News / Why is Zloty called PLN? [14]

I suppose it could be that until recent history, there were many more different coins in circulation around all corners of Europe, which eventually settled down into modern currency. Zloty could have been more the name of a coin than the actual currency, rather lkike the UK has a currency called the Sterling.

Food / Top food products you'd want to see in a Polish shop [32]

The first thing I'd like to see would have to be a range of kiełbasy and other delicatessenries.

After that, I wouldn't really know. For making proper Polish food properly, the ingredients are all out there in supermarkets, greengroceries and so on. There are jars of gołąbki, fasolki, even flaki that I have seen on various shelves in shops in this corner of the UK. The gołąbki I've had from jars don't compare with the real thing though.

The cheese I've seen in Polish shops over here is generally rubbish.
LEARN ABOUT CHEESE, YOU POLES, PLEASE!

UK, Ireland / The Daily snot rag (Mail) removes anti-Polish content [30]


Can you take criticism?

News / Polish vs russian economy [57]


Not true. I want the whole world to live in peace as brothers and sisters, not just small cliquey grioups of nations delineated by language. I'm not attacking Slavs. I'm attacking the idea that groups of people should be quite so small-mindedly inward-looking. Telling you that you are talking rubbish is one tiny little part of that, although I realise I waste my time typing anything to you.


Bunch of arse. Russians are even more mixed than Poles.


You talk out of your bottom, Crow. There is none of my logic in there. I'm not interested in genetic stuff unless it tells us things we didn't know about history. Genes mixed a lot in history and prehistory, and they will continue to mix even more. So what?


We all point back to a mitochondrial Eve and a mitochondrial Adam, but humankind goes back even further.


Oh yes, proto-Iranians, weren't they?

News / Polish vs russian economy [57]

To sell things, you don't necessarily have to be sitting on raw materials, although it may help. These days you don't even have to make things, although this really does help. Some very poor countries have vast natural resources, whilst some rich countries have virtually none.

EDIT: after many attempts that all went wrong (I kept losing the bit you are about to see as a result of me not being very clever with computers, but I persisted nevertheless)...


Not really.


On some levels, this is very true. On others, it is devisive, exclusive, and therefore it doesn't make good business sense. We are talking about economy, right?



By and large, I'm with you and Tony Hancock on this one, however, early Russia grew largely at the expense of Finno-Ugric speakers, vast numbers of whom were assimilated and therefore are part of what made Russia what it is. I occasionally like to remind certain people (Crow) of details like this. I consider my native language to be English and therefore Germanic, but that doesn't mean I consider myself to be a Germanic person. In business and culture, people should reach out further for the greater possibilities this has to offer.

News / Polish vs russian economy [57]


Chinese civilisation is older. Russian civilisation is quite old,I'll give you that much. Russia and China have not co-existed since time immemorial. Until very recent times, there have been plenty of other people in the vast area of land in between - Mongols, Turkic peoples and so on.

There are plenty of resources in that huge mass of land we typically only know of as Siberia, and Russia has that land. I can't imagine Russia being willing to let go of it. War certainly isn't the answer, but things are almost certain to get more complicated between the two countries. China may well become economically capable of not needing political power there in order to get it's hands on such resources - minerals, oil and so on.

While I'm typing this stuff to Mr. Crow, can I suggest that Russians aren't really the most Slavic of Slavs?

UK, Ireland / The Daily snot rag (Mail) removes anti-Polish content [30]

That's one bit of good news. Unfortunately, the Daily Mail is still only there to provide fear, loathing and crosswords to the small minds of middle England.

Love / How Many Dates Before Sex in Poland? [86]



It's always going to be different.

Feedback / Admin... we need bigger mail boxes... [30]


Memory - that's it!

Sometimes you have to rely on your memory.

Terrible, isn't it!


Not a bad idea at all.

Love / Palm Readers: Do polish girls go out with them??? [21]

Reading her palm can be an excuse for making early physical contact.
It's a good thing they use hands rather than feet.

Feedback / Admin... we need bigger mail boxes... [30]

I tried saving some old messages as html files a while back (you know how some messages are a bit special and you want to keep them). I went through them, saved the ones I wanted to keep, then deleted the lot. An empty PM box for the first time since about September last year.

Then I found that each of those messages had saved as files sized 0 kB each.
Maybe it was something to do with the browser I was using.
Annoying anyway. Sometimes you just have to rely on...

... what was it? I can't remember what I was about to say.

USA, Canada / Young male American Poles [34]


Yo! Spring chicken! How's it going?


Yeah, I noticed that too.


They're free to speak, but you don't let every Tom, Dick and Adolf into your house to have a childish rant.


I don't mind being judged. I usually get fairly high marks.
Not from Tom, Dick or Adolf though.

Language / "nothing special" [13]


It depends which case. (Which grammatical case? Maybe I mean gender... and case!)

For a lot of masculine nouns, this is true.

Feedback / Admin... we need bigger mail boxes... [30]

Strangely, letterbox tends to refer to the hole (with associated flap) through which mail is posted to its recipient, rather than an actual box.

Is the flap too small or does the doggy get too many letters?
Nice ones? Nasty ones? Junk mail?

Travel / The decline of Krakow due to British drunks and What to see in Krakow? [52]


Takes one to know one, does it?

Love / What is an acceptable dating age range in Poland? [51]

What are the chances of anyone finding someone exactly the same age? I mean exactly.

Language / Polish verbs are conjugated with a separate ending for all six persons: I, you, he, she, it, we, you [29]


There are three persons, but sometimes there's more than one of them.


I just found it a little difficult to read. It didn't have any pictures.

UK, Ireland / Tell me about Glasgow [59]


Galway? Cardiff? Espoo? Budapest?

Law / Child Support Payment in Poland [47]


I thought they were supposed to take more money than that. I just had a play with their calculator, and I adjusted just about everything but my income. Sometimes I didn't have to pay anything, although sometimes as much as a tenner (shocking). I know that if I had a child I had to pay for, I wouldn't want to pay so little.

The problems begin when someone thinks they can get more and finds a legal process to feed this. It's a pity for every child with seperated parents, particularly if they are turned into a weapon for squeezing money out of the other parent. On the other hand, how do these payments work? What if I was only paying £8 per week? How much goes to the child.

I should point out now that I neither have children, an ex-wife or a job that pays a vast fortune.

UK, Ireland / Tell me whats the best way to integrate in england [26]


Try that. Have a look at employment agencies too (although these are often run by scoundrels). With better English, applying directly for jobs found advertised in local papers is not a bad idea.


Learn and practice speaking English. The more you can communicate with people the better.
Get to know people - work colleagues, neighbours, go to the pub!


Who's supposed to be lazy and racist, Britons or Poles? You'll find both traits amongst both groups, but you'll find a lot more otherwise. People believing in stereotypes are themselves stereotypes (ummm). Put it this way: as with most subjects is politics and the media, it is far easier to talk about negative things rather than positive things. Imagine a politician trying to encourage you to vote for him by saying "Everything's pretty good really, isn't it!"


Does this mean you can be Polish or German as it suits you? Kraut is quite a good word, but I don't hear many krauts identifying themselves as such.

Life / What nation Poles like the most? [56]


You are right, they don't suck the same. America sucks far, far more.

News / Political polls are FAKE and totally manipulate the public! [19]

I have read more Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy than I have Plato though.

News / Political polls are FAKE and totally manipulate the public! [19]


Plato, I think.

Life / Polish Shelf Toilets [32]

It is illegal to install these toilets in the UK. I have seen them in other countries though. I believe they were designed for those who like to inspect their stools.

News / Political polls are FAKE and totally manipulate the public! [19]

The pollster's answer would be that they are quite reliable (well, they would say that, wouldn't they) They tend to ask a small number of people in areas where there is a strong likelihood of the vote going either way, then take into consideration those areas where it is deemed unnecessary to even bother asking, ie. where the outcome is generally obvious before any real votes will be cast.

Most people's answer to the question of who they will vote for is already decided before even a candidate has been chosen. Most of the remaining voters decide when the candidates have been announced. There are a few swing voters. I suppose these are the people the pollsters are interested in.

Other than the problem of there only being a choice between A and B, thus ignoring C, D, E, F, all the way to Z: there is the problem that people who want power are the least suitable people to actually wield power. Beyond that there is the problem that these people who are elected to hold positions of power are not necessarily the ones who actually wield the most power (but it certainly makes them feel powerful enough for them to feel it's all worth it).

There are many more problems beyond that that I can't be bothered to go into now.

Language / Help with Sentence Structure! [16]


I say try to learn both.

Language / Blackboard Language Project [28]

I always enjoy a Janusz thread.

I also like that girl's nasal vowels. They're pronounced stronger than the ones I normally hear.

UK, Ireland / British car with 3 wheels... [45]

newstatesman.com/blogs/simon-munnery/2007/01/road-car-driven-reliant-night
Three paragraphs before the end.

UK, Ireland / British car with 3 wheels... [45]

The company Reliant made the Robin, so it should be a Reliant Robin.
Robin Reliant is the usual name for some odd reason.

UK, Ireland / Nominations wanted for the Young Scottish Minority Ethnic Awards 2008 [40]

The "positive" in "positive discrimination" is outweighed by the negativity of the descrimination it describes. In other words: it's not really positive, even for those who are supposed to be the beneficiaries.