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

Thread attached on merging:
English/Polish false friends - can anyone help?

Haven't come across that many yet but one that sticks out is the English sympathetic - which of course doesn't mean the same as the Polish word with a similar spelling.

Can anyone advise on a few? They can be useful to go through with students - especially if there isn't the endless list like you might get with French/English

dzięki !

Food / Nothing better than skwarki! [19]


Nice idea but instant turn off for me if the bum looked anything like the one in the pic ;)

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


I don't think so - aren't Poles known for not respecting queues generally?

Before I get accused of Poland bashing, the Poles I know say this and I'm sure I've seen it mentioned on this site a few times.

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


Yeah, we being the operative word. Poles seem to know a lot about McDonalds judging by how busy the one on Piotrkowska in £ódz is anyway!


Of course not and nor do you really. Unless blind patriotism triumphs over common sense that is ; )

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


Yeah, a disproportionate amount of them too. The permanent ones that is - not the stalls ; ) And 7 days a week? practically 24 hrs a day in some cases.

Serious question: cheese.

What is the Polish attitude or habits here?

My Polish friends seem to eat only (what I would regard as) very bland mild cheeses and when in Ireland seem to go out of their way to get stuff like e.g. Edam as opposed to a lovely mature cheese, farmhouse cheese or God forbid, a blue cheese.

I don't really remember having cheese at all when I was in Poland but I guess I probably did.

Is it a bit of a 'functional' item in Poland maybe - kind of the opposite of the UK/Ireland V Poland bread attitude?

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

Yes, strangely enough I am familiar with this concept of "the market" also. ; )

My local town (approx. 5000 pop.) has two and between them they are open 7 days a week.

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


I love it. It's the best type of blood sausage I've had. But no eggs thanks!


I think so. Looks and sounds familiar.

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

Didn't look particularly like either but more so the second one. Can't be sure though.

And by the way:


So is this the same natural and healthy Polish food or food from a differnt Poland in a parallel universe or something? ; )


Sounds like you are talking about what is known in English as "dripping".

Very popular with poorer people (especially in the north of England) up until the early 60s or so. Consumed the same way too. It still exists.

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

Not sure Zetigrek - supplied by friends. The outer skin is "orange-brown" and it seemed to be customary to slit it a few times across the width. Looked quite like German wurst - sound familiar?

BTW, it tasted good anyway whatever it was.

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

OK, a few things.

Firstly I don't live in the UK.

Secondly, yes, I can (if I wish - which I don't) get a pub lunch for €3.99 - so please don't accuse me of exaggerating.

I can and do buy excellent meat/veg that was grown/picked/slaughtered locally (within 10 miles or so) and it's not ususual to be able to do so where I live.

In your post above Wroclawboy you are referring to supermarket meat - which is awful, yes. But isn't supermarket meat everywhere awful? Anyone who relies on supermarkets for quality meat needs their head examined.

Look, the point of thread is that Polish food is still (still if you don't mind, as if it were never any other way) "more natural" than in the west. It's just a ridiculous smug and naive assertion.

McDonalds in £ódz was packed all the time when I passed it. Pizza seems incredibly popular in Poland. I cannot BBQ the average Polish sausage as the water and fat content turns it into a firework and yes, there seems to be a large quantity of sliced processed hams and pickled/salted/smoked stuff on the average Polish table as far as I can see.

And yes, not much in the way of actual lumps of animal flesh.

Again, don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining about Polish food - I like it, but just don't be under this illusion that it's all so healthy. And to claim as one poster did that something (a Polish foodstuff) was 'almost all chemicals' but probably still tastes natural to westerners compared to what they usually eat is just silly and insulting.

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


Er. You are wrong there Olaf. Slavic, Germanic and Scandinavain countries maybe - but not many other places in Europe.

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


Are you reading this Wroclawboy? ; )

Well therefore, again I ask you - are you saying that your cured meat has not been processed? at all?

I doubt it very much.


So why is it so hilarious?

If someone says they are having "meat" for dinner you will expect slaughtered animal flesh from a butcher to be on your plate - not smoked, coloured, salted, preserved, water injected pinkish purplish sliced stuff. That's what I mean.

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


Yes believe me, I know all about this - they are my customers (!)

Having said that I am fairly confident as to the organic or natural credentials of mush of the food I consume whether it is meat veg or dairy. It's not hard.

But the point is that you said that food in "western Europe" was more likely to be processed than in Poland - did you not?

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


Can you explain - or give examples?


Er no?! not unless you eat all your "meals" for €3.99 in a pub or something.

"Side salad" is basically garnish anyway - it should not really be regarded as a component of the meal as such. If you want salad you need to order salad - not X with side salad.

In a proper restaurant you will get any and all varieties of salad and salad ingredients you can think of.

But I think it's fair to say that Poles do take their salads more seriously though - a few seem to come out at every meal which wouldn't necessarily be the case in the UK or Ireland.

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

So the "cured" stuff referred to is purely cured and is not processed?

If so, I take it back but I doubt it.

Look, I'm not complaining - I like Polish food generally but I just don't know where this mad myth that Polish food is natural and healthy comes from.

And as for this statement:


C'mon. Please. It's mostly chemicals but still appears more natural to the poor synthetic mouthed westerners ?!


Probably. And even more research that shows it's bad for you in large quantities I'll warrant.


Well, I didn't say that.

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


Hmmm...something wrong with this statement.

; )


In what sense?

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


At the risk of agreeing with AS, this was my experience too.

In Poland when you say "meat" it seems to generally refer to processed/preserved sliced meats or sausage.

In Britain/Ireland meat means meat - fresh slabs of animal flesh, not processed not cured.

Also, high proportion of pickled stuff in Poland which isn't healthy either.


You sir, are having one almighty laugh surely?


I've never once heard this said about Polish food. Sure, I've heard people say they like it, they love it (or sometimes that they don't like it) but it's so-called "naturalness" was never a reason. Maybe to someone who exists almost only on junk food.

Life / Poland, maybe the world's last bastion of faith [67]


Deliberate pun? ; )

Food / What's your favorite Polish beer? [870]

I've had Lech, Zywieć & Tyskie. Er... a good few times...

I think I preferred Zywieć out of the three. Thought they were all pretty good though really. Drinking Tyskie right now as it happens ; )

(Special offer in Lidl)

Maybe someone can answer this - I ahd a strong beer in Poland and the bottle featured a goats head (I think) with red eyes and the word for strong (begins with M?) in that kind of shattered lettering. It was like a Polish special brew or something - does anyone know what it is?

(As he hopes to fcuk it isn't a cliché alcoholic's beer or something...)

Travel / Hospitality, Scenery, Food, Clean Streets: My POSITIVE experiences in Poland (!) [39]


Exactly!

I'm sorry I know this is supposed to be a positive thread but I cannot understand anyone preferring Polish meat over e.g. British or Irish - it's the best in the world, simple as. Irish and British beef and lamb is prized all over the world where, incidentally it is exported. Only Argentina are serious contenders. US beef can be good but you have to be careful as it is wildly inconsistent.

Didn't have a problem with Polish beef at all as it happens but it was as unremarkable as e.g. Dutch or French IMO.

Red meat I'm talking about only - open verdict on pork or chicken ; )

Travel / Poland in photo riddles [3134]

It's the opening scene to latest religious themed prn movie.

This time, featuring "flower action".

Travel / Hospitality, Scenery, Food, Clean Streets: My POSITIVE experiences in Poland (!) [39]

Yeah a +1 for humour.

From what I can see Polish humour seems to be quite dry, observational and a bit surreal. Also teasing plays a big part. TBH, it's not unlike Irish humour and my Polish friends here have commented on this.

Travel / Hospitality, Scenery, Food, Clean Streets: My POSITIVE experiences in Poland (!) [39]


I would guess it is only those who do not have a tradition of blood sausage in their own countries e.g. the US for a start. Ireland, Britain, France & Spain for example all have a version of this - I think the Polish one is the nicest.

For those who haven't tasted it, imagine an authentic 'farm' type recipe black pudding combined with a really good haggis ...

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


Yeah, as Northmanc says underclass would be a common enough equivalent by the looks of it. Don't speak Polish really but marginalised would be a polite way of putting it and margines looks pretty close.

Underclass would be fairly derogatory but as you can imagine, there are plenty of much worse terms too!


Don't worry, most countries have a similar problem. Britain and Ireland definitely. France is pretty bad for this too.

For what it's worth I didn't see much evidence of this when I was in Poland - so there you are: a positive! ; )

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


Beats me. Zetigrek said it originally. A reference to the assumption that I thought that good manners was a bad thing. A misunderstanding really.

Thanks for taking the time to post Sean - some of it makes sense. Culture shock cannot be underestimated, but there are certain attitudes, behavioural aspects that are just rude or offensive in almost any culture or language.

I am indifferent to Ireland - it is my nationality and I live here, that's all. I don't have any romantic view of the place nor do I feel a need to defend or praise the country. I recognise that there are plenty of things wrong here as there are in most countries.

Considering the Polish friends I have I cannot really totally rule out going back to Poland and if so, maybe I will have a better experience next time.

(I'm from rural Cavan by the way)

Life / POLISH YOUTH compared to the youth in other Western countries? [57]

I don't have a lot of experience of Polish youth but from what I have seen, and from descriptions and anecdotes from Polish friends, I get the impression that on the whole, Polish young people are fairly well behaved - relatively speaking.

Certainly better behaved than Irish, British, German, French, Spanish for example anyway.

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


Er...No ???!!!

Are you actually a real poster tow_stalin or just some piece of code written to generate non sequiturs throughout the site?

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


...is what you said Zetigrek.

This whole manners/chivalry thing has got out of hand totally. I mentioned old fashioned manners/chivalry - not a problem with that - that "spilled over into... there's where the problem started for me.

And yes, old fashioned definitely by most standards e.g. kissing women's hands? Again, not a problem with it though.

I have re-read your post#28. Fair enough, you have been more open/receptive than I may have assumed a few posts back.

I'll probably leave this because it's all been said and there is too much misinterpretation and defensiveness I think.

Again, apologies if I have offended anyone as it was not my intention. I was just trying to be as honest as possible.

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


No, you are not. I wanted to know if my experiences were accurate, half accurate or completely unusual, i.e. bad luck.

From the mixture of responses it seems, on balance, that they weren't completely unusual anyway that's for sure.


For the record, I didn't notice I had a PM - I'm used to receiving pop-ups.

You reckon it's polite to remind me how to behave politely then? and to proceed to reproduce part of the "private" message ?!

I dunno...


Well it's rude, but logical. I would never say it but I can see the reasoning.
It's not the same thing though - for a start I don't live in Poland.

BTW, you said that there "is no macismo in Poland"

In black and white.

Do you still stand by this statement?