Language / Polish and Hungarian, how similar? [53]


Totally different. Hungarian/Magyar is a Uralic, Finno-Ugric language, more related to Finnish than to Polish (a Slavic, Indo-European language).

Perhaps if you talk about paprika (Hungarian word) or Gulasz (Goulash... another Hungarian word) you might have some luck. Otherwise, no real relation other than loan words, as far as I'm aware.

As for your Polish Jew understanding Hungarian, it's doubtful. Just consider "Good Soldier Schweik", who is Czech (a language much closer to Polish), who complains about the Magyars and how he can't understand them.

Your Jew might speak Yiddish ( a language similar to German and widely spoken throughout European Jewish communities).

As for your neighbour knowing several languages, it's possible in that way, as a former student of mine in Macedonia lived on the edge of the Gypsy quarter and played with Gypsy and Turkish kids, so she knew a little of each language (Romany, Turkish) and her own, Macedonian, even though the languages are totally different. if your girl already has some familiarity with Hungarian she might find it easier to teach herself. Not impossible.

There is always the possibility, as Poland, Hungary and Czech(oslovakia) were part of the Austro-Hungarian empire, that many different ethnicities could converse in German. Not sure how easy a Yiddish speaker and German speaker can converse, but I can sometimes read Yiddish with my basic German knowledge. German, of course, was also a language of education for many.

Work / Is it normal for companies/schools in Poland to be rude? [116]


Yes. You are generally made to feel like you are scum and they are doing you a favour. Often the same in business. They are probably waiting for YOU to ring!

contact _THEM_. I cannot stress this strongly enough. This is not rude at all and while they may protest it's not necessary, ignore that. Always end interactions by telling them the time that you will contact them. Then do it. If they don't respond to emails then call. Polish people like assertive behavior and this won't bother people. Being perceived as a little too pushy is far better than being perceived as not being pushy enough.[/quote]

This is common business practise. You may find it a coomon occurence that when someone needs your skills they get someone to ask YOu to phone THEM. It's a subtle thing but it makes them feel like you are seeking work from them and not them needing your expertise (not that many people would know it themselves, it's just how it works).

Life / You are Polish if... [433]

You're Polish if you contact a translator or proof-reader with 20 volumes of important documents which need doing and say you need it 'tomorrow'.

Travel / Poland to Romania (and back!) [18]


I think Petrosani is about 20 odd hours from olsztyn. Night in krakow.


Cool, thx. where is that to?

Travel / Poland to Romania (and back!) [18]

Yeah, Germany is probably nearest. Even cheap flights to Budapest are hard to come by, as there is a flight from Bud to Tim.

I might just drive down. Only 2 days.

Travel / Poland to Romania (and back!) [18]

Thanks for the offer. Sounds fun, but it's for a trip in August. A friend of mine is getting married.

Shame, it'd be fun.

Genealogy / Where are the Lemkos now? Do they still exist in Poland? [32]

Yes, there are quite a few. In recent years it has become more possible to speak about things like Akcja Wisła and more people are openly acknowledging their £emko culture and background.

I did some carolling with Teatr Wiejski Węgajty in £emko villages around Nowice. The population is mainly old but in some places they are trying to educate the kids in £emko. I have some interviews I made years ago which have some interesting stories on them.

We also have a few in Warmia-Mazury but often they have 'assimilated' and the children/grandchildren are not aware they are from £emko families.

In US, I believe Andy Warhol was £emko.

Genealogy / Surname: Krowiorz from Trembatschau (Trebaczow) / Sikora (Schikora?) [33]

A useful page for translation of place names german/Polish

kartenmeister.com/preview/databaseuwe.asp

History / Ukrainians working in Poland in the 90s [34]


Funny, I seem to recall reading about a lot of tension in the inter-war period and a lot of it being aimed at Ukrainians (but, of course, they weren't immigrants then, they were part of Poland) and then there were attacks on Jews and Ukrainians in £odż in the early 20th century (but of course, it wasn't technically Poland then, so they still weren't immigrants). Let's not mention Akcja Wisła, shall we?

But perhaps one of the main reasons there wasn't such an outcry about Ukrainian immigration in 1990's to Poland was that it didn't happen with the intensity that it did in UK with the Polish, or did it?

I have a couple of Ukrainian friends who were here in 1990's and are still here. I shall ask them.


Suwałki? Warmia-Mazury?

I think another thing to remember is that Ukrainians and Russians had been present and working in Poland before the 1990's. Most Poles who were in UK before the EU thing were old immigrants/ex-service personel.

I don't think you can really compare the two 'migrations' that easily.

Life / You are Polish if... [433]


Oh, it's not just my wife, then?

UK, Ireland / Recently beaten up in England by 3 Polish guys [93]


Probably why they are so anti-British, getting revenge for The Sun.

Life / Polish Folk Music [30]


I do, or at least a few times a month.

UK, Ireland / Recently beaten up in England by 3 Polish guys [93]


yep, like this:
youtube.com/watch?v=Y-WwDRtt39A&feature=PlayList&p=03FAD2A85FD232DC&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=50

Language / Too many English words in the Polish language! [709]


I'd say it is an artificial language in that it was developed and codified by a known person, rather than something which evolved. Whether it will keep that definition in the future is another matter.


Don't tell them... let them kling-on to the idea it isn't!

is Vulcan a written language or just Spock-en?

Life / You are Polish if... [433]


I appreciate what yopu mean, like in an underground carpark, with limited spaces and all the SUVs park on the pedestrian path.

My thought was, I was looking for a place, I saw 6 empty places but couldn't park in any of them because there were 3 Polish drivers parked there.


Leave a mountain of toilet paper and toilet 'products' in the sand-dunes. I wa at a couple of coastal resorts and couldn't believe the mess the place was. A great advert for tourists.


I think that's more to do with algae.

Talk about how warmia-mazury are the "green Lungs of Europe" and then dump all the bin bags in the forest.


So, are you saying Americans act like their sh1t don't sink?


Now come on Seanus, that's ridiculous. Everyone knows there's only one celebrity and that's Kasia Cichopek.


You think chicken kotlets and potatoes are a uniquely Polish food

Life / You are Polish if... [433]

You're Polish if:

a) You have the nerve to walk straight to the front of a long queue in a post office.

b) The thought of queueing at an airport (or anywhere else, for that matter)horrifies you.

c) You can take just one of those nasty little paper napkin things out of the holder in a restaurant without pulling all the others out.

d) You expect every restaurant of foreign cuisine to serve chopped salads.

e) You change from a mild-mannered person who loves the world into a psychopathic, anti-social suicide perchant when you get into an Audi.

f) You actually moan when you don't get -50c and 20 metres of snow at Christmas.


I know what you mean. One of my students recently told me I was teaching them bad pronunciation because I said that furry little animal which chases mice is called a "cat" (pronounced 'k-a-t'. She told me, "I have a friend who speaks very well English and she says it is 'k-e-t'!" When I told my wife she said that was what a lot of them had been taught, way back when.


It's Easter Monday, when everyone throws water at each other.


To be precise on ONLY ONE parking space.

UK, Ireland / Recently beaten up in England by 3 Polish guys [93]


Of course, it you had beaten them up it would be all over Fakt's front page about how racist the British were.

UK, Ireland / Brits to protest against foreigners in the workforce, including Poles. [289]


I think that's what the article said. I have no opinion on it, just throwing it into the mix.

UK, Ireland / Brits to protest against foreigners in the workforce, including Poles. [289]

A couple of years ago I read an article in a Black newspaper (it was aimed at a Black readership) which argued that UK was letting all the migrant workers from EU into the country to re-whiten it. They said it was unfair because UK had no link with these countries in the way it had with it's Asian and African (former) colonies.

Life / Lack of Spacial Acuity in Poland [69]

Allegedly it was Napoleon who made people move on the right. That's why Europe can't stand britain being on the left, it reminds them they were beaten by Napoleon.

Life / Lack of Spacial Acuity in Poland [69]


In Uk, we drive on the left, just like Polish Audi drivers do in Poland.

UK, Ireland / Brits to protest against foreigners in the workforce, including Poles. [289]


Don't believe it. In Poland, in a local gmina, the local governent needed a building job doing and advertised for tenders. Apparently there is some law which restricts them from taking the more expensive offers, so they had to take the cheapest.

What a total botch up... inefficient work, well over the desired time and the first day the workers hit the bottle and disappeared.

No incentive to offer or do quality work when the cheapest cowboy wins.


Perhaps because temp agencies give preference to foreign workers. A couple of years ago I was looking for summer work but kept getting told they'd only take me on full-time/long term. It was a lot different from my student days when it was possible to work through the summer at different places.

What I did find was that the one factory where I did get work, the wages hadn't moved in 3 or 4 years, and a 16 year old in McDonald's got a better wage.

Life / Lack of Spacial Acuity in Poland [69]

Oh very good! I like that! :-D

Life / Lack of Spacial Acuity in Poland [69]

They say that if you corner a rat it leaps for the light behind your shoulder (not at your throat). I think a lot of Polish drivers (and pedestrians) do this too... they don't see the huge metal object in front of them, they just see the big space behind you and don't realise they can't actually squeeze their car through the 5cm gap.

Life / Lack of Spacial Acuity in Poland [69]


Probably like the guy who had a head on with a bus in Olsztyn this week. Presumably (obnviously) had tried to overtake on a snowy road when there was a bus... how did he not see it?

Life / Lack of Spacial Acuity in Poland [69]


A friend asked somebody what the point of zebra crossing were in Poland when drivers never took any notice of them. The reply, "The insurance pays more when you are killed on one".

Life / Do you think a smoking ban would be a good thing in Polish restaurants and Bars? [217]

if not a total ban, then at least harder segregation. I rarely go to pubs now as my wife has allergies and neither of us feel well after being in a pub with no air conditioning and a thick fug of smoke.

I remember going back to Glasgow once and being amazed to find that i didn't stink at the end of the night. It happened in a club in £odż too... even the Poles commented how nice it was to not reek like an ashtray at the end of the evening (there was air conditioning in the club).


In germany there was a pub which charged everyone 'membership' (the price of 5 beers) and you got 5 'free' beers. This made it a private members only club... and so exempt from the smoking ban.

Love / Are all Polish men Psychos? [111]


If they drive an Audi, yes.

Language / Too many English words in the Polish language! [709]

so he speaks the languages of communism, socialism, capitalism AND Esperanto (what a linguist!).