Language / a new Polish alphabet for internet and sms.... [29]


I suspect you are Dutch :) But indeed; the senstenses you wrote without the diacritics are much easier to pronounce and understand...As for Dutch: how about the uu and ij and eu? :)

M-G

Language / a new Polish alphabet for internet and sms.... [29]

I think Polish would be a lot easier to learn when they would not use: ĄąĆćĘę£
łńÓóŚś-źŻż

I know how to pronounce most of them, but it would just be easier for non-PL ppl when they just wouldn't use them :)

M-G

Genealogy / For all you blue-eyed Poles [64]

What about the green-eyed Polish?

M-G (has a fondness for one particular green-eyed one)

Language / I want to write/read/speak fluent Polish! [60]

I want to speak fluent Polish too! But unfortunately I forgot where I put the magic wand to put a spell on me so I can...Nah

M-G

News / March of Tolerance in Krakow [478]


In what sense has Holland betrayed Poland? Or is it that the entire world betrayed Poland. Grow up.


I know for sure that he is.

M-G

News / March of Tolerance in Krakow [478]


A truly chilling and disturbing account of what happens when intolerance and hate is taking over. This is how wars start and how Nazism started. I hope for their sake that the Serbian society quickly gets well again.

M-G (twenty men kicking in on one guy lying on the ground? True heroism, I must say)

UK, Ireland / Social control in Polish communities in Ireland, UK and elswhere [40]

One other factor I can think of contributing to this behaviour is status. See, I have a quite high status (don't mean to be arrogant, it's just an illustration), being a manager and all and most of my Polish friends are not. Their friends consist of bricklayers, shopclerks and the like. I'm saying this because one time I coincidentally came across two friends of a friend, they were construction workers, the both of them. I talked to them and their English was not that good, although they had been in Ireland for over 4 years. But I had fun with them. A while later I spoke to the friend over the phone and he kinda worrying asked me "And? What'd you think of them?" A link is then easily made: they might be afraid of showing their (Polish) friends to me. But still: even though I understand the reasons, I still think it's very rude to mention the fact that you had a party without even apologizing that you weren't invited.

M-G

Hm, haven't got any comments on this one yet...

M-G

UK, Ireland / Social control in Polish communities in Ireland, UK and elswhere [40]

Miranda is not Sweet :) Sour, Salty, Bitter; take your pick :)))

M-G (just kidding, M, you know that)

PS: just FYI: Cats eat rabbits, you knew that? :)

UK, Ireland / Social control in Polish communities in Ireland, UK and elswhere [40]


A bit of both: social control, because I was wondering if ppl would really bother if they would invite non-Poles over to a party or something where the rest would be Polish, what the ppl they know would say about it (and I know for certain there are Polish ppl here in Dubs that don't want to know anything about non-Poles, if you know what I mean), and social conditioning because they may be embarrassed to have a non-Polish friend over at an all-Polish event.

M-G

UK, Ireland / Social control in Polish communities in Ireland, UK and elswhere [40]


I didn't assume that it was, however if they would say that it would embarrass them, then the "other" ppl might understand. It's just different when you meet up with your friend on Monday and you ask him how his weekend was and he tells you he gave a party without any excuse or something. In my book that is just plain rude, they have to understand that too. It's give and take. Although I know (and as I already mentioned earlier in this thread) that it is not really fun to be on a party where you don't speak the language of all the others there and just occasionally get asked the same question by different ppl over and over again in poor English. Then you feel alone amongst dozens of ppl and you might have better stayed at home. I realise it must be awkward for both parties. But if the one who does give the party doesn't explain why he did not invite you, it just comes across as rude and disrespectful. It happened to me a few times and I have to admit I felt a bit offended each time it happened whereas I would not have been if the person just would've explained.

M-G

UK, Ireland / Social control in Polish communities in Ireland, UK and elswhere [40]


Yeah, but excluding one group of friends from the goodies in your life is not.

M-G

Life / Those Stella Artois Ads (filmed in Poland) [28]


It's Belgian and Stella Artois means "The Star of Artois" (Artois = Atrecht in Dutch), for the ones a bit familiar with the history of the LowLands: De Unie van Utrecht en de Unie van Atrecht (the Union of Utrecht and the Union of Artois) is THE classic historic example of the division of Protestantism and Catholisism in the LowLands, divided and still within the same country :)

M-G (Grolsch, the beer of his area in Holland - parents live about 5 km from that brewery)

UK, Ireland / Social control in Polish communities in Ireland, UK and elswhere [40]


Neither did I want to generalize. It's just that I noticed this behaviour in a lot of Polish ppl I know - others I know do invite a "mixed" company. And maybe you're right that they are not aware of that, and I do understand the reasons, but it may come across as rude sometimes and they must realise that they CAN offend (and sometimes even hurt) ppl with this behaviour, even though it might not be intended that way. I mean in a way like: ah, so I'm good enough to do this for you, but not good enough to have a party with? I'm just saying, if you catch my drift.

M-G

UK, Ireland / Social control in Polish communities in Ireland, UK and elswhere [40]

Yeah, I've had that before actually with a Spanish friend of mine who invited me over to a party at his place. Minus two everybody was Spanish and although the music was good, I ended up having a headache (Spanish can be a very monotonous language to listen to ocasionally) to hearing Spanish all night long and trying to figure out what they were talking about.

M-G

UK, Ireland / Social control in Polish communities in Ireland, UK and elswhere [40]


I guess you're right - If you would be invited as the only non-Pole, you get an isolated feeling anyway: everybody's laughing about something and you don't know the hell they're laughing about. Is it about you or maybe about something that in your culture is perceived as not being funny at all. In all the most likely scenario would be that one would end up with a drink in the corner all alone amongst 50 ppl, with only now and then somebody coming up to you to ask you the same question in poor English everybody else has already asked you. Also it would present a kind of burden on the host/hostess as he or she would feel obliged to spend an uneven amount of time with you as he or she would be the only one that can converse with you about some shared experiences. In all, I do understand that.


But that is weird: if I have a party with only Dutch ppl and there will be only one non-Dutch speaking person, the majority of the guests will revert to speaking English (true fact - I've seen this in nearly all the parties in which all the guest minus one were Dutch); among themselves with the non-Dutch not around, they of course will speak Dutch to eachother, but as soon as that person joins, conversation turns to English - that's imo just a matter of common courtesy. Therefore I cannot really understand why some ppl don't do this. It's not only the Poles that do this, also the Spanish, Italian and French are notorious for this. I appreciate the fact that ppl don't master the English language well, but at least an effort should be taken. But maybe that's just me.

M-G

UK, Ireland / Social control in Polish communities in Ireland, UK and elswhere [40]


Could be, or maybe they are afraid that you will be isolated when you are the only non-Polish person...But I also heard that Polish among eachother can be pretty back-stabbing in gossip and so on; could this also be a factor?

M-G

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


That would be me. Pls check your private mail and reply to it...Thanks!

M-G

UK, Ireland / Social control in Polish communities in Ireland, UK and elswhere [40]

Ok, I noticed a bit of awkward behaviour in about half of my Polish friends: if I go out with them it is always on a 1-2-1 basis in a pub or a restaurant; they only come to parties with me if they have made sure there are no other Poles there and if there are, they make sure to check if they don't know them (what's their name? where do they work, etc). If there are other Poles living with them in one house, they never invite you over for a drink to their house and when they give a party they will never invite you - even if you are their friend. When you ask them, you get the (nearly standard by now) answer: "oh, you wouldn't like it, there were only my Polish friends". It sometimes seems they want to keep the Polish world apart from their other world. Now, don't get me wrong, not everybody does this, but I noticed this behaviour in quite some of the Polish friends I have; in fact, nearly half of them does it.

Could this be that they are embarrassed towards their Polish friends or relatives? Or are they afraid of what their Polish friends might say about the fact that they hang out with non-Polish ppl? And as I understand it, this is kind of an issue with some Polish ppl.

M-G

History / Jewish love towards Poles [389]

Sure, no problem, in what would you like me to change? (We Jews can change ourselves into virtually anything, according to local believe).

M-G

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

Try French. Not that it would help much, but if you don't try, you'll never know.

M-G

History / Jewish love towards Poles [389]


Yeah, deep in my heart I always seek World Domination and yes, raping innocent (preferrably Irish and Polish) Catholic Virgins is a favourite pasttime of mine...Don't forget that I drink the blood of Catholic babies too! It's good, you should try it sometime :)


Now that I mention it, I indeed should get some new clothes this weekend, I already got new shoes, so I guess I start to be less old-fashioned after all :)

M-G

History / Jewish love towards Poles [389]


I second that, Ishatu. Time to give it a rest. I personally have no bolsjevik plan to conquer the world and rule it ferociously and I am still a Jew :)

M-G

Life / Can you think of any famous Polish personalities? [147]

Henryk Gorecki, Krzysztof Penderecki

M-G

News / Organized Crime: Polish Gang Is Making Profitable Business Of Robberies [60]


The are from Poland. The fact that they may or may not be Jews is imo irrelevant. Even though I am half Jewish myself, I do not condone these practises under any circumstances, be it a Jew committing them or a Pole or a German or whatever.

M-G

Life / Are there many atheists and agnostics in Poland? [47]

Could be, although I basically prefer to stay away from religion as far as I possibly can - seeing the things ppl have done in it's name in the past.

M-G

Life / Are there many atheists and agnostics in Poland? [47]


I don't know, actually: I'm half Jewish (Mom), half Protestant (Dad), a lot of my friends are Catholic and I have been to Synagogues, Protant-churches and Catholic churches. They tell me that Protestants are more strict in their religious devoutness than Catholics, but I cannot tell the difference, besides the absence of statues in Protestant Churches. Also, I noticed a significant difference in the Catholics in Holland and the Catholics in Ireland and Poland. I liked the singing though :)

And as far as the Darwin theory is concerned: many religious person would point out that it's only a THEORY. Well, that may be true, but then again: religion is also a theory for that matter. And besides all this, I just find the Darwin theory logically much more convincing than the idea that we all were suddenly there or all descent from Adam and Eve; if this last bit were true, wouldn't we all be inbred retards? Hm... And looking at some ppl and some apes, it's not that hard to imagine that us and the apes have a shared anchestor :)

M-G (prefers to choose nothing actually, but would not call himself an atheist)

Love / BLACK GUYS POLISH WOMEN [809]


Not really sure if that is an honorarble title, though.

M-G (sorry, couldn't resist:) )

Life / Are there many atheists and agnostics in Poland? [47]

I'm just wondering if all this religiosity (is that correct English?) comes as a reaction of 50 years of atheist communism?

M-G

Life / Are there many atheists and agnostics in Poland? [47]

How big is the influence of the Church in Poland actually? Examples?

M-G (can't believe that there is no seperation of Church and State in Poland)