip:


rather 2011-2013, but it's not sure

Language / Adjective and adverb comparison [19]


I disagree, they sound strange (and aren't used often), but they exist.

USA, Canada / PL Organizations against in Visa Waiver Program [9]

With the current US visa politics only the really desperate people care about a trip to the US, so they do whatever it takes to obtain one, because they indeed want to stay in the USA illegally.

I wouldn't even apply for it just to risk 150 $ and some time lost for a travel to Warsaw, to hear that they suppose I might overstay my visa and reject my application.

The rejection rate is a funny thing, because it's a kind of a self-fullfilling prophecy. The embassy assumes someone wants to overstay his tourist visa, so his application gets rejected, increasing thus the rejection rate, which is an argument against giving more visas to other applicants.

This reminds when I first time applied for a credit card (with ridiculously low limit of 2,000 zł, about 1,000 $, because I thought it would be more apropriate for a first time applicant), my application was rejected for some mysterious reasons, then 6 months later (and nothing changed - my income, status, etc.), when I least expected it, the very same bank offered me a credit card with a much higher limit, completely out of the blue, I didn't even re-apply.

Life / When to greet strangers in Poland or not.. [30]


No, it was clear, and I hope you didn't think of my reply as a rude one, I just wanted to say that every nation (or local population) has tradition and customs that differ and you can't be desparate about understanding it all at once. It will come with time, or you simply need to be a little more open-minded than normally to see there's nothing strange. Just because something is not the way you are used to. For example (from a thread about strangest things in Poland) - some people saying a washing machine in the bathroom (which is a better, more suitable place for it) is strange, for me (and my logic) a washing machine in the kitchen is actually much more unusual, but strange? Hell, no. I'd start thinking it's bizarre if it was placed in the living room :)

And I don't have the answers you need, but for example greeting the other patiants in a doctor's waiting room, could be drawn from the fact that they are your fellow brothers in misery (you are or are afraid of being ill, it's always some kind of misery), so you feel more empathic towards them, hence you become closer. This is just a try, I'm not even sure if it's the real reason.

While greeting complete strangers in the streets of a big city is rather completely useless, because you probably never talk with them (or even meet them again).

Law / I need to write a Business Plan to set up business in Poland [19]

I can't help, maybe someone else will, I'm not good at business at all (but maybe my topping of your thread will result in its better visibility).

I just wanted to post some off-topic remarks, if you don't mind to read them.


No need to become so agressive, you come here for some help and if you don't get the right answer immediately it doesn't mean you don't get it all. It's a universal forum (culture, language etc.) not an economic one. I understood the words in your post and I'm sure Justyna did as well, it's just the reading comprehension process that failed, because I (and probably her too) assumed you'd be asking about translation which is quite common on this boards.

No intent of malice, in my opinion. People just aren't always 100% serious, it happens all over the world :)
And I agree that the Welsh/English comment was useless, it just happens, but so was yours, Justyna has been living in the UK for several years, and MareGaea isn't even Polish (nor he lives here), so you won't be doing business with them.

Travel / Will my rented car be stolen or broken into when in Poland? [24]

lotnisko-balice.pl/strona,Pasazer,wypozyczalnia_samochodow.html

Well, Hertz requires the credit card to be in your (the driver's) name. I don't know about the others, but I guess they should some info (also in English)

Food / Krokiety Recipe [16]


what you described are simply "krokiety" (the filling can be different, not always mushrooms+sauerkraut, it can be meat too, I think)

Barszcz - used for 3 different kinds of soups:
barszcz czerwony = a clear, red beetroot soup (the one served for example with krokiety)
barszcz ukraiński = mixed vegetables
barszcz biały (żurek) - white, sour soup.

You can find a lot on barszcz (all 3 kinds) on these forums, just sometimes spelled in a different way (americanized as "borsht", "borscht", "borsch", "borshch" or whatever spelling the poster thought was correct).

Life / When to greet strangers in Poland or not.. [30]


yeah, I could give it a try, but I won't :)
These are small details, that don't require an Einstein to process, think and you'll find an answer, just think "outside of the box".

Language / Some POLISH SENTENCES when visiting the country [30]

"doprowadzasz mnie do szału", Michale :)

Language / Some POLISH SENTENCES when visiting the country [30]


no comments

Feedback / CLOSING THE TRANSLATION THREADS [55]

No, it's a discussion, and it's about Michal, because, let's be honest, he's the main culprit here, his translations (or "corrections" to someone else's translations) are usually causing the stir up.

The problem are poeple who pretend to know it all. I don't mind Michal translating to English, because he usually understands the Polish texts well enough, but when it comes to writing in Polish, his knowledge is limited, he makes strangest things, uses some odd (or completely wrong) expressions. That would be fine, only if he didn't claim each time that he's 100% correct.

All we need is the translator adding an explanation to make the original poster aware that s/he might need a second opinion.

Feedback / CLOSING THE TRANSLATION THREADS [55]

I can only wish good luck to the lady, I hope she doesn't end up in jail with your translation of official documents ...

Feedback / Poster's gender not included - bad for translations. [15]

LOL, right. Thanks, vaffanculo.
Too many changes recently in the site lay-out, I can't follow all of them.
Anyway thess symbols are too small for me :)

Edited (Added):
And Mali's post shows another thing: misquoting (those were my words) - because it would be better if those links (edit, reply, quote) remained somewhere within the post's area, not running loose between posts, so you can easily click the wrong one, under someone else's post.