Work / Native English looking for a teaching job in Poland [135]

1. Poles learn British English at school. I personally love RP.
2. It's normal for people to pick some words as they watch American films etc. So it's not about trying to sound American. Come on, don't be so self centred.

3. I'm sorry Lyzko, but if we ever met, you would probably think of me what you thought of the Norwegians and I think I know their perspective, too. If your Norwegian is similar to your Polish, I would probably think it'd be a better idea to speak English. You would feel that I didn't admire you enough and start making things up about my English (bad accent, problems with the articles and so on).

4. Being a native speaker of a language doesn't equal being a good teacher of this language. I know I wouldn't be able to teach Polish.

5. I don't know if you're really a teacher of English but I wonder if it's possible to be a good esl teacher expressing so much disdain towards esl learners ...

Language / Use of Duda in speaking [9]

en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/Dudelsack

@Ziemowit

Language / Use of Duda in speaking [9]

Dudelsack is actually derived from Polish. :D

Duda is mostly used as a surname nowadays. The instrument is referred to as dudy.

Genealogy / Help with my Polish Names... Nickowol, Olszowy, Smagacz [5]

moikrewni.pl/mapa/kompletny/olszowy.html

@Maczko
As you can see in the link above people named Olszowy live all over Poland. Your grandfather must have been born before Poland regained independence (1918) in a place that was under the Austrian occupation. See the partitions of Poland for more information.

Language / Usage rules of ł in the Polish language [30]

responsivevoice.org/text-to-speech-languages/polski-syntezator-mowy/

I'd say it's there (as w) but then again I'm just a native speaker with no experience in discussing the Polish phonetics.

Work / Native English looking for a teaching job in Poland [135]

Being on a mission to teach English to 'millions of Europeans, Asians and others' ... and someone dares say it's not really a career :) rofl

Seriously speaking, if someone's good at what they do, they're going to maintain their job. If they're crappy teachers, they shouldn't blame others for their failure.

Teachers make little money here. The op should look for other options. Do you have any other qualifications?

Language / Usage rules of ł in the Polish language [30]

Polish in old films sounds odd. One of the main characteristics is how they pronounce ł -gładkie ł. It sounds snobbish and unnatural. Never ever learn how to pronounce Polish from old Polish films.

ł is usually pronounced as w in English. It's not pronounced as v in poczuł or any other word I can think of.

Work / Native English looking for a teaching job in Poland [135]

Keep in mind most courses start in September/October. So even if you get a job, you won't get that many hours.
You may try contacting some language schools online just to check if they'd be interested in hiring a non-EU national.
Finally, as far as I know most language schools pay peanuts.

Genealogy / Origin of surnames Szmul, Doner and Szubert [10]

@TAK1730
Don't they state the religion? Are they in Polish or English?

Genealogy / Origin of surnames Szmul, Doner and Szubert [10]

@TAK1730
They might have converted. The surname is still used in Poland according to moi krewni.pl. it's hard to say if all people with this name are Jewish.

Are the birth records prewar?

Genealogy / Origin of surnames Szmul, Doner and Szubert [10]

I really don't know. I have never heard it used as a surname. As a first name, only by prewar Jews.
You would have to check their birth records etc.
In fact, Szubert and Doner might have also been used by Jews. Or Germans.
But Szmul is yiddish.

Genealogy / Origin of surnames Szmul, Doner and Szubert [10]

Szmul is derived from a Jewish first name Szmul (Samuel).
The other two are polonised forms of Schubert (from German -shoemaker) and Donner (from German- thunder). Both used by people of German and Jewish origin.

Łódź was pretty multicultural in the past.

Language / Patrick Ney - Is his Polish Legit? [35]

I can't think of any foreigners who speak Polish that may be taken for native speakers. I may be wrong, though. Ukrainians (and other Slavs) seem to be the closest, yet they often have this zaśpiew that reveals their foreign origin.

Language / Plaque in Polish - Help with polish language [10]

Niemej not niemniej (the latter is a totally different word)... but again it sounds odd. What would you say if someone came up with deaf mourning or mute mourning in English? Wouldn't you say it sounds weird?

In fact, cicha żałoba sounds least strange.

Language / Plaque in Polish - Help with polish language [10]

Czacha not czasza (skull). Czasza is something else of course.

Language / Plaque in Polish - Help with polish language [10]

@Ziemowit
Głucha cisza is a fixed phrase. So is głęboka żałoba. Głucha żałoba is not. It sounds weird. It sounded weird to you (as you wrote in your previous post) and me. It would sound weird to his Polish family, too.

Czaszach is misspelled. It's not plural from czasza like in czaszka - Lord will give you comfort in these dark skulls???? It should be czasach. You cannot allow misspellings on a plaque.

As for Twardowski's quote, I doubt many Canadian Poles know it. Popular or not, it's true. Still that was just a suggestion.

Language / Plaque in Polish - Help with polish language [10]

In deaf mourning? ??? Czaszach ????

Lyzko, for goodness sake ... It's going to be on a plaque. If it's full of mistakes, it will leave nothing but bitterness.

@JASON1981
What would you like to put on the plaque?

Życie przemija, pamięć pozostanie. Life passes, memory will remain.

Spoczywaj w pokoju. Rest in peace.

Śpieszmy się kochać ludzi
tak szybko odchodzą.

Let us hurry to love people
they depart do quickly. (A famous quote by Jan Twardowski, a Polish priest and poet)

Pamięci ukochanego męża i ojca. In memory of beloved husband and father.

History / Adam Mickiewicz. What is his motherland: Poland or Lithuania? [93]

@Lyzko
Neither could you :p
He was one of a kind ;)

Life / Your favourite Polish Music Album [25]

@Dirk diggler
Sure. As I said, it's very subjective.

Language / Patrick Ney - Is his Polish Legit? [35]

m.demotywatory.pl/3300309

I wonder how many people watched Pascal just to hear him speak ;)

Life / Your favourite Polish Music Album [25]

Well, it depends on your taste in music.
Musically, Dżem is far better than Popek (kind of modern disco polo). But that pretty much depends on what you like.
Kazik and Kult are great.
I'd also add Hey (Nosowska is incredible) and T. Love, probably some more I can't think of right now.

History / Adam Mickiewicz. What is his motherland: Poland or Lithuania? [93]

German was his mother tongue.
Don't look for imperfections where there weren't any. These men were the best of the best.

History / Adam Mickiewicz. What is his motherland: Poland or Lithuania? [93]

He was just talented.
Actually, some say his syntax wasn't English :p

History / Adam Mickiewicz. What is his motherland: Poland or Lithuania? [93]

I first heard about his Polish accent in English when I was in high school.
Just read about him on Wikipedia ... no better source available right now. There's a section about the impression he made - he was a foreigner, a Pole to the English.

Ironically, he was called Konrad after Konrad Wallenrod by Mickiewicz.

I don't know anyone who celebrates Dziady nowadays.

History / Adam Mickiewicz. What is his motherland: Poland or Lithuania? [93]

@Lyzko
I'm surprised to read that you appreciate something written by someone with a heavy Polish accent ;)
They're part of our literary canon, too IMHO.

Dziady night is tonight. It seems to have survived mostly in Mickiewicz's play ...

History / Adam Mickiewicz. What is his motherland: Poland or Lithuania? [93]

@Ziemowit
Why Lithuanian then and not Belarussian?
The logic here is not the language in which they wrote. There's more to it.
Mickiewicz was of Polish origin, spoke Polish and was politically involved in Polish affairs.
Conrad was Polish who also spoke fluent French and English. He spent his childhood and youth in Poland and then years abroad. He obviously mastered English and became one of the greatest writers of English.

History / Adam Mickiewicz. What is his motherland: Poland or Lithuania? [93]

Conrad's perspective wasn't English at all. He knew what it was like to live under another country's occupation and questioned imperialism.
Similarly to Mickiewicz, he had spent a lot of time abroad but he wasn't English to the bone for sure. I doubt he would have been considered English by the English no matter how appreciated his novels were.

As for Mickiewicz, we need to remember he was also politically involved. He was concerned with Polish independence.

History / Adam Mickiewicz. What is his motherland: Poland or Lithuania? [93]

Although considered one of the best English writers, Conrad was Polish ^^

Dziady is tomorrow - co to będzie? Co to będzie?

Life / Your favourite Polish Music Album [25]

How about Kayah i Bregovic? Apart from music, I have always liked the lyrics.
Recently I came across songs from Alkimja by Steczkowska with some Jewish songs.
Just listened to some Svann's songs - interesting.

Life / Your favourite Polish Music Album [25]

But it's 'piękne słowa' in the song, isn't it?

I don't think I could choose one favourite album but all the time classics like Dżem, Perfekt, Budka Suflera, Maanam, Lady Pank etc are always nice to hear.