Language / Polish Native speakers: Should I attempt the correct endings or just use the nominative form? [12]

Kubek is Anglo-muggy and crude. Tea should be drunk out of a teacup or (the eastern way) glass with holder, and, coffee out of a demitasse. Mugs are good as a kitchen utensil when cooking or in the bathroom when lathering up shaving soap with a brush, but not much more. Just because you seem mugs in offices in Hollywood films doesn't make them 'cool'.

News / Poland's Justice Minister, Z. Ziobro appeals to Kora (and won't face State Tribunal) [51]

Kora (some call her Korwa) illustrates the popular saying: z tyłu liceum z przodu muzeum.

UK, Ireland / 'Drajwować karę' in the UK? [19]

OK, let me lay it all out. By Old Polonia I mean the wave of bread-seeking immigrants who flocked to America’s shores in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Many came from rural backwaters and lived in primitive huts without floors only packed dirt (klepisko). In America they lived in houses with floors so they said 'pies leży na florze' or, if their dialect masurianised 'lezy'. Their kids knew only flor (not podłoga) and kept it up. They learnt English at school and many could speak only halting kitchen Polish enough to communicate with their Polish-born parents. The Old country village had only muddy, rutted lanes so they saw pavements for the first time in America and had to call them something, hence: sajdłok.

The third generation, if they still knew some Polish, it was mainly a few foods and swear words. Not knowing the proper verb, they would use an English one and give it a Polish ending. I remember cousins of mine saying (not as a joke but in all earnestness, because they lacked the right word): 'Mama frajuje (is frying) rybę' and 'coś tu stinky smeluje'. And here's a syntactical doozey which uses no hybrid expressions: ‘Kto ty idziesz do kościoła z?': That is an example of someone thinking entirely in English and translating word for word.

USA, Canada / Canada to attract more immigrants, also from Poland [8]

Is there strong pressure on immigrants by the authorites to assimilate? Can a person or group that wishes do retain their native culture free to do so without interference? If an immigrant is able to freely communciate but has an obvious Polish/Slavic accent in his/her English or French, is that a liability when seeking a job? In other words, if there any grass-roots gut reaction against the foreign born as such?

News / Poland's Truth Commission "IPN" to be de facto closed [80]

Coś za coś. Everythign has its down side. Increased secularism and the simultaneous decline of devout Christians who take the 10 Commandments seriously will mean more broken families, broken hearts, unahappy children, misguided youths, substance abuse, deviant behaviour and even more extreme 'here and now' egoism (get-rich-quick schemes, scams, etc.) than we've got at present. I know some bozo will stand up and say 'look at the crime in Catholic countries', but when more true believers (not just baptised Catholics but those who live theri faith) are replaced by secularists, there will be even fewer restraints and inhibitions against all forms of misconduct. The slogan of the day will be (it already is in many places): You only live once!

UK, Ireland / 'Drajwować karę' in the UK? [19]

Someone of the old Polonia of my great grandparents generation might have said: Ona zostawiła karę w gieradzi.
The use of informal hybrid speech differed amongst indivdual speakers: radical Polglishers would actually say: hauza, stryta, bejzment, flor (podłoga), jarda (yard), bojsy as in 'Bojsy się fajtują na sajdłoku.' Such speech has been recorded by Witold Doroszewski who as a young reseaercher in the 1930s visited Polish communities Wisconsin on his motobike and recordred the speech on a wire recorder (predecessor of the tape recorder).

UK, Ireland / 'Drajwować karę' in the UK? [19]

Aplikacja used to also mean (maybe still does) an appliqué, something you sew on.

UK, Ireland / 'Drajwować karę' in the UK? [19]

aplikować meaning to apply has entered the Polish language of today's Poland. I have seen this: syntax: apikować o pracę. The podanie is an aplikacja.

USA, Canada / Animosity against second and third generation poles ? [26]

What signals have you detected that you are not welcome in Poland?

Travel / Warsaw city bikes [14]

Why do so few Polish cylcists have bells on their bikes to warn hapless pedestrians, playing children and other cyclists they plan to overtake?

Genealogy / Polish Surnames Anglicized? [48]

Unfortuantely there is no popular way to phonetically respell Pełka in English. Pewka may look like pew (church bench) to Anglos so it might come out sounding like PYOOkah.

News / Poland's Truth Commission "IPN" to be de facto closed [80]

Around 10% of Poland's clergy are suspected of some form of collaboration with PRL agents either for profit or from fear. What was the percentage amongst journalsits, writers, actors, academics, entertainers, publishers, policemen, firefighters, commie-era, MPs or world travellers like Kapuścinski?

RE Wałęsa's firgiving natutre, he somehow cannot forgive anyone who wanted his files investigated and publicised. He actually overthew a government in 1992 when he feared exposure. It was that move that derailed any serious attemtps at decommunisation. It was better and more convenient to sweep it all under a rug. That explains his un-Christian hatred of the Kaczyńskis whom, BTW, he has never forgiven.

There is a thing called justice. Until about a year ago, retired red bigwigs were getting fatcat pensiosn while the victims they had beaten, tortured and otherwise persecuted were barely getting by on their meagre old-age pensions.

News / Poland's Truth Commission "IPN" to be de facto closed [80]

Christians must forgive. But to qualify for forgiveness, the sinner must confess his sins, express sincere contrition and do penance. It's as plain as that!

News / Poland's Truth Commission "IPN" to be de facto closed [80]

No, I mean the people who run the Wybiórcza camp and trace their roots to largely 'Moldovan' stalinists, commie secret police types, etc. People of 'Moldovan' ancestry may account for a scant fraction of 1% of Poland's population, but what is the percentage at the editorial offices of GW or among the membership of the luckily now defunct Unia Demokratyczna and Unia Wolności? Why should such a tiny minority group, steeped in a stalinist family heritage, be allowed to shape Polish public opinion?. GW was to have been the paper of Solidarity and the entire anti-communsit opposition, but Michnik soon hijacked it, turned it into a 'KORite Courier', cleverly pulled the right strings behind the scenes and turned it over to his 'Moldovan' compatriots in the Agora corporation, By then, all Wałęsa could do was prohibit them using the Solidarity logo on their front page

News / Poland's Truth Commission "IPN" to be de facto closed [80]

Saturday’s Gazeta Wyborcza contested claims that the IPN (National Remmebrance Institute) was poor or persecuted. The paper said it has a yearly budget of 223 million złotys and employs 2,200 staff including 135 prosecutors. Over the past decade the IPN has taken 35 people to court of whom 12 were convicted, the paper said. But it failed to explain why the Michnikite rag has so hotly opposed any form of de-communisation or lustration. over the years. Maybe the memory of Michnik's dad, mum and brother (all Stalinist collaborators) and otehrs like them in the leftist-liebral camp -- both living and dead -- has something to do with it.

News / Poland's Truth Commission "IPN" to be de facto closed [80]

Those that revile the IPN, do you also think post-war de-Nazaification of Germany was also all wrong? Lots of Nazis slipped udner the wire anyway, but to this day thy are beign hunted, tracked down and prosecuted. Communism destroyed more lives than Nazism, Fascism and Francoism combined, so why should its movers, shakers and assorted henchmen and goons get off scot free?.

News / Poles, Polonians and aliens on Pussy Riot? [182]

No-one is questioning that. It is the old story of hand washes hand. It was the Chruch that hotly protested against the blasphemous spectacle and since the Church had supported Puitn, his adminsiutartion had no choice but to react. Later the Church itslef called for mercy saying the sentence had been too harsh.

News / Poles, Polonians and aliens on Pussy Riot? [182]

Have you forgotten that Christinity replaced the letter-of-the-law 'justice' of the Old Testament with the gospel of mercy. Re-read the 8 Beatitudes. There's noihing there about an eye for an eye. And what did Jesus do when the Pharisees wanted to stone as harlot?

News / Poles, Polonians and aliens on Pussy Riot? [182]

It is not acceptable to engage in or cover up pedophilic activities. These are all serious transgressions according to Church principles. All carnal sins are violations of the 6th commandment.The fact that some church functionaries have acted that way does not make it right. If there are crooked politicians or corrupt cops, does that discredit politicians as a whole or the entire police force?

BTW, anyone have statistics to show that percentage-wise more clergymen engage in pedophilia than actors, lawyers, ballet dancers, writers, hairdressers, etc?

This thread is wandering, please stick to the topic, thanks.

News / Poles, Polonians and aliens on Pussy Riot? [182]

I condemn no-one but extramartial or premarital copulation is a sin according to the Catholic Church. It is senselenss to bring in the paedophiles because they too are sinning. So are the 'kocia łapa' crowd. If you reject Catholci teaching there is no problem. If someone rejects Thou shalt not kill, then in his own mind he is free to murder, abort or administer euthanasia. No problem.

News / Poland's Truth Commission "IPN" to be de facto closed [80]

Putin was a Soviet spy, but what tdoes that have to do with the iPN? Rather than being constantly reviled and slandered the way IPN and the Kaczyńskis have been by post-commie/post-KOR alliance, Germany's most effectvie de-communiser Joachim Gauck is now that country's head of state.

News / Poles, Polonians and aliens on Pussy Riot? [182]

So where is that powerful, overbearing Church influence everybody is always talking about? Must've been made up by the Michnikites.

News / Poles, Polonians and aliens on Pussy Riot? [182]

States are free to assist cultural and civic institutions (so why not religious ones?). They often lend support to regions, industrial sectors or, even private business by creating special economic zones, granting tax breaks and extending other forms of assistance. If such boosting methods are passed by parliament or local bodies, then there's no problem.

You have fallen prey to your own propaganda. Journalists often speak of Poland's 'influential Catholic church' or 'staunchly Catholic Poland', until they and others start believing it. But you don't see much of that on PF. How many Poles refuse to shack up and live in sin because the Catholic religion opposes it? Or use contraceptives, reject test-tube babies, not shoplift, not cheat on their spouses, lie or use bad language? Wouldn't 'Poland's none-too-influential Catholic church' be closer to the truth?

News / Poland's Truth Commission "IPN" to be de facto closed [80]

Is it good that Poland was probably the only Soviet bloc country that didn't carry out decommunisation? Lustracja was full of w'oles and a laugh. Secret police bigwigs made it through the winnowing process and went on to fat-cat careers in government, law-enforcement and buisness. IPN attempts to clear things up were repeatedly sabotaged by the brother of a Stalinist murderer and assorted ex-commie types.

Although nothing can bring back the victims of Berman, Fejgin, Romkowski, Różański, Brystygierowa and comrade Szechter (Michnik's brother), shouldn't the victims' families be at least entitled to know what fate befell their loved ones, where they were executed and buried.

News / Poles, Polonians and aliens on Pussy Riot? [182]

Human rights are a public issue just like capital mental punishment, environmental destruction, pornography, euthanasia, legalising drugs, abortion, lowering or raising taxes, the drinking age or the age of consent. etc. and every citizen jas a right to voice his views on them at home, at work, on a soapbox or wherever.

News / Poland's Truth Commission "IPN" to be de facto closed [80]

The Michnities with all their red skeletons in their cupboards are rubbing their mits with glee. They have long demandd that the IPN shoiuld be disbanded and its no wonder. They and their SLD fellow travellers do not want to be reminded of their totalitarian roots and the crimes committed against the Polish nation in the name of the 'progressive' PZPR heritage.

News / Poles, Polonians and aliens on Pussy Riot? [182]

You completely skirted the question as to whether the uni professor, TV commentator and taxi driver were out of line by publicly voicign their views to a captive audience!

People are free to storm out of church, not listen to Radio Maryja and actually read Wybiórcza (rather than using it solely to wrap yesterday's garbage in), but is a clergyman by virtue of his profession automatically deprived of his civil rights and freedom of speech? Oto jest pytanie!