USA, Canada / Traveling to Poland to study. Polish passport question. [11]


My daughter was in exactly the same situation. She went to Poland for studies.
She arrived on Canadian papers last April. Soon thereafter she applied for Polish national ID. End of story. No issues, extradition notices or travel restrictions. She moves around Poland and the rest of EU without any restrictions carrying both her Polish and her Canadian documents.

USA, Canada / Traveling to Poland to study. Polish passport question. [11]


Since you are a Polish citizen I can't fathom how overstaying would apply to you. What are they gonna do? They can't throw you out of Poland. In Poland your Canadian citizenship will be of secondary importance - if any at all.

Also, I don't think there are any restrictions as to what passport you're using to leave Poland. There used to be some issues with that in early 1990's but not anymore. What they may check at the airport is whether the passport you hold allows you to enter the destination country.

Language / Do you think there is something like Warsaw accent ? [29]


The issue is not how easy it is to pronounce one word but whether it is easier to pronounce it in one way or another. In the case of "cz-" vs. "trz-" it is easier to pronounce the former since we deal with one phoneme vs. two.

Language / Do you think there is something like Warsaw accent ? [29]


So that would put Wielkopolska is in the Southern part of Poland, huh?

Language / Do you think there is something like Warsaw accent ? [29]


To start with, in linguistics, the term "accent" is technically incorrect if you ask about the difference in the sound "ch" in Ruch and Lech. That has nothing to do with the accent which in both words will be identical since there is only one syllable. Accent, in the context of the initial post, is colloquialism, a plebeian dialect of sorts in itself.

As such the term dialect would be more precise, and there is certainly such a thing as Warsaw dialect. Dialects often tend to sound "plebeian". Take Southern US, NYC, Cockney etc. They are certainly not mainstream and they sound plebeian.

In the song you linked to the accent is standard Polish. There are some faint traces of softening of some consonants, and I heard "£" that was on a dark side (although that alone is not a sure sign of the Warsaw dialect). But, the words being lyrics of a song I would hesitate to draw conclusions about the Warsaw dialect based solely on it.

Language / Do you think there is something like Warsaw accent ? [29]

Let's go back to high school manuals

While it has greatly diminished (mainly because of migration) Warsaw accent is still alive among some Warsawians in and outside the city.

Some typical examples of the dying Warsaw accent are:

- softening of kę/gę into kie/gię (sometimes into kie/gie)
- softening pi(+vowel) into pś(psi) as in piasek/psiasek

These, along with some other diminishing phonetic and lexicographical features are what created the Warsaw language, or what Warsawians would have called język warsiaski even if in standard Polish we could have called it język warszawski.

Life / Warsaw restaurant for Wigilia [14]

When one goes to a restaurant on the night of Dec. 24 then it's a dinner or supper. It could be a very nice dinner or supper but it will not be Wigilia. Period.

As for washing the dishes (and the preparation of the food) I'd say it is a part of the celebration, and it's not just about the part when you eat food or open presents.

But then, you have to understand the Polish soul and customs to understand the Wigilia Bozego Narodzenia. It is as religious holiday, but it is also a family and social holiday. Certainly not the happiest time for lonely *******.

Oh, btw. meat? During Wigilia???!!!

History / 9th November 1989: And the wall came tumbling down [113]

Hey BBoy, my German is a little rusty.
Could you help me with that text in the lower part of the domino from the Berlin celebrations?

History / 9th November 1989: And the wall came tumbling down [113]


let's see:

98,000 in a country of then 36 million makes it 1 in 367.
A whole lot less than 1 in 7 for GDR, eh?

And you tried to tell us about countless Russians as the reason for inaction in GDR.
Well, there were more STASI collaborators than Soviet troops in GDR.

I know you're kinda pis.sed off. I hear that after all that unification still isn't going very smoothly and the wall is still very much alive, even if the brick work has been demolished. I guess it'll take a generation of two before things even out between you and your Western brethren.

Good luck.

History / 9th November 1989: And the wall came tumbling down [113]


If that isn't sad.

So East Germans have nobody of their own to credit for leading them to freedom. No mass movement working against working against the communism. See, Poles do, and when Germans were finally given permission to be free they found some sledge hammers and started banging the wall - over 4 months after Poland had already elected their first free government after WW2.

And that, dear BBoy, is the main difference between what happened in Poland and East Germany. Poland was a virtual symbol f relentless struggle against communism, while East Germans relentlessly worked for STASI. One in seven of them, I hear.

History / 9th November 1989: And the wall came tumbling down [113]


you're welcome.


Former Polish leader Lech Walesa, whose pro-democracy movement Solidarity played a key role in ending communism in Eastern Europe, is to tip the first domino as the artistic display comes tumbling down.

nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10608109&ref=rss

History / 9th November 1989: And the wall came tumbling down [113]


So let's get back to it.
Your president thanked Poles and Walesa.

Happy celebrations.

History / 9th November 1989: And the wall came tumbling down [113]


What facts?
Partitions of Poland?
Ribbentrop Molotov?
Extermination of the Polish nation planned by the NKVD and Gestapo?

Are these the examples of the Polish co-operation with Russians?

There is an odd interpretation here and there when history is debated, but you are outdoing even yourself.

History / 9th November 1989: And the wall came tumbling down [113]


BBoy, we both know (I hope I'm speaking for both) that a statement like that is pretty much bulls.hit.

Russians and Germans attacked Poland. Does that make Poland Russia's ally? Poland was raped, much like their former allies Germans, by the Russians. Does that make Poland Russia's ally?

Never in its history was Poland Russia's ally. Unless you consider an occupied territory an allied country. Germans, on the other hand, have a richer history of co-operation with Russians. Unfortunately, on a few occasions that co-operation was directed against Poland.

History / 9th November 1989: And the wall came tumbling down [113]


Fly to where? To GDR? CSRR? USSR? Try to swim to Sweden across the Baltic?

Poland had no wall with a "paradise" on the other side.
The technology of escaping Poland was different than GDR. We had no wall to jump. We had a whole country of dedicated communist population of GDR to travel through.


You mean any specific period, or the combined total?
And also, do you mean the period before the Soviets deported 1.7 million Poles to Siberia or after. Will 45 killed, 1165 injured and 3,000 arrested do? That was in 6 days only, in 1970, just one example of a few events of that nature in Poland.

History / 9th November 1989: And the wall came tumbling down [113]


Guess how long it took Soviets to cross the GDR/Polish border.
I wonder how old you are and how much you remember. I remember column after column of Soviet tanks going to and from GDR, and a military train after a military train filled with Soviet troops on the same route. BBoy, most Soviet troops stationed in GDR came there via Poland.


I wonder what that was.
Do you?


Yes, it wasn't easy and it took a few attempts.
East Germans gave up after one, and that's why I considered them "well behaved".

History / 9th November 1989: And the wall came tumbling down [113]


The whole thread is a hindsight.
In 1980's nobody could guarrantee the commies would fall, and yet some tried to achueve that while others didn't. Obviously, 1980's it would have been even harder to predict who would be primarily responsible for the collapse if the Soviet blocks. But we know now, and we knew then who was trying hard to make it a reality.


'cept for Polish troops were directed by the USSR while GDR offered a "gesture" on their own, and actually the Soviets decided the idea was idiotic.


Exactly.
BBoy, you need to go out and have a beer or two.
Have fun.

History / 9th November 1989: And the wall came tumbling down [113]


It did get violent. Almost. The problem was that even in the USSR there was a lot of internal fight up there in the politburo.

Again, hardliners could have won but they didn't. Not even when they send the tanks to the streets. A year after free elections on some former commie countries the Soviet soldiers refused to side with the communists. To me what happened in Moscow in 1991 was much more spectacular than the demolition crews of young East Germans after they had a few beers for courage, and after the Schabowski's speech that could have been interpreted like a go ahead.

Lemme contrast that with what happened a bit earlier. When in 1995 I was bringing some books from West Berlin to Poland (obviously via GDR) only East German guards inquired about the actual titles of the books. They found something of interest so they called Polish guards to investigate (books were in Polish). Three Poles came. One was some kind of a civilian border official, accompanied by two border patrol soldiers. The civilian official, told me not to bring too many of the same title in the future because those East German pr*cks always pick on books, and there is only so much Polish guards can do to pretend the books are acceptable to the commies in Poland.


Yes, it is a shameful moment of Poland's history. As shameful as East German offer to send troops to Poland to squash the Solidarity movement.

History / 9th November 1989: And the wall came tumbling down [113]


Yes, I may have heard of the cold war. Nothing happened. Just some propaganda on both sides against the other and some awesome inventions in the area of weaponry. No concrete steps taken by Americans to actually abolish the the USSR. That started with Reagan.


At the time the West didn't care either. After all it was the Allies who participated in shaping post WW2 Europe.


Of course a change in Moscow was needed and I wouldn't say that Gorby was insignificant in the process of dismantling the USSR. To his credit the process was made fairly peaceful and relatively blood-less. But then, what options did he have at the steer of a wrecked ship? The Soviets only recently were taught a lesson in Afghanistan and the USSR was virtually bankrupt. Eventually they would have had enough trouble within the USSR borders and not need ones outside it. They knew their time was running short. For fuks sake, they were running out of food. How long do you think before they would be able to keep sucking food out of Poland while taking Russians the situation is crappy becaus they have to feed Poles?

The USSR was not in a position to fight the satellites without bloodshed rivaling that during WW2. Even the the staunchest commies realized that.

Of course East Germans were not to be counted on in case or major insurgency. They were too well behaved. But there have always been Poles, Czechs, Hungarians and the Baltics. Could have they lost and be in an even worse situation tthan before insurgency? Sure. But they didn't.

That's why, I think, Merkel thanked Poles and Walesa.

History / 9th November 1989: And the wall came tumbling down [113]


How much earlier?

It took Reagan/JP2... what? 6 years? I'd say that's amazingly fast, considering the task at hand. Mind you, the US paid a huge price for that too.

I think you're confusing cause and effect. What happened in Moscow or Berlin were effects of what happened in Washington, DC and the Vatican.

History / 9th November 1989: And the wall came tumbling down [113]


Or perhaps it crumbled in Washington, DC and the Vatican?

History / 9th November 1989: And the wall came tumbling down [113]


IMO all Gorby did was realize that the resistance was futile, so he wasn't a driving force by any stretch of imagination.

I think it was relentless push of Reagan, JPII and the Poles against the communism. All the others followed. Merkel certainly thanked Poles and Walesa:

Chancellor Angela Merkel thanked the Poles , " Solidarity " and Lech Walesa 's contribution to the overthrow of communism 20 years ago . The head of the German government said that the activities of the "Solidarity" she added courage opposition members in the former GDR . Merkel spoke on the bridge near the former border crossing point in Berlin Bornholmer Strasie.

It was there late in the evening on 9 November 1989 went up first barriers, allowing East German citizens crossing into West Berlin.

I'd agree with szkotja2007 on the immediate signal to go to the wall and cross it, except that people were actually allowed (or so they thought) by Herr Schabowski to cross the wall. In other words, East Germans waited dutifully for a signal and eventually they were allowed by a rep. of the commie government to do what they did 20 years ago.

News / JEW YOUTH SHOULD CLEAN UP THEIR ACT IN POLAND [420]

So what's so different about Poles in that book from any other nation around the same time?
How many Jews did the US or Canada accept when they needed a new home? While education in Poland was virtually dominated by Jews, when did American universities abolish

quotas and ceased imposing roadblocks for Jewish students? Was it mid 1960's?

religiononourcampuses.wordpress.com/2009/03/08/religious-discrimination-against-jewish-faculty-in-american-higher-education

The "holier than though" as usual. huh?

USA, Canada / Do you think Americans are idiots. [149]

It's kinda silly, if not idiotic, to criticize American idiocy if most of Europe follows suit and tries to imitate Americans, often in the worst of what Americans have to offer.

Real Estate / 15 reasons why the Polish real estate market will crash soon [258]

The 15 reasons are still nowhere to be found?

Life / Why do Poles and other Europeans use the Lords name in vain so often ???? [28]


Nothing to do with fashion or the US.
It's been done since before anybody would even dream abut the US. Hence one of the commandments is thou shall not use thy lord's name in vain

Life / Swine flu vaccinations taking place in Poland? [52]


This is kinda sorta like insurance (health, home, car etc). You may never get in trouble and yet people buy insurance.


I don't think you understand the mechanism of vaccines.

- Yes, foreign body is introduced into yours.
- No, your body does not rely on that foreign body to fight off disease.

That foreign body is a weakened (so to speak) virus, so of course it won't fight itself. Since it is a weakened virus your body can fight it without any trouble (rare exceptions may occur) and during that fight it becomes familiar with the DNA of the enemy. When a full fledged virus hits then your body already knows how to deal with it becaue it has some experience fighting the crippled version of the same virus.

This is grade 8 biology, so please forgive my grade 4 language. That ought tomake it easier to understand some of the hazy basics.


Except that antibiotics are a completely different ball game. While vaccines "teach" the organism how to fight with a particular enemy antibiotics do not. They just do the fight for you.

What's more, antibiotics are not used to fight viri (or viruses, if you prefer) such as H1N1, or any other. Instead antiviral drugs may be used, for instance TamiFlu. As for the vaccinations, they may be effective in immunizing against both viri and bacteria.

It's OK to refuse this particular, or any other vaccine. But people! At least try to understand what you're refusing , and the reasons why you are refusing it.

History / Polish symbolisms [12]

agile like a cat
strong like a bear
cold like a stone
clumsy like an elephant
deaf like a log (of dead wood)

Life / Swine flu vaccinations taking place in Poland? [52]


All the best to you and your T-cells, although they tend to loose their battles once in a while.
Just a couple days ago a lot of people with views similar to yours changed their minds on a dime. That was after a sudden death of a 13 year old in perfect health. That boy went down fast!

So I guess in the end it's a lottery whether someone decides to get a shot or not.

News / JEW YOUTH SHOULD CLEAN UP THEIR ACT IN POLAND [420]

Have you heard about Jan Karski?
His reports, about 2 years before Vrba's, were taken seriously too, but no one in the West cared.