Love / Love my polish girlfriend alot but under pressure from family [166]



Ah! Thanks guys! The motto here is never to rely on Wikipedia for your research :)

Travel / What Things Are There To Do in Poland For Teens [8]

Homework, studying, late nights in the library, evenings playing chess with other boys from school. These are the best years of your life, giovannile - be sure you don't waste them.

Love / Love my polish girlfriend alot but under pressure from family [166]

desi - Slang "A fellow from South Asia" (a 'homie')
non-mahram - nubile, open for marriage
istikhara - pray for absolution

News / Peculiar opinions about Poland [33]


Well I agree about the cheating part. The teachers I've met give tacit appoval to students who are loud mouthed cheats (some even make money on the side by selling exam answers to students) and this sets a terrible example to children who are at their most impressionable.


They certainly don't seem to in Poland either. If I had a penny for evey essay I've had to correct from PhD students who try to write an entire academic journal in ine paragraph, I'd have a shjit load of pennies by now. Some of my colleagues have mouthed off some blather about 'the fundamental unit of cohesion in Polish is the sentence rather than the paragraph' but this is utter nonsense. The plain fact is that students learn quickly that to get ahead in Poland, it's every man for himself


... and you can see the same in the UK. Families seem to shovel the responsibility for health, education and anything else that takes time and effort onto the welfare state accompanied by a mumble of "well, I pay my taxes". Result - the children learn nothing useful.



We are so lucky to have two experts on thinkology here today! Professors, if maths shapes the neural connections, why not teach basic economics at school rather than highest common factors and matrices? It would me more interesting, more useful and ultimately more beneficial for the student. Why do pure maths?

UK, Ireland / (NO RASISM OR STEREOTYPING BTW) WHO IS POLISH IN THE UK AND ON BENEFITS? [46]


I don't think so. Most of the people who grew up in the UK with me went through the same upbringing. We told racist jokes to each other and parroted whatever was on the news at the time, when we watched it that is. My Polish father was hardly a good example, going on about jews, niggers and communists whenever he thought he'd impress people with his social awareness.

It's only now I realise how ignorant we all were. If I can see it, there must be others who do too but still, inexplicably, the cycle goes on because that's British society.

Whenever we got together for socially acceptable entertainment (an evening spending money in the pub) the topics would monotonously flick back and forth between shagging beer shagging clothes beer footy shagging as if we were part of one of those executive desk toys with the metal ball hanging over the three magnets. Any commentry about economy or society would be greeted with at best indifference and at worst hoots and catcalls before the pendulum swung back to footy.

Thank God I left that crap behind. They're probably still doing that every Friday

UK, Ireland / (NO RASISM OR STEREOTYPING BTW) WHO IS POLISH IN THE UK AND ON BENEFITS? [46]


Oh yes? How long is a few years then?


And sadly enough, this is the way most people in the world grow up. Parents watch the crap on the telly, and the schools feed you with nonsense you'll never need. Discussing intelligent topics is frowned on in the UK - socially accepted topics are footy, shagging and beer. This is the way the government likes it: a fragmented society with everybody looking out for number one, everyone suspicious of their brothers and sisters and nobody asking the right questions about the man.

UK, Ireland / (NO RASISM OR STEREOTYPING BTW) WHO IS POLISH IN THE UK AND ON BENEFITS? [46]


ihatepolish, despite what you write, you seem a reasonably intelligent person who genuinely wants to know what's going on. The economics of a country is a very complicated thing to discuss and few people really understand it.

Anyone who claims they do understand the system is lying to you, and it's usually because they have an agenda. Taking screwups with complicated systems like the stock market, the banking system, trade, world employment trends and so on and than blaming it on the Poles / Jews / Arabs etc is sick because they play on people's ignorance and legitimate fears to win power.

Migrant labour has kept many areas of the British economy afloat for the last few years - the British economy's been fucked for a while now and it's only been cheap migrant labour that has kept it going (it's a miracle that a recession didn't hit before now).

Just think about this next time someone starts moaning about immigrants. Try to read more about the situation if you can because I'd hate to see you turning into one of those those ignorant fucks who join the BNP. Maybe mass immigration is wrong but at least you'll be able to speak against it with authority.

Law / Registering and eligibility to vote in the Poland's elections [15]


I thought so. You have to take British citizenship to vote in British elections

UK, Ireland / Polish students are rising to the top of the class [30]


Not necessarily. It just meant that the content of the lessons had to be reorganised towards more realistic educational outcomes.

Work / Teaching English in Lublin. [23]


You can go to their place but charge them more for convenience and travel costs. Cafes are OK for informal conversation 'classes'. The problem with doing classes round your place is that you have to tidy up every week and you never really get to relax for the rest of the week.

Oh try charging another 20 an hour if you do the class naked. Nobody took me up on it but it shows you're flexible with the lessons

Language / Cases: What is Nominative or Accusative and when do I use those? [14]


If you want to make basic communication - don't bother. If you want to write letters and translate things, get studying.

UK, Ireland / Polish students are rising to the top of the class [30]

And this is were the Times pisses with the lid down, Lukasz. Where does a Science degree guarantee you a good job? Especially if you are conditioned into parrot fashion learning and regurgitating facts for an exam?

News / Peculiar opinions about Poland [33]


Well, this is the way of the world these days. There's no point acquiring 'knowledge' if you can't apply it.


What's wrong with that? Poeple don't learn if they're bored and demotivated

Life / Experiences Installing a Wireless Home Network in Poland [12]


I asked the guy in the shop and he pointed me to a Linksys but I gather most routers have an installation package that automatically configures you to Neostrada. Otherwise, TPSA's helpline isn't too bad.

Food / MIÓD PITNY = MEAD / dwojniak - trojniak [13]

thanks guys!

Food / MIÓD PITNY = MEAD / dwojniak - trojniak [13]

Merged: What's the difference between dwojniak and trojniak

Any ideas? They are types of miod pitny. Is it to do with the strength?

UK, Ireland / Here comes the Anti-Immigration marches.... [114]


Whoa - do you have any actual facts and figures to back these claims up? It sounds as if you're blaming them for everything up to and including the sinking of the Titanic and the 9/11 attacks. The first two sentences you use are interesting beacuse they have two classic metaphors used by the far right to represent immigrants - the migrant as water and the migrant as disease (or disease vector). If you throw somthing in about animals, you'd have the hat trick.

As for believing British people to be inferior - So what if a country believes this? British business has these countries by the balls and you still want these people on their knees in front of you singing your praises? What is so important about getting 'respect' from people? Bit clingy aren't you?

Language / Teaching polish to my baby [6]


Judgemental? What's judgemental about stating a fact?


Good point but if the child grows up speaking one language at home and one in public you get significant differences between the two langauges. Most of my mixed marriage friends who have children prefer to divide the languages between mum and dad, although Polish will dominate because the child gets extra exposure in the 'native' language

USA, Canada / Why aren't Polish people immigrating to Canada instead of the UK? [148]


Post the figures or zip it.

UK, Ireland / Here comes the Anti-Immigration marches.... [114]

True.... British business doen't give a toss about their country. I'd like to see more local business in the future. Employing local people and looking after them. Globalisation is a bitch.

Then again, if the customer weren't willing to buy products manufactured in China, if they were willing to pay a little bit more and buy something made in Britain, the jobs would stay here. But people want cheap iPods, cars and mobiles so the firms flick their home country a v and drum up cheap foreign labour.

UK, Ireland / Here comes the Anti-Immigration marches.... [114]


OK there have been a couple of crashes over the last decade or so but compared to most other countries, people have had it pretty good. Huge disposable incomes. 20 years ago, anyone could get a mortgage and buy a house. There was a nich cushy welfare state to fall back on if you experienced hard times (Hell, some people have even lived relatively comfortably on benefits for most of their lives). It's relatively common for people to emply untermenchen from other countries as domestic helps - looking after children, cleaning the house etc.

But if you look at the broader picture, this is not typical of history. No other period of history have the general population been able to live so comforably. It's a minor blip. We are coming to the end of the Post war party and it's time to pick up the bill for private borrowing, careless public sector spending and not to put too fine a point on it, greed.

Workers have to take a reality check. Accept the pay cuts. Don't buy the plasma telly. Repair clothes. Cook your own food. Don't go on holiday to Egypt this year. Look after the car yourself. Stop smoking. Give up alcohol. Entertain friends at home. Turn lights off when not using them.

Things will hopefully get better soon, but the current situation is an unavoidable fact of economic life. British workers just have to get on with it.

Language / Teaching polish to my baby [6]


Are either of you Polish? Teaching little babies a foreign langauge is pretty much a waste of time unless they get a LOT of exposure. Hire a Polish nanny and tell her to speak Polish to the baby all day.

UK, Ireland / Here comes the Anti-Immigration marches.... [114]


Yep. The govt has been pushing science and technology for along time in schools, possibly believing that Britain and the US would always be the backbone of the world's economies, and moving towards vocational courses in FE / HE - I think to increase competition in the graduate job market and reduce the wages of qualified staff - and now it's come round to bite them in the arse. Then again, there has been healthy immigration for decades now and there will be plenty of second generation bilinguals who have the chance of a lifetime.

Sigh. I wish my dad hadn't been so bloody lazy when I was young and pushed me to speak Polish.


The only good thing about this crisis is that those obnoxious little bitches will be the first ones to lose their jobs.

Love / I need advice - I just found out my Polish boyfriend in Ireland has a wife and children. [40]


Dump him. Shag him a few times and them dump him.

UK, Ireland / Here comes the Anti-Immigration marches.... [114]

A difficult situation - But how can be solved?
Pass legislation that the employers have to employ local workers? Then you'll get the local labour taking the piss by demanding unreasonable wages.
Enforcing a national minimum wage for native and migrant workers? Then the big firms will up sticks and move to the EU / Asia where labour is dirt cheap.

No, times are hard at the moment and British workers will have to swallow their pride and accept reduced pay and worse conditions. Eventually the hand of the market will move the migrant workers back home.

Then again, thee's nothing stopping qualified Brits getting a job in another country. Oh sorry I forgot that none of them bothered to learn a foreign languae at school

Study / Looking for English Language schools in Katowice [48]

It had to be said

Study / Looking for English Language schools in Katowice [48]


If defining words were teaching. the school would hire dictionaries rather than native speakers, no?


OK I'll summarise what I know of the Callan method. It's seems to be a mixture of Audiolingualism and the Direct method in that while grammar is mentioned here and there, the main focus in on the students' spoken production, which is based on drills. The principle being that by repeating similar drills over and over really quickly, the student is conditioned into giving a certain response to a certain question.

The Callanoid stands at the front and takes the class through a series of drills in a definite order based roughly on increasing grammatical complexity, the principle here being that by improving your grammar, yuo improve your language skills. If the student says something correctly, they are rewarded with a smile from the teacher (positive reinforcement of good behaviour). Bad behaviour is discouraged with a frown and a disapproving tone in the Calbot's voice.

On the good side, the students are speaking from day one. But then again, in a well-managed communicative classroom, they would do so too. Also, untrained natives can be taken straight off the boat, given a book and be sent into the classroom. Aslo there;s nothing to prepare.

On the bad side, there's no interaction between students. There is no groupwork. There is no free practice. There is no exam practice. There is no ESP language. There is little development of the student's own idiolect. there is less development of the student's own ability as an active learner. There is no accommodation of student aims or learning styles. The student communicates with noone but the teacher, in fact there is no authentic communication at all. And that's just off the top of my head.

Not to mention that behaviourism was discredited as a guiding principle of language teaching 40 years ago and that language development can't be represented as a straght line from bad to good grammar.

Overall, the Callan method's only success is as a franchise. There's no teaching going on here. Move along.

Life / How do Poles feel about non whites/non Slavs living in Poland? [150]


I would disagree. Poles have always been a bunch of racists and the only difference is that the numbers of non whites has increased.


Well, you've lost the plumbing job now. And don't bother PMing me about iit either.

Life / How do Poles feel about non whites/non Slavs living in Poland? [150]


Because Poles and cash in hand labour go together like God and Jesus. Do you want the work or not?


So you agree that Poles have moved to Germany?


Sorry I can't hear you. Take the klan mask off your head and try again

Life / How do Poles feel about non whites/non Slavs living in Poland? [150]


Oh quick you had better get your gun from the pickup because a dozen 'coloureds' are about to smash your door in and start rapping or selling drugs or something.