Life / 'The Pianist' - the movie. What's your opinion? Polanski [59]

I don't think, as far as thinking goes, that you have understood my post in the slightest. Probably my fault. Time to go.

Life / Poland Miracles [7]

...Virgin Radio? ;-P (but that's in the UK)

Life / Is it expensive to give birth in Poland? [26]


I had two "state" births in Poland and there was absolutely nothing shocking about either, and I did not offer anyone a penny for anything. So it's not so black and white, you know. And this way waaay back in the old days, early nineties, when supposedly Polish obstetrics were primitive and steeped in the evil communist ways of the previous era.

Life / Is it expensive to give birth in Poland? [26]


Funnily enough, yes. And I passed, too. How very strange.
It is my humble opinion that those who believe they must bribe certain groups of people in order to get from them what those same people are paid to do in the first place, create the bribery scenario themselves.

In hospital, almost every new mother around me bent over backwards to kiss a** and generally make herself agreeable to the staff, yet somehow we all got exactly the same treatment.

If no one bribed anybody, there would be no expectation of same.

Language / CIZIA & KOCIAK? [17]

...or you're overreacting...
I wouldn't mind being called "kociak" :-)

Language / CIZIA & KOCIAK? [17]


Aren't you confusing registers here? We're not talking gentlemen and ladies! BTW, words like "stomach" and "legs" were considered horribly un-gentlemanly and un-ladylike in English not long ago - about 150 years or so ;-)

Kociak carries about the same connotations in Polish as chick or babe in English.
There's some admiration in it and lots of appreciation, as in: "Ale kociak!"
Quite honestly, have you never called a particularly interesting specimen of the male persuasion names such as "ciacho", "towarek" or similar? Never ever cross your heart?

(Cizia, on the other hand, sounds just a bit sleazy and cheap).

Life / Polish Names day traditions? Presents? Food? [39]


thanks for the compliment. I'm not THAT young, but I sure never celebrate my nameday, and never did - there was no such custom in my family. we always went for birthdays. Poland is not as homogeneous as some would like to believe.

Life / polish-indian couple looking for baby names [28]

Maja wouldn't sound bad - even though the connotations of "Maya's veil" might not be what you're after.
;-)

UK, Ireland / Polish brands in England [12]

Isn't that British though? It always makes me smile when I pass one of those ;-)

UK, Ireland / Polish brands in England [12]

I seem to have seen them in the UK, but maybe I'm confused ;-)

UK, Ireland / WHY DO POLISH PEOPLE THAT COME TO ENGLAND CAN'T SPEAK ENGLISH? [118]


I used to teach English at a secondary school and at university. Every time I went for the listening comprehension / student speaking time / discussion tasks, I would get the same response from the students: a huge sigh of NOT AGAIN! They hated it with a vengeance, for some reason. They were absolutely happy just sitting there fiddling with multiple choice grammar tests and suchlike. Young people, 16-20 years old! It really frustrated the hell out of me. When asked what they expected of me as their teacher, they candidly explained that I should "revise grammar" with them and spend time writing out huge lists of "useful words" on the board. As if they had never heard of dictionaries. I am a trained teacher mind you, and learnt whatever I know during the eighties, so according to Bondi I should be the evil incarnate as far as teaching English goes, but actually I always found the students to be exceptionally disinterested and passive... :-(

I even tried telling them that one day Poland would be in the EU (that was pre-2004) and they would travel abroad blablabla, but they just laughed it off. I'm still miffed when I think of it!

Life / Polish Names day traditions? Presents? Food? [39]


I would only like to point out that these businesses are just covering all their bases, as the typical phrase they use is "urodziny, imieniny dla dzieci", plus a host of other party occasions. I have brought up 2 kids in Poland (one is now early teens, the other late teens) and if you asked THEM what they think about having a name day party, they would pull a face at best. I should know, I had to organize all those birthdayparties through the years and think of gifts to buy for their friends' birthdays.

Name days are good for those who do not wish to disclose their age any more - and for those who are casting around for a reason to hold a party ;-)

But seriously - I have never personally heard of a nameday party held for a child. For my Dad, for auntie Flora, for my colleague at work, yes - but never for a child or teenager. Someone might say to a child "best nameday wishes" in passing, but that's about it. Birthdays are the big thing.

History / Where did the stereotype of Polish people being stupid come from? [131]


I am sure there are dumb Czech jokes out there, and dumb Dutch and suchlike. The thing is, for some unknown reason people (nations) usually make nasty remarks and jokes only about their immediate neighbours, even if a nation farther afield is making life much more difficult for them!

Even though the Poles were at some point in time plagued by the Swedes or Turks, somehow there are no jokes in Poland about these nationalities, for example. But there are lots of jokes/"funny" remarks about Czechs, though Czechs were usually just a minor irritant politically. That's human nature ;-)

Food / KOŁDUNY, ANYONE? [2]

Actually kołduny taste almost the same as mok-mok, which are Tibetan dumplings served in broth which I had the luck or chance to try once in the Himalayas way back in the early seventies as a child. I mean - my parents bought the broth for me to eat, I didn't go there alone ;-)

Travel / Ostroda to Elblag Canal Trip [6]


And that's exactly what they were ;-) You had the bad luck to share the trip with one sort of field trip or another (could've been a farmers' co-op on a day trip for example)... All these people were probably as happy as kids to be away from home, away from work, away from everyday responsibilities. And as they knew no other way to relax than drinking and shouting, they drank and shouted. This is not to excuse them in any way, but I can understand them (sort of). The only thing is, they should have reserved the boat for themselves, and not inflicted their infantile joy on the rest of the world at large ;-)

History / Drang nach Osten. [79]


Mnichov is the Czech name. The Polish for Munchen is Monachium. I prefer the sound of Monachium ;-)

News / The most useless things in Poland [140]


If that were the reason (price and condition) you could easily buy a car in Germany of France, left hand drive and all. It's downright dangerous to drive a rhd in Europe or a lhd in the UK, for obvious reasons.

Study / University in Poland is too easy [68]


A title is only that. You should have looked into the Introduction to see what the author was planning to discuss, what methodology (and why) they were employing, etc.

My thesis was entitled "The Symbolism of the Rose in Middle English Literature". That was the title. But I had to sit down and really work hard to explain what a symbol was to the medievals (as opposed to allegory, for example), write a chapter on St Augustine's theory of signs, explain my method, set out the research tools I was going to use (and explain why those, and not others) etc. etc. If you think it was easy because the title did not contain all this information, you are very much mistaken.

I have spoken.

Study / University in Poland is too easy [68]


In other words, studying medieval literature is for idiots only, huh? I'm proud to be an idiot then.

UK, Ireland / My friends upset at Brits.... [51]


Have you never read the online comments on the Sun / Star / Daily Mail / other tabloid websites? As soon as people are online and feel fairly anonymous, they let rip. I read this stuff as a sort of hobby/sociological research (English, American, Polish, you name it, I read it) ;-)

People are exactly the same the world over in this respect. So keep you hair on! ;-)))

Study / University in Poland is too easy [68]


can you clarify please?

Life / Cosmetics in Poland [14]


Drogeria Natura? (My favourite)
Rossman?
Blue Drogerie? (Much less favourite, still works though)
Etc.
Plus, any larger shopping mall in PL will be stocked to the roof, I can never tear myself away and make a final, FINAL decision about what I really want ;-)

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

I find these linguistic theories rather naive.

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

The thing is, sometimes I'm just too tired for this sort of a "discussion". English has a word for everything - oh really? - Polish "sub-classifies" (whatever that means), and what has translation got to do with it? Are you confusing the Polish tłumaczyć, which means both explain and translate, with the English? Whatever. Have it your way. I know nothing. Good night.

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

One of the many google results for the above "mistake".
Also, I know full well what sub-classify means, I just don't accept it as a grammatical term here (to differentiate the Polish vocabulary system from the English). You seem to be claiming here that the English language does not have any finer distinctions such as bread basket, shopping basket, basket ball, waste basket - or do you claim to have a separate word for each?

In other words, I think that you've made up a theory that doesn't hold water.
Apart from which I still don't understand your "translator" hangup. I have not translated anything in this thread and do not plan to. And I wasn't talking about aspective forms either, where did you get that one from?

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


"nie nadymaj się tak" would be one possibility.


pilot / remote control / test episode (also pilot in Eng).

Translate "facility" (the noun) from English into Polish for me, please.

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


If you looked hard enough you'd realise that this is a link to a quote from a book that's been actually proofread and published. I'm happy to make mistakes of that caliber.

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

I'm still waiting for the "facility into Polish" translation.

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


congratulations ON

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


This word is deader than a doornail. Google spits out page after page after page of links to dictionaries, plus a smattering of links to a book entitled "No orchids for Miss Blandish" or something to that effect, plus a few people who are actually called Blandish. There seem to be no links to anybody ever using this word in context, no links to websites, blogs, message boards, online forums, articles, songs, etc. By the by, it would be translated as "przymilać się o co, wdzięczyć się" into Polish.

h


Do you really believe that in the 21st century, any European nation would not have the vocabulary required to put together a bureaucratic document? I admit that English-sourced Officialese is particularly disgusting, with its facilities, communities, leaderships, skillsets, local authorities, equal opportunities, and other non-words and non-phrases (all these ideas and things already have names in good, clear, old-fashioned English), but not being able to substitute a non-word in language A with the appropriate non-word in language B? It's just boring and tiring, but definitely not difficult or impossible.

And one more thing - it is almost impossible to compare the volumes of vocabulary different languages have. English, for example, has loads of borrowings which make for a lot of "different words for similar things" - mountain from the Latin mons, hill from the Anglo-Saxon is one example. Polish uses derivation to create new words from a common root, e.g. góra, wzgórze, wzgórek, górka; nevertheless, all of them are distinct and separate words.

In a similar vein, English has groups of words like delicate / gentle / soft or hairy / hirsute; Polish has mały / malutki / maleńki or punkt / punkcik or dzieciak / dziecko / dziecię / dzieciuch / dzieciątko / dzieciaczek / dziecina or, to keep up with the hirsute end of things: włochaty / owłosiony / zarośnięty / obrośnięty ;-)

Which language is richer, then? None. You simply cannot compare apples and oranges.