News / Opole townsfolk outraged by mayor's destruction of their song festival [137]


Here you simplify things considerably. Before the 2015 election there were PO and Nowoczesna.pl going to the election separately and each under their own colours. Ryszard Petru ("Co to za zwierzę, siedzi na Maderze, orzeszki chrupie i ma wszystko w d...?") was highly critical of Tusk, Schetyna and the whole gang of PO. And no wonder since PO seemed to have lost contact with reality assuming incorrectly it should stay in government for ever. The defeat of the socialdemocratic Left of Leszek Miller (formerly PZPR) at the election had re-shaped its results very much since if it hadn't been for that, PiS wouldn't have gained the majority it is enjoying now. In reality, quite a bit of luck was added to the overwhelming victory of First Secretary Jarosław Kaczyński in the election. Otherwise, I'm sure they would have had to form a coalition with PSL which was very likely indeed as PSL has always been ready to give its soul to those who pay the most and Jaro would have certainly paid them all they wanted

News / Opole townsfolk outraged by mayor's destruction of their song festival [137]

I haven't been watching the Opole song festival for many years now and the only reason for which I would have watched it this year would be Maryla Rodowicz for whom the festival was meant to be a celebration of the 50 years of her artistic work. She tried to mediate in the conflict at first, however, but eventually gave up.

News / Opole townsfolk outraged by mayor's destruction of their song festival [137]


Do you subscribe to the FT, Chemikiem? The other PF member of whom I know that does too is Johnny Reb. Surprisingly enough, the two of you may have a lot in common, so to speak ...


She did, but she spends a horrible lot and once admitted in an interview she had only a few pennies left.

Genealogy / Kupraszewicz - Please help on my last name. [9]


A pretty rare surmane. Most of them in the Białystok region (83) with the town of Białystok itself at the top of the list (53).

News / PIS councillor wants to censor Poland's history book [148]


The lesson (which may be a little off-topic here) from all this is quite clear: Never ever use a second-hand crystal ball to tell the fortune on the PF because you may easily get suspended!

News / PIS councillor wants to censor Poland's history book [148]


And you have a crystal ball to have a look in it and tell us the future?

Then why didn't your crystal ball tell you about the attack in the Manchester Arena yesterday night?

stick to the topic of this thread please

News / Legal opposition threatened by Poland's regime [19]


That is of course a huge exaggeration which shows Chris Niedental did not experience the communist system in Poland on an every-day basis.The one thing is certain, however, namely that the government propaganda on public TV or public radio reminds the growing number of people the times of the PRL. The Wiadomości news programme at 19:30 on TVP1 is utterly disgusting. On the other hand, you have the other two big information channels (TVN which is American and Polsat) which broadcast in full independence of the PiS government, something of which you could only dream under PRL.

On top of that, there is the internet which the government doesn't or even doesn't try to control. Under communism, with your posts on a forum like this you would be easily identified, Harry, and you would be surely asked to leave the territory of Poland.

Law / Hello, Question regarding a grandparent who has died in Poland and an American Grandchild (me) [7]


I think this might be the case.

Law / Hello, Question regarding a grandparent who has died in Poland and an American Grandchild (me) [7]


That is true, although you can renounce the inheritance. Surely. you should know the overall balance first.


And what if your grandfather was a multi-millionaire?

Why wouldn't they make the court to send an official message to you on the matter?

Food / Making American cheeses (Polish and EU ones are terrible!) [100]

On the request of JR, I am posting my PM message to him on the "best" Polish cheese here:

The best Polish cheese is perhaps the sheep's milk cheese manufactured by Roman Kluska, formerly a successful businessman and owner of a company selling computers whose business was completely destroyed by the Polish tax office several years ago and as a consequence he turned to making cheese. This cheese is unique, manufactured in rather small quantities and not available all the time since quality is put highly above profit. Mr Kluska is said to have cured himself from cancer and overweight through eating this cheese. The sheep milk used for this cheese is strictly controlled for not having any slightest addition of cow milk to it. I should add that the cheese is not cheap, but it is not overpriced either since Mr Kluska is a devoted Catholic who believes his cheese should be available (from time to time at least) to those people in Poland whose income is rather modest.

Polonia / Learning Polish in Amsterdam [19]


Or 'school' for that matter, though it is pronounced differently in Dutch.

Sometimes Dutch may indeed look like the language which stands between German and English, but closer to German. The Dutch plural illustrates this point nicely. Some nouns have the -s ending in plural as in English, while others have the typical -en ending as in German.

Polonia / Learning Polish in Amsterdam [19]

For a non-native speaker of English like me who knows a bit of Dutch, Dutch shouldn't sound hilarious to the speakers of English. The main reason for that is that they simply wouldn't comprehend it. They may understand several words, but that's all. Is a sentence like 'Bij elk ontbijt eet ik zachtgekoocht ei' comprehensible to you? Or another one 'Zaterdags gaa ik altijd naar festjes'? Perhaps you can do this to some extent when reading them, but comprehending them through listening would be much more difficult, I believe.

My German, even though I learned it many many years ago and have nearly forgotten now always pops up when I learn Dutch. My English pops up only occasionally and more as a deliberate association to an English word, and often this happens after several weeks only. That was the case with the word "maag" whom I didn't associate with the English 'stomach' at all and it was only after I did it that I have managed to remember this Dutch word for good. Another such word was 'bezig' and it was indeed my wife who associated it first with the English word 'busy' when I was listening to my lesson once despite the fact that she neither speaks Dutch nor English

Food / Making American cheeses (Polish and EU ones are terrible!) [100]


You cannot be too young for learning the language (unless you are too young for talk). On the contrary, the young age is a big advantage for learning the language naturally and effectively through listening only.

See your PM box for the "best" Polish cheese.

Language / Polish Past Tense [47]

My usage of tą vs. tę (as the accusative) is as follows:

I always use "tą" without reflecting on this while speaking. "Tę" sounds quite artificial in speech unless someone uses it in a discussion on TV or on the radio. I never use it in writing because it is an obvious mistake and any person using literary Polish in writing will spot this mistake immediately Still, it happens to me occasionally that I may write "tą" instead of "tę" in a draft, so "tą" seems to be a more natural form than "tę".

News / Which French candidate for president will be best for Poland? [512]


Can you post a link to this?


I wonder what is the Czech stance in this matter?

News / Which French candidate for president will be best for Poland? [512]



You are evidently wrong, Bieg. It is nearly 27 million who refused to recognize Macron as qualified to lead France.

Language / Proper Polish translation of "my love" [18]


This phrase is just perfect as a phrase in vocative, with the exception that it should be put in the reverse order: miłości moja! I am not entirely sure what the OP wants to express, but 'moja miłość' which is also good is just a descriptive phrase, whereas 'miłości moja!' says the same, but directly addresses a person who is someone's love. The latter phrase is vocational, affectionate and very poetic. In plural it would be: miłości moje!

News / Which French candidate for president will be best for Poland? [512]

Makaron would be soon in serious trouble if he wants to pursue his liberal policies - predicts dr Marcin Darmas of the University of Warsaw's Center for the French Civilisation. - [This is] a young man, practically without experience or any political force behind him - adds dr Darmas. He thinks that powerful trade unions in France would not allow Macron to go on with economic liberal reform that France so badly needs (as the saying goes: it takes three hours to sack an employer in the City of London, three days in New York and three years in France - Z.). - I am predicting that optimism will soon die out in France and people will take to the streets. The importance and significance of the elites in France is vanishing quickly, but this is a worldwide trend.

The French leading newspaper "Le Figaro" speaks of a "swift rise of Emmanuel Macron to power" (l'ascension fulgurante). Il voulait devenir écrivain, il sera président de la République, et c'est déjà tout un roman - adds the paper. It also notes that one in three of the French voters either abstained from voting or cast an empty vote (un Français sur trois a voté blanc ou s'est abstenu).

News / Closet homosexual politicians in Poland [83]


What is "much reported" in this context is beyond any understanding.

Basically, the whole affair has never existed in Poland on any serious level, there may have been some rumours based purely on Lech Wałęsa once asking publicly whether Jaro "miał żonę czy męża" or something along these lines which was definitely in bad taste, something like an army-style joke which made all the soldiers laughing, but kept all other "normal" people deadly silent. I think this is all there is to it.

News / Which French candidate for president will be best for Poland? [512]


It does, doesn't it? But imposing the Islamic culture on Europe would not be for better for Europe. The same is true of the reverse: imposing European culture on Africa, for example, through British and other colonialisms was not for better for them - indigenous societies in their traditional forms were abruptly broken and didn't have time to adapt to the world changing too quickly in the name of the white man exploiting them relentlessly.

The underlying reason for the immigration is as always: people come to the richer countries or regions. Since this islamic immigration into Europe is on a mass scale now - you may explain it by the ever growing gap in wealth between Europe and North Africa. The bigger the gap, the higher immigratoion wave to rise.

News / Which French candidate for president will be best for Poland? [512]


That's interesting. Having not followed the French political scene too closely recently, I just have an impression that Macron is a man who has nearly come out of nothing. This is quite strange for a top position like the président de la republique. I've never been in favour of conspiracy theories, but I'm sure a lot of things is achieved behind the scene and the so-called ordinary people would never know anything of it. But maybe you are not "oridinary people", Johnny, and you just happen to know way more on that than anyone else ;-).

News / Which French candidate for president will be best for Poland? [512]

Marine Le Pen: does she not look a bit like Dalida?

News / Which French candidate for president will be best for Poland? [512]


As his name indicates.

Anyway, what he says about Poland is just meant for his electoral campaign. After his predecessor has so miserably failed making a fool of himself, Macron knows that Marine Le Pen is not an easy adversary. The errors made by the EU and by the Brussels (mostly leftist) technocrats in particular have now turmed against themselves. Those technocrats consider themselves modern European gods and no wonder - receiving their fat salaries for doing nothing (or better say: making one mistake after another) may make you feel like a god.

If France wants to get rid of our 'plombiers polonais', why shouldn't we get rid of their 'grande surface' shops of which there is plenty in Poland? There is a free market for the capital, but also there is a free market for the flow of services within the EU!

Law / Lviv born. Can Polish ancestry be claimed? [34]


This was the case in the Polesie region north of Galicia rather than in Galicia itself and it happened even as late as in the 1930s. A large proportion of the population of Polesie claimed to be "tutejszy" (local) rather than Polish or other as their nationality.

Love / What to wear when trying to pick up girls in Poland? [58]

A double turban will attract even more attention.

Work / Portuguese Speaker considering a costumer service position in Poznan. [11]


The point was that the OP used the letter á which doesn't exist at all in Polish.

If he wrote "Poźnan" or "Póznan", I wouldn't correct him.


I wouldn't correct any foreigner talking in Polish. On the PF I occasionally correct those of whom I know they would welcome it. I have never been ridiculing any foreigner trying to use Polish. This is bad taste.

My remark


was just a kind of joke and the ;-) sign should have followed it. Sorry if anyone felt offended by this.

Language / "Czego się pan napije" meaning [15]


"Czego się Pan napije?" is the most natural, but we may also say "Co Pan będzie pił?".

Work / Portuguese Speaker considering a costumer service position in Poznan. [11]

First, you should learn to spell POZNAŃ correctly. It is 'Poznań' rather than 'Poznán'.

Correctness first, money later.

History / The Piast dynasty is of non-Slavic origin? Latest DNA findings suggest Germanic or Celtic [11]

Really, Ironside, your usual ranting often seems to be aimed at showing people on the PF what a smart ass you are. It arises from not reading posts carefully enough.



Another of your doubts:



No one is going to draw far-fetched conclusions just out of a single case.The remnants of Janusz III's brother Stanislas (both are buried together in the Warsaw cathedral) did not produce any DNA useful for determining the R haplogroup at all.The remnants of the former which revealed the R1b haplogroup were treated with extreme caution which meant the male members of the team were excluded from all the proceeding for fear of possible contamination.

There is a major research project under way now in Poland whose main aim is to determine if the population of the present-day Poland in the Roman period (1st to 2nd centuries AD) are the same or different from its population of the Middle Ages (10th to 11th centuries). Additionally, this project includes investigating the Piast dynasty over the centuries as well. Since the volume of samples of this research are to be considerably large (at least 100 people of each group), the results will shed more light on the question if there is a continuity between the populations of those two periods. In other words, we will know more if the Slavic people came and settled on the territory of the present-day Poland in the 6th century AD (the allochtonous theory) or if the same genetic population did live here back in the Roman times, too (the autochtonous theory). The first findings are expected to be published in 2018.