UK, Ireland / Why English do not like Polish? [417]

Yet the prejudice is always going to be not far from the surface, particularly where a newly-arrived minority group's concerned! I mean, Swedes and Germans have a similar ethnicity as well as work ethic now, don't they? Plus, especially the Swedes, all bloody well speak English and don't tend to go on the public dole, do they???

News / Why no reprivatisation in Poland? Holocaust-era property ownership. [119]

Russia was an occupier and so they wanted first dibs. Germany too was an occupier and so couldn't help gut get into the act......

Little Poland was sort of left out in the cold (no pun intended), roughly until around the end of the Gomułka Era.

UK, Ireland / Why English do not like Polish? [417]

Precisely, Szalawa! We each tend to stereotype the easiest targets which conform to our own clichéd thinking.
So, it's easy to characterize ALL English women as looking like librarians or school teachers as many Americans for instance have been brought up and conditioned to associate primness with academia, whereas we see some busty, botox females with a well-endowed top, make-up etc. and assume automatically they're women of little brains and easy virtue.

Well, as you must know, whenever you ASSume, you make an ASS of U and ME!
lol

Genealogy / If your ancestors were in the "Wehrmacht"... [217]

Well, the idea was that people in Poland (as well as Polish-American non-Jews) were angry that the emphasis was on Polish concentration camps which, of course, weren't "Polish" at all, but German, built squarely in Nazi-held territory under the clear auspices of Heinrich Himmler and his trusty engineer Max Faust, a name which rarely comes up in average parlance:-)

By the way, Obama made a lovely faux-pas too, but even today, it is known that Germans continue to feel uncomfortable even discussing the Camps etc..., tend to become defensive over the "German national character flaw" notion, and will always want to shift blame wherever they can, even the younger ones!

UK, Ireland / Why English do not like Polish? [417]

E.G. allow me just to weigh into this diatribe, if I may.

First of all, Poles, as with many Eastern Europeans in particular, have had a vastly different life experience from Northern Europeans, such as the British as well as their Nordic/Germanic neighbors to the East:-) When I was first in Prague around the mid-90's, I remarked to myself how much the average teen-though twenty something woman resembled a prostitute and their man, a sort of macho-man pimp-type!

When I returned to Western Europe where I'd been staying, I soon realized that those who grew up under Communism without the benefit of growing gradually into capitalism, had so-to-say grown up too quickly, trying to become as "adult" as possible as soon as possible, e.g. getting knocked up at sixteen, having children not much later, acquiring lots of easy, fast money (the men, that is) etc...

Perhaps bear such in mind the next time you accuse Polish women of being avaricious and slutty!!

News / Why no reprivatisation in Poland? Holocaust-era property ownership. [119]

What a minefield we've walked into, friends! To be sure, the "repatriation" so to speak of the property originally belonging to Polish Christians was buried for years under a mountain of bureaucratic red tape during Communism, the question of Polish-Jewish property remains even stickier, being that Jews were technically not even legally considered Polish citizens.

Their status therefore compounded the problem of "returning" to people that which might in theory have never belonged to them in the first place, at least in the eyes of the that-time resp. pre-War Polish government:-)

Po polsku / "Co sądzita" - zwrot w języku polskim (Oscar dla "Idy") [15]

Niestety jeszcze nigdy nie oglądałem "Idę", ale wiadomo jak doskonały film oraz pierwszy film z Polski wygrać Oscar.
Czy to prawda? Dzieło Andrzeju Wajdy także wygrało nagrody z Canne'a I Berlina, ale żadny Oscar!

Bardzo dziwne.

Life / Polish Film World and Poland Movie Reviews [30]

Merged: Thoughts about Polish Solidarity Period movie "Kret"?

I wish to inquire about the Polish film "Kret" (The Mole) from a number of years prior about the Solidarity Period. I saw this one and was blown away by the intensity and realism. Many parts shook me up alot, seeing how strongly still many Poles react to events which transpired nearly a quarter-century ago. Sharing my feelings with a younger Polish acquaintance, she assured me that the issue of national freedom remains a hot-button issue today throughout the country.

Am as always keen on the thoughts from my forum colleagues!

Genealogy / If your ancestors were in the "Wehrmacht"... [217]

Isn't it though! Just check out the "Nowy Dziennik" back editions of last summer!

Genealogy / If your ancestors were in the "Wehrmacht"... [217]

Recently, there's been all this flap in the press over the German government's referring to Auschwitz aka 'Oswięcim', Treblinka, Sobibór camps as "Polnische KZ's" (Polish Concentration Camps), when in fact they were NAZI camps staffed (by in large), but owned and operated solely by Germans, not Poles or even Polish collaborators!

The Polish government is quite understandably more than a little hot under the collar about all this, as it seems yet another revisionist attempt to whitewash German involvement in the Shoah.

Furthermore, it might be useful at this juncture to re-iterate that, while there were plenty of anti-Semitic Polish Nazi sympathizers, Poland remained the only major occupied continental European country NOT to have an interim Nazi puppet state, a la Vichy France, Czechoslovakia under Hacha, Austria under Seyss-Inquart, Hungary under Horthy and Szilassy or Romania under the Iron Guard.

Language / Instrumental and byc - Polish grammar issue [46]

Fun it may well be, though not terribly useful! This is because the native speaker of the language from whom you're trying to learn probably themselves never learned the "whys" and "wherefores" either, hence will most likely be at a (not so) gentle loss to explain the reasons for a given structure, case ending etc.

A foreign-born linguist however, might indeed be able to gladly explain why something is the way it is:-)

Furthermore, when posting a link, please make certain it is still activeLOL

))

You can always paste the link into the address bar :)

Life / Thoughts on "Ida" (Polish movie) [30]

Fact is, that Jews were far less numerous in the national post-war government of Poland than of, say, former East Germany (Hermann Axen) or Communist Hungary (Rakoci Matyas). In Poland, as in former West Germany, anti-Semitism was alive and well, only noone saw fit to speak of it publically.

Life / Do the Poles have a positive attitude towards the Danes and Denmark? [16]

I concur! Just learn enough of the language, and you should be fine:-)
Forget about English mistakes. Your Polish interlocutor will probably neither know the difference or even careLOL

Language / Instrumental and byc - Polish grammar issue [46]

The missing "się" was actually a typo. Indeed, German also uses reflexives in situations where English wouldn't:-)

Life / Thoughts on "Ida" (Polish movie) [30]

Because it's really the same story, Jon, only with a different ending.

Life / Do the Poles have a positive attitude towards the Danes and Denmark? [16]

Most Poles whom I know have a very positive attitude towards Denmark as well as Danes-:)
Sadly though, the opposite is rarely true.

Language / Instrumental and byc - Polish grammar issue [46]

In my learning experience, the Instrumental Case ("Narzędnik") causes some of the biggest headaches for many students of Polish, as it does not seem to even remotely correspond with anything in English! Certain verbs which require this case don't quite compute with English learners trying to grasp the very concept of case, e.g. "interesować" [Interesuję historią Polski. = I'm interested in Polish history] etc.

All too frequently, we foreigners ask "why" something is a certain way, rather than accepting it as it is!

Life / Thoughts on "Ida" (Polish movie) [30]

Again, I have yet to see this film, but have read her reviews! I think the issue of Poland's post-war anti-Semitism is heating up again, mainly because the Gomułka period is currently being reevaluated. The blame is being placed more on Moczar than on Gomułka himself:-)

Language / Instrumental and byc - Polish grammar issue [46]

Stupid?? It's an excellent question, in fact. No question is stupid if you're learning:-)

I would say "On nie jest kobietą." is correct. Then again, I'm not a native speaker! Not even close and so I'd have to rely on my native colleagues for the last word on that one.

A final note though to your last question. It IS true, that when negating in Polish, even if, say, the sentence were an accusative "I have a book.",[Mam książkę.], if the sentence were instead, "I DON'T have a book." [Nie mam książki.], the latter would always have to stand in the genitive case!

Why that is, I'm not certain.

Life / Thoughts on "Ida" (Polish movie) [30]

Merged: Any Thoughts about the Polish Oscar Winner "Ida" from our Polish compatriots out there?

Although I haven't yet seen it, I understand from reading our local Polish-language tageblatts, as well as actual Polish journals, that this film has attracted QUITE some little stir over in Poland.

While we're on the subject, anyone wish to voice their opinions on the film "Kret" made a number of years back about the "ghosts" of the Solidarność Era and her opponents?

I'm really curious to know what you all think!

Life / If I move to a big city in Poland will I come across a lot of English speakers? [32]

While from experience, I don't deny that especially in the major urban centers, e.g. Warszawa, Kraków, Poznań, Wrocław, Gdańsk etc. there are literally scores of younger Poles who are both competent in English as well as eager to practice their language skills, if anyone still thinks that outside of these areas, in less traveled places, for instance, that the run-of-the-mill person will speak fluent English, I maintain they're in for a bit of a rude shock!

Were it almost any other European country, such as Germany, Czech Republic, Scandinavia, I'd say that of course, even in remote places, there will be a number of tourist-friendly folks, equally competent in English.

I ought to have qualified that last statement! If you're plan on working in either the service or education industry, even the legal field, English alone should not pose a problem these days. Entertainment as well has by now become almost thoroughly international, and so from that perspective, there'd be no pressing need to "know" Polish (aside from the obvious).

Were you though to choose, for example. agriculture, sports, possibly medicine (but not research), a solid grounding in basic Polish might not be a bad idea:-)

Life / If I move to a big city in Poland will I come across a lot of English speakers? [32]

It's always better to at least attempt learning the bread-and-butter survival basics of the language in any country to which one intends to move/work for even a brief period!

Relying on the average Pole to know sufficient English in a pinch, is rather like a drowning victim clutching at a razor blade;
it's barely something, yet scarcely much (....plus, ya can gitcherself cut up reeeaaalll bad)LOL