UK, Ireland / 33% of Poles in Ireland to return to Poland in 2009 [30]

I had nothing to do with the CIA in Nicaragua and I know nothing about it. Was it about coffee?

Life / Bisons of Poland - your thoughts? [90]

Venison can be delicious, in a class of its own. Bison is pretty much just beef from a bigger kind of cow.

Language / Share Perfective and Imperfective Polish verbs [105]

Powiadzialem - I said. I think this might be the one to use when recalling what someone said.
There is the future form as well, but I'm already beyond my depth with the past and present.

Happy New Year.

Food / This goes good with vodka.... or mix it with whatever [7]


I don't know, but it's the best way of drinking vodka I've found. Not with this thread's eponymous beverage, mind.

Food / This goes good with vodka.... or mix it with whatever [7]

I've seen it a lot, but what actually is it? I'm assuming tartrazine, juice that's seen more factory than fruit and excessive sugariness. But I may be wrong. I prefer fresh apple juice to go with vodka.

Does it put hairs on your chest? It looks (from the sight of that bear on the label) like it might make you hairy all over.

News / Polish-Hungarian friendship - reality till today or just a phantasmagoria [144]


Khant and Mansi society is completely different to Hungarian, as it involves living in sub-arctic forest and frozen tundra, and having land taken, villages and communities destroyed in the name of a Russian oil and gas industry. The Hungarian language is a decendent of the same group, although it picked up a lot of Turkic (eg. Central Asian Turkic pre-Islam) and Slavic (most probably from the people who dwelt in Hungary before the Magyars invaded). Finnish and Estonian languages are very distantly related.

Life / Bisons of Poland - your thoughts? [90]


But would they really like it? There are trans-Atlantic floral and faunal connections dating before the whole round of glaciations that characterise the quaternary. Some time before that, Europe, Greenland and North America were one land mass. The dinosaurs had already long-since vanished. Don't ask me what the weather was like because I don't know, but I imagine there was plenty of forest and steppe for prehistoric bison to roam. But this does seem like a very long time in evolutionary terms, so the ice-crossing may be an option, but a Bering Strait crossing may be a slightly better one.

The Brown Bear and Black Bear and just European and American counterparts.

Anyway, I ate some bison at my Christmas dinner at work. It might have just been beef but they called it bison.

Life / Bisons of Poland - your thoughts? [90]


I'd hazard a guess that they might be as distantly related to eachother as the age of the Atlantic Ocean, so possibly as much as 130 million years ago (unless they were once connected across the Bering Strait), but they're still close enough to cross-breed.

Life / POLISH "WIGLIA" -- NOT JUST ANOTHER BOOZE-UP [12]

I think P3 was getting all misty-eyed about it all and forgot to explain himself. Either that or Christmas is making me lazy... or maybe I'm lazy enough as it is.

Life / POLISH "WIGLIA" -- NOT JUST ANOTHER BOOZE-UP [12]

There's nothing here about breaking unleavened bread - the like of which is used in communion.

UK, Ireland / POLISH ADMIRATION FOR THE IRISH GENIUS JAMES JOYCE [63]


If it was left and right that were different there could be a lot of falling over.

Has anyone mentioned Roddy Doyle on this thread? (asked the lazy donkey)

Language / What's the best "Learn Polish" book? [33]


I suppose you can. Isn't this one from a large range of language books? The word colloquial suggests that it should start teaching Polish from the k-word onwards.

Language / Usage of the word "Na" [17]

Try to imagine it this way: with things you go to, you could logically go on or at. Being in things could also mean being on things... and so on.

So pick one random one that seems kind of logical enough and don't be afraid to get it wrong as many times as you might before you've been corrected or picked up on the na, do, w or whatever it actually is.

UK, Ireland / POLES SUPERIOR TO BRITS? [260]

I just ask you to trust me about British cheese. Nearly all of it was utter rubbish for a very long time. (Even cheese was nationalised post-WW2) and the number of independent cheese-makers was reduced to a tiny handful. In recent years, following the rise in both quantity and quality of foreign cheeses, niches in the market opened up and it was found that not only do many people have an appreciation of good cheese, but also that many want to buy British products. British cheesemakers have adopted both old traditions and embraced many of the best ideas from French, Italian and other countries with cheesemaking traditions. Ireland is, in this respect, in a very similar position to the UK nowadays. Many of the best cheeses from Britain and Ireland are made by new producers.

It will be interesting to see whether sausage-making may even reach any kind of level here. Poland far outstrips the UK in terms of cooked sausage. The British sausage is a different kind of food really. There are many cheap supermarket ones, but with a little searching, many hand-made traditional sausages can be found. But the kielbasa-type sausage is something with (maybe) no roots here, although other forms of cured meat do have their place in this country. It is possible that production of various forms of meat product could go through the same changes as have already gone for cheese.

Must go to the kitchen now for some more of that Blue Stilton, but maybe whatever's left of the podwawelska that was started a couple of evenings ago.

UK, Ireland / POLES SUPERIOR TO BRITS? [260]


This is where I agree, but is it slightly undermined by your next comment?


Becuase you haven't heard of many other kinds of European?

UK, Ireland / POLES SUPERIOR TO BRITS? [260]

The only people who are superior are those like me who don't believe that anyone is superior.

Love / Polish Girlfriend gone missing [154]

Some make good actors, but have a tendency to deliver the wrong lines.

UK, Ireland / POLISH ADMIRATION FOR THE IRISH GENIUS JAMES JOYCE [63]

Van Morrison was great on any of the records I've bought. Moondance - beautiful stuff. Astral Weeks - just amazing. Jackie Wilson Said - Jackie Wilson should have said "Don't worry, Dexy's Midnight Runners. Van the Man said it all already."

More fantastic Irish stuff - anyone mentioned Teenage Kicks by the Undertones yet? What about A House, The Catchers, My Bloody Valentine, um... Thin Lizzy!

Language / Do Polish Movies Help learn the language? [60]


I believe that when Kieslowski worked on Three Colours White, he was very careful with the translations. Maybe working with both French and Polish meant that his later films had a more international audience and therefore had to be well presented to international audiences. Also, he was a great film-maker with a good level of control over what he could produce. Many other film-makers are either not looking towards so much of a market outside of Poland or at least have less control over the finished product.


I think I've only seen one film in English with Polish subtitles amongst the many I have been sat in front of (usually with copious amounts of food, alcohol and large families often with children or dogs). It made a nice change to be able to actually take in all of the film with odd little Polish lessons at the bottom of the screen. Z tym filmem, pamiętam że uczy się "pamiętam". Obviously I still have a long way to go remembering everything I learn.

I notice the old lektor chap doesn't always like all the swearing in English dialogue.

Food / POLISH HANGOVER PREVENTIVE? [7]

For some, the knowledge that flaki will be served in the morning may be a mild deterrent. Others quite like eating tripe soup. Not mixing drinks is always supposed to be a way of getting drunk without getting a hangover - only beer or only vodka, never both. What's Polish for "the hair of the dog that bit you"?

Language / Usage of the word "Na" [17]

"Czekam na śniadanie." thought Osioł to himself, despite knowing that there was no point waiting because no-one was actually making him any breakfast.

Na zdrowie! (Concerns may be raised regarding what Osioł may now actually be having for breakfast).

Language / Do Polish Movies Help learn the language? [60]

I've seen a few Polish films, but that was when I really didn't know very much Polish and I wasn't even trying to learn. Films are not a particularly good way to start, but they can be good if you don't normally have many different Polish speakers you can listen to - films can give you a good feel of how the language sounds.

Actually, I have been subjected to a bit of Polish TV over recent days. The films all have Mr. Ple-Ple-Ple talking over them (can I call him that?) but the cartoons are dubbed but I still find them much harder to follow than normal conversation.

Language / ANGLOS HAVE TROUBLE WITH SZCZ, SOME WITH TRILLED 'R' [22]


Not ść?

Life / assistance with sending PM in nasza-klasa. [5]

My former flatmate used to play with nasza klasa, and I think he was trying to get the entire population of Poland on his list of friends.

If she only accepts messages from friends, why not just become a friend? If it isn't who you think it is, you won't have lost anything.

There are no strangers in this world, only friends (and enemies) we haven't met yet.

News / What did Poland get out of the wars and struggles for others? [1108]


This reminds me of the convention of giving dates in years BP. It seems that BP means "before present", but it actually means 1950 AD (in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and fifty). In what year (this is a question to BB) did things become fixed as to who is native to where?

News / What did Poland get out of the wars and struggles for others? [1108]


This was mostly carried out by Russians. Russia's history is one of fluctuating borders in the west and largely unchecked expansion to the east. Russians settled in lands foreign to them and Moscow turned these lands into Russia. There were movements into Russia from other parts of Europe - Jews and Germans to name probably the two largest groups, followed by a few people from countries dominated either by the Russian Empire or the USSR.

There is an interesting diversity in the ways of diversity.

News / What did Poland get out of the wars and struggles for others? [1108]

Scotland should definately be more than one. I'm sure there will be someone here to back me up on this.

I agree about the loss of diversity with the growth of power of the modern nation states. England, for example, has many different accents, even dialects, and some regions do have their own customs, traditions, cakes and so on. But a lot has already been lost.

Poland has 16 regions. Enough? Too many? Are they all in the right place? Can there be a right place if it is more about culture and customs rather than places?

News / What did Poland get out of the wars and struggles for others? [1108]


The US is a country of immigrants, so that everyone will have something from outside in their heritage to various degrees of mixing.

Russia has hundreds of different native ethnic groups and very few foreign ones.

Poland is slightly more complicated than it may first appear in this respect, but compared to the US and Russia, it is quite simple. Polish with a few other things thrown into the mix.


According to various calculations, my region is England, the East of England or Hertfordshire. The East of England, to me, is quite meaningless. I'm definately NOT an East Anglian.

The map you linked there shows huge differences in what constitutes a region. Scotland is just one, Belgium just two, France is divided into rather large departments, England into lots of little counties. How unfair is that! No Osiolia either.

Love / Was I wrong or is it just my polish gf [26]

Someone's got to go in goal.

Hang on. I'll just start reading the rest of the thread now.

Language / IS "MY Z BRATEM" OK FOR "MY BROTHER AND I"? [28]


I wish the words "only" and "village" didn't spring to mind.