History / How things change - Poland 1989 [17]


I do understand where these people are coming from. I did not like Communism or ever believed that people should live in poverty or under the thumb of Moscow. However, the Polish education system was very good and the Polish were very practical. They produced some fine cinema in the early 1980's Wajda and Man of Iron is one example, and I loved their music at the time-Lady Punk and Manam to name but a few. What is a shame, however is how modernization is at the expence of what was Polishness. Destroying the old 'bar mleczny' for Pizza hut and McDonalds and by getting rid of the Polish Polonez for a BMW or a volkswagen rather than a better newer cleaner Polonez is not making polishness in Poland better rather it is just transcribing another international climate, mainly American upon the Poles. You talk of the best international school being in Bydgoszcz now and I would imagine that it will be yet another institution offering English medium education rather than what should be happening and that is expanding Polish as it was on the International stage. Watch M jak Milosc, sorry, casting, weekend, break-another fifty years and the Polish Language will be like Latin-dead.


Come on, you are just saying that...

History / How things change - Poland 1989 [17]

Yes, I should see how the place looks like today. Trouble is, I am in Poland very rarely and it is a long drive from Czestochowa to Bydgoszcz. I have no family there so I have little motivation to do the trip.

Love / Foreigner's opinion about polish ladies [304]


It also helps to explain why the Polish can be so strange, to say the least!

Love / Foreigner's opinion about polish ladies [304]

It is not idiotic at all. It is well known that the Polish are a mixed race like many others.

Love / Foreigner's opinion about polish ladies [304]


O co ci chodzi? Czy jeszcze chodzisz do szkoly, do zerowki, w szarych szortach? Why is it that you do not seem to grasp anything?

History / How things change - Poland 1989 [17]

Actually, it is interesting because it brings back memories. I was in Bydgoszcz around about 1989, in fact it could very well be the same year. I had driven up all the way from Czestochowa. A strange sort of place really, I must say that it was not really my favorite place in Poland. I stayed for a few days somewhere near to the centre of the town and can remember the dreadful roads. I do not know why, but the roads were always the worst I have ever come across in Poland. It is an old German town, I believe called Bramberg, or something similar. I can still remember well the old prewar flat where I stayed near the centre. I doubt if it has changed much to this day, ul Bocianowo? Very strange, this girl's mother did not like me going out very much because obviously I was a foreigner and wanted to go down stairs and meet the locals but she was obsessed with fears of one sort or another. A park with an old church all closed up, a rather sad place one way and another.


Believe me, it could never really improve. Actually as a PS, the video is very much like scenes from Szczecin that I remember visiting at that same time in my life.

Love / Foreigner's opinion about polish ladies [304]

Yes, I agree that the Czechs are more like the Germans and do seem to be more advanced. I visited the Czech Republic (very briefly) whilst in Poland on holiday) and the difference was amazing. If any country will succeed in the new EU it will be the Czech Republic. In the Ukraine, they are a mixture anyway and many Russian speakers can not speak Ukrainian. The girl I knew only spoke Russian-even though she lived in Kijev.

Australia / Famous Australians [97]


I can assure you that in Australia nothing could be further from people's minds-that is Poland and what goes on there.

Love / Foreigner's opinion about polish ladies [304]


Obviously, Polish people are a mix between the Germans on the one hand and the Russians on the other. I think that this is where they get their strange personalities from. There are a lot of quite nasty people in Poland once you start to look around. I knew a Ukrainian girl from Kijev once-not very nice at all.

UK, Ireland / Night school for polish language in Sheffield / West Yorkshire [16]

Yes, there is someone called Yvona who can be contacted at Yvonka at interia.pl who charges ten pounds per hour. You could go to a library and do it for yourself for free though. She is based in Bradford.

UK, Ireland / Unemployed due to Polish who work in the UK [126]

I know that the age limit for Australia is forty five but as you say, you had a sponsor, which helped. For me, my dream was always to go to Australia, even from a very early age but I know now, that it sadly will never be. For that reason I could never accept second best and become a CELTA teacher in Poland as it is simply not the same thing that I always wanted.

UK, Ireland / Unemployed due to Polish who work in the UK [126]

Probably you are lucky and have age on your side too.

UK, Ireland / The British workers denied jobs because they can't speak Polish [45]


More like emigration. In comparison to somewhere like Australia, I would not think twice where I would rather live. After all, 600,000 Poles can not be wrong in wanting to leave their beloved homeland.

Maybe we should have some sort of points system in this country too. Only Polish people who have Cambridge Proficiency could apply to come here. That would certainly cut down the numbers a bit. Mind you, they would soon find ways of printing certificates and offering them for sale. If they can produce any passport they could do the same with an educational certificate.

UK, Ireland / Unemployed due to Polish who work in the UK [126]


I think that you are being a bit hard on him


Yes, but then these countries have strict points systems for allowing immigration-at least that is the case in Australia. If I was younger, I would go to Australia, but without being married to an Australian citizen I have almost no chance at all of getting in.

Study / Intensive Polish Courses - any good results? [5]

I think that it was to some extent as it will no doubt give you motivation as you will have to try and speak out loud in class and that is always one of the greatest problems for the beginner.

UK, Ireland / Unemployed due to Polish who work in the UK [126]

I think that you are right but to tell you the truth some of the novelty has worn off. I think that I have already wrote something similar to the fact that fifteen years ago when we started to live together here in England and Polishnes was unique in England really, though of course, there has always been an older generation since the war. However, we go to a nice Chinese restaurant in Woking and we have Polish spoken to our left, Polish spoken to our right. Then on the streets outside you see them all the time and even 'worse' if that is the word, at the A3 car boot every Sunday morning! It is really hard to think that you are not walking around a Russian market on the outskirts of Gdansk! I suppose it is a new World that we live in and I can understand the young wanting to do teaching certificates and travel East. Why not-it is a good education but I remember the old Poland as it was with the old Zloty-the Pewex-the MO before the police came in to being and as for cars, the old East German Trambant-pure luxury! I suppose that whilst the Berlin Wall stood there was something magical about Communism rather like the forbidden fruits, you needed a visa and there was something really special about learning Russian and Polish. Now all these places just look like anywhere else.

Language / A Native American or a Native Pole: Who is better into which language? [116]


I think that in fact Russian is the harder language as the stress moves in the words without any warning depending on grammatical structure. Unless you have the stress marks added on all the words you can rarely be sure how to pronounce anything.

Language / Word order in the Polish language? [11]

The very best book for learning Polish and I think that it is still in print though you may have to order it is called Beginning Polish Volume One by Alexander M. Schenker. You may be able to get one on e-bay or Amazon. com. Watch out for the Colloquial Polish Book as it has been reprinted in a different format and I always find the old ones better. If you want to learn vocabulary, then get hold of the Berlitz travel guides-the vocabulary is very fine all divided up into various sections. I used this little book and got an A grade in G.C.S.E. Polish.

Study / Intensive Polish Courses - any good results? [5]

I went on a summer language programme to Jagiellonski in Krakow in August 1985. It was a good course and you have the opportunity of meeting many people from all around the World. It cost around £600 for all food, accommodation and the daily lessons though I do not know if the course exists today or how much it would cost you. You Polish Embassy's Cultural section should be able to advice you.

In fact there were also simiar courses held at the same time in Lublin but then again, this is years ago.

UK, Ireland / The British workers denied jobs because they can't speak Polish [45]

Give her a chance, she may not go through her computer every day or have access to one for that matter.

Language / A Native American or a Native Pole: Who is better into which language? [116]


No, they are my words. For some people, investments, second homes ect can become an obsession. That is what I meant and that is what I said. Teraz, rozumiesz?

UK, Ireland / Unemployed due to Polish who work in the UK [126]


We went to Woking on Sunday afternoon. We walked around the town and heard a lot of Polish spoken everywhere. Now it explains why there are no Polish left in Poland-they are all in Woking! We went in to a little shop taken over by the Poles called Maria. This is a little food shop selling everything Polish that you can also now buy in Tescos but at twice the price-avoid it if you can.

Language / Which case for adjectives? [47]

It is the old original version of Colloquial Polish by W. B. Mazur, I have always kept the book from old, well, I say old, from the early 1980's though that is twenty years ago. I picked up a copy for £1.50 at a car boot not so long ago!

Mind you to finish off answering the question, in dictionaries, you will normally see byc followed by the adjective in the instrumental case even without an added noun.

Language / Which case for adjectives? [47]

I have quite a good old fashioned book by B. W. Mazur. Under the title of byc and the nominative. After byc adjectives referring to the subject are in the nom. case. But when the adjective qualifies a noun both are put into the instrumental case. Compare

J jestem stary-nom
Maria jest wysoka-nom
Jestem starym doktorem-inst
Maria jest wysoka zdiewczyna-instrumental

Grammar is practice and there is usually a logic as to why something is used in a certain way, especially in Polish. Why all this terminology of 'mianownik' and 'narzednik'? It is not worth complicating something pratical if you are unable to even use these simple grammar tools in practicle situations.

Language / Some example sentences using each of the cases in Polish [33]

This is more to the point.

Life / Renewing my English passport in Poland [23]

I know that the reason children's passports are issued for only five years at a time is for the photographs to be renewed as people obviously change with age. A child at six months old would look very different by the time of their fifth or six birthday. Warsaw would probably be your best choice as train communications would be more plentiful and reliable. Phone them first and take the correct documentation, including new photographs if you need them. They may need to wire London for confirmation anyway-they may not give you a new passport on the spot with you being in Poland.

Language / Some example sentences using each of the cases in Polish [33]


This is not an answer at all, you are simply saying the same thing as me. You have given the rules, that is simple but why is this an exception in this particular case?

UK, Ireland / Unemployed due to Polish who work in the UK [126]


Why not?


I love your written style of English, a shame you are not here now to help me with my latest essay!


Yes, I understand that, I was only asking why? Why Polish of all the languages in the World? What is so special about that country or language? It was not meant as criticism but as a non Polish person there is normally a deeper reason that drives people to a particular area and sphere of interest. For example, people study accountancy because there are good financial rewards at the end of the tunnel-that is still a goal, all the same though. If you had some young Dutch children in your place, would you run off to Amsterdam with your phrase-book?

Life / Renewing my English passport in Poland [23]

I know that in England it always had to be a 'responsible person' such as a doctor. who could then charge a lot of money for the privilege. As far as I know anybody, other than a relative can do it for you as long as they hold a full U.K. passport. It would be pretty much the same, I would have thought, for you being overseas and they could not discriminate as there is all sorts of EU legislation protecting human rights. Phone the embassy or go there in person-you would have to take a day off in the week as I very much doubt if they are open at weekends for those type of queries. There might even be a help line via the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London SW1 where you can post questions and get an answer, try too the Passport Office in Petty France, London SW1-it is the main Passport Office in the UK, they too may have a web site. In fact, maybe there is even a web site now for the British Embassy in Warsaw.

In fact I have just looked at the web site of The Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London and there are many places you can do it in Poland.

There is the British Embassy in Warsaw
There are also British Honorary Consuls in Poznan, Szczecin, Wroclaw, Lodz, Katowice, Gdansk, Krakow and Lublin.

The nearest to you is Poznan, I would imagine, if you are in Bydgoszcz
Ul Kochanowskiego 4/2 60-844 Poznan
telephone (48) (61) 665 8850 They are open Monday to Friday 9.00a.m. to 3.00p.m.
e-mail ukcons@protea.pl

If you want more details, you can go on to the F.C.O. web site for yourself and work through the questions until you find the bit that you want. There is actually a section on 'can I renew my passport whilst overseas' and then you click on the country you want, in your case, Poland and this brings up the whole list.

Life / Renewing my English passport in Poland [23]

I would have thought that anybody such as the DOS in his language school would be a British subject and could sign surely? As far as I know, anybody with a British passport can countersign the photograph-it does not have to be an MP or a doctor anymore. Children's passports are different as the picture has to be countersigned as they are growing and their features change a lot with the passage of time. However, I was of the opinion that adult's passports do not now have to be countersigned if there is no major changes to the details held within the original passport these days. I would have thought that there must be an official web page covering all this somewhere.