Travel / Top 5 reasons to visit Poland ! [43]

I enjoy visiting Poland.

Architecture - every house looks different, every house has a balcony.
I am used to British houses. If they're not proper old buildings that Americans call quaint, they are street after street of Georgian terraces (although they can be nice, they are all the same) or they are modern Barratt homes (soulless and every third house is identical and equally badly designed).

Food and drink - I challenge any Pole to stop before Poland for dinner. No. You cross the border, then dine on kielbasa. No matter how hungry you are, Germany is not for dinner! The beer and vodka are good.

People - less obesity. Not that I don't mind some slightly larger people, like the French, the Poles are less likely to be overweight.

I have had many friends over the years from Germany, Finland, Czech... Polish people are amongst the friendliest I've met. Some are quite rude (rude people are worldwide), but like I used to meet many art students and be attracted in various ways to art students, these days I find Polishness has replaced my former fetish. (Don't mention shoes).

You should be able to find 5 reasons in my answer there. I could probably find 5 reasons NOT to visit Poland, but that's not the name of the thread!

News / Polish-German Relations in the Present [697]

Do any Scots want Cumbria back?
Does Norway want the Shetlands back?
Does the average UK citizen want any of the old British Empire back?

I thought not.
How about this idea: everyone, forget about the past. Learn from the past, live for the present, look to the future.

Love / What do men want with Polish Girls huh??? [72]

Some men who want Polish women might be after the total opposite of the assumptions you have made:

Intelligent
Difficult
Dominating
etc.

But most of the people who post once on this site are probably looking for all of the eastern European nationalities that they have heard of. Poland ranks relatively highly in this respect. Moldovans are not well known, and I'm not sure how many Prussian girls there are these days!

Life / Price of beer in Poland [90]

24-hour petrol stations are a little pricier, I vaguely remember.

Language / Should I learn both Polish and German [147]


Me.

No language lasts for ever.
Not everyone buys the record that's no. 1 in the charts (or even in the top 100).

Should I learn Brazilian Portuguese at the same time?

Language / Should I learn both Polish and German [147]


I'll probably never go to Brazil - too hot for me.

I do, however, meet quite a few Polish people.
I also go on holiday to Poland (occasionally) - not too hot.

Learning Portuguese will help me understand how unhappy bossa nova artists are!

Life / Price of beer in Poland [90]

If you're a passenger in Poland, you might need beer!

Language / Should I learn both Polish and German [147]


For a learner, I'd imagine tha reading Polish would give a better idea of pronunciation than reading all those bizarre English spellings.

Language / Should I learn both Polish and German [147]


Can you explain what you mean by primitive?

Language / Should I learn both Polish and German [147]

Is English primitive because all the complex words derive from other languages such as Latin, French, etc.

Language / Should I learn both Polish and German [147]

Where is the boundary between northern and southern?


Germans don't smoke in parks?

Don't some Germans decend from Slavic speakers?
Of course! They're the ones who smoke in parks.

Everyone in the world is of one family.
Except the Slavs of course, eh Michal?

Language / Should I learn both Polish and German [147]


Surely Lingua Franca means a language understood by different communities.
These languages may be important and be becoming more important, but
In one geographical area, there will only be one Lingua Franca (widely understood, crossing cultural boundaries).
Across the US, I believe that this is still English.

Language / Should I learn both Polish and German [147]

That does not mean that Spanish, for example, is more widely understood across the whole variety of other communities. It may cross ethnic boundaries more than other languages, but how do an English speaker, a Korean speaker and a Polish American have a conversation in the US?

Poor spelling in English is not to be unexpected.
It has less logic to it than any other language in the entire world.

News / Eurovision Dance Contest; the Polish band was quite good [21]

Should there be a Eurovision Drinking Contest?

Food / Near the Heat of the Polish Mushroom Season [3]

After the heat of the summer has cooled down a bit, until the frost stops them fruiting.
No matter where you are in the world, mushroom pickers keep their locations very quiet.

Love / Polish girls..... Do they want cute aussie guys?? [5]

Strange - I almost never go for blondes.
Not that I think that the colour on top of the head has any effect on the inside of the head.
I'm forever grateful to my parents that, after meeting eachother for the first time in Australia,
they moved back to England. They made the right choice! I wouldn't have been so cute if they had stayed there!

News / Eurovision Dance Contest; the Polish band was quite good [21]


To follow in the footsteps of the Eurovision Song Contest,
all the drinks would have to be alcopops.
The UK entrants would have to be all Aussies and Kiwis, but still somehow lose.

News / Eurovision Dance Contest; the Polish band was quite good [21]

Eurovision woodwork contest.
Eurovision flambe contest.
Eurovision flower arranging contest.
Eurovision silly ideas for Eurovision contests contest.

Language / Polish Hangman and other games to learn Polish [13]

I don't mean to be a spoil-sport,
but having to guess the phonetic spelling makes it really annoying.

NIE - A nice easy Polish word

NY-YEH - This is their rendering of its pronunciation

Is it a silent H at the end.
What is Y and what is I in their scheme.

It would be good if it wasn't for that.
Grrrr!

Language / Should I learn both Polish and German [147]


The Austrians, the Swiss, the people of Liechtenstein, even in a small part of Belgium.
I had a few German lessons at school (in the United Kingdom of Great Britain, no less).

Language / Should I learn both Polish and German [147]

All the Germans I have known (there have been a few, and still are a couple of them)
speak with rather pleasant accents. The harshness myth comes from the way Adolf did actually speak - we've heard him in clips, not just from the parodies. The Nazis shifted the language in their own direction. I think they felt they could make it sound more masculine, etc. Language always has been and always will be a powerful political tool. German has since shifted back to a much nicer sound.

Tell me that Nena singing "99 Luftballons" sounds harsh!

Language / Polish Hangman and other games to learn Polish [13]


I s'pose they expect you to pronounce your 'O' like an American.

Language / Polish Hangman and other games to learn Polish [13]

Neither do I, Soh-feeh-ah

Language / Polish Hangman and other games to learn Polish [13]

ihts sohmthihngh youh geht uhsed tooh

Language / Should I learn both Polish and German [147]

I see. Most of the Germans I've known have either come from the northwest or Berlin.
I like the word 'Meerschweinchen', though possibly not in Franconian!

News / Air-show accident in Poland [81]

To change the subject slightly,

It is a shame that the British media seems to be incapable of reporting anything from abroad
(except the obvious exception of Isreal & Iraq)
Unless they speak English. Even then, there's not much.
I even listen to the BBC World Service (for UK residents, it's the BBC Insomniac Service)
The news here is far too Brittanocentric. (Like the new word? It's one of mine.)

Language / Should I learn both Polish and German [147]


I chose French over German because I had a head start learning it in Junior school.
If they'd offered any language in the world, back then I'd probably have chosen Welsh!
(No particular reason!)

No matter what language you learn, I'd be interested to hear anyone say they were worse off for learning it.
Even if it is Welsh! (No offence to the Welsh, but you do all speak English...
until I enter the pub when I'm on holiday there!)

Language / Should I learn both Polish and German [147]


Mae'n hyfridd heddiw.

Love / I really like this Polish guy....what to do next?? [76]


Nothing wrong with that?


Nothing to lose.

You could try a nice Polish phrase.
Think of something, somebody here will translate it for you.

Language / Should I learn both Polish and German [147]

The strongest Celtic language in the world today.