News / Polish-Scottish American, Chris Ferguson, commands final Space Shuttle mission [49]


You're really stretching it now if you think that his paternal ancestors were Poles who moved to Scotland!

I mean, there's patriotism, then there's just ridiculousness. The guy is clearly as much Scottish as he is Polish.


She's a criminal, who cares about her?


Uh - neither of those two links contain any admission by Chris Ferguson that he is Polish. Do try again.

Incidentally, one of those links is hilarious - Christmas Day is spent with rest and prayer? Not in Poland it's not! And boys most certainly do not "trudge from village to village".

News / Polish-Scottish American, Chris Ferguson, commands final Space Shuttle mission [49]


Not necessarily. In Europe, things are much more fluid - someone born in the UK to Polish parents won't immediately be classed as Polish, for instance. Depending on how he grows up - and where - he could easily be British. I know several people like this - foreign parents, but they're as British as they come.

Heck, I even know one lady who was born in Ireland, but moved to the UK at the age of 2. She identifies as British, not Irish - and this is very common.

Ethnicity just isn't such a big deal for white Europeans - nationality is far more important. Certainly - someone not born in Poland and who couldn't speak Polish would never be claimed as Polish in a million years.

USA, Canada / Polish-American mutilation of the Polish language [75]


Makes me appreciate languages, to be honest :)

I actually would love to find out the origin of the Busha word - is it really so simple?

One thing that I know is that some people from that part of the world identified themselves to the American authorities as Polish - even when they were actually Ukrainian/etc. It's quite possible that they continued to identify as Polish, especially as Poland was "known" in the world at the time, whereas there wasn't much concept of Ukrainian self-identity during those times.

For me, the most interesting thing is that many first generation immigrants seemed to have demanded the use of the word "Busha" - which is distinctly odd as they would've known the proper word. But then again - maybe Babcia came from the harsher Western accent, while Babusha would sound fine in the softer Eastern accent?

I don't know - but I'd like to know!

News / Polish-Scottish American, Chris Ferguson, commands final Space Shuttle mission [49]


Was she born in Poland? Does she speak Polish?


Uh, MediaWatch... I know you're not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but the name Ferguson comes from Scotland. As he has the name, where do you think it came from? The guy has as much Scottish ancestry as he does Polish.


I prefer to use his Polish name - Józef Korzeniowski. He wasn't of "Polish ancestry" - he was born a Pole and spoke Polish.


Where does he claim that? I'm looking now and can't find any reference by him about his Polish ancestry. Perhaps you can?


What's unfair about it? America doesn't allow plenty of people in - neither do we. Seems fair. Heck, Canada bans people for having a DUI on their record!


I think it's hilarious that after all your ranting about Russians and Jews on this forum, you then admit to liking a radio show host who just happens to be both.


Well yes, if Islamophobia, sexism, racism, etc is your thing. Do you also think that women enjoy being raped, like Savage said?

(mods, can you edit the title of this thread? It should be Scottish-Polish American)

News / Polish-Scottish American, Chris Ferguson, commands final Space Shuttle mission [49]

She's not Polish though, she's American.

Anyway, nice to see a Scottish-American (with a name like Ferguson, he's certainly not Polish) do well in life.

USA, Canada / Why are Polish restaurants not successful in the USA? [698]

That's exactly it - Polish food simply isn't "sexy". It's hearty, good food - but not the kind of thing you'd eat on a hot date or on a night out with your friends.

On a related note, Martha Stewart is actually banned from the UK - do you people really want to claim her as Polish?

News / Polish-Scottish American, Chris Ferguson, commands final Space Shuttle mission [49]

But he's not a Polish-American - if anything, he's a "Scottish-Polish American".

Nah, he's just an American, and someone that the whole nation should be proud of, instead of using his ancestry to score points.

USA, Canada / Polish-American mutilation of the Polish language [75]


I *think* the most rational explanation for it is that many of the Polish-Americans are descended from poor people from what used to be Eastern Poland (Kresy, etc) - and there, the language would have been heavily, heavily influenced by Ukrainian and other languages that used to flourish there. Babusha is apparently used in Ukrainian - so "Busha" does make some sense if you consider that it's highly unlikely that they would've spoken "pure" Polish - but rather some sort of mix anyway.

As this group would have been "dominant" in the United States, it's then understandable how it took hold.

News / Polish-Scottish American, Chris Ferguson, commands final Space Shuttle mission [49]


He's also of Scottish ancestry through his father, who had nothing to do with Poland.

Not really worth claiming as Polish to be honest - you'd probably have to go back to 1795 to find an ancestor of his who was actually a Polish citizen.


Shame that he doesn't respect other people. Still, we banned him from entering the UK.


HAHAHAHA. Oh man - MW - did you really want to mention him?

News / Poland Parliament elections in October 2011 [944]


Because it was reported?

Don't forget that there are elements within the opposition that might desire a PiS collapse - politics is a dirty game, after all.

History / Defying Germaniztion in 1901 Polish boy writes 'German girls are ugly' [128]

Except he wasn't living in occupied Poland - which is a term exclusively used to refer to the 1939-1945 period.

In fact, it's rather insulting to compare the brutal occupation of 1939-1945 to the relatively harmonious annexation of 1795-1919.

News / Poland Parliament elections in October 2011 [944]


To be honest - we're not. PiS are in such a state that even if they were to pull off a shocking win (let's say 2005 repeats itself) - they'd implode within months anyway.

It's bad for Poland - we *need* credible opposition. It certainly seems to me that Kaczynski is now realising that alienating all the decent people in his party has left him with a bunch of mercenaries who have no issue with pushing their own agenda at the expense of the leader.

Gumishu - truly, I hope that PiS are finished after this election. Maybe, just maybe - we can see a genuine "Catholic-socialist" party emerge, one that cares about history and tradition, but refrains from the kind of nonsense that has characterised PiS to date. Something similar to Kaczynski's 2010 electoral campaign would go down wonders - people in Poland are sick of "fighting" talk - and instead just want some decent good old fashioned Nordic social democracy.

It always surprises me that there is no real "right wing" in Poland.

News / EU tribunal overrules Polish name contest in Lithuania [150]


Both sides are behaving like utter children and should just grow up.

History / Defying Germaniztion in 1901 Polish boy writes 'German girls are ugly' [128]

I dunno, you guys seem to be uncountable in the UK :P

(in all seriousness - English is quite flexible in this respect- amount is fine when talking about a countable number. For example - "it cost me a large amount of zloty")

History / Defying Germaniztion in 1901 Polish boy writes 'German girls are ugly' [128]


Not German ruled, but rather events occurring within German territory which contained a significant amount of Poles.

History / Defying Germaniztion in 1901 Polish boy writes 'German girls are ugly' [128]


Polish history books are objective? Would that be the same way that Poles praise Davies, despite the fact that he is an "academic no-name"?

In fact, the biggest problem with Polish history is that Poles themselves cannot seem to create an accurate overview of history.

News / Poland Parliament elections in October 2011 [944]


And herein lies one of the biggest problems in Poland - all this nonsense about institutions being "PO-run", or "SLD-run" or "PiS-run" - seriously guys....

History / Defying Germaniztion in 1901 Polish boy writes 'German girls are ugly' [128]


Shame that a certain part of Polish society seeks to cover up similar crimes committed by Poles, then - isn't it?


They do care - you're living proof of that.

News / Poland Parliament elections in October 2011 [944]


PiS are just doing nothing to bridge that gap - all those posters of "Premier Kaczynski" are scaring, not winning voters.

I quite like the SLD posters actually - simple and effective.

Work / Irish native speaker moving to Poland - job ideas (private lessons?) [9]


In al honesty - there is nothing. If you spoke English, along with one (or preferably two) modern European languages, you could find something - but if you're monolingual, there really will be nothing. It's not to say that there are no jobs- but these jobs will go people 'in the know' and not to any random fresh off the plane.


It won't be recognised by anyone worthwhile.

Get your money back if you can - there are plenty of other CELTA courses available in Europe.

Love / Is the Polish wife the boss? [33]

Yeah, there's a real problem in rural Poland with violence in the home :(

Things are changing though - more and more campaigns against it, more and more foundations support beaten wives/children - so it's not all doom and gloom :)

Love / Is the Polish wife the boss? [33]


It doesn't.

In Poland, the woman obeys or gets a slap in traditional households.

News / Poland Parliament elections in October 2011 [944]


Oooo, I like.

It's going to be hard to call, but this is my gut feeling :

PO : 41% (not a great result, and actually down very slightly from last time, but enough)
PiS : 30% (slight drop from 2007, but enough to put Kaczynski into retirement)
SLD : 19% (not a great night, but about as much as they could hope for)
PSL : 10% (usual better-than-expected performance)

PiS certainly won't win - the 'centre' voters that they won over in 2005 simply won't go near them now.

Really - the only two questions in this election are : how much of PO's support will go to the SLD, and how much of PiS' support will go to the PSL?

It's also worth pointing out that the PO/PSL/SLD "cordon sanitaire" will make sure that PiS cannot win this election. Even if they somehow win the most votes - it's certain that the other parties will be able to form a majority in the Sejm in order to make sure that PiS stay out of power. We already saw this happen on the local and regional level.

History / Defying Germaniztion in 1901 Polish boy writes 'German girls are ugly' [128]


Would that be like the way that Polonization was forced upon Jews, Ukrainians and others in the interbellum?

History / Defying Germaniztion in 1901 Polish boy writes 'German girls are ugly' [128]


I think you'll find plenty of examples from 1795-1920 where Poles were rather disinterested in the concept of "freedom" and "liberty". I mean - research, man!

(if you don't want to - I suggest you start with the issue of Polish and Ukrainian education in L'viv around the turn of the century. Might open your eyes a bit)


Tell me, what do you actually know about Poland? Have you ever visited? Do you know anything about the long history of Polish collaboration with foreign powers, even when it was directly against the interest of the people?

Your view is tainted by a romantic vision of what Poland was - unfortunately, like all European countries, the truth is rather more grey than you might like. I suspect that you've never actually been here - otherwise, you'd soon learn that Poland is no different from all the rest - and that money and power rules, not ideals. A good start for you would be to learn about just who was fighting for who - and why - during World War I.


Funnily enough, children who cannot speak the language of Poland today are often discriminated against in a variety of ways, including being classed as "disabled" and being sent to schools which are nothing but educational wastelands.

And yes, I agree - there was no such thing as occupied Poland at that time. Anyone with a basic understanding of the differences between "occupation" and "annexation" would understand that. Again - sentimental nationalistic nonsense which doesn't reflect the reality on the ground.

Poles, on the whole, passively accepted the de jure annexation of the lands.

Life / Number of foreigners in Poland? [28]


And German.

History / Defying Germaniztion in 1901 Polish boy writes 'German girls are ugly' [128]


It's just interesting, that's all. I'm all for the real historical truth being discovered - if the parents provoked the children, so be it. Doesn't change anything, but it's a bit less romantic than the child rebelling on their own initiative.


Really? Perhaps you might also want to examine the reaction to the May 3rd constitution - not only in how it was passed in the Sejm (certainly some chicanery there), but also in the reaction of powerful people who weren't too happy with it. You could also look at how easily the Polish were bought off, especially in Austria-Hungary.

Your romantic, "Polonia" view of Poland is rather hilarious to anyone with more than a passing knowledge of Polish history. Those of us livng here, who take the time to carefully read about Polish history soon realise that it's far more complicated and intricate than at first glance.

(so - when were you last in Poland?)

History / Defying Germaniztion in 1901 Polish boy writes 'German girls are ugly' [128]


Why they did is a good question.

I've found several (Polish) sources online which make it clear that the parents were actively involved in this.

Interestingly, it seems that despite the common belief that this was "Germanization" - it was actually the school director that went too far, rather than being any sort of deliberate act by the Prussian/German authorities.

History / Poland and Orientalism [115]


As far as I can gather, he has no personal experience of any of the countries of which he writes about.