Study / Studying in Warsaw (WUT) - degree valid worldwide? [8]

If you heard that English courses aka courses taught by Polish natives, are of lesser quality, you doubtless heard right! Tough I'd imagine for you to take a class as a foreigner yourself under a professor who's first language isn't English either, yet who teaches in it for an entire semester.

News / Polish Independence Day March in Warsaw. Is it going to be the biggest march yet? [1530]

@Bolek, Tusk isn't a German, he's a Kaszub who was born in Poland but is at least partially, of German, maybe even Silesian, heritage.

Life / Why is Szczecin the most expensive Polish city? [5]

Maybe because Szczecin is a port city, it has become more expensive. The same reason might also be why New York's more expensive than Chicago, Hamburg pricier than Berlin etc.

Language / Polish words that sound funny? [224]

Polish men do tend to seemingly enunciate less clearly for me as a foreigner than women, and that's a fact.
Normally, I watch Polish movies without subtitles any longer, that is, for at least eight or nine years now.
When men speak amongst one another, I really have to cock my ear to make sure that I caught everything:-)

On the other hand, when I was watching an older classic, "Knife in the Water" from around '64, the Leon Niemczyk character
I understood more easily than the female character who played the sportswriter's girl friend.

Work / Teaching in public school VS private school in Poland [9]

At least in Polish schools, based upon my contacts in various Polish cities, the vast majority of pupils are Polish-born first language speakers compared, say, with Germany, where Berlin's student population under thirteen is predominantly foreign, with a second language as mother tongue is spoken at home.

Language / Polish words that sound funny? [224]

More so for men rather than women, I find. Perhaps this is the reason why in my experience, nearly every Polish teacher I've ever met (with the one exception of an openly gay man) has been female:-)

As in many societies, it's a macho thing.

News / Polish Independence Day March in Warsaw. Is it going to be the biggest march yet? [1530]

Ha-ha, Bolek! Sarcasm aside, post-War Germany's Federal Republic has been referred to over the years by certain commentators on such matters as "The Fourth Reich", you know:-)

Difference is though, that once Hitler tapped your country as "Germanic" aka "fit" to be Aryanized, one couldn't simply opt out of joining as is the case with the EU.

News / Polish Independence Day March in Warsaw. Is it going to be the biggest march yet? [1530]

From your lips to G-d's ear.

News / Polish Independence Day March in Warsaw. Is it going to be the biggest march yet? [1530]

Same, Milo. I could scarcely hold any living nation responsible for the collective crimes of their ancestors. That's not only vengeful and mean-spirited, it's also just downright stupid.

News / Polish Independence Day March in Warsaw. Is it going to be the biggest march yet? [1530]

Plenty still do, Milo, though interestingly enough, more in the States, not in Israel.

I tend to side with Elie Wiesel who termed the children of murderers "children, not murderers". The sins of the fathers aren't always visited upon the children.

News / Polish Independence Day March in Warsaw. Is it going to be the biggest march yet? [1530]

Well, ever since the demise of Herr Waldheim, the Austrians have been gettin' their little noses rubbed in their own s***t but plenty, believe you me, and not soon or often enough, I dare say:-) Grates on me too, pal! How d'ya think most Jews feel, seein' Germans such as yourselves having to do penance twenty-four seven practically for the past seventy-five years and counting while ol' Sound of Music Country merely basks in her pre-War glory, thumbing the noses at you guys for being forced to sit eternally in sackcloth and ashes!!

Hell dude, why d'ya think they elected Maximillian Kurz en masse and went gaga for a while over the late (lamentedLOL) Joerg Haider?!

News / Polish Independence Day March in Warsaw. Is it going to be the biggest march yet? [1530]

You may also recall, B.B. that one of the first official acts by that Little Dude With The Small Mustachio as newly "ELECTED"(!!!!) leader of the German Reich was to subjugate aka "annex" Austria of "Austro-Hungary" fame:-) Come on, fella! In both wars, the Germans and the Austrians were essentially on the same side. Part of Hitler's plan was a future "Grossdeutschland", meaning and including of course logically the "Ostmark".

News / Polish Independence Day March in Warsaw. Is it going to be the biggest march yet? [1530]

To be sure, I second that an apology is in order.

News / Polish Independence Day March in Warsaw. Is it going to be the biggest march yet? [1530]

Damn straight, kiddo! Yeah, ya can quote me on that one:-)

Germany was ALLIED with Austro-Hungary, B.B., or did we conveniently forget that little factoid?

Same old lie?? Think the shoe's on the other foot now. "Schanddiktat"??? not from where the French and the English were sitting!

News / Polish Independence Day March in Warsaw. Is it going to be the biggest march yet? [1530]

"The French behaved terribly...."

'Scusez moi here folks, but Verdun wasn't exactly a romp in the park either ya know! Plus the Germans later took over the Saar etc.

Can't blame it all on the Treaty of Versailles, since the Germans were clearly the aggressors...in BOTH world wars, I hate to step on

German toesLOL

Work / Teaching in public school VS private school in Poland [9]

There was an article in last week's Polish daily here in New Jersey concerning the massive protests throughout the country aka Poland because teachers, other civil servants were advised that they may suffer drastic pension cuts. Sure it must have been all over the Polish press as well.

News / Polish Independence Day March in Warsaw. Is it going to be the biggest march yet? [1530]

Easier said than done!

News / Polish Independence Day March in Warsaw. Is it going to be the biggest march yet? [1530]

They move,.....but they don't necessarily move ON!
:-)

News / Polish Independence Day March in Warsaw. Is it going to be the biggest march yet? [1530]

The UK never had any issue with Germany, as the House of Battenberg, oops, 'scuse me, Mountbatten LOL, is entirely made up of Germans:-)

Ck out on YouTube an old Masterpiece Theatre "Upstairs, Downstairs" episode, in which Hudson the Bellamy's Glaswegian butler has the last word what with all the fuss 'n feathers over Queen Victoria and entourage coming for tea, "That's all well and good, Mrs. Bridges, but as a Scot, I'd much rather see a Stuart back on the throne!"

History / Why is Poland weaker than Russia? [390]

...as well as to the ancient Swedes.. Rurik was actually a Slav:-)

History / Why is Poland weaker than Russia? [390]

@Dirk, the wonderful World Jewish Congress way back in the late '30's, while Hitler was starting to make good on his no-longer idle threats (e.g. the famous speech at the Kroll Opera where he states point blank for ALL brain-damaged Holocaust deniers to hear: "Hier ist nicht die Bolschewisierung Deutschland, sondern die Ausrottung der juedischen Rasse in Europa!" (This will not be the Bolshevization of Germany, but rather the extermination of the Jewish race in Europe) to thunderous applause) stood by and did NOTHING. Yes, there were constant protests in Madison Square Garden during those years, but on the whole, far too little was done, far too late.

So much for Jewish indifference across the pond.

Please back on topic, everyone

Language / Polish words that sound funny? [224]

"La chalupa" though, with the absence of the Polish l-sound, is a word in Mexican Spanish, believe it or not:-)

History / Why is Poland weaker than Russia? [390]

Had the Jews not attempted to curry favor with Nazi higher-ups, who knows what might have happened to them:-) Collaboration is NEVER a fitting excuse, be it among gentiles or Jews!!

History / Why is Poland weaker than Russia? [390]

In the case of the Jews, it was often a question of kill or be killed.

The Judenraete mistakenly believed, as did Chamberlain, that Hitler could be negotiated withLOL

History / Why is Poland weaker than Russia? [390]

Right again, Maf!

Even read that a certain German-Jewish family, highly assimilated and "Germanicized", although Jewish in origin, namely the Bechsteins - the piano people, wanted to try to make a deal with Hitler to spare them and their family.

Might be true, then it might not be.

History / Why is Poland weaker than Russia? [390]

That's just what Daniel and Eva said, my two travelling partners in Germany:-)

History / Why is Poland weaker than Russia? [390]

Good one, Bratwurst Boy. Two points!

History / Why is Poland weaker than Russia? [390]

No he isn't, and you too ought to be skeptical of easy answers!

History / Why is Poland weaker than Russia? [390]

Ahemm, Tuwim, Rozewicz, Brzechwa, Lesmian along with other Polish-Jewish of the assimilated Diaspora might take issue with your first statement, there Dirk ol' man.
Not every single Polish Jew was a shtettl-bound Yeshiva bruchar, some unwashed, illiterate bumpkin.

History / Why is Poland weaker than Russia? [390]

Lenin's Jewish heritage is exceedingly distant, if at all. Rakosi on the other hand was a full-Jew whose physician father apparently was one of Kossuth Lajos' loyal supporters during the first war of independence in the mid-19th century:-)

True, many are indeed amply to be found in former Russian cabinets under the old Soviet Union, but of course, from Stalin to Putin, NO Kremlin chief has been Jewish.