Genealogy / Ryszkowska/Gryszkowska from old Polish Town from pre-1930 ("antowi zcizus") [14]

Only if you are looking at today's maps :)
Between world wars (1918-1939) the borders of Poland were much more towards East, but the Soviet Union took them (about 40% of the pre-war Poland) after "liberating" us from Germans in 1945 (those decisions about borders were made in cooperation with the Allies and they gave us some lands in the West, previously ruled by the Germans, like Wrocław/Breslau and Szczecin/Stettin).

If your father was talking about the times before they had left Poland (around 1930) he probably meant Russian border in the East (Ukraine as a independent country has been existing only since 1991, for many centuries its lands were ruled by Poland, Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, then Russia and finally Soviet Union).

Here's a map of Poland in 1918-1939:

Life / Persian community in Warsaw? (i don't mean cats) [18]

Isn't Iranian restricted to people from Iran, while Persian to the ethnic group (much larger than the country of Iran, which by the way was called Persia for a long time)?

Genealogy / Looking for Zimmermans born between 1950 and 1970 [6]

other variant of the spelling is Zimerman (single m and single n) like the Polish piano player Krystian Zimerman (winner of The International Frederick Chopin Piano Competition in 1975)

Life / Meeting family and staying with my Polish friends parents [3]

Well, Poles don't bite, so you don't have to apply some special measures during your visit. Behave politely, but without exaggeration.
Some people don't like others to meddle in their cooking, so maybe just offer to wash the dishes :) but only if your friend does, because the parents may 1/ approve your politeness, but 2/ may also feel uncomfortable with a guest working in their house (generally guests don't do anything, they just have to enjoy the dinner and eventually drinks, but if you'll be staying for a longer period, then they probably can't "wait your table" all the time, I really don't know, it depends on a family, so you may offer your help, but rather not on the first day).

Greetings:
Dzień dobry. Miło mi Pana [or: Panią or: Państwa] poznać.
(means: Good morning/afternoon/day/how are you/hello. Pleased to meet you.)
[you use "Pana" - to an adult male; "Panią" - to an adult female; "Państwa" - to a mixed group, i.e. mother and father]

Cześć = Hi (to a younger person, if your friend has any teenage siblings/relatives).

(Pronounciation: usuful ink to a Text-to-Speech online software, you can also learn how to pronounce the parents' names correctly, but you need the right spelling, this software doesn't correct your mistakes, just tries to read as it's written, so using the spelling without Polish fonts, for example Wladyslaw instead of Władysław, won't do any good).

Gifts - I don't know. Do as you would do with your friend's parents anywhere, it's really hard to generalize.

Genealogy / Ryszkowska/Gryszkowska from old Polish Town from pre-1930 ("antowi zcizus") [14]

First remark: surnames ending in -ski, -cki, -dzki are declined in Polish, that's why you'll have 2 versions (for men ending -ski, -cki, -dzki; for women ending -ska, -cka, -dzka).

I just found a site, but I don't know if it's reliable, someone more concerned about genealogy might be more helpful (because it's not my cup of tea)

Surname Gryszkowski - only 8 men + 6 women (Gryszkowska), all in Ełk region (NE Poland)

Surname Ryszkowski - 580 men + 610 women (Ryszkowska), in various regions of Poland (predominantly East, but almost 12% in Warsaw, which has about 5-6% of overall Polish population)

There are also 311 persons with the name Gryczkowski (mostly in NE Poland) and, judging by the geographical distribution, it looks like Gryszkowski is probably a misspelled version of Gryczkowski, not Ryszkowski (due to the historical and political circumstances mentioned by krysia in her post, I may add that the Germans during WWII also added to the mess, by writing incorrectly Polish names/surnames in their documents, many people had lost their Polish IDs during WWII and the German IDs were the only ones they had after the war, so if there were any mistakes they were transferred to Polish documents after WWII and some people never bothered to go to the court in order to bring back the correct spelling), but it apparently exists so it's hard to say who made the mistake in spelling and when (before 1918 - during partitions of Poland - or on Ellis Island in the 30's).


The town/village name would rather be Ryszków / Gryszków (I haven't heard such names and haven't found any in Wikipedia, but it's not definitive, not every single of 35,000 Polish towns and villages is in Wiki), in the version Gryczkowski, it may come from "gryczka" (a plant species)

Love / Dating a Polish guy for the first time ever in my life [22]


well, who was that "girl"?

Language / Polish Neuter [7]


let it R.I.P., no need to bother with vocative (it would be the last thing on my learn-to-list, if I were a foreigner), you can safely use nominative instead, because vocative is almost extinct among most speakers.


(right)
Możesz mi postawić jedno piwo albo trzy [piwa].


Dzięki smacznemu piwu. (Dative case, singular)


Generally, those numbers behave like adjectives, so different endings dipending on the gender of the noun (and special endings in plural for masculine human nouns):

(masc.) jeden mały stół, chłopiec
(neut.) jedno małe piwo
(fem.) jedna mała ławka

dwa/trzy/cztery małe stoły, dwaj/trzej/czterej mali chłopcy (or dwóch/trzech/czterech małych chłopców)
dwa/trzy/cztery małe piwa
dwie/trzy/cztery małe ławki

pięć (and more) małych stołów, pięciu małych chłopców
pięć małych piw
pięć małych ławek

EDIT:


Yes, it is regular in singular forms, but you can find some misleading forms, because it's also often appearing in a colloquial form of dzieciak (masculine gender) like some of other neuter nouns, especially indicating young animals (first is neut. - second is masc.: prosię - prosiak, kurczę - kurczak, ptaszę - ptaszek, źrebię - źrebak, cielę - cielak etc.).

There's also an already archaic form of dziecię.

Life / List of Polish movies on DVD with English subtitles [30]

I just saw new editions of two cult commedies, Rejs (rather difficult for foreigners, based on absurd humour, word games and nonsense of the life under the communist regime, no real plot, or rather a plot that mostly serves to as a carrier for the jokes).

The other one is Seksmisja.

The new, special editions cost about 50 zloty (17$ or 13 Euro), and unlike the previous editions (by the same release company, Best Film) DO HAVE English subtitles (plus Polish subtitles for hearing impaired). The video aspect is still 4:3, I don't know why they didn't bother to make a transfer to widescreen :(

New releases DVD covers
Rejs: Rejs with subtitles

Seksmisja: Seksmisja with subtitles

Language / Polish Neuter [7]


Well, most languages make the difference between singular (one) and plural, why wouldn't Polish?


There are some threads about nouns with numbers on these forums, unlike in English (beer - beers) we use 3 forms of the noun (piwo - piwa - piw).


Right.


Dwie butelki piwa (singular, Genetive case, like in English, you'd say "Two bottles of beer" not "Two bottles of beers")


Apparently, they are NOT wrong (if you meant "Give me the beer!" and "Give me the beers!")


It will (would), indeed.


Głowa boli, to od piwa [to przez piwo] (not "dzięki piwu" = thanks to, because you're not thankful for the headache), przez piwo = because of beer, od piwa = (literally) from beer - you've got your headache from the beer :)


No, the beer is giving elephants = piwo będzie dawać słonie [plural, Accusative case] [or słonia - singular, , Accusative case]

osiol?

UK, Ireland / Where can I buy DVDs in Polish language near Glasgow? [11]

The best way is to buy at merlin.pl (or other online shops) choose a gift-wrap option and indicate the delivery address of your friends in Poland (then ask them not to open, but to bring those gifts to England and open there :)

You can always indicate your own delivery address in UK, it's a bit more expensive, but not a fortune.

I'm not sure if you can search merlin.pl with original titles though, in worst case you'd have to search for directors'/main actors' name

Travel / Poland - Official Highway Code in English? [5]


What's that? Do we have it in Poland yet?

Law / umowa o dzielo z prawami autorskimi [10]

It's more or less (art)work contract with copyrights.

there are basically 3 types of job contracts in Poland:
1/ umowa o pracę
the standard type in most jobs, full ZUS (Social Insurance) and taxes (students and people who already retired pay lower insurance, and people with two jobs pay full ZUS from the first job and lower insurance from the second one).

2/ umowa zlecenie (zlecenia) - work order, a contract where someone (a company or a person) executes some work for another entity, used by companies instead of standard job contracts mostly to reduce the social insurance costs (which are high in Poland).

3/ umowa o dzieło - (art)work contract, someone orders a ready work from you - it can be a sculpture, a poem, a book, a painting, a photography (or a series of those works), also a translation of some texts into another language. It's not only about art, some other objects/works can be included here, it all depends on the creativity of lawyers who know how to use the existing laws to reduce company's costs.

The main advantage of umowa o dzieło is that the company pays a fixed, agreed price and 9.5% tax, nothing more (the tax is 19%, but half of contract price is regarded as your "costs of receiving an income", so exempted from taxes, you only pay higher taxes than 19% in case you exceed 43.405 PLN of income in 2007, which in reality means 86.810 PLN in case of umowa o dzieło), no social insurance, if you want to have a health insurance (and also pay towards your pension) in Poland, you have to register in ZUS and pay from your own pocket (health insurance is 280 PLN as far as I know, I'm not sure about the pension fund).

The difference between umowa zlecenie and umowa o dzieło is that zlecenie is about execution of some works, while umowa o dzieło is about the final result of your work.

Example (please forgive me non-realistic figures, it's just an example)
Let's say an employer (a small newspaper) has a monthly budget of 10,000 PLN for photos.
They can employ a full time photographer and pay him about 5,900 PLN (and the remaining 4,100 PLN goes to ZUS, social insurance, and Urząd Skarbowy), after 7 months you'll be over 44,000 PLN of income, and you will be paying higher tax (30% instead of 19%), so you'll get only about 5,100 PLN in hand (although, according to a income/tax calculator I'm using, in November and December you'd get 5,700 PLN in hand).

With umowa o dzieło, you'd be getting 120,000 PLN a year, 60,000 PLN would be exempted from taxes, 44,400 would be taxed at 19% and 15,600 PLN would be taxed at 30%. So the total tax would be 13,116 PLN a year, leaving you with 106,884 PLN in your pocket (8,907 PLN a month on average). You'd gain 3,000 PLN/month more, so even paying a health insurance and a pension plan from your own pocket (let's say a total of 1,500 PLN a month), you'd be better off.

USA, Canada / NO VISAS to Canada for Poles in the near future [62]


Thanks.

Life / Holiday's in Poland! Not allowed thanksgiving off. [30]

Well, I was going to post some useful advice, but this comment


proved you don't deserve any advice.

USA, Canada / NO VISAS to Canada for Poles in the near future [62]


Thanks for the information about Niagara Falls and the surroundings.
So I see I have lots of time (before the summer) to plan an eventual trip.
I'm still not sure why I should go to Canada, but I've never left Europe, so this sounds really tempting and ... exotic :)

Do you have any idea what the prices are for hiring a private plane with a pilot (just an estimate, I don't need exact figures) and how many tourists can travel by such planes?

I have no idea if I could afford such thing without spending too much of my savings ...

Life / Polish movie title needed [5]

Maciej Dejczer300 mil do nieba (300 Miles to Heaven)

imdb.com/title/tt0096740/ - On IMDB

And that's the DVD cover (Polish release): DVD cover

Life / about bielska-bialo - require some advice about living there. [5]

You've got the "a" and "o" wrong, you probably meant Bielsko-Biała, didn't you?

It's a city with a little below 200,000 population, I have never been there, so I don't have any first hand information (except for the volleyball team, which I often see on TV).

It's located in the Beskidy mountains, so it's a great place for people who like nature, hiking, alpine and cross country skiing etc.

There's an aero club too (with sections: planes, gliders, parachuting), several indoor pools, some tennis courts and an open air ice rink.
If you like female volleyball, they have a very good club there.

There's a multiplex cinema there.
Centro Italiano di Cultura (thanks to a Fiat factory, so probably there is an Italian community in Bielsko-Biała).
If you're a religious person, there are Catholic and Protestant churches, (and according to Wikipedia a Jewish kehillah, some Buddist centers, Jehovah Witnesses).

If you mean night life, then I really don't know.

Language / Telephone numbers in Polish - what pronunciation? [3]

In central Poland we use the same method as in Kraków.

Language / Difference between 'to' and 'jest' when describing people [4]

Kasia to miła nauczycielka. - is totally OK, but it's considered more colloquial, so you shouldn't use it at school or university too much and rather choose the official version:

Kasia jest miłą nauczycielką.
but talking to your friends, you can safely use both (unless your friends are some freak language purists)

Language / Correct form of BYĆ. Please help! [96]


I guess you meant to post this question in that thread: polishforums.com/genitive_plural_female_neuter-18_29589_0.html - genitive (female)
so I'll answer there.


just for the dumbass you are:
THESE SENTENCES ARE NOT MY EXEMPLES, THEY WERE GIVEN BY THE ORIGINAL POSTER AND I MADE CORRECTIONS WHERE THEY WERE NECESSARY.
I hope you managed to read that despite your blindness.

Language / Confusion about genitive plural [30]

Carry on, Michal, you're always funny to read.

from other thread:


Polish spelling dictionary gives both forms as correct, but I'd rather use piekarni (ciastkarni, suszarni), which is also considered more common, because the -rń ending is a little more difficult in pronounciation for native speakers (I'm sure for foreigners too).

Similar ending words like female gender babcia, ciocia, niania and neuter gender parcie (plural Nom. babcie, ciocie, nianie, parcia) have Genetive plural babci or babć, cioć, niań, parć. In this case the -ń or -ć ending, with a preceding vowel, is easy to pronounce, while the -rć or -bć ending (in parć, babć) is also much easier to pronounce than the -rń ending, anyway, for those lazy bums who find -bć to hard to say, "babci" in Gen. plural also exists.

So here's my guess: grammatically it should piekarń (ciastkarń, suszarń), but since we're not masochists, we didn't follow this rule to make the speaking act a little more fluent and the spelling/grammar books had to adjust.

Related: piekarń?


piekarń - there's no bakerys
piekarni - there's no bakery

Słownik poprawnej polszczyzny says:
piekarnia - D. lm. piekarni, rzadziej: piekarń
So it's not substandard, rather the opposite.

Language / Confusion about genitive plural [30]

1st group/ -ek ending with words that have -ka ending in signular nominative and -ki in plural nominative, like książka, łyżka, matka, przyjaciółka, lekarka, kucharka etc.

(a great part of female nouns, many of them form a matching pair with a male noun, see przyjaciel, lekarz, kucharz, some others are diminutive forms of older words, for example księga >> książka, mać >> matka),

also neuter nouns that end in -ko in singular nominative, -ka in plural nominative, like łóżko,
(of course there are some exception, like dziecko, plural dzieci, Gen. plural dzieci)

2nd group/ removing the final letter of the original word, for example female nouns ending in singular nominative in -a (but not "-ka"), which have -y or -e -i ending in plural nominative, like markiza, kanapa, herbata, kobieta, ballada, góra; świeca (Nom. plural świece); rzeka, (Nom. plural rzeki), hipoteka

(notice that "rzeka" or "hipoteka" isn't ending in -ka, the main part, or the root/stem of the word is "rzek-" and the ending is "-a", so it seems similar to the 1st group, but belongs to the second)

I'm not sure about neuter nouns, it's late so I won't think about it now, but give me some examples, so I try to search a rule for them tomorrow or in the next days.

This is just off the top of my head, so anyone, please, feel free to disagree or post some more accurate rules from grammar books.

Language / Correct form of BYĆ. Please help! [96]

1/ The Future (przyszłość = things to come, czas przyszły = in a grammatical sense, future tense)
2/ I'm not sure if you skipped "my" in Polish translations on purpose or by accident, so I'll add it in case you had any doubts.

3/ The main mistake you made is the use of the nominative case instead of the instrumental.
4/ Instead of "będzie" you can also use the verb "zostać" (3rd person, singular, future tense = "zostanie").

My sister (Moja siostra) Jillian, she will be (będzie) a nurse (pielęgniarką).
My brother (Mój brat) Ryan, he will be (będzie) a policeman (policjantem).
My brother (Mój brat) Tye, he will be (będzie) a manager (kierownikiem) in Atlantic City.
My girlfriend (Moja dziewczyna) Aryn, she will be (będzie) a lawyer (prawniczką).
My friend (Mójprzyjaciel) Nick, he will be (będzie) a cook (kucharzem **).
My girlfriend (Moja dziewczyna) Stacy, she will be (będzie) a teacher (nauczycielką).

** a cook = kucharka (female), kucharz (male)

Travel / I'm off to Poland tonight :) is there anything should take with me? [20]


Don't forget your login/password details to Polish Forums :)

(I always make some random passwords on my comp and when I have to use another one I never remember them).

Language / bring (towards) versus take (to) - Confusing ... [6]

The differences are quite subtle, but to bring in some order, I'd suggest the following (I hope other native Poles agree):


- in this case mostly "zanieś/daj tę książkę nauczycielowi" (if it's not just a normal house, but a big palace with wings and the teacher is really far, several hundreds meters for example, then rather only "zanieś", not "daj" *).

- if you were saying it to someone who visits you and then goes to another place (building or even town) by train, car, bus, tram etc., where you know he/she will meet the teacher, then rather "weź tę książkę dla nauczyciela" or "(od)daj tę książkę nauczycielowi"

- if you're asking someone to go to some distant place only to deliver the book to someone, and these persons wouldn't normally meet if not to fulfill your request, then "zanieś/zawieź tę książkę nauczycielowi" (I hope you know the difference between "nieść" - when you go on foot - and "wieźć" - when you go by car, bus etc.).

- * "daj tę książkę nauczycielowi" is more generic, but for me it implies the two persons will meet anyway for other reasons or that the recipient of the the action (i.e. the teacher) isn't far away from a place where the person fulfilling you're request is (or will be).

Life / Which Internet operator should i use in Poland? [6]

Well, I was chosing this summer (as my previous contract expired) and the only offers available here in my town were TP and Netia, the prices are the same, so I decided to stay with TP (not really wanted it). 1MB (~120 KB/s) on 2-years loyalty contract = 62 PLN/month (with VAT), 1-year contracts are too expensive, so I'm stuck for another 2 years with a company I don't like (and which offen cuts my download speed from 1024 kB to 512 kB, previously I had 512 kB and the speed was OK, I didn't experience the problem with it being reduced)

Life / Wanda, Queen of Poland [4]


Yes, she's a symbol.

The problem with Polish history dating before late 10. century is quite simple - no written sources, very weak presence in Roman or Byzantine historiography. The earliest existing annals (chronicles) of Poland were written in the 12. century, and like many medieval or antic writings they mix factual truth with beliefs and legends making it hard to decide which of described events were real, which were myths and which were partially real.

So by today's standard we may say that Krak (Wanda's father) was a mythical figure, because he slayed a dragon, in which we don't believe, but maybe it wasn't a dragon, but some other animal, or maybe dragons did exist :)

Love / Dating a Polish guy for the first time ever in my life [22]

We start taking bets if the girl is for real or maybe some PF poster was bored (not much happening on All Saints' Day here) and created a new nick to present us her "story" :)

News / how to use SMS to send message to cell phone in poland [30]

there are several older threads on Gadu Gadu on polishforums, just use the Search function at the top of the page

News / how to use SMS to send message to cell phone in poland [30]


Orange/idea


I think you're not totally clear here. Do you mean sending SMS via a cell phone (then it's just normal like sending to any network) or maybe sending the text message from internet?