History / If i could write European history i would unite Europe under Polish language [67]


But the question is, how do you know your language developed first? maybe it developed after another language and incorporated those sounds. I think Basque was the oldest language in Europe.

As for Crow's idea of uniting Europe under a Polish language... why not just resurrect the use of Latin as lingua france... it worked for centuries.

Love / POLISH GIRL I REALLY LIKE, BUT she says we have no future [54]


Yeah, we're all so hopeless we have to come to Poland to get a woman!
It's more of the cultural thing. example; the way some guys and girls in UK talk is astonishing to foreigners. Often, when some of my friends have been over in Poland (and I'm talking to them infront of Poles, peoplethink we're about to have a fight! Nothing could be further from the truth. Likewise, social and religious differences can make communication seem more difficult than it needs to be. But we are cautious enough to tread carefully so as not to offend... doesn't always work the other way, tho'.

Work / Opus Dei opens school in Warsaw [21]

Didn't Pope JP II make them a vatican favourite over the Jesuits? I believe he was very keen on OD.

Love / POLISH GIRL I REALLY LIKE, BUT she says we have no future [54]


I agree. I had an experience of a girl telling me again and again she wasn't sure. I persevered and she began to come round (I thought), only to continually blow hot and cold, announcing I was dumped a few weeks before I was due to arrive in Poland, then ringing me a couple of days later to say she was wrong (actually, it turned out the guy she'd dumped me for wasn't interested) and then dumping me at the airport when I arrived.

I still stayed with her at her flat for a few days. A month later she was back again and I was stupid enough to go for it (love really does screw with your judgement). Then she later decided we were "not going to be lovers"... probably because she'd been getting it pretty regularly from someone else for the month or two I was in UK. (She's now married to him with a couple of kids).

Seems she was only interested when there was nobody else to pay her attention.

Now, of course, this girl might not be like that at all... BUT if she is saying this then maybe she's been burned before or simply doesn't believe it'll work. She might also get repeatedly cold feet and you are left bitter and frustrated.

History / Should visitors to Auschwitz pay an entrance fee? [82]

I think group tours could be paid for, although perhaps a special deal if it is an educational establishment. Or, perhaps limited entry to the camp for free and special entry to exhibitions charged.

Perhaps a photograph charge could be introduced (although hard to enforce). It might be quite proftiable income from all those grinning tourists standing making peace signs under the 'arbeit macht frei' sign.

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


Apparently he was shot in the leg. Police sources suggest he could have been saved by rioting prevented prompt medical action.

news.yahoo/s/nm/20100524/wl_nm/us_nigeria_poland_shooting

wbj.pl/article-49757-nigerian-officials-say-there-is-no-justification-for-warsaw-shooting.html?typ=ise

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

A young shop assistant in Birmingham (England) once asked me, "Poland? That's near Greenland, innit?"

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


Agreed. There were cases of girls working in the saunas in Edinburgh to fund their education.

Apparently the sex for commodities is how a lot of them convince themselves they aren't prostitutes (they don't accept money). But then, there are plenty of adults who have 'friends' who bring them presents.

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


not bad. in UK it's about 6.50 quid.

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


Because the Polish guy wasn't trying to disarm an officer.

USA, Canada / Why do Americans (and Canadians) hate Polish people? [226]


Jealousy.


I've heard a few, although not necessarily 'nasty' ones as playing on stereotypes. Coming from Britain I can assure you that Poland is NOT the only country to make jokes about themselves.

Work / Moving to Poland from the USA. Question concerning CELTA certificate.I need help [32]


Maybe take into consideration the cost of living for the month you're doing it.


Agreed. If you listen to what they tell you and do what they ask you then you're more than half-way there. If you have any experience it is a major plus; if not, it doesn't matter. I think a lot of the scare stories come from people who had a problem with being told what to do and/or have a problem talking to groups of people.

Language / Ski Or Ska? - Polish surname endings [44]


Funny memory. I had an EngLit professor at Glasgow, Professor Hobsbaum. His opening line of his first lecture with us was, "My name's Phillip Hobsbaum, it's of German extraction and means 'fruit tree'. You can say you are plucking from the 'tree of knowledge'."


Cohen, I believe, is something to do with a priestly caste in Jewish culture. This is why it's a common name.

Language / Etymology of samochod and other related automotive words [12]


obvious loan word. Think of things like 'akumlator' for battery, auto-bus etc.

Language / Does anybody know of a list of Polish-English False Friends and True Friends? [60]


Yes, some of my friends are very relieved to hear their food has 'no added preservatives'.

I suppose one false friend is 'queue'. In Britain it is something you join the back of, in Polish it is something you walk to the front of and say, "excuse me, I just have a question!"

Language / Does anybody know of a list of Polish-English False Friends and True Friends? [60]


Whic proves that when a woman says 'no', she means 'yes'.

Life / How laid-back is the small villages lifestyle in Poland? [14]


They are, but only while Adidas is king!

Depends a lot on where you are as tohow laid back things are. Some villages are just full of sad, old (or older-looking than they are) men standing around drunk outside the local shop, while the wives try to support familes on the grandparents' pensions. The kids dream of just getting out and the old 'communal' farm is a dying (if not dead) business. The old farmers can't convince their kids to stay and take over a run down farm so they sell the house and land to some rich guy from the town.

Life / Could someone please explain this funny Polish picture? [9]

It'll all end in tears (or TIRs)

Love / Polish girls attitudes towards sex. [568]


Speaking generally, of course.

Genealogy / Travel and migration in late 19th - early 20th centuries [9]


A bit harsh Jola, perhaps mikek means the social conditions, type of farms, lifestyle. He doesn't say he wants a story.

Likewise:


what kind of application it was might not be important (and I'm assuming it was in US), it just gives the dates needed. What he wants to know is simply whether it was common to be born in Warsaw to farmers and then grow up 200km away in the east. All the info and questions are there. No need to be nasty.

Language / Ski Or Ska? - Polish surname endings [44]


I don't know but I wonder if it also stems from inheritance laws and female bloodlines.

Language / Ski Or Ska? - Polish surname endings [44]

I had a female student called -ski because she was born in USA.

I wonder if you could claim racism for that.

Work / Girl looking for job speaking English apart from teaching English. Ideas? [30]

You might try some of the translation services as a proofreader. To be honest, some of the so-called "professional" translators need shooting for taking money from people. A friend of mine makes a nice little earner sorting out some of the messes supplied to his bosses by a local firm.

News / 1945-2010 Poles will march on Red square [66]

Was Obama there or did he have another golf game?

Life / COMBATING "POLACK" JOKES [460]


What, like the US general who was recently addressing a group of Israeli generals and told a joke about the Jew and the Taliban fighter. The audience general-ly laughed (see what I did there?) but ONE persoan from anti-defamation league complained and US general had to apologise.

Funnily enough, nobody from the Taliban complained.

Travel / Is September good for going to Poland? [15]

Good time. usually still warm and, best of all, the kids are back in school.

Work / No English Speaking Jobs in Poland...At All? [34]

I imagine there are somewhere. A few years ago I taught English at Phillips Electrics which, being an international company, uses English widely. At one point they said they were recruiting engineers from Lithuania ("because all the Polish engineers are in London working as barmen").I asked if they had to learn Polish. "No, just English."

Life / Some Poles have fine houses [68]


Yep. I have a friend called Agnieszka, and when she called herself Aga, she wondered why I laughed. Wonder what she'd have said if I called her an old boiler.

Life / Some Poles have fine houses [68]

There's also the village houses with the big tiled stoves in the kitchen which can be used for keeping food warm or for sleeping on.

Life / Some Poles have fine houses [68]

Just come on up to Olsztyn, the building craze is going nuts up here. One day there's a field, a month later there's a housing estate.