Life / Charity In Poland (tradition and attitude towards door-to-door collecting) [19]

Check this out:

Polska Akcja Humanitarna

pah.org.pl/en-index.html

Love / Should i wear this to a polish wedding or not? :) [27]

I am Polish and I would absolutely wear it. Church is often cold - sometimes very cold - so wearing a little something extra for the religious ceremony would be a good idea; but I've seen very daring dresses in church (including the wedding dresses themselves), so I wouldn't worry about that aspect at all.

Enjoy yourself, the dress is cute :-)

Life / Do expats living in Poland speak Polish? [233]

As a professional translator, I have to say that bilingual dictionaries are just the starting point if you are doing literary translation. You look up a word (even if you know the meaning!) to check for possible versions in the target language, choose the one you think fits the source context best, and then look for synonyms in a thesaurus / dictionary of synonyms of the target language. Once you find something you like, you can field-test your full phrase on google, to check how often, and when, it crops up in actual utterances of native speakers. And so it goes on. This is why translation of technical texts is often easier, as the word-to-word and meaning-to-meaning conversion is much more straightforward (most of the time).

I wouldn't say any language is better, richer, or more sophisticated. Each has its little quirks, its surprises, strengths and weaknesses. In translation, the first thing you should learn is that there are no easy solutions, and no absolute equivalents of meaning.

If you think a language is simple or primitive, this usually means that your knowledge of this language hasn't progressed very far yet. Many English speakers think Polish is primitive; many Polish speakers think the same of English. They can't all be right, can they? ;-p

UK, Ireland / Hand washing at public toilets in the UK [75]

Oh me oh my... I really seem to have opened a can of worms with this one... ;-)

UK, Ireland / Hand washing at public toilets in the UK [75]


"thoroughly washing his hands" would be more appropriate ;-)

Language / Help in finding household object [8]

just use toothpaste (nothing fancy, the cheapest type will do). works like a charm :-)

Language / Poland in different languages? [74]


en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agglutinative_language


I'm not looking for a fight or anything, but please could you give me examples of agglutination in Polish? I'm genuinely curious :-)

Language / Poland in different languages? [74]

Maybe I'm wrong, but isn't Hungarian an "aglutinative" language (like Japanese or Turkish) as opposed to inflective languages like Polish or Czech? Which means that each particular piece of grammatical info is conveyed by a different suffix. E.g. the Polish ending "-ły" as in poszły, przeczytały, conveys 3 bits of info: gender, tense, and number. Hungarian would have 3 different suffixes stuck on top of each other to convey the same message. Bondi? Did they teach me wrong?

Language / Interesting inconsistency between Polish and Russian [71]


I beg to differ:

Leden
Únor
Březen
Duben
Květen
Červen
Červenec
Srpen
Září
Říjen
Listopad
Prosinec

How many do you actually and truly recognize? I think three of them - èerven, srpen, listopad. How about the rest? ;-p
To be honest, I am half Czech but still find it confusing sometimes...

Language / Interesting inconsistency between Polish and Russian [71]

...or handwriting, as in brzydkie / ładne pismo ;-)

Language / Interesting inconsistency between Polish and Russian [71]

povidla is Czech for preserve/a type of jam, it is also a Polish word - powidła. in this particular case our respective languages haven't wandered very far apart ;-)

Language / Interesting inconsistency between Polish and Russian [71]

All this reminds me of an anecdote about somebody famous (a Czech I think) who tried to say a compliment to a Russian lady at a ball (pre-WW2, maybe pre-Revolution even), and, as she had a red rose pinned to her dress, said the following:

Kakaya u vas krasnaya rozha - What a red snout you have

instead of:

Kakaya u vas krasivaya roza - What a beautiful rose you have...

Krásná růže would be beautiful rose. In Czech though, not Russian.

Language / Interesting inconsistency between Polish and Russian [71]

I for one do not find letadlo any funnier-sounding than samolot or samochód ;-)

Language / Interesting inconsistency between Polish and Russian [71]


Sorry mate, but no ;-)
It's "vlak".
Vozidlo means vehicle. There you go!

Speaking of perfume and stink -

Polish "puch" means fluff. Czech "puch" means extreme stink.
Polish "zapach" means "smell" (nice or nasty, you need qualifiers).
Czech "zápach" means a very bad smell.

Quite misleading at times... ;-)

Language / Interesting inconsistency between Polish and Russian [71]


Dívka = girl, maiden
Děvka = slut

Those are two different words.


potraviny - grocery store (not restaurant)
plavidlo - rather fancy word for ship, normally it's lod'
letadlo - spot on
šlapadlo - pedal
vonavka - perfume

Marek - sure, plavidlo is from plavat (swim) and plavit (float something). And lod' is related to łódź.

Sasha - yes, I speak Czech, I am actually half Czech :-)

Language / Interesting inconsistency between Polish and Russian [71]

These are all typical "false friends" as found within any randomly chosen language family. There are loads of those in Czech/Polish as well, with the seemingly easiest and most similar words actually being quite different in meaning. This gives a Slavonic language speaker a feeling of false security - "I can understand Czech / Polish / Russian because I am Russian / Czech / Polish" - but it does not work that way... ;-)

Examples from Czech / Polish:

zahrada - zagroda (garden - enclosure, farmstead)
ohrada - ogród (enclosure - garden)
kreslo - krzesło (armchair - chair)
laska - łaska (love - charity, mercy)
milost - miłość (mercy - love)
divka - dziwka (girl - slut)
zachod - zachód (WC - the west)
trup - trup (torso - dead body, corpse)
zidle - zydel (chair - stool)
plivat - pływać (spit - swim)
tvar - twarz (cheek - face)
sukne - suknia (skirt - dress)
saty - szaty (dress - robes)

Etc. etc, sorry I have no Czech fonts on this particular computer.
:-)

Life / I'm British in Poland and I think that it's time to go back to the UK! [240]


I agree wholeheartedly! If you read the whole thread then you'd know that I am simply trying to show some of you that it's not true that the Polish have it so fine and dandy in the UK. There were some people who claimed that the Polish have all the Polish-language documentation and forms at their fingertips in the UK, whereas the evil Polish authorities do not give the same to the English speakers. So I just tried to explain that it's not as easy as all that for Poles in the UK. Not that it should be - but I already said that earlier as well.

Life / I'm British in Poland and I think that it's time to go back to the UK! [240]

You would probably have to know English to do that ;-)
But seriously, there is a huge market in the UK in so called "assistance", where people who know some English "help" those less linguistically talented to fill in their forms - for money of course, and a lot of it.

If Polish-language forms were widely available, this business would die a quick and painless death, don't you think?
Yes, government agencies and local authorities do offer a variety of translated material, but most of it is brochures, as I said before. Not the actual FORMS that need to be filled in.

But even if I am wrong about the above, I am dead sure that there is no such thing as Polish versions of rent agreements, employment contracts, medical notes, legal documents, and the like. I translate too many of them into Polish to think otherwise. For the baffled/mystified Polish end user that is!


I would really encourage you to actually follow the links and click the clicks. I tried, and the only Polish-language text I found was a LEAFLET for tenants and landlords about the Rent Deposit Scheme.

I even clicked a tempting looking link on the Home Office site which looked as if it led to a Polish version of the WRS form, but no, the actual form that popped up was English.

Again, not that this bothers me. I am, after all, living in an English-language country.

Life / I'm British in Poland and I think that it's time to go back to the UK! [240]

Hey guys, you keep complaining about having to apply for PESEL/REGON, but here in the UK, I had to get a NIN, a UTR (unique taxpayer's number - I am self-employed), of course I also have a whatchamacallit tax number because I work as an employee as well, if I were not self-employed, I would have to apply for a Workers Registration Scheme card and number, and re-apply if I changed employers within the first year, (plus pay 90 GBP for the honour! - admittedly only once), if I were in the building trade I would need to acquire a CIS card and number... In other words, there is no number-free country anywhere. And I daresay I have been given some other numbers I don't even really think about, like my council tax account number (VERY important) and stuff. ;-)

And living in the UK without a NIN is nigh impossible. The first thing anyone asks you about at any office is your NIN. So there. And, surprisingly, I do not see a great lot of Polish-language forms or official documents - and I should know, I am a community interpreter as you know. There are brochures about heating your home efficiently and protecting yourself against CO fumes, yes. But when it comes to things like benefit claim forms, rent agreements, or any other important stuff like Home Office documentation/correspondence), it is in English only - which does not surprise me, as we are in the UK after all.

Life / I'm British in Poland and I think that it's time to go back to the UK! [240]


If you don't even have PESEL, I am not surprised you cannot get things off the ground. To compare - imagine a Polish person in the UK who never applies for NIN, does not have "proof of address" (if you live in a houseshare this is not easy to obtain!) and then tries to get a job, open a bank account, or whatever. Getting a mobile on contract? I am self-employed and have tried. Nope, my credit rating is not up to par (I checked myself up with Experian and there is NOTHING remotely bad on my record with them!). I find British customer service, via the unavoidable helplines and call centres, absolutely nightmarish. The person on the other side asks a list of security questions, and then turns out to be clueless, and promises to call me back, and never does. I know that Polish officials are not always the most helpful, but at least they are actually physically there, every day, and I can keep attacking them until I get what I want ;-)

It is impossible to negotiate with a disembodied voice, and the next time you call, you will get a different "advisor" anyway.
I wish you luck with your PESEL and stuff, hopefully this is a glitch you will overcome :-)

Study / Studying in Poland in English [35]

You could always do English Studies in Poland, they are conducted in English anyway, so problem solved :-)

UK, Ireland / A collection of noimmigration's threads or "STAY AWAY from BRITAIN" [978]

Isn't it more of a problem with lady minister what's-her-name? Hazel or something? And migrants doesn't only necessarily mean Poles, does it. But I know - to you it does. Enjoy your warped world.

Life / POLES FIND CZECH FUNNY! [42]

The voice of reason.

Life / POLES FIND CZECH FUNNY! [42]

So do they dislike Poles or are they indifferent? You present two opinions in two posts, and I am getting confused.

I would say they (we?) are indifferent with an undertone of resentment for being treated like intellectually inferior beings whose main asset is that they are "funny".

But that's just me. And, as we already know, I make things up as I go along.

Life / POLES FIND CZECH FUNNY! [42]


Ludvik Vaculik - "Sekyra" (The Axe): a must read for anyone who wants to understand Morava.

Life / POLES FIND CZECH FUNNY! [42]


Well then there's no space for discussion here, is there? I know what I know and I have had my experiences, but there is no way I could project that into your head and make you understand.

Just one thing - please tell me the Poles don't even call Czechs "Pepiczki" (an extremely unpleasant moniker, BTW); just please tell me I've made that up as well.

I would say your attitude over this is - sorry to say - typically "Polish"; I can say that because I'm 50% Polish myself, you see, and have lived most of my adult life in Poland.

I give up. Think what you want.

Life / POLES FIND CZECH FUNNY! [42]


Beats me. He was a German Jew living in Prague and wrote all his works in German.


Pathetic, yeah.


To each their own.


I live in London, and have for a considerable time. It is a singularly unattractive city, though I do like the Docklands and the Chancery Lane area.

On the other hand, I love Prague. As I said, to each their own.

Life / POLES FIND CZECH FUNNY! [42]


\
Of course it's incorrectly spelled! There's a different spelling system in place for Czech. You cannot get both right at the same time. Is "dachovy obsranec" spelled correctly? (Apart from the tiny fact that no such words even exist in Czech?)


Kafka was not even Czech. Nevertheless, he is a great writer. Not a bit overadvertised. Praha is a breath-takingly beautiful place, but London is overadvertised for sure ;-)


And the bitterest and saddest as well. Have you read it in Czech, Polish, English or some other language? The Polish translations of Czech literature are mostly pathetic.

To Osiol - yes, "bagr" is an informal expression for similar vehicles. By the sound of it, it's a borrowing from German.

As to how Czechs treat Poles - Poles have also worked long and hard to earn this treatment, esp. in the eighties. Of course all this is now water under the bridge, but negative stereotypes tend to stick, and calling the Czechs "Pepiczki" almost within their earshot does not help.

As half Czech, I would be routinely treated with contempt by my Polish peers, put down for using the ridiculous Czech language, and made fun of - and one of my "friends" was gracious enough to comment, when visiting my home, that "It's really strange that such a funny people even ever published any serious literature at all" while inspecting my late Czech mother's extensive book collection in my Polish father's presence! Is that rude or what? I have been hearing similar comments since childhood. No wonder Czechs tend to be miffed. Nobody likes to be patronised and treated like a mentally retarded child.

Language / The Polish language - it's bloody hard! [210]


OK, it just sounded that way when I was reading your post. I am not feeling my best today, and that's putting it mildly.