Genealogy / Races of white people... [99]

I get the feeling that you are making a genetic differentiation here between vikings and Scandinavians... I know nothing about genetics, and correct me if I'm wrong, but I have always laboured under the impression that the term viking is not the name of a nation or racial group, however understood, but a common term for seafaring warriors/traders/adventurers hailing from the coastlines of the Scandinavian peninsula and all the way down the Baltic to Denmark, incl. the sea coast of what is present-day Poland.

I also think that you should not confuse vikings with the Ostrogoths and Visigoths, who settled all over Europe incl. Portugal (a major Visigoth kingdom during the early middle ages) and Russia (founded it, actually, those Ostrogoths), and along the coast of northern Africa. They are related, of course, all being Germanic, but I'm not sure they would have shaken hands and sat down to dinner at the same table ;-)

Why are you so hell-bent on tracing all the different genetic bits and pieces making up the wonderful patchwork that is Europe? This does not make us different races, it can at best make us different tribes ;-)

I think that nobody really knows where most of the different peoples of Europe came from in the first place. And as they arrived in waves, each incoming group messed up the existing genetic pool real fine. Trying to unpick it seems pointless to me... Just my humble opinion.

Food / A Polish Soup-What is the name? [16]

How about mushroom soup with sour cream? Or krupnik with bits of bacon? Or rosół on a very cold day? Or chłodnik during a heatwave? :-)

You need to try them all!

Love / Starosta & Staroscina - Polish wedding tradition [10]


This is not necessarily true, unfortunately... Overall, I think that if the gf in question felt she had done something very untoward, she wouldn't have even mentioned it to her bf in the first place.

Food / A Polish Soup-What is the name? [16]


No, it's not. Barszcz is either the red barszcz (clear) or Ukrainian (with lots of vegetables, beans, and with cream added) or white (żurek). The spectrum of Polish soups is much, much broader than that ;-)

Love / Starosta & Staroscina - Polish wedding tradition [10]


With all due respect, do you live in la-la land? If a bunch of drunk, happy, rowdy wedding guests, and the master of ceremonies as well, expect you to behave in a certain way, and you're in the limelight, it's really pretty hard to say No. Of course, nobody's putting a gun to your head, but I'd think it's very much a situation it would be very embarrassing and difficult to back out of.

Love / Starosta & Staroscina - Polish wedding tradition [10]

I wouldn't be too sure about that. I've been to weddings where not only the bride and groom were made to kiss by calls of "gorzko, gorzko", but the best man and bridesmaid as well. This might well hold true for the starosta and starościna at this particular wedding. Each area has its own traditions, heck, each family has them in this respect, and also remember that if you hire a band with live music, they will also act as "wodzirej" (a sort of entertainment officer), and organize the wedding fun and games for you, some of which that I've seen have made me cringe, they were so sexually explicit. Like ballroom dancing lying down (man on top of the woman, making dance moves which in this position resemble something entirely different). I personally don't like this, but on the other hand this is a reminder that in pagan tradition, the wedding night was a time of revelry and sexual freedom, invoking the spirits/gods of fertility and long life. These "games" seem to be the last remnant of such beliefs.

If you're really worried, ask to watch the wedding video with your girlfriend. This is absolutely the norm, wedding videos are sent out to friends and family as part of the proceedings. :-)

Genealogy / Races of white people... [99]


On the basis of just one family (mine): 50% Czech, 25% Polish (actually Kaszubian and Catholic Byelorussian, to be exact), 25% German (from East Prussia, so actually somewhat "Slavicized" - if there is such a word). But I have Polish citizenship, speak Polish most often, have married a Pole and have Polish citizens for children who have a very vague idea of their origins. I am sure that at least 30% of all Polish citizens have such convoluted backgrounds ;-)

But we're still Polish, because what makes you Polish is in the water, the soil, the air, the literature, the bricks and mortar your house is built of.

Life / Angina, Polish resources needed [27]


not quite. it's tonsillitis (severe bacterial infection of the tonsils).

if the lady is in Scotland though, and her doctor is Scottish, I rather think he is talking of angina pectoris - dusznica bolesna. there is probably a wiki.pl site for this.

Study / AGH Studying (Computer Science) in Poland [20]

The breakdown of degrees into undergraduate and graduate in Poland took place recently - about 10 years ago or less. Before that, you either studied the 4 or 5 years, wrote, submitted, and presented your thesis and got your Master's - or you did not and got nothing (even if you completed all the relevant university courses). So most people over 30 would be magisters, yes, and it has nothing to do with being "hung up on titles". Funnily enough, most BAs (licencjaci) also choose to continue to the MA level. Maybe they're ambitious? ;-p

Travel / Torun, Poland - Good Restuarants [12]

If you want to eat well and not pay too much, go to the Czarna Oberża (ulica Rabiańska I think). If you have money to burn, you will pass loads of fancy restaurants anywhere you go in the Old Town. For an expensive but very fancy, fin de siecle experience complete with waitresses in almost period dress, go to Róże i Zen. :-) for coffee and cakes.

Enjoy! :-)

Language / "sorry" instead of "przepraszam" [76]


I always thought that English and Swedish were both Germanic languages?

Life / Why is Poland so slow; it takes a lot of time to arrange anything here [53]


I would respond to that, but I'm too apathetic.

Language / "sorry" instead of "przepraszam" [76]

Off the top of my head I'd say it's related to "proszę". But if you're really interested, let me have a closer look at this and come back in a minute :-)

(10 minutes later)

Terribly sorry (sic!) but I am unable to find the etymology on the internet. I would still go with my gut feeling that it has to do with prze-prosiny, something along the lines of "repeatedly asking or begging" (for mercy, forgiveness, whatever).

Of course, there is the possibility that I am spectacularly wrong ;-)

Language / "sorry" instead of "przepraszam" [76]


I would venture the statement that, well, yes...

Language / "sorry" instead of "przepraszam" [76]


Unfortunately (?) there is no such thing as a "pure" language.
Polish-sounding words such as "dach", "fartuch", "ratusz", "kajzerka" are actually German.
Polish-sounding words such as "kościół", "cmentarz", "pacierz" are actually Latin.
Polish-sounding words such as "dyliżans", "romans", "pomarańcza" are actually French.

Same in English, same in German, same everywhere. Languages interbreed like crazy.

Language / Difference between Polish Ł and English W [23]


...except some Czech/Moravian dialects actually have the [ł] sound as well, so there! ;-p

News / Storyville: The Polish Ambulance Murders (BBC4) [43]


Yeah, this would be the exact analogy to my hypothetical choice of second-hand coffin and wilted flowers funeral. And no, I would not consider this type of funeral even if I did not get the government grant. Don't you see that you cannot compare - in any respect - the last rites of your loved one to a car purchase? Your analogy is thoughtless at best, I am afraid.


lol - you're sooo non-Polish
(whatever that means, but obviously you like stereotyping, so I'll play along) ;-p

Travel / Eastern Part of Poland - Bialystok [5]

Białystok is not an area, it is a city. I do know Białystok a bit, but unless you ask more specifically I will be unable to help ;-)

News / Storyville: The Polish Ambulance Murders (BBC4) [43]


So according to you, the Polish government purposefully pumps money into the undertaking sector so more people can get murdered? I like how you artfully place a gesture of decency and goodwill on part of the State on its head.

What I think is that there is a direct correlation between someone paying ZUS all their lives, and then receiving a tiny bit of that back to help get a decent funeral. I think the state could hardly do less for their pensioners and/or terminally ill.

The money is not paid to the undertaker, it is paid to the family or institution who forked out for the funeral. And do you seriously think that if the family did not get this cash, they would settle for a discount funeral with second-hand coffin and wilted flowers? Or maybe, as I suggested earlier, just bury grandpa in the back yard to cut costs?

Also, someone earlier said that this was "pumping money into state services" - sorry about that, but 90% of undertakers in Poland are, and were private enterprises.

News / Storyville: The Polish Ambulance Murders (BBC4) [43]

I meant the families - they would pay through the nose for their dead, and this is what the murderers knew and took advantage of.

News / Storyville: The Polish Ambulance Murders (BBC4) [43]

I see you do not understand the Poles. As in case of weddings, christenings, and first communions - funerals are a very special (though mournful) moment in the life of the family and I have never heard of anyone who would try to be cheap at this time. People don't get "wedding benefits" from the government, yet they are capable of spending incredible sums of money on a reception. If a family member dies, more often than not special savings had already been made, if it's an elderly person they might even have paid for the monument and plot at the cemetery beforehand... And if the money were not readily available, the whole family would pay towards the funeral. The funeral aid is/was about 4000 PLN, I can assure you that most families would pay out a lot more for their dear departed. I bet a nice oak coffin costs about 2000 PLN. A funeral in Warsaw with all the trimmings would cost around 6000 - 7000 PLN (just googled it).

News / Storyville: The Polish Ambulance Murders (BBC4) [43]


The problem is that the money would be there anyway! People would simply pay undertakers out of their own pockets. Do you think they would just bury grandpa in the back yard? I know, I'm being flippant but I want to make a point here. There is no necessary correlation between the murders and the burial "benefit" or whatever you wish to call it. There is, however, a direct correlation between undertakers wanting more business = more customers, and being willing to pay for that - and paramedics wanting the "head-hunter" money, so to speak. It was the undertakers who would pay up 1800 PLN to the ambulance team for a body, a healthy cut of their profit, one might say. :-(

News / Storyville: The Polish Ambulance Murders (BBC4) [43]

The whole tragedy of this story is that in reality it's a free market enterprise gone horrid.
Firstly, the Polish government does not pay undertakers for burials. The money (zasiłek pogrzebowy) is paid to the family of the deceased to ease the financial strain of the burial.

Nevertheless, this money has nothing to do with the ensuing murders, because people would bury their dead even if they never received government aid to do it.

There are several undertakers on the market. Each one would like to know where the next dead body is coming from - and when. Quite natural, eh? It's their line of business, after all... So they get in touch with the ambulance people and pay them for tips about who died recently. Then, they pay the ambulance people to recommend their particular services to the grieving family. Not very nice, in fact a bit nasty, but still somewhat above board. Nobody gets killed - yet. And then the final brainwave - the ambulance people don't have to wait to get paid until someone actually dies: they can fabricate their own dead. Ay, and there's the rub. That's when things took a decidedly unpleasant turn. :-(

News / Storyville: The Polish Ambulance Murders (BBC4) [43]

For several guys working in two ambulance teams this seems quite an achievement. If they really managed to kill off 50 000 - as the BBC claims - the funeral parlours would not be able to cope with the turnover! Remember that as a rule, people are buried rather than cremated in Poland. Cemetery space is restricted, so £ódź would soon run out of land and would have to plan for a huge graveyard area increase (we are talking a small town dead and buried within 10 years).

Somehow I think this bit is a poor translation of the statement that approx. 20 000 were influenced by the murders - this is what I read somewhere in one of the reports.

5 000 dead sounds shocking. 50 000 dead sounds like "shock-value" reporting.

News / Storyville: The Polish Ambulance Murders (BBC4) [43]

Apart from that, someone mentioned 50 000 dead, which would be like killing off a small town - I've only come across 5 000 victims (which is quite enough), and 20 000 people influenced by the murders, like family members and such.

News / Storyville: The Polish Ambulance Murders (BBC4) [43]

There have been trials and appeals. I now live in the UK. I do not read Polish papers daily. But if you are really interested, type "łowcy skór" into Google and check the top link - it has a recapitulation of the whole story, article by article (in Polish).

I just wanted to say that people claiming on the forum that nobody in Poland is interested in this case etc. are not right. When this first came to light, the shock and outrage were enormous. It just isn't humanly possible to keep up the same level of outrage for six years in a row, though.

Why hadn't the BBC picked up on this earlier?

News / Storyville: The Polish Ambulance Murders (BBC4) [43]

It was extensively covered in the Polish media. Six years ago. When this was news.

Life / Polish Train Travel - Scary? [101]


Oh come on, what on earth is so scary about that? I've been travelling all over Poland by train ever since I turned 16, and that was ages ago, believe me. Nothing scary ever happened to me, and I took night trains, slow trains, local trains, the lot. Sometimes the train was crowded, or overheated - that was just about the extent of my misery ;-)

If you watch out for pickpockets, like you should anywhere in the world - you will be absolutely fine.

Study / The basic requirements for a non-EU foreigner to go to a university in PL [23]

I would email them to find out. The thing is... these are state universities, and I'm not totally sure that there are any fees for day students. I have no idea how that would work out for foreigners, but again, the easiest way is to e-mail the faculties you are interested in and get going :-)

rekrutacja.uw.edu.pl/index.php?display=english/recruitment2

this is what I found regarding fees at Warsaw University.

Study / The basic requirements for a non-EU foreigner to go to a university in PL [23]


I don't remember the UŚ being particularly famous for its linguistics... The most trumpeted would be Poznań (the UAM), especially in the German/English Studies, and then of course Warsaw University - regarding translation you would probably want to have a look at the Institute Lingwistyki Stosowanej - Institute of Applied Linguistics. As an English Studies student, I had lots of friends over at the ILS and "shared" some of the teachers with them, so I know the ILS was a veritable factory of good translators/interpreters. You would have to have a language pair though - English/Russian, English/German or such. At most (used to be all, but standards are falling) universities, many language studies are conducted in the language of choice, so English Studies were all done in English etc. This of course cannot be true in case of Oriental or African language studies, where you have to learn the lingo from scratch ;-) In the case of German, English, French, Russian, maybe others - the authorities assume you have *learnt* the language at secondary school and want to use it to study the culture, linguistics, history of said country(ies).

Check out the ILS. I think it's worth it.