Life / POLES FIND CZECH FUNNY! [42]

"Zapad" is actually the correct Czech word for "West" - so you ruined your little joke. You should have used "na zachode", which is toilet in Czech and West in Polish.

But seriously, I hate these so-called jokes. They're really, really stupid and do not even reflect the character of the respective languages.
I am half-and-half, so I should know.

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


...and pray, were have I (metaphorically of course) "sent out pollution into the air"? I asked some questions, voiced some opinions, and got told off. That's how I see it. The questions remained unanswered.

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


Did you mean to say:

Człowieka niełatwo zrozumieć - or
Człowiekowi niełatwo zrozumieć?

;-)

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


Are you asking for a correction of that? I'm on the verge of actually correcting you here, but I shall abstain until further notice ;-)

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


Oh that way you mean. Well, the easiest and most effective way out is to simply tell them you're not interested in their corrections. Unless, of course, you are. I don't think trying to "even the score" would prove constructive in any way. Some people want to learn by example, others don't. Some are overzealous in their linguistic crusading, some couldn't care less. Getting worked up over it won't help ;-)

People are a stubborn bunch and the more you try to change them for their own good, the more they resist.

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


But you have to accept they might not be curious. I am totally uninterested in sport, for example.


Don't quite follow your drift there, I'm afraid.
Do you mean tourists walk around NY or Houston and force the natives to explain the finer points of English grammar to them, or what? ;-)

Food / How many Poles are vegetarians? [52]


Couldn't you cook your own meals, or at least help your poor mum-in-law a bit? I quite feel for her.

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


Maybe they just resent being made to feel as if they were in the classroom? Unless of course this actually WAS a classroom situation, of course. Otherwise, I'd just let them be. To each their own. If someone doesn't actually ask to be corrected, why hound them? As long as I understand what they mean, I have absolutely no problem with someone's less-than-perfect English or whatever other language.

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


In other words, the Anglophone world should do nothing all day but churn out huge masses of English teachers for the entire world? And the rest of us poor disadvantaged souls should just sit around and wait to be taught?

"Perfect" English is not the goal of TEFL, and never was, especially as there is no such thing outside the realm of Plato's ideals.

The ability to speak, understand speech, write, and read - the ability to COMMUNICATE effectively in a foreign tongue - is what counts here.
I have personally taught English using Oxford-published materials including tapes with dialogues recorded by English speakers from Canada, the States, Australia, the East End of London, the West Indies... The idea is that the student should be able to understand all these different varieties of English, and even if their own accent is not RP or General American - that they should speak clearly enough to be understood. Slight vagaries of accent are not the end of the world, nor should they be. I have had students afraid to open their mouths because some jobsworth teacher in their past had repeatedly shamed them for not conforming strictly to the pronunciation patterns of English. These people will never really speak English, the psychological damage done to them was too great. :-(

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

Nothing very special about it, except the minor fact that I would have been out of business very soon if my language skills were so very much below par. I would never say my English is perfect, but then despite being Czech/Polish bilingual I would never say my Polish or Czech were "perfect" either. You either learn a given language every day, or you regress at an alarming rate.

I have spoken.

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


I live and work in London, UK.

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


I'd rather you answered the questions and issues I raised in my post above. This is not about my English skills. Even if my English IS atrocious, I still managed to string together a few sentences about the subject we had been discussing - translation. You, on the other hand, cling to the illusion that this is some giant ego fest.


Incidentally, I have quite a busy business going, so I have very little time for fun and silliness these days. My clients will stop coming back if what you say is true. I think there is no better test.

Thanks for the generous offer.

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


I am only sorry that you have obviously decided to not take the time to read what I had written or to respond logically / intelligently.

What you have done, on the other hand, is attack me, my professional qualifications, and my level of English.
I find it immature at best.
Congratulations on your blissful and extremely self-satisfied bilingualism.

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

Hey hey hey! Easy there! I do a lot of translating INTO English myself, you see, and I'm no native! It's not a question of being cheap IMHO. It's other things.

1) Most texts, excluding literature, are not that complicated or linguistically challenging to merit looking for a "native" translator;
2) availability - if every Polish text generated in Poland and translated into English/German/French etc. were to go via a native speaker of those languages, where would you find all those translators? Remember, literally thousands of pages are being commissioned for translation every day! There would have to be thousands of willing native translators on call to cope with this demand;

3) with language pairs like Polish/English, where one is much more widely taught than the other, what guarantee can you give that a Polish translator who has studied English since primary school would be a worse translator into English, i.e., would have a worse understanding of the finer points of English, than an English translator who (with luck) started learning Polish in his/her late teens would have of the finer points of Polish? (What a sentence! Am I making sense?) In other words, translation is two-way. Your perfect ability to express yourself in English does not by itself mean you will understand the Polish well enough to be able to fully utilize this ability (or at all). In other words, you need to know the two languages equally well. In other words, both the Polish and the English translator are at a certain disadvantage and have to work equally hard. In other words, what's the problem if I do translate into English?

4) why are interpreters required to go back and forth between two or more languages if it's such a crime for translators? I am an interpreter as well - do I forget my English the instant I start typing?

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


Who are using their foreign language skills to communicate with other people around the world, you mean.
English is a lingua franca, like it or not.
Not everyone has to know it to super-advanced level. This is where translators and interpreters come into the picture. ;-)

UK, Ireland / Posting from UK to Poland....not good! [53]

International signed for - takes 3 days to get there. Have personally used it countless times and actually, am going to use it again today :-)

History / "Poland's Concentration Camp" ?? [570]

...so is Mr S. Morel Jewish after all?

History / "Poland's Concentration Camp" ?? [570]


Funny how bad Jews living in Poland are always called Poles, whereas good Poles of the Hebrew extraction are always called Jews. Never mind.

What some of you in this thread do not seem to understand is that the 2WW did not end in 1945 for quite a few countries - Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Yugoslavia to name just a few. Once the Germans were ousted, a power struggle began between the pre-war leadership and the new, communist, Soviet-supported one. This effectually meant civil war. Of course Poles killed Poles and Czechs killed Czechs. And it is remembered! That's the greatest tragedy of it all. While the world was rejoicing that the greatest atrocity in history had ended, the newly created Iron Curtain countries were still at it, while keeping up all pretences of normality and peaceful existence. The Armia Krajowa suffered terribly, having survived the war they were now being hunted down like rats, tortured and killed. If you spoke your mind, you disappeared. Pure and simple. People got killed for telling political jokes, for crying out loud. Why do you think 1956 means so much to the Polish? This was the first year after the war in which things returned to anything resembling "normal". And if you think Stalin's death had anything to do with this change, you are right. Please read a bit about Stalinism and its terrible legacy. A good start is "The Black Book of Communism" - not written by Poles, by the way.

Life / Hepatitis C in Poland...please help. [59]


And how have you found that out? I am sorry to say I do find your tone patronizing. I was shocked to learn that a number of clinics in Vegas (?) were recently caught re-using syringes (!!!) and may have infected untold numbers of patients over quite a period of time.

Every time I get a shot in Poland or have blood taken for tests, the nurse puts fresh gloves on, opens the syringe and needle pack in front of me, and after use throws them away immediately. Nurses and doctors also wash their hands a lot oftener in Poland than I have ever seen in the UK, where I am now a community interpreter and visit hospitals on a daily basis. I have even been admitted into the ICU in a London hospital wearing my germ-infested clothes and shoes, straight from the street! :-( I have also accessed wards including the delivery ward without being told to as much as wash my hands!!! Say what you will, but this would be unthinkable in a Polish hospital. You can't really compare because you'd never even enter one, would you? Why do Polish hospitals smell of Lysol and other disinfectants, while British hospitals don't? Why is there a major MRSA crisis in the UK? This is all to say that comparison isn't always so rosy for so-called highly developed countries.

Life / Polish people and racism. [943]

As an aside - why do some of you think that being "multicultural" must mean "more than one skin colour"? Asia is a huge continent and surely extremely multicultural, yet no more than two skin colours prevail - or rather, two skin tones. Also, why is it that Poland is often slammed for being racist because sometimes, some people stare or point - which in my opinion is more curiosity with a bit of bad manners thrown in than outright rudeness or racism - while e.g. in India, where I spent three years as a child, people would routinely stare at us fixedly, walk up to us to touch us, follow us round, and laugh at our language and clothes, but such behaviour is not to be considered rude or racist by the tourist or visitor? Can you explain exactly why? Also, an American friend of mine repeatedly claimed Poland needed more "colour", it was "too white", would she make the same comments about India being too "brown" or Africa being too "black"? We all know she never would. Why is the existence of Europe and white European nations such a problem for so many of you? BTW, I have lived in Poland for most of my life, and it's been quite a long one, and I have truly never seen anyone being rude to a foreigner because of their skin colour. I have seen people who were fascinated by the difference in skin colour and/or clothes, but hopefully this should be taken as a sort of compliment. :-) I agree that somewhere out in the boondocks people might be genuinely shocked by someone who looked "different", but then they would be equally shaken by a white Polish girl immodestly dressed (in their opinion). It's not racism. It's just a lack of perspective, just like the Indians running after me and my parents, pointing and laughing their heads off reacted that way because to them, we were genuinely funny. If I can accept that when abroad, I want visitors to my country to be able to exercise similar understanding.

I exclude the real "white power" or "black power" or "whatever power" blockheads from my musings, as they are everywhere in the world and their problem is political, not sociological. At least that's what I think. Howgh ;-)

Life / Hepatitis C in Poland...please help. [59]

As Far As I Know ;-)

Life / Hepatitis C in Poland...please help. [59]

what's the difference between Asians and Orientals? The Orient = Asia AFAIK.

Life / Hepatitis C in Poland...please help. [59]

Sorry, I misread the original post, it's 90% of those sick who are undiagnosed. I'm OK with that, still not OK with the "spreading like crazy" statement, as less than 2% (around 1.4% actually) of the Polish population are carriers (checked on the net). I stand by the rest of my post as well.

Thank you.

Life / Hepatitis C in Poland...please help. [59]

Us Europeans should be dying all over the place! Funny thing is, in Poland if you are to be admitted to hospital, it is quite the practice to get Hep injections beforehand (or you might not get admitted), when you are pregnant, you get tested at least once for Hep (also for STDs and HIV), etc. If 90% of the population carried Hep C around, we should all be dying of terrible liver-related ailments, should we not? It's statistics, plain and simple. Why do I know nobody with Hep A, B, C, or D (if there is one?) And I can tell you, Polish people get a LOT more blood tests done during their lifetime than the British, for example. And the results are usually back the next day, if not later on the same day (very complicated tests excluding).

This might be unfortunately changing now, due to the new "Americanized" health care strategies being introduced, but for example my generation got tested for contagious diseases from nursery to university - repeatedly. TB screenings and shots were one of sources of misery in my youth ;-)

Plus of course we get immunized for exactly the same diseases you do.
I might sound offended, maybe it's because I am. :->

Life / Fashion and Style in Poland [174]


they don't follow fashion - they create it :-D

Life / Fashion and Style in Poland [174]

I posted a link to some Polish street fashion earlier in this thread. By street fashion I mean regular people out walking the streets, not dressed to impress out on a weekend night ;-)

This is precisely what I miss - ordinary folks brave enough to wear interesting stuff. Colourful, vintage, remade, turned inside out... or store-bought clothes, maybe even Primark, but put together in an inventive way.

Life / Fashion and Style in Poland [174]


Actually, no - I work as a community interpreter and so get to travel on public transport (and walk) over large areas of London, from Lewisham to Redbridge to Waltham Forest to Enfield and beyond... And I'm very rarely bowled over by what I see... People wear gray, black, brown, and more black. And it's not stylish, not a dress code, and not tourists either. I think I'll start taking pictures ;-)

Life / Fashion and Style in Poland [174]


just like in the UK, then, actually... (at least till very recently).

Life / Fashion and Style in Poland [174]


exactimente! or whatever way that's spelled ;-)

Life / Fashion and Style in Poland [174]

actually, you're right, El Gato wrote that, I used "Quote" and hey presto! change of identity! sorry about that, but it looks like a bug in the system...