Language / Polish and other slavic language differences [60]


Aha, that explains a lot... and I just thought my Czech was rubbish, lol. What always also gets me is the randomness with which Czech/Slovak words are similar to Polish (or not).

Like breakfast is śniadanie in Polish, snídaně in Czech, but raňajky in Slovak (though you can work out that it's something to do with the morning if you know Polish). But then cellar is piwnica in Polish, pivnica in Slovak, but is sklep in Czech (which in turn is "shop" in Polish, but shop in Czech is obchod, lolz: ) ).

You've got to love false friends! :)

UK, Ireland / Fish and chips - do Polish people in the UK like this? [108]


Ha! Next time I'm in Warsaw, I'm definitely going there! :)

It's quite expensive though isn't it? British food at British prices!

I wonder if they have big jars of pickled cucumbers on the counter, like over here? Would be a bit strange if they didn't, considering we love our ogórki but English people don't really eat them, except with fish and chips lol.

UK, Ireland / Fish and chips - do Polish people in the UK like this? [108]


Every Pole I've met under the age of 40, who was actually born in Poland, seems obsessed with ketchup. Like many myths, there's a lot of truth in this one ;)

Personally I prefer HP Sauce, but certainly not with everything. Mostly on my bacon barm!

Travel / WHAT TO WEAR END OF JUNE FIRST WEEKS OF JULY IN WARSAW [25]


If you're flying with LOT, don't worry... I was once 9kg over weight and they didn't charge me a penny more :)


It's more likely that he will arrive at Terminal 2 these days; in which case, he needs to turn right once he sees all the people holding cards up, which will take him in the direction of Terminal 1. The directions to the cash machines are correct, though ;)


They look like they mostly wear market clothes over here.


and the backpack, can of Tyskie in one hand, and fag in the other! lol

Travel / Public Transportation in Poland [30]



^^^^
This.

I don't dislike Germans (or the Dutch, btw ;) ) but having been brought up in a Polish family, anything "German" automatically switches on some kind of "warning bell" in my mind, unfortunately.


I've not been there for over a year, but I bet it still says "trasa czasowo zmieniona" on the route map, like it always did every time I was there, lol.

UK, Ireland / Fish and chips - do Polish people in the UK like this? [108]

If you can put ketchup on it, Polish people will like it... lol :)

Love / Inside polish women's psychology and mind [109]

Speak for yourself... I don't date coffin-dodgers! :D

Law / Any good business ideas - what Poland needs? [114]

Don't you mean Sparkbrook, lol.

But you do realise that there's only way you are going to get a cheap "British-style" curry house... and most Poles don't want that.

Travel / Public Transportation in Poland [30]


Fair enough. But please be aware that we may be a little insulted by the use of Germanic names such as Warschau, Breslau and Posen, for obvious reasons. We don't insult you Dutch by saying that you're "just like the Germans really", so please be careful with your choice of words on this Polish forum, thanks. ;)

Language / Polish and other slavic language differences [60]


Why did I not learn Slovak, or why did I learn Czech?

If it's the latter, it's a long story, but the short version is that I won't go anywhere on holiday unless I learn enough of the language to get by. Which means I've only ever spoken Italian, French, Czech and extremely basic Cantonese/Mandarin, apart from English and Polish of course, lol. My mum thinks it's really funny when I speak Czech, because she can't speak it, but thinks it sounds like Russian, which she can speak, lol :) I like to confuse her sometimes by saying things like "kde je vase toaletni ubrousky"** and she says, what do you mean where are my toilet tablecloths LOL.

I was brought up bilingual from birth, so learning Polish was no bigger an achievement for me than learning English. But it definitely helps with other languages!

** hopes Magdalena doesn't laugh at my grammar lol

Language / Polish and other slavic language differences [60]

That's a good way of differentiating between the two.

Many Slovak words often sound similar to Polish and Czech words, but the Slovak word often sounds "closer" to Polish, yet somehow more "wrong-sounding" to me, e.g. airport (Polish: lotnisko; Slovak: letisko; Czech: letiště).

I've only ever studied Czech and not Slovak, though; I don't really like the latter, it just sounds weird to my ears (no offence to Slovaks ;) ) after learning Czech and already knowing Polish.

To me, Slovak sounds like a mixture of Polish, Czech and Silesian, what with its weird "ie" and "jo" endings, lol. I find Slovak difficult to understand, but maybe that's because of having learned that most of the Slovaks I've met were from the East.

UK, Ireland / The number of Anti-English Poles... [228]


So you claim that there are many "anti-Polish" policies in the UK workplace.

In that case, can you explain why, between 1940 and 2004, so many Polish people have managed to to become nurses, teachers, social workers, doctors, dentists, plumbers, electricians, factory foremen, builders, engineers, pharmacists, or trained in many other skilled occupations or professions - some even became even politicians!

I have been two of the above.

If there is so much discrimination against Poles in the UK, how come we aren't all cleaners, at best?

It's hardly our fault that the country seems to be hell-bent on importing thousands of Poland's dresiarze these days - useless to Poland, useless to the UK!

And it's only really been since 2004 that we've had to put up with so much Polish whining!

UK, Ireland / The number of Anti-English Poles... [228]



You've got to love this guy; doesn't think multiculturalism works, but continues to stay in a foreign country regardless... lol :D

UK, Ireland / The number of Anti-English Poles... [228]


Except she actually works in a sewing machine factory lol


lol

UK, Ireland / The number of Anti-English Poles... [228]


I found quite the opposite, no-one wanted to speak anything but French except in the hotel, good job I re-learned French before going lol

UK, Ireland / The number of Anti-English Poles... [228]


There were around 1/4 million people of Polish origin in Britain even before 2004, many of us speak Polish.


I took mine in 1990, it was nothing unusual even back then.


Exactly.

The problem with a lot of Poles is that they just shrug their shoulders and say "no, this will never happen. Poland for the Poles!"

They will be in for a huge shock soon, I think.

UK, Ireland / The number of Anti-English Poles... [228]


No it's not, it's just that you haven't met as many Polish women as I have, and you've clearly fallen for the PF disease of putting Polish women on an unjustified pedestal.

Trust me, many have this attitude - including my last Polish ex, all of her female friends, and many of those who I meet as part of my job. My mum works as an interpreter for the council and she would also confirm this.

I have no doubt that many Poles are genuine, hard-working, and pay their own way, but FAR TOO MANY do not. What really gets me mad is when they start with their foul-mouthed anti-English/anti-England stuff and just expect me to blindly agree with them, just because I speak the language fluently and have Polish parents. You should see their faces when I tell them what I think of this, and where they should go :D

The sad thing is, I'd say that at least half of the Poles I've met since 2004 have this attitude, male or female. They bring shame on our previously well-respected community, and I have no time for them whatsoever.


"Equal rights" would be if he received the same as I do after over a quarter of a century of full-time work - i.e., no right to council or social housing if I lose my job, minimal benefits (which I would have to wait months to receive, by which time I would be homeless) and it appears that I'll get no pension even if I work for 50 years either. Where are my "rights" to get the same as an immigrant who has only been in the country for five minutes?

If he doesn't like it here, he knows where he can **** off back to! I'm sick of Poles whining about how crap this country is - if Poland is so great, why didn't they stay there?


We have no idea how much he earns; however, if he does one of those jobs which "British people allegedly won't do", then it's probably minimum wage, and he would have to work here for 75 years to pay in as much as I have in 25 - and what's the chance of that?


Just like many Poles, Czechs and Slovaks, then :p

Life / Electricity bill 1400zlt 5 months. [18]


Well nobody's saying Poland is the Garden of Eden, lol :)

Life / HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE POLAND IN 2010? [84]


And so will the West! ;)


Spot on, a lot of us would prefer it if the West was more like it was 50 years ago.

Poland: PLEASE learn from our mistakes before it's too late!

Life / Electricity bill 1400zlt 5 months. [18]

You must have a flat full of cannabis plants to have a bill that high, my combined gas and electric bill is less than that over here!!! :)

Love / Can 'engaged' soon to marry Polish men say I love you to their female friend? [62]


Agreed. if you're going to cheat, or are cheating, you make sure that the password is as safe as possible!

However, I once went through something similar many years ago, in the days when I wasn't quite the computer expert (so I'm told, lol) I am now, and had an ISP with a particularly dodgy email system.

An email was addressed to my then wife, but managed to find it's way into my email box. She had been communicating with someone on Usenet, and one of the messages said "well, in that case maybe you SHOULD have an affair with that friend of yours".

I angrily emailed the guy, who of course claimed that I had taken the message "out of context", but clearly the damage was done. I had already suspected that something wasn't right, and lo and behold, 18 months later, she left me - again denying that anyone else was involved.

A few years later, I found out that she had married the guy I long suspected was "more than just a friend from work".

Real Estate / PLN 2,500 the going rate for an apartment in Poland [210]

<applauds>

spot on!

I say - bring back the mills, steelworks and mines - if the lazy and useless don't like it, then they need to be reminded of this: when there was plenty of work, a benefit culture didn't exist, and there were fewer muggers, drug dealers and ASBO scum.

So... what we need to do is this: We reopen the aforementioned industries, but we abolish the commie "nanny state" which makes it more profitable to get pregnant and date lazy junkie scum who sponge off the state, than it is to work and breed with hard-working, responsible, productive people. If you want money, you work - and if that means that you have to work 60 hours a week, then so be it. The alternative is starvation... just like it was when Britain was still "Great".

Obviously the Left will call me a "fascist", a "bigot", a "rascist" (sic) or a "Tory" for saying this, but I don't give a f***. Like every good Northerner, I speak as I find. And it was the North which made this country "Great", not the stuck-up cappuccino-sipping Southern chattering classes!

Life / Saw a girl in black openly smoking a spliff on a Katowice street today [49]


I bet you mean "I saw a girl with a black, smoking a spliff in Katowice" really, don't you. lol ;)

News / What's the stupidest question asked about Poland? [414]


That's mostly true though, haha :)


Polish homophobia and Neanderthal machismo always makes me laugh. Not because I agree with homophobia (I don't), but because you know what they say... those who are the most anti-gay are often the ones hiding a "secret" preference ;)

30 years ago, it was easy to spot gays over here by their Polish-style Wałęsa moustaches and tight jeans. Nowadays, Polish blokes sport shaved heads, short bomber jackets and tight t-shirts/vests. Walking into a Polish club these days is like walking down Canal Street on a weekend. Do they really not get it? :)

News / Polish Policeman shoots down a foreigner in Warsaw [300]


Oh, absolutely, but the Italian kids at my school still got called "Mafia Man", lol :)


They were right about Scousers though :D

News / Polish Policeman shoots down a foreigner in Warsaw [300]


But that can't be possible, blacks are all "brothers"! ;)


Unfortunately, there's a lot of truth in the "drunk Pole" stereotype :)

Few people would be stupid enough to suggest that all Africans carry guns, but we (Poles) have been over here for 70 years with virtually no Polish crime problem until recently, and yet there is still NO sign of an "Operation xxxx" to deal with "Gun Crime in the Polish community". We also came from (and moved into) poverty, but we were taught to just get on with life and work hard to get out of poverty. Others could learn from our example.

But the rise in Polish crime is what happens when you start bringing over a country's worst, and that's what's happened since 2004. Unemployable and uneducated in Poland, unemployable and uneducated in the UK - just claiming more benefits!

Additionally, few people would be naive enough to suggest that gun crime is only a black thing, but it is certainly true to say that there is lots of glorification of guns in black culture. I've been to a lot of clubs/raves/festivals etc and I've seen a lot of bands/artists/DJs etc. WITHOUT EXCEPTION, there is only one group of people I've ever heard chatting about how they want to "cap" someone, who brag about the guns they carry, who wear gold Uzis around their necks, who actually carry guns onstage or in the crowd, or think it's cool to wear one of those "Longsight M13" t-shirts with the dead body outlined on the ground to show how "ghetto" their area is. No prizes for guessing who they are.

I'm sure that you or someone else will say "but what about Clint Eastwood and John Wayne?". Well, the difference is, I've never heard of anyone getting shot by a John Wayne or Clint Eastwood fan in places I've lived in the past, but I've heard of plenty of guns fired by fans of "urban" music!

Real Estate / PLN 2,500 the going rate for an apartment in Poland [210]

More proof that Poles have little sense of style. Everyone knows it's all about Venetian blinds ;)

Life / POLISH TEENAGERS TURN TO PROSTITUTION... [77]


Which certainly explains the awful dress sense of most young Polish women over here! :D

Real Estate / PLN 2,500 the going rate for an apartment in Poland [210]


Welcome to the EU. Did you really think that you would get all that money for motorways without some kind of payback? We've had to put up with this overpricing nonsense for years!

That said, I don't pay much more for a similar amount of space over here, and I've got outside space, too. I know where I'd rather live (clue: it's not Poland ;) ).

All that money spent on "trendy" furnishings and they still went and put net curtains in the living room!! lmao! Horrible colour scheme, too.

But where's the photo of Pope John Paul II? How can you have a Polish flat without one of those??? :)

Life / Is the word "Polack"rascist? [185]

"Polak" isn't offensive, but "Polack" (pronounced "POE-LACK") is, but it's an American thing really isn't it.