News / Polish-Hungarian friendship - reality till today or just a phantasmagoria [144]

.....and then there are others who THINK they have, but don't-:) Present company excluded, of course LOL

In the order given, I'd probably say that Japanese looks the hardest, but is one of the most logical and mathematical, I've heard. I know a few greetings, and for a short while, I had my daliances with Korean. From there, I meandered into Turkish (from Hungarian) and, well, I've basically put those languages on temporary hold.

News / Polish-Hungarian friendship - reality till today or just a phantasmagoria [144]

David,

A thought-provoking post! Just keep on practicing your English. At least you seem to have learned more than merely the 'bread-and-butter basics'-:) Also, you realize that there's always room for improvement.

Many people however write much better than they speak. Still others speak well, but are slower in comprehending, while others speak and understand fluently, but write with umpteen errors! Rarely do all three skills come together. LOL

Apropos of nothing, but apparently you reside presently in Brazil. How long did it take you to learn Brazilian Portuguese, as opposed to the European variety?

You seem to be linguistically inclined. What other languages do you know fluently? Any chance you'll learn Polish one of these days??

Tanasz lengyelul? Nehez a nyelv.

Language / POLISH NOMINAL SUFFIXES? [4]

TOUCHE, baby!! nice one. Not as much of an ass as one might think, HA!!
Only joking.

Language / POLISH NOMINAL SUFFIXES? [4]

'-oł' such as "koscioł" (church), "anioł" (angel), seem to convey a concept more than anything else. As for the rest, frankly, I'm stumped myself -:( LOL

News / England and Poland are friends [28]

Matyjasz,

Done deal! How about Poland and Hungary? One of your footballers for one of theirs. LOL To the follow up statement: Hungary and Poland are friends. Definitely!-:)

On the subject of friendship, there's always Poland and Germany, 'eine schwierige Freundschaft, noch eine aergere Nachbarschaft!' (Willy Brandt) = Polska i Niemcy; trudne przyjacielstwo, gorzieje ___________.

Are Germany and Poland really 'friends'? Well, I guess it depends on one's definition of 'friend'. There's an old saying 'The enemy of my enemy is my friend'. They're certainly not waring any longer. But is there necessarily a friendship between them? Old hatreds die hard: Some never really die, they merely linger-:)

News / England and Poland are friends [28]

We have indeed gotten (way!) off the topic here!!-(:

Again though, I maintain that most political so-called friendships are little more than economically motivated relationships that quickly sour when certain expectations are not met.

In the case of England and Poland, I'm curious as to the converse, i.e., how many English workers go over or move to Poland, unless of course they have Polish spouses. LOL

News / England and Poland are friends [28]

Prince, unfortunately, Jews were some of the worst self-haters, including anti-semites! The only difference between a Jewish 'anti-semite' and a gentile anti-semite, is that presumably the Jew doesn't seek the extermination of his own people. Marginalization however, trivializes real anti-semitism and enables the anti-semite by suggesting "Oh, stop being oversensitive and paranoid! Hey, they're only kidding!"

It was precisely those types of sentiments which essentially opened the oven doors of Auschwitz.

News / England and Poland are friends [28]

No recording needed. Although I've nerver actually experienced anti-semitism in Poland, or anywhere else in Europe, there's enough documentary evidence from gentile sources alone, to justify the trepidation of Jews traveling around Eastern Europe.

News / England and Poland are friends [28]

Anti-semitic? You're kidding! --:) There's no more anti-semitism in Europe, didn't you hear? That all went out with the currency switch. LOL

News / England and Poland are friends [28]

Yes, Prince. What has your post got to do with the topic other than to make yourself look foolish? The last time I looked (and with my glasses on!), Jews ARE of European heritage (Poland, Russia, Germany etc.. aren't in Asia or Africa now, are they??), besides, I got finished by stating as a disclaimer that the Polish stereotype amongst the English, is exactly that: UNTRUE!!

Guess I shouldn't be that hard on you. English is obviously not your first (or even second) language, and so the subtle points of my post probably passed you by.

Be up front enough though to admit it-:)

News / All this mess about Danzig... [122]

Love. 0 - 0. The referee's left his box and us spectators is goin' home for the nite. A tie score, so it seems. LOL

News / All this mess about Danzig... [122]

'Shopski', what you deem crap, may well be valid. Seems to me you're justifying distemper by saying it's fine to return the volley swinging, yet forgetting that there's really no excuse for errant nastiness or mean spiritedness, despite how "vapid" or uninformed the other person's comments may appear. Being a trifle hypocritical, aren't we?

News / All this mess about Danzig... [122]

Wyśpiańsko, JA mówię po polsku, po niemiecku, po szwecku a po holundersku. As someone who knows a number of languages, I surely don't fall into the category you've set up, a priori, generalizing about us Anglos!

I take your point though -:)

Language / Feminine Nouns Ending In A Consonant [11]

I always learn new stuff here. Three cheers, Krzysztof! As always, will try to internalize corrections - - :)-:)!!!!

News / All this mess about Danzig... [122]

i.e. don't rouse a sleeping black bear, or....heaven help you??? You infer that BB's by nature NOT so gentle, therefore little is needed to set him off, eh?

LOL

News / All this mess about Danzig... [122]

...and conversely if you build a structure on a shaky foundation (misspellings, grammar errors, incorrect usages of standard language etc.), you run the risk that it will collapse, so too with a language that wantonly disregards its own rules, due more to laziness than out and out creativity: Learn the 'rules' before you break them. The US Beat writers broke the rules of English right and left; but they all knew how to spell and construct language correctly, only after which, did they get rid of the rulebook.

News / All this mess about Danzig... [122]

True enough, and the great novelist Conrad wrote better English style than many an English native speaker/writer, although he never learned the language until in his twenties. Bratski though, is NO Joseph Conrad, and keeps making the same errors in word choice constantly e.g. penchant for vulgarity.

How about this; he's practicing his English. He'll never be like a native speaker.

News / All this mess about Danzig... [122]

I too applaud those learning a second, even a third, language......as long as assistance is solicited when it is clearly needed - -:)

News / All this mess about Danzig... [122]

Absolutely, Softsong! People here have to post in English, sometimes NOT their mother tongue, and their meaning gets lost in translation, frequently appearing aggressive or angry when this is hardly their intention--:)

No Bratwurst Boy, IT'S EVEN WORSE!!!

News / All this mess about Danzig... [122]

Absolutely, Softsong! People here have to post in English, sometimes NOT their mother tongue, and their meaning gets lost in translation, frequently appearing aggressive or angry when this is hardly their intention--:)

News / England and Poland are friends [28]

'Of course England and Poland are friends.....'

.....you mean, like Mexico and the US?? I hardly think so, considering Poland's economy, by European standards at any rate, is certainly on the rise again. Nevertheless, the common stereotype amongst many English whom I've spoken with of late, many of them relatively young too, is the persistant image of the dumb polak (sorry about that folks!!) merrily mangling the English language, often not very dissimilar from the Hispanic stereotype found here in the States!

The more enlightened naturally ignore such errant prejudices, still, it cuts both ways.

Politics makes for strange bedfellows - and even stranger friendships LOL

Incidentally, diplomatic "friendship" is almost exclusively based on political/economic expedience, and little else. Sort of an international marriage of convenience -:)

News / All this mess about Danzig... [122]

Clearly the statement was not meant in earnest. LOL Here in this forum, we really must learn to separate statements made for pure shock value (which Bratwurst Boy's obviously was) and those meant to generate serious and fruitfull discussion!

News / England and Poland are friends [28]

ENGLAND AND POLAND ARE FRIENDS

Sure they are; Poland supplies England with cheap immigrant labor and England grants Poland's workers asylum and/or citizenship..... all at low or no cost to the Polish government. (The English taxpayer? That's another matter.)

Sounds like a beautiful friendship--:)

Language / Feminine Nouns Ending In A Consonant [11]

In German though, interestingly, they DO (.. and women traditionally didn't hold any there either--:):

IngenieurIN
ArchitektIN (possible, though not in use however!)
MinisterIN
PraesidentIN
KanzlerIN (witness Mrs. Merkel et al...)

etc.....

Language / Feminine Nouns Ending In A Consonant [11]

I find all this especially helpful, since it dispels the illusion that just because a Polish noun ends in an 'a' , e.g. kobietA, rękA, matkA, ziemiA etc.., it is necessarily, i.e. automatically, feminine, or, that ALL feminine nouns in Polish end in 'a', for that matter, in any one single letter! For example, that mixed masculine group, mężczyznA, kolegA, etc...., all declined according to the masculine form.

Cheers!

Another 'exception', or maybe example, of not assuming much of anything in Polish gender might be 'pracodawcA'/'pracobiorcA', resp. 'employer' and 'employee', lit. "work giver" vs. "work taker", both masculine nouns in Polish, although they end in 'a', for various morphological as well as phonological reasons, perhaps having to do with a sort of 'vowel harmony' for 'pracA' > 'pracO' combination, or the like.

The feminine forms for the above would end rather in '-ka', e.g. 'pracodawKA' etc..

Just my usual one-and-a half euros worth--:)!!

Language / Jechac or Jezdzic? [35]

ArcticPaul, sometimes it can be helpful to examine, if just superficially, the structure of a related language to the one you are learning. Contrastive examples often help to clarify key issues/differences in a particular language.

That's only my opinion--:)

Language / Jechac or Jezdzic? [35]

'Course, Krzysztof! I meant both, naturally. Thanks for that.

Language / Jechac or Jezdzic? [35]

Idę codziennie do sklepu (or are you going regularly to many stores e.g. 'sklepów').

Only the word order (dostępstwo słowa) of 'codziennie' was incorrect in the previous post-:)

News / Polish-Hungarian friendship - reality till today or just a phantasmagoria [144]

David,

You mentioned the Palócs living in a particular section of the country. If I'm not mistaken either, Hungary consists of various "ethnic" groups historically concentrated in certain regions, for instance the Szeklers in the present Romanian/Hungarian border town of Szek in Mezoseg. Are these groups of Hungarian, i.e. Uralic ethnicity, or European?

Congratulations on your English post. Despite many grammatical errors, I believe I understood the content almost one hundred percent!-:) No doubt many of them are just plain typos (he-he)

Language / Jechac or Jezdzic? [35]

He-he!! Tak jest-:)........ a nigdy nie przyszedłem -:) Zabłądziłem na drodze!!!