Language / What "YOU" is the correct one? Polish language question. [50]

thanks, kaprys:-)

Guess the Archie Bunker comes out in me at the weirdest times, he-he!

Life / WHY DO POLES USE ENGLISH WORDS IN CONVERSATION? [396]

Wasn't obvious to my teenage son, who apparently remained unaware of said meaning, thinking for whatever odd reason, that app meant "app" and barely even claimed to suspect that the above two words are in fact related or that "app" is simply an abbreviation of same.

When at the museum only two weeks ago, he marveled at all the "pics" in the American Wing. Probably did that just to
annoy his persnickety old dadLOL

Language / What "YOU" is the correct one? Polish language question. [50]

Jaskier, I never mentioned violence, did I? Nobody ever mentioned hitting on anyone:-) Somebody hit's on me, I just hit him back, gay, straight or indifferent.

Maf, you do have a point.

Life / WHY DO POLES USE ENGLISH WORDS IN CONVERSATION? [396]

Hmm, makes me wonder then whether or not the social media site "What'sapp" might not have been started by a Pole who misheard "UP" as in "What's up?" and mistook it for "What's AP?", later converted for expedience' sake into "What'sapp", since most under millenial age have a tin ear to pre-recorded irony, or double-entendre (theDonald Duck signature phrase "Ehhh, what's up doc?", so pronounced with his broad New York diction to sound like "Wut's ap dac?"LOL), those 20-somethings or younger, for whom anything before 1996 or so is antedelluvian, at best:-)

Language / What "YOU" is the correct one? Polish language question. [50]

For the last time, Ironside, you're right about "Ty"!

I'm right as well. However, it might also be as I said, in a given situation:-)
Let's not exclude ALL the facts. I have them on good authority.

Life / WHY DO POLES USE ENGLISH WORDS IN CONVERSATION? [396]

Hey, if the French-speaking Normans hadn't bolloxed things up a bit when they
invaded Britain in 1066 AD, bringing with them silent letters and Latinate vocabulary,
our language might be less rich in terms of vocabulary choice, but our spelling would
be whole lot easier:-)

@kaprys,

Sorry about that! I thought Rich was asking how to spell "kilkuletni":-)

Language / What "YOU" is the correct one? Polish language question. [50]

Oh, surely not in all instances, kaprys! This is what I was explaining:-)

Language / What "YOU" is the correct one? Polish language question. [50]

A manager whom I know from Warsaw, told me that while this may be true nowadays, nevertheless, he as a fourty-five year-old would feel
strange if someone he doesn't know,a nother man who is older, addressed him with "Ty", rather than "Pan on the first meeting:-)

Possibly this is a cultural projection from the German or French-speaking realm in which code-switching is QUITE complicated.

In this respect, Poland sounds like Scandinavia!

Life / WHY DO POLES USE ENGLISH WORDS IN CONVERSATION? [396]

The DUDEN Society in Mannheim, likewise has allowed numerous such "loan words" into German:-)
The Royal Academy of Spain however, as well as the time-honored Academie Francaise, continue NOT to make allowances for such quaint liberalism. I believe even Icelandic has caved to sociolinguistic pressures LOL

Language / What "YOU" is the correct one? Polish language question. [50]

Naturally, I never meant to imply anything other than that!
I meant simply that in a given situation in which an adult male STRANGER over, say, twenty, or twenty-five (other than a foreigner or non-Pole) uses "Ty" in an unfamiliar social situation, a pub patron for example, it might be misconstrued as a gay hook up.

That's all I wanted to say:-)

Life / WHY DO POLES USE ENGLISH WORDS IN CONVERSATION? [396]

Oh, wow! I don' like it either.

Language / What "YOU" is the correct one? Polish language question. [50]

Polish male friends have said different. Then again, it might be entirely innocent, as you suggest.

Language / What "YOU" is the correct one? Polish language question. [50]

True enough, then again, it might too:-) It can be dicey for foreigners, I'll say that much.

Life / WHY DO POLES USE ENGLISH WORDS IN CONVERSATION? [396]

What's that?

Language / What "YOU" is the correct one? Polish language question. [50]

What's confusing in Polish for example, is when to apply this idea of code switching. Using "Ty" as a man to another (adult) man, might signify a homosexual

relationship (as opposed to among male children, at school, camp etc.). Whereas "Pan" when the two adults are good acquaintances, might well be seen by

the other person as standoffish and aloof.

Life / WHY DO POLES USE ENGLISH WORDS IN CONVERSATION? [396]

Interesting, kaprys. Sort of almost like a false calque, you mean?

Life / WHY DO POLES USE ENGLISH WORDS IN CONVERSATION? [396]

I've yet to run across one, Delph. I believe Poles might use "support" as in "wspierac".
Language does change though:-)

Life / WHY DO POLES USE ENGLISH WORDS IN CONVERSATION? [396]

"Kilkuletni" meaning "several" or "an number of years" is correct.

Let's you and I first parce a few points here! If you are contending that English is the "Earth Mother" of all languages, you're just plain cracked:-)

However, if you contend that English is THE most widely recognized language, perhaps even most spoken, language on the planet, you'd be
statistically accurate, second only perhaps to Mandarin Chinese and exceeding only Spanish on the world scene.

As I keep saying though, effort is ALWAYS worth it, and in order to get the very most out of any exchange in a foreign country, be it

with the Avis reservation clerk or a moderately educated stranger from whom the bonds of potential friendship beckon, to learn the
bread-and-butter basics of that country's language...no matter how much English its inhabitants "know"!

Life / WHY DO POLES USE ENGLISH WORDS IN CONVERSATION? [396]

I wonder sometimes whether Europeans who's language has adopted "Europlish" words and/or phrases honestly know what the heck
they're talking about half the time, when a native word in their language might just as easily suffice.

Perhaps though it's again like French borrowings in English, such as 'trompe l'oeil', or "bidet"; it's sounds cool:-)

Life / WHY DO POLES USE ENGLISH WORDS IN CONVERSATION? [396]

Ahemm, there you go again Rich, spreading the poison of US ethnocentrism, laying any trace of cultural individuality waste in its destructive path!!
Anyone who's been to school, who knows how to read and write independently, knows that SANSKRIT is considered by scholars to be the "mother

of all languages". Get a clue!

As to the title of this thread question, there's usually a simply answer: TO SOUND "COOL" LOL

News / Schools in Poland to strike tomorrow [235]

Let's pray that number keeps growing.... if nothing else than for merely their sake of the rising generation of young Polish pupils learning English, university degree(s) or not, I'm with Iwonka there.

News / Schools in Poland to strike tomorrow [235]

A treasure and a rare jewel, I'm sure:-)
From primary school on up through high school, wonder how many English native speakers still teach English in Poland.

Classifieds / Translation Needed: Zuzanna Danilowicz's Birth Record; And a P.S. [27]

Only "similarity" between Poland and the US in this regard would be a tendency shared between current Polish and much of the American South
and their tendency to use "Mr." + first name, "Well hello, Mr. Tom!" cf. "Dzien dobry, Panie Tomku!" in the vocative etc.
While this trend in the Southern states, deep South especially, might not be a popular as it once was, it's still not so unusual:-)

Classifieds / Translation Needed: Zuzanna Danilowicz's Birth Record; And a P.S. [27]

Agreed.
To my certain knowledge, she was born around 1930 or so.
Names though are funny, aren't they! Often, they go through phases.
It's common here in the States to hear certain ethnicities prefer "old-fashioned" sounding American first names (particularly among girls) which whites haven't named their kids in surely more than sixty years, e.g. "Ethel", "Harriet", "Marie Lou" etc.

Then there also regional differences to contend with:-)

Classifieds / Translation Needed: Zuzanna Danilowicz's Birth Record; And a P.S. [27]

I knew an older Polish-Jewish woman named Marianna, Jewish on both sides. She admitted to me however that her mother
gave her a typically non-Jewish, Polish given name so as it would be easier to assimilate into Polish society.

Subsequently, she married a gentile Pole and they moved to Upper Manhattan. By now, they're both in their late '80's, I'm sure:-)

Classifieds / Translation Needed: Zuzanna Danilowicz's Birth Record; And a P.S. [27]

You asked the question of sources and I mentioned that any history explains all this.
Can't break it down for you any simpler:-)

Classifieds / Translation Needed: Zuzanna Danilowicz's Birth Record; And a P.S. [27]

Any history of Christianity, not to mention Judaism, will recount the ordinances of the Catholic Church, making it a crime,
in Spain for instance, during and after the Auto da Fe, for the offspring of Jewish parents (not including the Moranos or
Conversos) to name their children by Christian names:-)

Classifieds / Translation Needed: Zuzanna Danilowicz's Birth Record; And a P.S. [27]

Who's demonzing?

Merely stating the truth, plain and simple!
If you can't handle the unvarnished truth, don't go blaming me:-)

Apropos the undeniably tragic synagogue massacre No.2, the real lesson is NOT to have Jews even more militantly flaunting
their religious garb for all to see, both Jew and gentile, but rather, that ALL Jews are the same, and oughtn't be shunned for

being assimilated instead of belonging to the Lubovitch sect!

We all wound up in the same oven. Hitler made no disctinction, why the Lubovitch??

Classifieds / Translation Needed: Zuzanna Danilowicz's Birth Record; And a P.S. [27]

I believe in some countries, it might even have been forbidden by the Church!
"Approved Jewish" first or given names were often limited to "Sarah", "Ismael", "Israel", "Samuel" etc.

News / Pole loses language discrimination case in Germany; Scandalous! [97]

Once more, as I posted earlier on this, I feel that if I were that Polish father, I too would charge discrimination,
lawful or not:-)

No, English is definitely NOT "understood" by everybody, not even close, judging from my vast experience with the non-native foreign born over
the past nearly twenty-five plus years in both the classroom and the courtroom.

While I surely can't realistically disagree with Weimarer that for most everybody outside of Poland, Polish remains a largely unknown, perhaps too exotic, tongue, if I were a German living in Germany and someone spoke to their child in a public setting in any language other than German, still the national language of Germany, I too might find it bothersome, especially if I didn't really understand what was being said,

Granted innumerable Germans have learned English vs. Polish, it's the principal of the matter which is at issue here.