News / Poland now soft-pedalling ACTA signing [107]


This view is shared by most of the world, except perhaps China and South Korea, and a few stupid people here and there who would rather let their government control their lives.

News / Poland now soft-pedalling ACTA signing [107]


I would rather people were able to choose freely which sites to go to, rather than the have governments telling people what's good for them.

Study / Shocking! Test standards in Polish schools. [165]

you realize there is a lot of research around language aquisition, both in childhood and in adulthood, and the idea that it's easier to learn what is similar and more difficult to learn what is different was discredited sometime in the 70s...

Study / Shocking! Test standards in Polish schools. [165]


pretty much the case of every other country

the issue is not whether the kid uses proper grammar at 15, but that the low standards would give him high marks for bad grammar. a teacher's job is hard, so what? we all know that. no reason to lower the standards. it's been done in this country and for the sake of kids moving on to the next grade, parents not having to pay attention, and teachers not having to exert themselves, we give high school diplomas to kids who can barely read!

native speakers are important, but the queen of England couldn't teach a kid who is used to getting all As for properly saying Hello.

News / Poland now soft-pedalling ACTA signing [107]


they won't have a choice if the treaty is signed

intellectual property is important, but nothing should be above free speech, civil liberties, or the right to privacy. net neutrality is one of the fundamental principles of the modern world. P3 is just overdramatizing and fear-mongering, given that laws against terrorism and pedophilia already exist, and no government should have to spy on their citizens, no matter how pretty the pipe dream of stopping all the hackers and terrorists sounds. if people like P3 don't understand that, they deserve to live in a police state.

News / Poland now soft-pedalling ACTA signing [107]

youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=GzrlI6Ybxxk

this may be relevant to watch

Study / Shocking! Test standards in Polish schools. [165]

^Particularly that English is one of the most useful things they can learn at school, and something they will definitely need to use later in life. There is a different between American teenagers learning Latin (admirable but not critical), and Polish teenagers speaking English, which is a necessary skill these days.

USA, Canada / Getting a VISA to USA by a Polish person nowadays [339]


woot!
sorry for being a day late...

keep poundin', fuzz...

USA, Canada / Starsky Food store opening in Hamilton, Ontario [17]

gross

USA, Canada / Can you BE Polish without SPEAKING Polish in the US? [256]


lol, wtf? killed when?

your whole post makes no sense

USA, Canada / Can you BE Polish without SPEAKING Polish in the US? [256]

So if someone leaves the country to make money and comes back to invest it in a business, are they smart or a greedy traitor? What if someone leaves for 10 years and then comes back? How about for 20? What if they don't come back but only send the money back home?

And when you leave Poland, when do you actually stop being Polish? When you get on the plane? When you get your immigrant papers? Are you still Polish after 5 years? How about 25 years?

I agree with Patrycja. It reminds me when people used to leave for Western Germany en masse, a few decades ago, and everyone here would talk about how they were disloyal, unpatriotic, or sellouts, but then everyone would kiss their a$ses to get parcels with candy and toys, and clothing, and whatever other crap they expected to receive, and would throw parties when the family "z efu" came to visit. It was this mix of envy and love-hate relationship, fueled by the myth of "easy live" in the West. And it's not just uneducated people who bought into the myth - three of my own teachers left for Germany, several of my parents coworkers - engineers and scientists, even two priests from our parish - lol, one of them a few weeks after delivering a sermon on how true Polish Catholics should not abandon the "sinking ship," which I remember pretty well because that Sunday happened to be the day of my First Communion. I see there is a lot of that love-hate going around about the US, too.

Bottom line, it seems like the question about who is Polish tends to revolve around "who to exclude from the definition," rather than "who to include." Which, sadly enough, doesn't surprise me.

USA, Canada / Can you BE Polish without SPEAKING Polish in the US? [256]


oh, so you read something? nice. i happened to go to college with someone whose entire family spoke nothing but Kashubian all day long and he would stick a fork up your a$s for telling them they weren't Polish... i learned some Kashubian from him, too. i taught him some Silesian. all the time unaware we were violating the rules of being Polish...

USA, Canada / Can you BE Polish without SPEAKING Polish in the US? [256]


thank you. perhaps some of the people who insist you have to speak Polish to be Polish noticed, too.

USA, Canada / Can you BE Polish without SPEAKING Polish in the US? [256]


before you give each other a wet one, D, why don't you remind PennBoy about the time you called Polonia traitors, particularly the ones with American citizenship.

USA, Canada / Can you BE Polish without SPEAKING Polish in the US? [256]

newsflash, PennBoy, a bunch of people on this forum would deny you the right to feel Polish

USA, Canada / Can you BE Polish without SPEAKING Polish in the US? [256]


i can find, oh, i don't know, over a quarter billion people who would disagree with this

anyway, do you consider yourself Polish?

USA, Canada / Can you BE Polish without SPEAKING Polish in the US? [256]

funny thing, how one can argue that a Polish-born person with Vietnamese parents is still Vietnamese but an American-born person with Polish parents is an American

USA, Canada / Can you BE Polish without SPEAKING Polish in the US? [256]


poor kid... she is born and raised in a country, she never knew another one, but yet she cannot be accepted by her fellow Poles as one of their own - all because of the color of her skin and where her parents came from. and it all seems perfectly normal...

Love / Unmarried couples in Poland = pathology [310]

but you're wrong. other people's opinions do infringe on me. or used to, back in Poland. here nobody gives a rat's a$s.

i used to live in a small town, where everyone knew each other. living in an apartment building, we pretty much knew when our neighbors had an argument, who got drunk the night before, who bought a new sofa, who had "ogorkowa" for dinner... it was inescapable. living together without marriage would be a social suicide in an environment like that, because the constant gossip would make your life unbearable. i have a friend who still lives in Poland, in her mid 30s, and the whole building has a gossip summit every time she invites some guy to her own apartment! An independent woman in her 30s! not to mention that she is considered "stara panna," so that's just another good reason for all the neighbors to pick on her... she is brave enough not to pay attention to those old hags, but a lot of people are not, between the neighbors and the family pressuring them to get married, they just give in. all because people have some misplaced urge to voice their opinions about stuff that should be nobody's business. and now that you are married, god forbid you don't produce offspring within the first two years... another flurry of speculations about what is wrong with you...

yes, you may call it


listen, i'm not advocating against marriage. i'm very happily married and it's important to me that we are married rather than just living together. what i don't want is others telling me what to do.

Love / Unmarried couples in Poland = pathology [310]


i would tend to agree with that

USA, Canada / Can you BE Polish without SPEAKING Polish in the US? [256]

let me rephrase my previous question - can I be Polish if I speak Kashubian?

Love / Unmarried couples in Poland = pathology [310]

don't you think there is a difference between someone imposing their views on me, and therefore limiting my choices on whether or not to marry, and some pointing out the inadequacies of a piece of legislation?

bottom line, would you rather live in a society that tells you whether or not to stay single, or who to have sex with and when, and punishes you for talking crap about some pile of old stories? or in a society where you're free to choose, and free to say almost anything you want?

Love / Unmarried couples in Poland = pathology [310]


LOL, so if you're divorced and swallow the wafer you face eternal damnation, but with only one easy payment of $500 you can buy your way back into heaven? wow, it's a bargain...


but people are... by expressing holy outrage at the life choices of others, you attempt to influence them and everyone around to follow your philosophy

USA, Canada / Can you BE Polish without SPEAKING Polish in the US? [256]


that would technically apply to half of my family in Upper Silesia, who for generations considered themselves German...

the point is, nothing can "make" you Polish, unless you feel Polish at heart. and if you do, nobody can tell you you're not Polish, based on some arbitrary criteria

USA, Canada / Can you BE Polish without SPEAKING Polish in the US? [256]


they don't, that's the point

USA, Canada / Can you BE Polish without SPEAKING Polish in the US? [256]


tell it to the Kashubians

Love / Unmarried couples in Poland = pathology [310]

in an old-fashioned marriage, the wife would stay behind at home, not pursue her career, and take care of the kids and the household, in which case she would have a pretty good claim for alimony, particularly if she is the one left with the kids after the divorce. it's more about who is the bread winner, than the gender.

Love / Unmarried couples in Poland = pathology [310]


ethical principles evolve over time, thankfully...

times have changed, it's a much different situation now than even 10-20 years ago. People have more choices now, so they adapt and choose what is right for them. The choice belongs to nobody but the individuals in question - not the society, not the church, not the government... why are you so quick to condemn people you have never met and have not the slightest clue about what their life is like?

Love / Unmarried couples in Poland = pathology [310]

what I call pathological is people with fingers in other people's business... wtf makes anyone feel that they have the right to say whether or not someone else should or shouldn't get married. I know one couple whose 40 years of marriage was punctuated with the wife's occasional black eye, broken jaw or rib, compliments of her a$$hole husband (she wouldn't leave "for the kids" and "what would others say?"), and another couple who have been living together for 40 years without marriage, raised kids and grand kids, and couldn't be happier... in my experience, people who are prone to pass easy judgment are either highly insecure or hiding something of their own, or both. I couldn't be happier my marriage, but I don't think it gives me the god-bestowed right to pontificate about the "sanctimony" of the institution.

Travel / Katowice airport near by Polish towns villages [5]

ask the cab driver about any fine local establishments...