Life / international singned for post to poland-tracing delivery HELP [28]

it's a info line (with reduced charges) - I guess they work only within Poland

I just called them. They say that 26 Oct is when it arrived to a British overseas postal service (you posted it on 24 Oct, so it took 2 days before it arrived there), then there was the weekend, so the parcel should arrive to Pocztex anytime soon - the info on the website should be updated if anything happens.

Life / international singned for post to poland-tracing delivery HELP [28]

pocztex.pl/dokl_inf_telef.php
(well. it seems like calling them is the best way)

Parcel number: RI922570114GB
Shipping country:
Destination country: Poland
Received:

Events regarding the parcel:
Date 26.10.2007
Hour 07:50
Location of the event GBLALA (it's not in Polish - GB = Great Britain, I guess, LALA - I have no idea)
Event Shipping the parcek abroad (Edi received) (and don't ask me what "Edi" means)
Additional information

Food / Horse Meat - popular in Poland? [36]

I think Italy is/was the bigger importer of Polish horses for meat, so they don't get butchered or eaten here too much, but they end up on tables anyway

Language / Polish Word Processor on line? [9]

so you say you downloaded the first (Open Office) and can't open it, do you mean
a/ you can't install the downloaded 100MB file at all?
b/ or did you start installation and something went wrong?

if a/ then probably the installation file is currupt (something went wrong during the download), try to download again
if b/ then try to uninstall it and install again.

(it's recommened to re-start your computer after each installation or uninstallation)

Language / Polish Word Processor on line? [9]

ok, so I must ask how good you are with computers? do you do most things by yourself (installing/uninstalling programs, maintenance, getting rid of viruses/spyware, modifying registry settings etc.) - or do you usually or always need someone to help you when there's a problem with the computer?

Language / Polish Word Processor on line? [9]


weird, what do you mean? the file was corrupt (download error)? or your download was OK, but you failed to install Open Office correctly?

USA, Canada / Transferring money from Canada to Poland [11]

anyway bringing more than 10K Euro is subject to customs declaration, don't forget that like one of PM did (he was bringing 1 million euro or US$ in cash from Italy and "forgot" to mention that to the customs officers and when they found out, he was trying to get away with this thanks to his diplomatic passport :)

Language / Abecadło (The alphabet) [19]

I found other Tuwim's poem for children (the famous and really great "Lokomotywa") translated to Latin :)

biblionetka.pl/art.asp?kom=tak&oid=0&aid=10754

Genealogy / what is a Swiadectwo Uwolnienia ? [10]


it's a historical region in Spain, just north of Portugal (La Coruna, Vigo - Poland played there during World Cup 1982, I can still remember)

but Galicja was the region of south-eastern Poland (sometimes referred to as Galicja i Lodomeria), controlled by Austro-Hungarian Empire after the 18th century partitions of Poland (today's Małopolska - with Kraków, Tarnów - and Podkarpacie - Rzeszów, Przemyśl - plus Lwów (Lviv) and other parts of today's eastern Ukraine, that before the partitions belonged to Poland)

Food / What do you eat with Golabki? [37]

about potatoes - do you like them with tomato sauce? they don't match either, at least in my opinion (maybe chips + ketchup) so it's another point against gołąbki z ziemniakami.

And it's not regional, in my house we ate potatoes with virtually everything (my dad even likes boiled, mashed potatoes (no spices) with milk, as a milk soup! yuck), and still they agree that gołąbki are with bread.

Food / What do you eat with Golabki? [37]

cabbage doesn't match too good with potatoes, so I support

Life / Return period for goods in shops in Poland? [14]


with the returned goods you need to present a purchase document from the seller (an invoice, a receipt, a bill - in Polish "faktura", "rachunek" or "paragon"), and it's basically the only prove requiered to confirm the purchase.


Try it and find out, but if you get arrested for deceit, don't come here blaming me :)
you'd be doing it on your own risk and responsability (I'm getting americanized too much - writing disclaimers on obvious things)

Love / What is expected of a man who wishes to propose to a lady in Poland? [35]


Czy zostaniesz moją żoną? (for a male-to-female conversation)
or
Czy wyjdziesz za mnie?

aksing her father [parents]:
Chciałbym prosić o rękę Pana [Państwa] córki.

News / Poland to join the Schengen zone the beginning of next year [36]


and where did you get that from?
unfortunatelly US has nothing to do with Schengen, so nothing changes for Poles with the US visa problem.

News / Poland to join the Schengen zone the beginning of next year [36]


the date is 1 Jan 2008, but the EU will make final inspections by the end of the year in order to confirm that we are ready (accordning to governmental officers we are, and the date of 01/01/2008 is almost sure)

When we're in Schengen zone there won't by any check-points at those borders, this regards both Schengen citizens and citizens of any other country. There won't by any patrols outside the usual border crossing points either, you will be allowed to cross the border in any place.

This applies also to flights - on the airports there will be separation of the passengers for the flights inside and outside of Schengen zone, so travelling for example from Warsaw to Rome means you are treated the same way as in local (national) flights, no matter where you're from, only the usual identity (for ticketing purposes) and security checks remain.

Citizens from countries outside of Schengen zone,who received a visa to one of the Schengen countries will be entitled to enter any country of the no-borders zone. This means only one visa will be required for the entire zone. For Russians and Ukraininas this visa will cost 35 euro (currently Ukrainians don't pay for a Polish visa, so it's a little drawback for them, but they gain something in return).

Life / Return period for goods in shops in Poland? [14]

You already sorted things out, but here are the regulations for anyone in a similar position.
There are two main rules:
1/ REKLAMACJA - Returning goods not corresponding to the contract of purchase.
(because of its defects or simply because you had ordered something for example in a different colour than the item you received or you had ordered something according to a certain sample/specimen/standard and recieved a good quality item, but with some differences from the sample).

- In this case it's the client who decides what should be done:
a/ money refund (not some coupons, just money),
b/ exchange for another item,
c/ repair.
- This right has the duration of 2 years since the purchase contract (for the first 6 months the shop is responsible, then the responsibility passes to the manufacturer).

2/ ZWROT - Returning not worn or used goods corresponding to the contract of purchase. There are 2 possibilities here:
A/ 10 days for returning goods bought at distance (internet shops, teleshops) or outside the offices of the seller (for example at your home or during a presentation organized for a certain amount of people). The item may be 100% according to the contract, yet you may decide to recede (back out of) the contract after sending a notification (by registered mail) to the seller and agreeing the modality of returning the goods (you pay all the postal costs).

- Those 10 days count from the date of singing the contract (sales outside of the office) or from the date of receiving the item (sales at distance) to the day when you sent the registered mail with notification.

B/ NO RETURNS if the goods are purchased in a shop (this seems to be your case, so you were simply lucky this time)
- of course you may always negotiate with the shop assistant/owner and agree a short period (usually 2-3 days, sometimes a week) for returning/exchanging an item if you don't like it (very useful when buying gifts for someone else), but it's all up to them (if you don't trust them, then ask for a short written confirmation of your agreement, even on the back of the bill).

In these cases (A and B) the seller may require the goods be returned in the original packaging.

UK, Ireland / Polish as Irelands Third Offical language? [123]


no, but since in a second Ireland Polish is the official language, why shouldn't it be official in the first Ireland as well?

first we take Dublin, then we take Berlin :)

seriously though, I don't have an opinion on this, it should be up for Irish people, maybe a referendum (local or national) would give an answer.

Life / TV / Internet provider and stores (Warsaw area) [21]

in Poland they rather have a lector (a male voiceover, not dubbing), but I'm only guessing - that's how it works with TCM on Sat TV (of course you can switch to the English version anytime), however I have no idea what they're doing on chello.

Language / Przedstawiam się [24]


Yeah, I was going to post a detailed explanation, but I realized there are too many possible combinations, so just remember the easy rule:
Normally you use w, we is used always when following word starts with a group of 2 (or more) consonants and the first one of them is labio-dental (w or f).

Things get more complicated when the second second consonant is labio-dental ("we Lwowie", but rather "w czwartek") or in groups with bidental (m, b, p): w mniemaniu, w/we mgle, w/we młynie, we mnie, we łbie), and even more complicated (for a foreigner) in other combinations.

Genealogy / Kosloff (Chelm) or Kikela, or Matejko Bielsko Biala [2]

the city is probably Bielsko-Biała

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bielsko-Bia%C5%82a

Matejko is a very well known name in Poland thanks to the XIX century painter, Jan Matejko. Kosloff looks like a transcription of a surname Kozłow or Kozłów (for me it sounds more Russian than Polish, but with the multi-cultural Poland before WWII, everything was possible). Kozłów would be (in Polish) rather a town/village name than a surname. Popular name derivated from Kozłów would be Kozłowski (quite popular in modern Poland).

Language / Przedstawiam się [24]

you live in France so you probably heard their language.


is pronounced in a similar way to the French "on" (nous parlons)
(Polish "ę" is similar to the French "in" - dauphin, we don't have the sound for French an/en - for example "en dansant", but you can hear a lot in Polish words like "włączać" where the "ą" should be pronounced like French "on", but many people pronounce it like French "an/en")

Life / Do not experiment with Polish medicine if you don't know what it is. [16]

adrenaline in Polish is "adrenalina" - hard not to undersand, if you had read the label :)

and asthma is "astma" for any future reference

Language / Czasem / czasami [3]

rather interchangably, I can't think of any rules against it.

Genealogy / Szrajba, Sreiberis, Kisiel [4]

Sreiberis,
judging from the ending, looks like Lithuanian or Latvian.
Szrajba
- the spelling is Polish.

Both seem to be coming from a German (maybe Preussian) Schreiber, just addapted to local spellings, so the family probably originated from NE Poland or neighbouring regions (Preussia had been under Polish influences for many years, the same with Inflanty/Kurlandia - so today's Latvia, and of course we had a several centuries lasting Polish - Lithuanian Commonwealth)

Travel / sroda wielkopolska [3]


No. These are 2 different towns, Środa Wielkopolska is in Wielkopolski region (Poznań is the main town). It's situated maybe one hour drive south of Poznań, as far as I can remember, but I can't tell you anything about it, I was there only once, passing by from Leszno to Poznań. And it was 11.00 PM, already dark, so it looked like a typical small town.

Life / Psychology in Poland: Polish Psychologists and Psychiatrists [5]

Antoni Kępiński - psychologist and psychiatrist, wrote >100 books, (about fear, schizophrenia, melancholy, neuroses and so on, my friend loved his book Fear)

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antoni_Kępiński

Life / "Wrong" Polish music [13]


wrong - maybe not, but very bad it is

Language / wysyłać, is this the right word? [16]

actually "ci" is a normal pronoun that equals "tobie"

Wysłać ci tę książkę pocztą czy przywieźć, gdy będę w Warszawie? = should I send the book to you by mail or bring it with me when I go to Warsaw?

Wysłać książkę tobie czy Monice? = should I send the book to you or to Monika?

in the second example the pronoun is accented (there's the so-called "sentence stress" or whatever it's called in English) - you have to stress what you're asking about.

So if you want to know if
a/ to send
or
b/ to bring,
those words are stressed and you use the "weak" form of the pronoun (hence "ci")

But if you want to know if
a/ to send it to that person (which is referred as "you")
or
b/ to send it to Monika,
the words "you" and "Monika" are stressed and in that case you have to use the "strong" form of the pronoun (hence "tobie")

Tobie (with big T at the beginning) is just a polite form, used in written texts (like letters or other ceremonial messages), but it's not necessary, I never get offended when someone writes to me "tobie/ci" instead of "Tobie/Ci"

Life / Watches - a no-no in Poland? [34]

it's really not a biggie, but to clear things out, that's what I meant:

"nie dziękuję" is not the same as "nie, dziękuję" (with comma after "nie")

"nie, dziękuję" = no, thanks, when you deny something offered to you
"nie dziękuję" = (literally:) I'm not thanking you (for your good luck wishes, because if I did it would bring me bad luck)

Language / Przedstawiam się [24]


normally - yes, I have doubts about the word "jednakże" (however), I pronounce it "jednagże",
I'm not sure if it's correct or if it's an influence from my years in Poznań, because in some areas (for example in Poznań and Wielkopolska region) you may hear it the other way (voiceless at the end of the word becoming voiced because of the following word), it's considered an error though (Polish governments under communism were rather hostile to dialects and regional variation of the language and everything different from the official Polish was regarded as wrong)


no


Płaskowyż przypominał okręt przez brak wiatru unieruchomiony wśród płowego pyłu. Strome brzegi wyznaczały głęboki kanion, którego dnem, od jednej ściany skalnej do drugiej, wiła się smuga zieleni - rzeka i pola. Na dziobie tego kamiennego okrętu, w samym środku owej smugi, jako jej integralna część, niby ociosana i rzeźbiona skała, rozciągała się osada Malpais. Bryła na bryle, każdy następny blok mniejszy niż poprzedni, wysokie domy pięły się ku błękitnemu niebu jak piramidy o ściętych wierzchołkach i tarasowym kształcie. U ich stóp tłoczyły się niskie budynki, plątanina murów; z trzech stron ściany opadały stromo wprost ku pustyni. Kilka słupów dymu unosiło się pionowo i rozpraszało w nieruchomym powietrzu.

(rozciągała - this "z" not only becomes a voiceless "s", but it's also get softened, because of the soft "ci", so it becomes a "ś": rościągała)

z >> (voiceless) s >> (soft) ś

(from Aldous HuxleyBrave New World, 1967, Polish translation by Bogdan Baran. The beginning of Chapter 7)

maybe an easier example, with words you may already know:

Francuz (=a Frenchman) (pronounced like it would be written "Francus")
Francuzi (z remains voiced, because it's no longer at the end of a word) (=Frenchmen). But this "z" shifts to softer "ź" (because the "i" in Polish makes the consonants soft, with exceptions in some words borrowed from foreign languages)

młody (d is normal here) (=young)
młodszy (=younger) (d becomes t, because of the voiceless "sz")