Language / cookery, word usage question [19]


When they are sick, or lonely, or miss home - what foods will they turn to then? I am pretty sure that they would choose the kind of stuff they used to eat as little kids. We are all quite chauvinistic in our innermost being... Not that there's anything wrong with that ;-)

Language / cookery, word usage question [19]

Ask the French, Spanish, Chinese, Indians or most other nationalities - they will say their cuisine is by far the best. It's totally natural to love to eat what Mama used to cook ;-)

The only exceptions to this rule that I can think of are the Americans - for obvious melting pot reasons - and the British - because of massive culinary exchange with their former colonies.

History / Why is there NOTHING (besides Gdansk and Szczecin) in former Prussia? [80]


Care to explain yourself? I lived in Ełk (Mazury) for over ten years and never experienced the desert conditions you are talking about. Have you seriously never been to northern Poland? Yeah, come to think of it, one thing is hard to come by in north-east Poland: heavy industry. I never complained.

Genealogy / Do you think all Slavs are white? [178]

what a load of absolute bull.

Law / Polish business haven't got a clue: Discuss. [72]


I would like examples to back that up. With legal grounds and everything. Pretty please?

Language / jesc/zjesc and possible english translations for the imperfective/perfective [30]


It's not more polite, it's simply grammatically WRONG. It's a direct translation from English and I hope you know that direct translations never work.

If you wanted to be extra special polite you could say: "Uprzejmie proszę o rachunek" or "Czy mogę prosić o rachunek?" but "Poproszę rachunek" is fine, there is nothing wrong with it whatsoever.

Law / Polish business haven't got a clue: Discuss. [72]


Of course there aren't any. The whole country has gone bankrupt overnight - didn't you notice? <sarcasm mode off>

Think of the Polish cosmetic industry - Ziaja, Eris, Bielenda, Farmona. They all started out as tiny businesses. Look where they are now.

Law / Polish business haven't got a clue: Discuss. [72]


Examples or it didn't happen.


So you've been insulted, your poor thing. Yeah, the Western Man's Burden is heavy indeed...

Work / Poland or Hungary - which one for my scholarship? [26]

Could you explain why exactly?

Study / Admitted To Warsaw University Of Technology (Politechnika Warszawska) [69]


A typically Polish attitude.
You seem to think Poland would always be anybody's last choice, made out of necessity or despair. Why so serious? ;-)

I personally think that Politechnika Warszawska is a kick-ass university, and would congratulate anyone who got admitted.

Wake up everybody, Poland is a beautiful country with fun people and a lot to offer! :-D

UK, Ireland / The more subtle differences: Ireland/Britain v Poland [310]


...and that makes them different from the British?

Work / English teacher from Turkey, have any chance to work in Poland? [71]


If you have a degree, you could always apply for a teaching position at one of the Oriental Studies departments at Polish universities. Turkish Studies is Turkologia in Polish.

orient.uw.edu.pl/en/structure.html
filg.uj.edu.pl/ifo/turkologia/

Food / Help me like Polish food (recommendations) [48]


AFAIK, szarlotka AKA tatanka is apple juice with żubrówka, which is a vodka flavoured with - wait for it - so-called "bison grass". So tatanka is a fun name for the drink.

Food / I have a Polish couple coming over for afew days and would like to cook for them. [93]


You might have realised by now that I was not asking about how to cook gammon steaks - I was asking about other possibilities. Like for example:


That's very helpful, thanks :-)

Food / I have a Polish couple coming over for afew days and would like to cook for them. [93]


I sometimes also eat things I haven't cooked myself.
Imagine the unthinkable - I had gammon steak several times at the pub. Shock horror!

Food / I have a Polish couple coming over for afew days and would like to cook for them. [93]



Thanks for the info! I'll try the steak thingy and, as it's not smoked, I will also experimentally stew a bit of it - just for LOLs ;-)

Food / I have a Polish couple coming over for afew days and would like to cook for them. [93]


I am Polish and I think I would personally love to have that (more than the gammon steak and chips I guess) :-)

BTW - what cut of pork is gammon exactly? Does it correspond to any of the Polish cuts at all? I just bought a largish piece of unsmoked gammon at Asda and am wondering how to best cook it. Steaks I know, but could I also cut it into smaller pieces for a stew / goulash of sorts? Or roast it?

Travel / Share Your Travel Experiences in Poland [16]


Don't you realise this is a scam? If I got a penny for each of the times I'd been accosted in London with similar hard luck stories, I would be really rich by now! ;-)

Life / Homes and businesses in Poland have no letter boxes? [23]


Well, postmen tend to deliver mail during the day, you know... There is absolutely no need to deliver anything outside of working hours. Even so, most people (and probably many or all businesses as well) do have a letterbox you can use.

Law / How to register a new business in Poland [129]

I think you kinda answered your own question here.

Life / Homes and businesses in Poland have no letter boxes? [23]

How can a hole in the door be called a letterbox? ;-p

Real Estate / Is this a bad time to buy an apartment in Poland? [142]


What you got was not parquet flooring, but horrible PVC sickly blue, grey, or green "tiles" which then everyone who had any money immediately ripped out and replaced with parquet at their own cost. If people are getting rid of parquets now it's because they are very difficult to take care of in the long run (the floors, not the people).

Real Estate / Is this a bad time to buy an apartment in Poland? [142]


During the good old commie days, you got your apartment (if you got it at all) furnished with exactly the same fittings, toilet, toilet seat, bathtub etc., as everyone else living in the same block, or indeed street. Maybe even town. Cheap, ugly, and nothing on the market to replace them with. So people will continue to want to have a say in what their apartment ultimately looks like for a long time to come, my friend.

Off-Topic / Does anyone else find Cygans fascinating? [60]

When? They were taken in with open arms as "refugees" prior to 2004, and they sure as hell still come in as and when they please. Ditto Polish gypsies. They are treated according to their passports, i.e. they are Poles and Slovaks, no questions asked. The only Roma I can think of who could have had any problems are the Romanian ones, because Romanian citizens must be either self-employed or be able to support themselves to be allowed to stay in the UK (they are not automatically granted the right to work). So Romanian gypsies become "self-employed", e.g. they sell old copies of the Big Issue on street corners or do "car washes" a.k.a rubbing a dirty rag over your car when it stands in a traffic jam, and then terrorise you for money.

Life / INVISIBLE MAN in shops and offices in Poland? [70]

It's very simple really. If you want to be acknowledged as an actual buyer who is standing in the line (as opposed to kinda making up your mind as to what to do next and accidentally loitering near the counter), you must position yourself firmly against the counter and opposite the sales assistant, say "Dzień dobry" and establish eye contact with the sales person. If they start serving someone else at this point, then they are ignoring you. Otherwise, it's your fault for not using the appropriate body language. ;-)

Off-Topic / Does anyone else find Cygans fascinating? [60]


That last bit is absolutely untrue. Romanian and Polish Roma are all over the place, esp. Italy, France, the UK and Ireland. Some of them are actually being deported (see France) because they were unable (or did not want to) support themselves in the usual way (i.e. by working) and relied (as usual) on begging and crime instead.

Food / Is Polish food still more natural than in the West? [142]


Are you serious?! There was never more sawdust in the bread and water in the milk than during the good ol' Commie days. Additives and preservatives are not newfangled notions to the Polish food industry either. You seem to have this weird image of Poland as a sort of unspoilt peasant country inhabited by a simple-minded, good-natured folk dressed in old-fashioned garb and subsisting on milk, honey, and bread. Wake up! Communism was not a time capsule, if anything, in many ways it forcibly propelled us far ahead of the "West" (e.g. employment of women, eradication of social classes, percentage of women in higher education, etc).

Travel / My (short) Poland experiences - bad luck? [142]


Purely out of curiosity - how were you dressed?

Life / WHY DO POLES USE ENGLISH WORDS IN CONVERSATION? [396]


happening, happeningu, happeningiem, happeningi, happeningów... shall I continue? ;-)

Life / WHY DO POLES USE ENGLISH WORDS IN CONVERSATION? [396]


Well, radio, jury, internet, menu and lots of other words are not modified either. I don't get your drift. If you borrow a word like "pukka" or "robot" into English, it's not modified but that's OK because of what exactly? As opposed to the exact same phenomenon in Polish, that is.