News / Should Poland's taxpayer money be used to finance illegal theatre productions? [53]



I don't think that's illegal, even in Poland, actually especially not in Poland with its penchant for Gabinet Eroticzny etc.

Anyway, to address your point - the thing is Polly that this would come under the heading of avant garde theatre. The fellatio on JP II is a rather obvious attempt I imagine, to symbolise the sucking up to the Catholic Church aspect of the conservative Establishment. It's an attempt to shock but there are much cleverer and original ways to make a point. However present day Poland is a 'young' country and so we're seeing the sort of thing that one might have seen in the 1960s elsewhere. You might have seen something like that in London fifty years ago. Poland will go through this phase and then grow out of it and find better ways to make a point.


Don't really see anything wrong with that. Just to clarify, I don't mean it's ok to assassinate him ! I mean I can't see anything wrong with it being mentioned in a play. It's clearly not an incitement to the audience to go out and murder Kaczyński.

Now as to public funds, well we're getting into the territory of censorship. To what degree should censorship be imposed and how would it be done? Are you proposing that all scripts for proposed productions would have to be submitted for approval to the government? And that a theatre would need government permission to stage a play? That's getting into dangerous territory.

As to the blasphemy laws being contravened the authorities are of course free to act if they wish. Wonder why they don't?

Love / How do I find out if someone is a bigamist? [20]


Thanks Lenka. I didn't know that one still existed. It crossed my mind that the wedding might just be a church thing to appease her family so that she'd be married in the eyes of God but then I thought, oh don't they all have to be registered nowadays. However the only way the OP will know one way or another is if she makes enquiries.

Love / How do I find out if someone is a bigamist? [20]

Hi Maf, yes, the difference is the venue and of course the fact that it can take a few days for the marriage to be officially registered. I suppose in theory, if someone wanted to put on a show for family of getting married, they could slip the priest a few quid to 'lose' the paperwork! I think the correct term, if we want to be pedantic, for the church wedding is a concordat wedding in that it involves both state and church. Also I did make it clear that the church wedding is also 'registered'. :)

Love / How do I find out if someone is a bigamist? [20]

Hi Vera. Firstly there are two types of wedding in Poland, the civil wedding at a registry office and the church wedding. The civil wedding would automatically be registered on the day, the church wedding is registered later. Here's a link explaining how it's done:

migrant.info.pl/the-marriage-procedure.html

For either marriage the foreigner needs to provide a letter from his country of origin stating that he is free to marry, so if the guy did indeed 'marry' his girlfriend then he had to fake that document. He'd have to produce ID and in his case as a foreigner that would be his passport, so unless he had a fake ID which is very unlikely then he's in the records somewhere. Here are details of all the documents required.

migrant.info.pl/documents-required-for-a-marriage.html

Anyway the fact is that if he got married the wedding must have been registered. They probably married in the place where she's from, so with that information you should be able to find out fairly easily as first port of call would be the district court in that area. As presumably you don't speak Polish your best bet would be to contact a private detective agency in the UK as this kind of thing is super easy for them. They probably have contacts in similar Polish agencies or have access to Polish speakers. As it's not a complex matter it should be sorted pretty quickly so the costs wouldn't be too high.

Did they return to the UK after the wedding? If so, then she's probably linked with him in some form and is declared as his wife, on UK datatbases, eg tax, NHS, welfare benefits. An English detective agency could get that information very quickly.

News / American GIs troops finally in Poland and, thank God, there's more to come [480]


Actually Lenin was quite adept at financing himself, through bank robberies and organised crime. In the early 1900s he headed a secret three man group called the Bolshevik Centre which carried out amongst others a major bank robbery in Tiflis in 1907. That netted them about 3.5 million US dollars in today's money. Stalin was actually hands-on on the day. None of them were caught (but it's all in the archives in Moscow and has now been made public) and they went on to do numerous others. They also carried out a number of kidnapping of members of suitably rich families especially targetting their children. Around the same time as the Tiflis bank robbery, I'm not exactly sure when, Stalin got himself a job at the Rothschilds' oil refinery and very shortly after it went up in flames...............soon the Rothschilds were in negotiation with Stalin about pay rises etc for the workers.


I can't imagine why the American government would want to destroy Imperial Russia as it was then. However I can certainly imagine them doing what they could to make sure they were on friendly terms with the new regime once they saw what was happening there. But to say that Communism was exported from the US is a bit much. Communism didn't originate in America.

Food / Pumpkin and Rhubarb in Kraków [15]

Was just in the supermarket Johnny and they had pineapples :)) They actually had a great range of fruit today including lychees and kumquats but that's not always the case. However the prices were high. I saw some 'exotic' fruits priced at 30zł per kilo. Now if you bear in mind that you can buy apples at the moment for 2zł per kilo that gives you an idea of how expensive things can be if you want anything beyond the bog standard, everyday basics. I also saw imported strawberries, don't remember seeing them before but they were horrible looking things, very anaemic and watery looking. No discerning person would buy them, they'd have absolutely no flavour at all, waste of money.

Another thing regarding prices, I've noticed that the price of citrus fruits varies all through the year with no apparent logic. Sometimes lemons will cost 5zł per kilo and then two weeks later they're 12zł per kilo in the same shop. Don't know about America but in Ireland that would be very strange. Things like lemons are generally priced consistently throughout the year. You may see a slight variation depending on the suppliers but they won't jump to double the price.

Food / Pumpkin and Rhubarb in Kraków [15]

Denmark apparently has the highest cancer rate in the world and Ireland is in the top ten. Rates of cancer are much lower in Poland. But there are so many types of cancer that it's only part of the story. For example, there are still a lot of smokers in Poland and the air is much more polluted than Ireland. Not surprising then that Poland is number nine in the world for instances of lung cancer while Ireland doesn't even figure in the top twenty.

Food / Pumpkin and Rhubarb in Kraków [15]


Not everyone by any means. Many people live in very small apartments with tiny kitchens and don't have room for a freezer. Others simply can't afford to buy one and couldn't afford the extra electricity it would cost to run it. However there is a tradition in Poland of preserving and pickling. In the Autumn the supermarket has a big promotion on jars of all sizes and you see everybody buying them. The seasonal fruits and veggies are then sold off dirt cheap.

Polish people tend to eat seasonally and they don't expect to eat summer foods in winter. Also many traditional dishes that are not the healthiest by western standards remain very popular. There is still an enormous market for processed meats (wędliny) and sausages. Often on a Saturday, you will see people buying a big selection of processed meats to see them through the week. They like to eat it for supper with pickled veggies.

Food / Pumpkin and Rhubarb in Kraków [15]

Johnny, to answer your question, if you live in a city with a big supermarket/hipermarket you can buy most things all year round. However, you will generally never see things like strawberries, raspberries and soft fruits of that kind out of season. Pineapples and mangos are not that common either. You do get pomegranates and passion fruit and of course bananas and citrus fruits are available all year round as they're imported. In a nutshell you could say that if it's grown locally you will generally only get it when it's in season. The OP was looking for rhubarb in February, you won't get it and that's that. There's plenty of pumpkin though which he was also asking about. Anything not available locally can be imported but prices are very high and Poles are a thrifty lot. Even those who can afford it will not pay four times the normal price for a cauliflower - and rightly so!

Language / I'm a Romanian trying to learn Polish [8]


Would absolutely agree with that. That's how I started. Polish is a phonetic language so once you know the sounds you can read and pronounce any word. The sounds are very easy, I learned them in a weekend and I'm not a genius I can assure you.


Something that's definitely worth investing in is a phrasebook. The reason I suggest this is that it gives you a set of the kind of basic phrases you would need for simple everyday interactions like greetings, asking questions, shopping etc and gives you some useful, basic vocabulary like days of the week, colours and so on. Try to imagine going into a shop and you want to buy a shirt, dark green, size medium. Do you know all those words?

Some aspects of Polish grammar are quite complex, the worst bit is the 'cases' which means that words constantly change their form according to the structure of the sentence so a noun can have, worst scenario, I think, up to fourteen forms if you include the plurals!! However while you're still learning,if you don't know the correct case you can just use the basic form - people will understand you.

Love / Do I move from UK to Poland or not? (I met a Polish lady) [21]

That's an interesting question Terri. There do seem be quite a lot of successful marriages between guys who moved to Poland before 2004 and met their wives after moving there. The problems we read about on this forum mostly seem to be among the later generation, especially those who met a Polish girl in the UK and then moved to Poland.

It's interesting that according to some stats released by the GUS 'mixed' marriages are on the rise in Poland but it's more common for Polish women to marry foreigners and when they do, it's overwhelmingly Brits they choose. Polish men on the other hand go for Ukrainian by a huge margin, followed by Russian women. Among the Polish men I know, there is a perception that Ukrainian women are better tempered and more easygoing than their Polish counterparts. Maybe that accounts for it.

History / Most important Poles and Slavs that ever lived [74]


She's actually known as Marie, the French form of her christian name.


ec.europa.eu/research/mariecurieactions
history.aip.org/history/exhibits/curie/brief/index.html
web.archive.org/web/20110814005026/http://cosmopolitanreview.com/articles/40-musings/342-2011-the-year-of-marie-sklodowska-curie


Where's your source? She was known to use both names certainly, but that's not the same thing.


Yes, she signs herself Marie Curie which indicates that she had no objection to being known as such. Perhaps in her early days it was a bit of a feminist rather than nationalistic gesture, retaining her own name and identity, especially for professional use. Perhaps that's why her Nobel certificate acknowledges her 'separate' status as a scientist in her own right by adding her maiden name.


I doubt that very much. She was far too intelligent to be so small minded and petty. I think she would be delighted that she is still remembered to the extent that she is virtually a household name in so many parts of the world, whatever form that name takes.

Work / What is the average accounting/auditing salary in Poland? [42]

The only thing is that you'll have to be prepared to go through the whole interview process before they will discuss salary. At the screening interview, first stage, they will definitely ask you what your salary expectations are. Sometimes at that stage, they will tell you if it's too high, but not always. However, if you don't hear back from them regarding a second interview you can probably gather that it was too much. It's only when they make you an actual job offer though that you'll know for sure what salary they are willing to pay. A good rule of thumb is that regardless of whether it's a Polish company or an international firm based in Poland, they will try to get you as cheaply as possible.

News / Frau Merkel today in Poland [70]

What a rousing speech Maf! I'm ready to follow you to my certain death - any other takers??

Would agree that Angela Merkel, like Maggie Thatcher in her time, has had her day and it's time to put up her not-so-dainty feet and enjoy making well paid personal appearances at various academic bun-fights and bean-feasts.

It seems that nothing concrete emerged from her visit to Poland either. Just more old waffle from everybody. As for Pani Beata:

"Poland and Germany ... have a huge role to play in the changes that are taking place in the Union," she said.

Such nonsense. Poland has exactly the same role to play as any other member state and no more than that.

Language / How long to to learn Polish? In hours? [64]


Yes, you do find that with many of the commonly used constructions it starts to sink in after a while when you hear them often enough.


Agree. I learned a great deal of vocabulary that way. When I knew I had to go somewhere or do an unfamiliar thing, I would think about the vocab I was likely to need and then I'd write it down, just make a few notes in a little notebook and take that with me for back up in case I dried up! I used to go through the phrases on the way to my destination and then say them from memory but if I got stuck I had my notebook on standby. I'm talking more about business stuff than social, although certainly, in the early days, I learned a few stock phrases so that I could make a nice comment about the host's cooking or what a lovely garden or something along those lines.

Language / How long to to learn Polish? In hours? [64]


Yup! That's the problem alright! I suppose a phone call is tricky, it might be possible face to face. To be honest I really wouldn't worry about the grammar though. My own grammar is very ropey but people do seem to understand me all the same. I would say in the beginning vocabulary is more important. Knowing as many nouns, verbs and adjectives as possible will take you a long way, if you can string them together somehow. And of course pronunication, saying each sound clearly, particularly in Polish, and not running them together. That's essential. If you don't enunciate clearly that's when people may have a problem understanding you.

Language / How long to to learn Polish? In hours? [64]

Sixty hours intensive was enough for me to get the basics when I first came to Poland. I went to a course 5 days a week for four hours per day so twenty hours a week for three weeks. That kind of 'unlocked' the language for me and gave me enough to communicate on a basic phrasebook level.

@JiuJitsu, to assess your present fluency, it might be a good idea to ask yourself, would you be able to go to the bank and carry out making a deposit and withdrawal, paying a bill by bank transfer etc. Could you telephone a garage and describe a problem you're having with your car eg the engine is making a rattling sound when it's in second gear. That's the kind of thing you need. Prosaic I know but that's the language of everyday life. I have a phrasebook which contains the gem 'what are the main social problems in this town?' Now if somebody is at the phrasebook level of Polish, how in God's name would they understand the answer to that question!

News / Americans try to defame Poland yet again. [93]

No Nottykins you're wrong there. I have to give you an abbreviated pet name, your moniker is just too long and I do like to address people by name, especially when I'm reprimanding them - you, not being American, will be able to recognize the irony in that statement I'm sure.

Americans were a hodge podge of different Europeans, but at this stage, a distinctive American culture has emerged (which includes not understanding irony :)) and whilst different regions of America have their cultural identities, there is a sense of what it means to be an American that binds the nation together.

News / Americans try to defame Poland yet again. [93]


I think you'll find it was the Spanish who were responsible for the demise of the Aztecs. I can see that your musical education is also sadly lacking. Go on YouTube and listen to Cortez The Killer by Neil Young.

As for Americans wiping out 'Indians', the Indians were the Americans in those days and the Americans were just a hodge podge of settlers from different parts of Europe. You'll find that the Spanish had quite a hand in that as well. So what do you have to say about their genes?? We don't see them colonizing much these days do we? Incidentally the bulk of the native American population was wiped out by disease contracted from the settlers, to which they had no immunity.

News / Americans try to defame Poland yet again. [93]


Agree that in general the American population is quite insular and not very well informed about the rest of the world. Also their media is dominated by poor quality journalism and broadcasters. Did you ever watch Stephen Fry's journey around America? He was talking to a Harvard professor who summed it up very neatly 'the thing about Americans is that they dislike complexity'. It's a kind of chicken and egg situation, with the education system and media feeding and perpetuating a natural tendency to isolationism and simplification of issues. The American education system is very ropey indeed with no National Curriculum and varying hugely in quality from state to state.

News / Americans try to defame Poland yet again. [93]

I think he means American politics is a comedy.

About the United Nations, the organisation we know today was founded just after the war but the term was used earlier than that, though it didn't have the same meaning, it really just meant the Allies as we generally call them.


He's one of the many sources. Eduard Schulte's info came from his contact with senior Nazi officials and was I suppose, different, in that it was confirmation from the horses' mouth so to speak that there was a definite plan of extermination.

News / Americans try to defame Poland yet again. [93]

The information about the death camps reached the Allies from a number of sources throughout 1942. A few of these sources were Jews in Poland and one of the most significant was the eyewitness accounts of 69 Polish Jews who were sent to Palestine as part of a prisoner exchange between Germany and Britain. The first officially acknowledged 'holocaust alert' if you want to call it that came from a prominent Jew in Switzerland who got the information from a German business man Eduard Schulte.

News / Americans try to defame Poland yet again. [93]


The United Nations didn't exist in 1942.

News / American GIs troops finally in Poland and, thank God, there's more to come [480]

I don't think they'll be sending any of their brightest and best to Poland. It's all mouth and trousers, just a bit of huffing and puffing and showing off. They don't expect to actually see any action so they can send a few greenhorns and a couple of officers who look good in a nice dress uniform.

News / American GIs troops finally in Poland and, thank God, there's more to come [480]


If they didn't know where they were going, how could they have done any calculations at all regarding height of vehicle to bridge relationship??

Oh wait, I think you mean, that they lacked data regarding the heights and when they came to the bridges, they took a chance and went under them and then got stuck. Is that it? Poor training, that's the reason for that. British soldiers wouldn't have done that I'll bet.

Language / Patrick Ney - Is his Polish Legit? [35]

Goodness me, you're in a bit of a lather today Ziemuś.


Years ago, when I was teaching (I feel an anecdote coming on..........) there was a sort of discount book supplier who used to come to the school a few times a year with a selection of lovely books, mostly aimed at the children, but with a few targeted towards the staff as well. Anyway on one occasion, both myself and another teacher bought a giant book of potato recipes, yes that's right, they were all based on spuds, only a fiver, who could resist. Now as you know, we Irish do love our spuds, so you'd think this would be bound to get some use in an Irish household. Well at the end of the school year, I asked my colleague 'Did you ever make anything out of that book?' 'No' said she. 'Did you?' 'No'. Whereupon we both errupted into shrieks of mirth. Naturally we still went on buying cookery books, and I have actually made some recipes from them, but that particular one ended up in the charity shop.


Yes, you could well be right there about the accents. Poles do seem to have a bit of a fatal attraction to all things French. Mr Atch detests poor old Pascal Brodnicki, he loves Prof Miodek though. He is indeed a bit of a national treasure. I hope he's truly appreciated.

Language / Patrick Ney - Is his Polish Legit? [35]

Sorry, I should have said his paternal grandmother, father's mother.

Language / Patrick Ney - Is his Polish Legit? [35]

The interesting thing is that although he claims he didn't know any Polish at all in the beginning, he must have been familiar with it, the sounds and so on. He says that his maternal grandmother lived in Poland for fifty years before coming to France and that her Polish is nearly as bad as his!! And I suppose his grandmother and father would have spoken Polish together so without being consciously aware of it, something must have lodged in his brain that helped him learn later.

Language / Patrick Ney - Is his Polish Legit? [35]

Well his father being Polish would be an advantage I imagine. He grew up in France, first visited Poland when he was fifteen or sixteen but didn't move there permanently until the late nineties. He says he didn't speak any Polish when he first went to Poland, couldn't understand anything and was afraid to open his mouth. He's never formally studied the language, just picked it up as he went along. He says he's had a lot of criticism for his poor Polish and that some parents won't allow their children to watch his programmes because of it!

Language / Patrick Ney - Is his Polish Legit? [35]


Well that's what Mr Atch says. He says that within a few sentences you can tell. Even I can pass for Polish because my pronunication is very good,if I'm saying a stock phrase with perfect grammar - I do know a few that I can reel off because I use them so often, mostly shopping related :)) I'm certain your Polish is advanced level but perhaps your pronunciation is also very good. It needs to be to get mistaken for a native. On the strength of a few short phrases people occasionally think I'm Polish but I've also been mistaken for American, Russian and Czech!! Oh and French. Nobody ever suggests English or Irish oddly enough.


Yes, it's especially good when you can watch a non-native in conversation with a native and see if you can hear the difference.