News / Poland blocks any action on climate change [569]


Most of the pictures look like they were chosen from grimness.... that's the US stereotype of Poland, grim and dirty so of course the NYT will try to reinforce that.

News / Poland blocks any action on climate change [569]


the contempt you feel for you supposed countrymen could not be clearer....

News / Poland blocks any action on climate change [569]


It's called "rule orientation" in the social science literature. Poland (like France) falls into the camp that wants lots of formal rules... which they don't care if anybody follows (or for which there are lots of personal exceptions).

Anglo countries tend to fall into the camp that wants as few rules as possible (but do care about following them and don't like to make exceptions).

Of course, money corrupts and so the elite everywhere don't feel constrained by rules made for little people, but at ground level the difference in rule orientation is the biggest single shock to everyday English speakers who find themselves living in Poland. Either they learn to adapt of they muddle along from disaster to disaster until they give up.

News / Poland blocks any action on climate change [569]


then they should be well enough paid that the taxes shouldn't affect them, if just plane ticket taxes make the job too expensive then it's probably not so very, very necessary

News / Poland blocks any action on climate change [569]


There's no rational reason for a person to need to be on sight 6 times a year, not when there is skype. Even third world sh1tholes tend to have enough wit to keep internet connections going now.

Or, you're just using that old Polish logic: Other people should follow the rules, but my case is special....

News / Poland blocks any action on climate change [569]


You are either willing to make sacrifices yourself or you're not....

Genealogy / Mary Barnawich (?) - Is my great-grandmother from Poland? [28]


You might want to find a Slovak forum then.

googling a second or two I found the name: Baranovičová (and Branovičová ) in slovak

News / Poland blocks any action on climate change [569]


Especially airline tickets! The great majority of air travel is unnecessary (in terms of planetary survival). You're either serious or not.


This is more about preserving European heritage sights currently under threat by excessive numbers of giant ships full of carbon wasting tourists! Venice!

Life / A Pole returning to Poland harassed by MSW [25]


You probably don't remember, but back when he was PM there were rumors that Marcinkiewicz was a member (and wore the band with spikes on his leg).... his adventure with the incredibly stupid and lazy Isabel seemed to put a stop to those rumors.

He's obviously trying to make a public comeback but every time I see him on TV now just makes me remember the video of him naked on the toilet screaming at her to get a job....

Classifieds / English/Polish speaking Canadian looking for work as Electrician in Poland [26]

the person who is best qualified to answer that is currently suspended (due to his predilection for getting into p1ssing contests with trolls)

Genealogy / DNA Testing in Poland. Is it popular? [81]


"Jewish" was a "nationality" in the Soviet Union, recorded... everywhere.
Also, there was very little intermarriage, Soviet Jews married almost exclusively among themselves.

Life / A Pole returning to Poland harassed by MSW [25]


An example of the sirens can be heard/seen here (relevant portion begins at 49.20)

youtube.com/watch?v=np_ylvc8Zj8

Genealogy / DNA Testing in Poland. Is it popular? [81]


Well in many ways Pole and Jew are not discrete categories (the way they are in Russia) but overlapping categories. Unlike some other European countries Poland does have the idea that language and culture are more important than accidents of genetics which is born out by people who self identify as Polish but have non-Polish names.

I'm not even sure what "pure" means in most of Europe, especially in places that have seen so many invasions and migrations...

Genetic testing is much more a US deal where people want to figure out how their ancestors arrived there, it just doesn't come up so much as a topic in Poland.

Genealogy / Mary Barnawich (?) - Is my great-grandmother from Poland? [28]

Even if a Polish woman might refer to herself as "Nowakowa" the name on her documents will still be Nowak (unlike Czech where Novakova would be found on her id, passport etc).

Life / What's the family life and culture of families like in Poland? [14]


Again you're describing the US, the Polish experience was very different. Women had been in factories before the war and often had to take part in combat (or support for combat) during the war.

Genealogy / Mary Barnawich (?) - Is my great-grandmother from Poland? [28]

Not really, that's very old-fashioned and hardly used (and would never appear in official contexts unlike the Czech -ova which still is used officially).

Genealogy / Mary Barnawich (?) - Is my great-grandmother from Poland? [28]


If she was Czech I'd expect her last name to end in -ova, Barnova, Barnovicova, something like that (I'm leaving off the accents). Polish spelling would be Barnawicz, but it's not a common name, maybe it was Branowicz or Bronawicz? or maybe Baraniewicz?

Life / What's the family life and culture of families like in Poland? [14]


What you described is an American narrative that has virtually nothing to do with post 1944 Polish society.
After WWII when all adults were expected to hold down jobs.


Huh? Where did you get that idea. The end of communism saw a massive expansion of female unemployment (especially middle aged and older women whose companies collapsed in the conditions of shock therapy. In the late 90s younger female unemployment was high because maternal leave policies made them all but unemployable.

Now that's changed and all educated young people are in demand, but entrenprenuership is not a major feature of young Polish women (or men). The entrenpreneurial period was just after the collapse of communism when everybody and his dog were either selling things on the street or starting companies (most of which went kaputt pretty quickly).

News / Poland blocks any action on climate change [569]


But they're not the ones being asked, it's the not rich at all working classes that are being asked to make sacrifices in France....

But for your edification I'll make a suggestion or two

300% tax on airplane tickets,
500% tax on privately owned planes
300% tax on third cars (for one family)
300% tax on cruise ship tickets

News / Poland blocks any action on climate change [569]

Let them eat renewable energy!

News / Poland blocks any action on climate change [569]


apparently you haven't been paying attention, rural france does not have enough public transportation so car usage isn't "personal choice" (I guess it is, the other option is to not work and go on welfare....)

News / Poland blocks any action on climate change [569]


Read this: theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/24/paris-fuel-tax-protest-macron-france-poverty

Fuel costs are a proportionately bigger share of living expenses for the rural working class (who need cars in France because public transport has been eliminated) and the proposed fuel tax would hit them disproportionately hard.

News / Poland blocks any action on climate change [569]


I'm not talking about me (my living standards are pretty low key (I don't have or want a car for example). But by and large people don't want a drop in living standards for some unspecified future reward and most of the world wants first world living standards.

I'm relatively sure that clean technology will take off and solve most of these problems, but if it doesn't then small scale efforts and a handful of special taxes won't make up for that.

News / Poland blocks any action on climate change [569]


The yellow vests in France (partly protesting a regressive fuel tax that hits working class people very hard while leaving much bigger fish untouched?)


Then there should be no need for regressive punitive taxes that harm the working class.


China will do that faster...

Real Estate / Looking for a room or flat to rent in Poland - discrimination against age [17]


Then not being able to room with student age people shouldn't stop you, just look for more... appropriate accomadation.

News / Poland blocks any action on climate change [569]


Exactly. Try to convince Americans they need to live like Chinese peasants for the sake of the climate. Then try to convince urban Chinese they need to live like peasants...

For that matter try to convince the French working class that they should pay massively regressive taxes for the sake of the climate.... oh wait, somebody tried that and it's not working out so well...

Real Estate / Looking for a room or flat to rent in Poland - discrimination against age [17]


There are no illegal immigrants to speak of in Poland (because of the very weak social safety net).

Private Polish landlords traditionally prefer to rent to non-citizens because, if there are problems, it's easier to kick them out. A person with Polish citizenship represents a big risk as it can be very difficult to get rid of them, even if they stop paying rent and/or are wrecking the apartment.

The idea of a "student" being over 30 years old is not.... an idea in Polish culture. After 26 you're no longer a student (unless you're a doctoral student).

Try a regular for profit landlord and you should have no trouble. Act your age in Poland (which means don't try to hang around with students)

News / Poland blocks any action on climate change [569]

What European countries individually or collectively do is pretty irrelevant in the face of China,Latin America, India and Africa (more or less in that order) fully industrializing.

I suppose Europe is about setting a good example or something but unless Europeans are willing to take a _massive_ hit in living standards for the future in return for the rest of the world staying at current levels then... no, it doesn't really matter.

Language / First sentence of the novel Solaris [12]


It's one of the most interesting parts.... anyhoo, after some googling..... it seems that a studnia on a ship is a moon pool* (or at least one use of the word in relation to ships) which makes me think that maybe 'hatch' might be a better translation than shaft... of course there might be other things on ships that could be referred to as 'studnia' and who knows how that translates into the context of a space ship...

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_pool

Language / First sentence of the novel Solaris [12]


well the translation should take into consideration the preferences of the target audience first and foremost... and the elements of good style differ in different languages. There's also the question of how close the author adheres to normative styles of the language (and how native readers perceive that).

Yet another question is that for a polycentric language like English, styles can offer differ from one variety to another. A translation that reads wonderfully well for a British reader might be clunky and awkward for an American (and vice versa).