Travel / GBP Exchange rate at Polish cash machines? [15]

according to the website Kantory.pl the average exchange rate for today is (buys at) 4.0039 (sells at) 4.1219.
so for £100 you can gain 9 pounds (and there are usually no fees at a kantor, while I'm not sure if your bank adds some fees)

News / Sending money to Poland [32]


Well, Poland is not the best place for spending your Euro since we're still using Polisz złoty (Euro will be probably introduced in 2012), secondly, the US dollar has been getting weaker, so maybe you won't lose much (or even gain a few cents) if you sell the Euro back to your bank?

Edit: don't get the wrong impression though that I'm trying to stop you from visiting Poland in any way :)

Life / What Are The celebrated Holidays In Poland? [15]

fortunatelly I have this thing saved on my harddisc :)

non-working days (by law):
- Sundays
- 1 Jan - Nowy Rok (New Year's Day)
- pierwszy dzień Wielkiej Nocy (Easter Sunday)
- drugi dzień Wielkiej Nocy (Easter Monday)
- 1 May - Święto Państwowe (National Holiday, ex-Labour Day)
- 3 May - Święto Narodowe Trzeciego Maja (3rd May National Holiday - anniversary of 1791 Constitution, the second in the world, after USA)
- pierwszy dzień Zielonych Świątek (first day of Pentecost - always 7 weeks after Easter Sunday, so naturally on Sunday as well)
- dzień Bożego Ciała (Corpus Christi - always 60 days after Easter Sunday, so naturally always on Thursday)
- 15 Aug - (a double holiday):
a/ (religious) Wniebowzięcie Najświętszej Maryi Panny (Assumption of the Virgin Mary or The Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary),

b/ (national) - Dzień Wojska Polskiego (Polish Army Day) - anniversary of the decisive battle (August 1920) against Communist Russia (Cud nad Wisłą - Miracle at the Vistula river) in the 1919-20 Polish-Soviet war.

1 Nov - Wszystkich Świętych (All Saints' Day)
11 Nov - Narodowe Święto Niepodległości (National Independence Day - anniversary of WWI end in 1918)
25 Dec - pierwszy dzień Bożego Narodzenia (Christmas - day one)
26 Dec - drugi dzień Bożego Narodzenia (Christmas - day two)

Movable religious holidays:
2007 / 2008 / 2009 / 2010
Easter Sunday 08.04 / 23.03 / 12.04 / 04.04
Easter Monday 09.04 / 24.03 / 13.04 / 05.04
Pentecost 27.05 / 11.05 / 31.05 / 23.05
Corpus Christi 07.06 / 22.05 / 11.06 / 03.06

other 2 important celebrated days (though they are not official holidays, so you normally go to work):

24 Dec - Wigilia (Christmas' Eve) - in Poland, unlike many other Christian (or pagan/atheist countries, but with Christian roots) the 24th of December is a quite special day, there's a big supper (held traditionally when the first star appears on the sky) with 12 dishes (fish is eaten, but no meat, although a few years ago the Church of Poland allowed meat too), before starting the supper we share "opłatek" (Christmas wafer - host) and exchanges wishes for the year to come. There's also one seat empty and a set of plates for an "unexpected" guest.

At midnight many people go to church for "pasterka" (special mass).

31 Dec - last day of the year (called "Sylwester" in Polish), like in most European countries.

Name Day/ Birthday
Depending on the family the most important individual celebration is someone's Birthday or Name Day (you can find in a calender when everyone has his/her Name Day. Originally it was a day dedicated to a saint patron with whom you shared the same name, but now it's not religious anymore, simply traditional).

18th Birthday is special, because you're not a child anymore (before the 18th birthday you're a minor according to the law - with limited responsabilities and privileges)

Some other individual special days:
Anniversary of your marriage (women are often sensitive to this, so it's better if the husband doesn't forget :)

Chrzest (Baptism) - the day on which a baby is given a name - in Poland it happens in church (unless someone doesn't want, then they just register the baby's given name in an office, without the religious ceremony, but many atheists still choose the church way, just a tradition)

Chrzciny - is a party held for invited family (and some friends) after the Baptism.

Genealogy / Looking for Zaks in the Topola/Stonowice area [3]


OK, I can't help you with genealogy, but here's a little remark about the danger of using English rules for Polish names :)
I was sure you meant the German name Sachs (with Polish phonetic spelling, German "s" = "z", "ch" = "k", because the spelling of many names of German origin was polonized), but I guess the name was Żak, so it's better to write "looking for Żak/Zak family", not "Zaks" :)

This way you avoid the chance that someone doesn't even read your thread, because they wouldn't recognize the name in the thread title.

Genealogy / attempting to obtain new address for the old Graupen Strasse 13 [4]

from quick googling:
Graupen Str. is today's "ul. (ulica) Krupnicza", but I have no idea if the current Krupnicza 13 is equivalent to Graupen Strasse 13, or to some other house number,

wroclaw.hydral.com.pl/4087,obiekt.html

Language / Confusion about genitive plural [30]


must be the heat!
Locative and also Vocative (sing) murze


You mean Nominative case plural? Because in Locative (and Dative for femminine gender) case this r>rz is quite common:

kura (hen), kora (bark), rura (tube, pipe), dziura (hole) - all femminine
In Dative and Locative (singular) the forms are: kurze, korze, rurze, dziurze.

bór (bigger forest, a little archaic), nowotwór (cancer) are masculine, non-animated.
Loc. (sing) borze, nowotworze

futro (fur) is neuter - Loc. (sing) futrze.

there are plenty of such examples, I only gave you a few.

News / America: Take your missile base and shove it! [116]


So first you wanted to appoint Piotr Nowak for our national football team coach, now Putin for president, what next?
Your concern for Poland is nice, but your intentions are unclear for me :)

Language / Genitive case ("nie ma nic" vs "nie ma niczego") [71]


this wouldn't sound right, you're putting the pronoun "ich" in an accented position (talking about sentence accent, so the word you want to underline) and this would require adding an extended answer, for example:

- "Czy Państwo Kowalscy są w domu?"
- "Nie, ich nie ma, ale jest ich córka" (No, they aren't, but their daughter is)

Life / Taking gifts to Poland [21]


basketball maybe? Am "football" isn't that popular here :) unless you meant the real football (soccer)?
Or maybe just an Olympic shirt of the US team (you can buy them online at the USOC site)

Language / Polish Acronyms & Initialisms [15]


I don't know the rules, but it seems that acronyms which look like normal words are prounounced as such.

Just like you and benszymanski noticed:
UFO, RAF (I think we don't use dots between the letters), other examples: ZUS, KRUS, PiS, MEN, NIK, FIFA, UEFA, UNICEF (closer to the English pronounciation ju-ni-cef or ju-ni-sef, not "unicef"), UNESCO (same here: ju-nes-ko, not "unesco")

read as a series of letters of alphabet (usually because they have no vowels, or have consonants clusters unnatural for Polish, so it's difficult to read them as normal "words" or they are too short, for example 2 letters only, even when one of those letters is a vowel):

PKP (pe-ka-pe), PKO (pe-ka-o, later the bank used this spelling and changed their name to Pekao), NBP (en-be-pe), PO (pe-o), SLD (es-el-de), LSD (I pronounce it el-es-di, like in English, but the PWN dictionary says the Polish spelling, el-es-de, is allowed too), SMS (es-em-es), MSZ (em-es-zet), ONZ (o-en-zet), MKOl. (mixed spelling: em-ka-ol), WHO (wu-ha-o).

Life / Are there country clubs in Poland? [9]

and I thought it's about country music :)

News / Putin for Polish president? [69]


I think this thread belongs to "Off-Topic Lounge [deletable]", or a sci-fi section if the Admin decides to open one.

Life / Popular Polish classic Songs [18]


For those not familiar with French, I'll add that ipomee means "translations" when saying "traductions" :)

(and btw, when a Russian says "translation", it can often mean TV live coverage of an event)

Language / (part 2) Polish Language Pronunciation - Sample Words and Phrases [311]

Something like Grabovski, if you know how the letters in Latin (or in most European languages) are pronounced. If you need something more, for native English speakers, then I don't know how to write, because the vowel system in English is pretty "weird" :)

But then you can use this ivosoftware.com - online Text-to-Speech software
(Make sure you choose Polish voice, the default is "Female US-English voice")

UK, Ireland / 800K of Polish immigrants in UK don't pay taxes -what do the poles think [190]


noimmi is making it easier for newcomers, he doesn't hide behind a neutral name/nick (like Michal for example :)

Language / When to use nic and niczego [7]

there was a thread about this question a few months ago, search the forums, maybe the Admin haven't deleted it by accident :)

Food / Polish Milk, Just not the same [54]

"£aciate" is UHT (at least it was when introduced, so I don't buy it, but I suppose they still make it UHT).

Food / Polish Milk, Just not the same [54]


I used the word "stinks" rather in a colloquial way (= is bad), not to describe how it smells :)


well, I disagree with Wroclaw, if the only choices are fresh milk in a plastic bag and UHT milk, I always choose the plastic bag.

Food / Polish Milk, Just not the same [54]

Ultra-high temperature processing or (less often) ultra-heat treatment (both abbreviated UHT)

Life / Customer Service in Poland, what are your experiences? [106]


Magdalena was referring to Polish customers (or generally Poles) fitting someone else's expectations, not to business people.

Food / Polish Milk, Just not the same [54]

UHT milk stinks, I really can't understand why people buy and drink it.
Make a picture of your local store dairy department and maybe someone will try to tell what to buy, because I have no idea what milk brands are selled in Gdynia, we don't have a big national producer, rather smaller ones covering local markets.

But generally you should look for fresh milk that has about 4-6 days expiry date, that's how long it can last without all that excessive chemical or heat treatment.

Travel / Teenagers in Warsaw, what's there to do? [7]


Have you ever been as a tourist to another big town, foreign country? I guess the costs are similar, Poland is cheaper than most of European Union, but not that cheap as one could immagine. It really depends on what you're going to do here :)

And I'm sure there were some threads here on these forums where people were saying how much they had spent travelling to Poland, so browse through this section (Poland Vacations & Travel) or use the Search function.


CC are OK, but I have no idea how much your bank charges for conversion to another currency of payments made with a CC. I'm no expert on those hidden extra fees, because I've only used my CC in Poland so far (but when I was buying from abroad and the payment was made in Euro, my bank charged the exact amount of Polish currency I was expecting, so I hope you'd be fine).

Of course you can bring some cash too (dollars, euro) and convert them to Polish złoty in a kantor (full name kantor wymiany walut) to use this cash in places where you can't pay with CC (small shops, popular in Poland, kiosks with bus/tram tickets, railway stations except those big ones in main cities. Generally smaller cities and most villages don't have many facilities where you can pay with CC, except maybe tourist places, so it really depends on where you're planning to go, if you're staying the whole month in Warsaw, you'll get by without much cash, because you'll always have a choice between places that accept CC and those that accept only cash).

Life / Polish movies - what they are like? [34]



2007

Sztuczki on IMDB

(And no, I haven't seen it yet, so can't comment)

Plot Synopsis on All Movie Guide
Jakimowski's previous movie's review on All Movie Guide

Law / UN or NGO's organizations in Poland [7]

NGO's = organizacje pozarządowe
and I even found a website:

ngo.pl (in Polish)
english.ngo.pl (in English)

Travel / What has changed (travel-wise) after Poland's joining the Schengen zone? [15]

Now the police/customs officers can stop you according to the general rules, i.e. when they have a grounded suspicion of a crime, not because you're crossing the border.

Life / Why can't Poland recruit Polish soccer stars? [42]


Is she Czech or American for you, Miss Ewa?

Travel / Renting vehicles and maps in Poland [11]

Well, BMW is probably the most preferred (as I read, but I can't be bothered with looking for the official statistics) car among Polish thieves (or people who "order" cars from them), so it's a high risk. You may simply one day find out that you have to walk or take a cab instead of driving the car that has vanished.

Life / Anyone know if Fala Zbrodni on dvd [5]



Polish TV series.
Of course there's also Sam Raimi's movie Crimevawe, the title translated in Polish is also Fala Zbrodni, but it wasn't what telefonitika was asking for.

Language / example for "bronić" [12]

as Justysia said, bronić + przed, but it can be used with "od" too (especially in older texts)
And if you you use "bronić się" it may slighty change the meaning:
- bronić się przed czymś - defend oneself from something
- bronić się od czegoś - try to avoid something (or avoiding doing something); protect oneself from something.

History / Are Germans going to pay for WW2? [180]

I'm busy, but in short words (there's a popular saying that I don't know in English, but it goes something like this: God save me from my friends, with the enemies I can deal myself)

Germans were the enemy, plain and simple, no matter how attrocious their crimes were, we didn't expect them to be friendly.

Russian, initially, were not the enemy (and later, after Hitler's invasion on USSR they were even the alleged friends) who in their turn attacked Poland only 17 days later than Germany, when we were still fighting, with a sorry excuse of protecting the population of eastern Poland from them Germans. I won't even go into details of prosecutions (but everybody heard about Katyń, Siberia, Kazachstan)

They also used the opportunity that had presented itself at the end of WWII to dominate the whole Eastern Europe (Poland included) and introduced their terror regime (with falsified elections, murder, oppression of the opposition) in the region.

England (and other allied Western countries, USA included) were the real friends, who at Potsdam and especially Yalta betrayed us badly and like total wimps handed us (and many other countries) to the Russians on a silver plate.

So the still present sentiment of anger is understandable for anyone who actually studied the history and knows the facts, not some crappy version of history taught at his school.

When you're betrayed by a friend, you'll feel anger for a longer time, because you simply expect something else from a friend, while with the enemy it's clear.

But we (as the nation) only hate Germans and Russians, not the English/American :)
Some people may get angry with them, especially when they say we owe them something, but it's not hate.