USA, Canada / Married a Mexican guy in USA - can I Divorce him from Poland? [16]

AFAIK if you're married you're married and immigration status has nothing to do with it.
On the other hand, immigration officials can decide the marriage isn't grounds to stay in the US.
It's best to not try to take the easy way out and to assume you're married until you've gotten the divorce.

If you're tempted to try to pretend it never happened you're giving him a lot of power to show up where and when you least expect it to make your life miserable.

Do what it takes to resolve things legally and following the rules.


Let me guess, each one thought the other was legal?

Food / Nalesniki [23]

Also remember that the first naleśnik or two are usually bad but they prepare the pan for the rest.

Life / muslim community in poland [430]


I'm neither Christian nor Muslim and feel free to criticize all wackos regardless of religion.

One crucial difference, with your example. The crazy people that killed their babies and froze them were not claiming to act on Christian principles and when crazy Christians (like Fred Phelps) do crazy things, there's no shortage of Christians publicly denouncing them. Too many terrorists claim to be acting on Islamic principles as do too many purveyors of other social ills (like honor killings). But too many Muslims (who are good people) are too hestitant to criticize crazy Muslims in public.

This is maybe partly because this is because Islam stresses a private conscience, micromanaging the adherents daily behavior, while not acting against social ills that cannot be addressed through purely religious principles.

It also might be partly because Islamic practice doesn't recognize social groupings beyond the family AFAIK. There is the individual, the family and the only social division recognized in Islam is between Muslims and Kufar.

Life / muslim community in poland [430]


oops that should be Khuffar, the plural of khaffir or non-Muslim.

Life / muslim community in poland [430]

I'm not a fan of the biblical times argument though Israeli Jews have a right to exist and a right to a state (that too many would gladly deprive them of).

The Palestinians do have some legitimate complaints but the problem is they don't want peace, they want an overwhelming military victory (which is not in the cards).

Politically the Palestinians have not yet matured enough to realize that actions have consequences so they do things like elect a party that vows to never negotiate with Israel and then get upset with the Israeli government for not negotiating (this is rational?)

And they haven't figured out that Israel's Achilles heel isn't violence but non-violent civil resistance (but again they want a violent victory, not peace).

And they haven't figured out that most Arab governments wouldn't treat them any better than the Israelis do* and only use the Palestinian issue to distract attention from their own failings.

As for Spain, it was once Muslim but isn't now. The idea 'once Muslim always Muslim' is something that Muslims need to seriously get over if they want non-Muslims to take them seriously. And how on earth do you suppose Muslims going to 'reclaim' Spain?

*probably worse other Arabs have already killed many, many times more Palestinians than Israelis have, hell, Palestinians have killed many times more Palestinians than Israelis have.

Life / Can an American in Poland renew American Passport here? [18]

I renewed mine in a "consular agency" (not even a full consulate) in Poland. Quick and easy.

Life / muslim community in poland [430]


He was a muslim? First time I've heard that claim, do you have any evidence?

Love / what does it mean when a polish boy calls me 'girl'? [38]


that doesn't ring any bells with me for Polish, but if he was writing in English it could be it was something he learned at some time as English (or American) slang or he might just be trying for what he thinks is a casual tone in English.

Probably no big deal either way.

Language / Why Polish people use so many words to describe a situation? [122]

A linguist weighs in with answers from the world of linguistics!

Polish and English lexicalize things differently and often a vague or general word in of the two will be divided into several more precise words in the other. I know of no research that systematically investigates the issue to see if either language systematically prefers words with narrower or broader semantic scope. Until such research is carried out, we're left with anecdotes and vague impressions which differ from person to person. There's nothing wrong with conversations about anecdotes and vague impressions but they're frustrating for linguists (who usually decline to participate).

Which language has more words is a meaningless question:
First: you have to define 'word' in a way that fits both languages and that's a lot harder than it might seem and then you have to figure out how to count them which is also problematic (are czytać and przeczytać one or two words? is pick up one or two words?)

Second: how many words a language has is a useless question after a certain point. The personal vocabularies of speakers are not determined by the language they speak but mostly by the person's intelligence and educational levels.

That said, there are some things that can be said with some certainty.

English dictionaries (not to be confused with wordstock) are the largest in the world partly because of a highly honed dictionary making tradition and partly because once a word makes into the OED, for example, it's never taken out even if no one has used it in 200 years. Speakers of most languages don't consider a word that's not been actively used for that long to be part of the language while English speakers largely do.

If you compile the total active vocabulary of all varieties of English the word count will likely be higher than in Polish no matter how you count them. If you restrict vocabulary to a single country (how most English speakers deal with the language) the word count will be more similar.

English words are generally less derivationally flexible than Polish words. Polish speakers mine the derivational processes of the language that just don't exist in English so you can create new words that make sense and are immediately understandable. English more has to extend meaning of old words without changing them or import new words (which English can do more easily than Polish).

Concepts like 'rich' or 'poor' vocabulary are qualitative judgments of personal preference and have no meaning in linguistics.

Even highly educated English speakers are far more used to encountering unfamiliar words while reading or from TV or radio than Polish speakers are (mostly due to geographical diffusion and very thick dictionaries). Mostly if we understand them in context we forget them right away and we only learn/remember them after encountering them several times.

Language / Why Polish people use so many words to describe a situation? [122]


or zabłądziłem się?

Language / WILL "TĄ" REPLACE "TĘ" SOON? [14]

IINM about 20 years ago tą kobietę was considered incorrect while speaking. For at least 10 years it's been considered okay in everyday speech but not approved of in very formal speech or any writing. I think within ten or 20 years it will be approved for written use to alongside tę which will linger on in extremely formal usage.

Also IINM the old instrumental plural ending -y was required in writing a long time after it was displaced by -(a)mi in speech.

Language / PRONOUNCING NASAL VOWEL "Ę" IN FINAL POSITION? [11]

IME there's final -ę and there's final -ę

I've noticed that some people do have some degree of nasality some times. This isn't the 'full' nasal pronunciation (actually a nasalized -eu not heard much besides się when stressed) but -e with some nasality (almost like French final -in).

One thing I've read (by a very distinguished polonist) is that pronouncing the full -ę all the time sounds stilted and hypercorrect while avoiding all final -ę nasal sounds is too informal. The ideal pronunciation is to nasalize some -ę's and not others. This writer didn't indicate exactly which -ę's should receive nasalization, the suggestion seemed to be that it was up to the speaker.

One thing I've kind of noticed is that first person -ę is maybe more likely to be nasalized when it would otherwise be identical with the third person, so piszę and chcę are more likely to receive nasalization than muszę or kupię.

Love / In his eyes. I have a good friend who is Polish, he lived in Bialstok. [7]

Hard to say as there's conflicting or ambiguous info.

It's not _that_ hard to keep in touch by internet in Poland. Even if there's no connection at home there are plenty of internet cafes around.

Asking about things your'e interested sounds like polite conversation of the kind anyone in Poland can maintain (and which Americans often can't for some reason).

How good is his English? calling you 'girlfriend' in English is too ambiguous, the overall context you describe makes me think he was thinking of koleżanka (friend who's a girl) and not dziewczyna (girlfriend).

Go to confession to you? In other words he sees you as a priest-substitute and you think he might mean that romantically? brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Polish people tend to maintain closer physical presence than Americans and have more eye contact.

Looking at you when he thinks you won't notice is the one thing that seems to unambiguously indicate interest.

If I had to give advice, I'd suggest doing something that makes it obvious that you're interested if he's paying attention and which he can act on if he's interested too but which he won't notice (or can diplomatically ignore) if he isn't.

Food / Most important meal of the day (Polish breakfast recipes) [13]

I would never have flaki for breakfast or as a hangover cure. I absolutely will gulp flaki down after drinking too much (it's more a hangover preventitive than a cure).

My former routine after too much premium or krakus (prestige vodkas of the early 90's)

1. stagger into kitchen
2. pop open jar of flaki
3. slurp into pan
4. heat till boiling
5. wait a minute you pathetic drunk or you'll burn your tongue!
6. slurp down flaki
7. fall into bed
8. wake up to a bright and beautiful world!
9. resist gagging while dealing with empty flaki jar

Work / Little Help finding out right to leave 1 yr contract. [15]

The real value in having native speakers (for any language) is that they live in the language and don't regard it as a set of grammatical rules to be navigated and vocabulary to be built up. They also have information that can be useful that even the most impressively fluent second language speakers lack.

On the other hand, most native speakers function best when dealing with more advanced students who are more likely to benefit from the particular knowledge they have (and students can also benefit from the knowledge the native speaker doesn't have). But sending out a native (with no command of Polish or real knowledge of how things work in Poland or how most Polish people learn) to work with beginners is ..... not wise.

ABRUPT CHANGE OF TOPIC CAUSED BY StOOPID FORUM POLICIES ABOUT DOUBLE POSTING!!!!!


I don't buy it. You're just being lazy.

Just remember the less Polish you know the more defenseless you are and the more dependent you are on the mercy of people like your boss....

Lack of interest is no excuse, sit down with your textbooks and make the effort and the interest will come.

Plus you set a horrible example for your students and colleagues. How are they supposed to respect you as a language teacher if you're incompetent at language learning?

Language / Anyone use "SERWUS"? [46]

I've seen serwus in Polish textbooks for foreign learners printed in the 60's and 70's but I've never ever heard it in real life.

I think I have heard it a few times in old movies but I wouldn't swear to that.

In Hungarian it's abbreviated to szia and used (especially) as an informal farewell that sounds remarkably like the American 'see ya'. (Hungarian sz = s)

Real Estate / Accommodation - Legal advice request [15]

My best advice is to talk to the people you're renting from. Chances are they'll be as eager to get rid of her as you are.

Dont expect much from the legal system: Maybe see lawyer but put your expectations on very low. Polish law is drafted to benefit Poles over foreigners in terms of housing. Plus unless you're pretty fluent in Polish you wont get much help. Most Polish lawyers' English is limited to "Polish regulations say [you're screwed]" if you know Polish well enough you can get past this, but otherwise you're defenseless.

One thing that might work in your favor (but which is probably pretty alien to you) is the power of gossip and reputation. You need to ruin hers (probably worse than being arrested but she's brining it on herself).

I'd contact her parents and ask why they didn't do a better job of raising her and do they have good idea of what kind of shame she's bringing on them?

Also mention to anyone you come across in the neighborhood that she's a freeloading parasite. Hint that you suspect she's moonlighting as a prostitute and that you're scared of what her dangerous acquaintances could do.

Mention how much you regret ever knowing such a person (old ladies are your best allies here).

Language / WHY IS @ CALLED MAŁPA IN POLISH? [13]

My favorite term for @ is zavináè (rollmops) from Czech and Slovak.

Law / umowa o dzielo z prawami autorskimi [10]

tk, how long have you been


how long have you been here? I always say that living in Poland is wonderful assertiveness training for wimpy English speakers, you either learn to stand up for yourself or you wind up with footprints on your forehead.

I've often heard of private school owners who try to guilt trip their teachers (putting on the "how could you?! i thought we were friends!" face when the teacher does something vulgar like ask to be paid. Pay no attention to it.

Life / Warsaw Vs Krakow which is best for raising family and working in? [21]


Why would there be?

To the extent they exist they're international and send people to Poland from other countries rather than recruit locally (except for Polish staff).

My advice is to use connections (a way of life here). Try to get jobs teaching business English which can make you contacts.
You might also hunt around in headhunter offices but again, knowing someone is key and without knowing Polish it'll be hard to make the right kind of contacts.

Failing that try to find out where expats working for intl companies hang out and start hanging out there too.

Life / God parents (chrzestni) in Poland [8]

Step one: Become fabulously wealthy. Then ....

Step two: ese your power to secretly manage her financial downfall. After she's reduced to eating cat food and just before she's about to be evicted....

Step three: call up and ask how she's doing, casually mention your fabulous wealth and how you want to make sure everybody's doing okay.

Step four: Listen to her pour out her troubles.

Step five: laugh!

or

Step five: Bail her out but make said help dependent on listening to you bitch for an hour a day about how she should have called more often.

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


or bags

Language / POLONIANISMS? [11]


Forget what P3 calls it,

what linguists call it depends on why it's happened:

if the person who says bardzo good does so because they forgot or don't know the word dobrze and an English word came out (on purpose or accidentally) then that's interference. Nb, if a person is learning a third (or later) language, interference is liable to be stronger from the person's second language than from their first.

If the person knows and remembers the word dobrze but uses good instead for whatever reason, then that's code-switching and tends to be endemic in bilingual settings (where all involved are fluent in the same languges).

NB borrowing an English word and giving it Polish endings (or vice versa) is borrowing. Borrowings range from nonce (happening once) to rare, sporadic, frequent and finally established when you've got a new word in the borrowing language.

Language / POLONIANISMS? [11]

I've found a fair amount of Polish influence in my English after years of living in Poland, articles occasionally disappear and sometimes prepositions realign themselves toward Polish.

I see you bought new rug.

I'm going on post office today.

I'll also borrow Polish words (especially when there's no real equivalent for me in English).

I'm going to the stołowka for coffee and pączkies.

Do you have karta? (meaning karta pobytu)

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

Oh for heaven's sake, this is not peasant or rabble or communists, it's perfectly normal language change.

Historically words like "byliśmy" were two words "byli śmy" (still written as such in other Slavic languages, like Czech "byli jsme" or Croat "bili smo". For some strange reason it was written as one wod in Polish which why the stress seemed irregular. As people began to perceive it as one word it's normal for the stress to regularize.

As for the -yka and -ika words, I haven't noticed as much shift in stress but again, that's perfectly normal language change and no cause to get all hot and bothered.

Life / Mis, Seksmisja and Rejs now available on DVD with English Subtitles [3]


uh, that should be "translated very well" and "word for word"

forgive me if i'm not so optimistic about the quality of the subtitles.

The problem with Miś is that a viewer needs either

a) first hand experience of living in a communist country, or

b) long experience of living in Poland

to understand it and find it funny.

Life / HAND-KISSING WANING IN POPULARITY? [29]

It's my understanding that women control this practice in that the way she extends her hand indicates whether she expects a shake or a kiss. A man who twists her hand to kiss it would be a jerk. It's less bad to limply shake a hand extended for a kiss but again, the woman is supposed to decide which greeting should take place.

If the custom is going out of style, it's because of the choices of women, men have nothing to do with it.

Also, the man is supposed to bend at the waist and meet her hand, not yank it up to his kisser. And IINM he's not really supposed to physically kiss it, but rather lightly lip smack a centimeter or two from her hand. If he does touch her hand the lips should be closed, there shouldn't be any transfer of bodily fluids to the back of the lady's hand.

Life / HAND-KISSING WANING IN POPULARITY? [29]


Well, that would explain why so few women extend their hands to be kissed nowadays.

Why not just lick it a while? yech.

Love / Polish Girlfriend gone missing [154]

First, this sounds like a tough situation and you have my sympathy.

Second, my advice would be to be patient and hold off for a while and to _not_ go to her home town until you have more info.

You say she was in the hospital. IME many Polish people think of getting over an illness as a fulltime job that requires all their concentration so it's easy to imagine that until she feels healthy again she's putting everything else on hold (and doesn't need the trauma of you showing up unannounced).

You should know what and where she's studying so I'd check with her university. You might try by telephone but you'd need a Polish person to make the calls as there's no guarantee that the staff have enough English to deal with a native speaker over the phone. That said, checking in the administrative offices is probably a waste of time as they don't keep much in the way of records about individual students.

If you do come to Poland go there in person and ask around a little. Approach students in mixed groups (less creepy) with her picture until you find someone who knows her. You might try to find her schedule and talk with a teacher.

Alternately you might try to find either the starosta roku (sort of a student representitive for the class) or the opiekun roku (a teacher charged with a particular class through which they're supposed to deal things like sick leave) and see if they know anything (or if they can give her a message when she returns).

Good luck.

Love / Polish Girlfriend gone missing [154]

I think maybe people are getting ahead of themselves.

ted_no7 is anxious because he's operating on anglosaxon time. Things happen on a different schedule in Poland (where things can just stop for periods of time) and it honestly might not have occurred to the girl that he's as worried as he is (or she might be working through her own difficulties and needing to pay full attention to that).

She had a chest infection in a hypochondriac country, being in the hospital isn't necessarily that sinister. Again Polish convalescent time is a lot longer than anything you'll find in the UK.

In contacting student rep or coordinator or whoever at the university. The point is not to ask for information but if they can deliver a message if they see her. The point is not seem like a stalker or obsessed creep. Acting as an intermediary isn't anything unusual IME. "Please, tell her I'm concerned, here's my contact info in case she's lost it".

Given all that, yes, there are some Polish women (and men) who'll just dump a partner cold out of the blue but usually they give themselves away earlier if you pay attention and some people prefer to avoid scenes and just hope the other person will catch on that they got a free ticket to dumpsville. But again, that doesn't seem to be the case here.

My idea is that showing up in Tarnow will probably be either pointless or cause more problems than it will solve. Make sure it's easy to get into touch with you and hope for the best.