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Posts by Trevek  

Joined: 21 May 2008 / Male ♂
Last Post: 12 Jun 2016
Threads: Total: 25 / In This Archive: 17
Posts: Total: 1699 / In This Archive: 1176
From: Olsztyn
Speaks Polish?: not a lot
Interests: varied

Displayed posts: 1193 / page 39 of 40
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Trevek   
23 Aug 2009
UK, Ireland / Poland continues to milk Ireland dry. [129]

I dare say it was better paid than any job available in Poland at the time.

So it's OK for foreigners to come and work as long as they get less than the Irish. And then you wonder why people leech?

My only concern is for my fellow citizens.

Then complain to Bord Failte, they sponsored and organised the course.
Trevek   
23 Aug 2009
UK, Ireland / Poland continues to milk Ireland dry. [129]

Incidentally, revokenice, here's one to tickle your fancy...

A few years ago (before Poland joined EU) I was employed to teach English to a training course in north Poland. It was a training course for hotel staff, where young Poles were trained in a kind of 10 weeks boot camp to be hotel workers, kitchen staff, waiters and barstaff.

They then got a guaranteed year's work in Irish hotels and restaurants (with option to renew their contract). Funnily enough, they were paid less than Irish minimum wage.
Trevek   
23 Aug 2009
UK, Ireland / Poland continues to milk Ireland dry. [129]

Hopefully the Irish youth will kick the saxon foe out of the country and then turn their attention on the foreign parasites. :)

Oh, did Santa bring you that nice blue shirt?
Trevek   
23 Aug 2009
UK, Ireland / Poland continues to milk Ireland dry. [129]

Did you meet hundreds and thousands of them? I doubt it, a couple of hundred maybe.

Exactly where in your previous post did you mention numbers?

We emigrated to English speaking new world countries, like America, Canada, and Australia as did every european nation... We owe the Poles nothing.

So, when you do what everyone else does, it's OK but when everyone does it to you it's different? You weren't part of US and plenty of Irish still go there and have been throughout the 20th century. What difference does it make if you speak the language. Plenty of Irish emigres during 19th Century didn't speak English either.

We also emigrated to the UK, which we where part of at the time.

What, during the 1950's? I may just be a stupid tan but I seem to remember that the 26 counties left UK in the 1920's.

Just a footnote, I have absolutely no problem with Irish emigration/immigration (other than some of the reasons many of them had to do it prior to the Republic). I'm trying to show you how flawed your own remarks are.
Trevek   
23 Aug 2009
UK, Ireland / Poland continues to milk Ireland dry. [129]

We didnt emigrate to Poland, did we you idiot?

Funny, I met a number of Irish emigres in Germany in the 1980's and Finland in the 1990's. Not places where English is the national language... idiot.

Two wrongs certainly don't make a right but it also makes someone hypocritical to tar everyone with the same brush.

So, the people who bleed the benefits (and it's not something I approve of, we agree there) are the ones who persuaded the Irish goverment to shaft it's own people and waste it's own money? How do they have a stronger voice than you do?

A genuine question; when Dell came to Ireland (instead of employing lots of Texans), did they just roll up and say, "Gee, this looks a nice place for a factory?" or did they get a few tax incentives, rent deals etc from the Irish Government (knowing how Thatcher's government attracted the Asian companies to Britain) and the knowledge there was a cheap workforce?
Trevek   
23 Aug 2009
UK, Ireland / Poland continues to milk Ireland dry. [129]

What did Ireland do to deserve this plague?

It sent the Irish all over the world.

Just remember, Ireland got a LOT of money from Europe for being a poor, underdeveloped, underpopulated country. Plenty of Irish (quite understandably) emigrated. When the economy began to boom, of course foreigners were going to flock there... it's just what happens when you become a success.

Any able bodied person who lives on benefits is a parasite.

Yeah, there used to be a lot of Irish doing it in Britain. Some of them were my mates.

RevokeNice:
the Irish government(Fianna Fail) had bought 3.5 million tons of carbon from.,,,bla bla Poland

SeanBM:
So what.
Says it all. Says it all Seany boy. You are a traitor.

Hmmm, so the Irish vote in a government which squanders its money... and that is the fault of the Polish people?
Trevek   
23 Aug 2009
News / GERMANS WANT TO GERMANIZE KOPERNIK (COPERNICUS)! OUTRAGE! [1016]

what`s wrong with Neanderthals. They were first whites

That would explain why I see so many neanderthals walking around with "White Power" patches.

- We say he was a Polish citizen of Prussian ethinicity

Problematic, as I think there were still ethnic Prussians around in Kop's time, who spoke (Old) Prussian (like Lithuanian)

Was Copernicus gay? ;)

If it was possible to prove Copernicus gay then Kaczynski would declare him German in a flash!
Trevek   
20 Aug 2009
Life / Why are Poles in other countries called "Plastic Poles"? [168]

They aren't respected, they are pander to and patronised. They are treated that way to benefit the school/teacher financially or opportunistically. I've worked in schools where little Jasiek or Gosia are put into higher classes, "tolerated" for forgetting their homework (cos the parents don't give a damn when we complain to them), etc, etc. It doesn't mean we respect them... we loathe them. They get zero help when they want an out-of-class proof reading or help with a letter etc.

It's fun when one of the little prats fails FCE and suddenly finds Daddy's money can't buy them everything.

On the question of ethnicity, how is it that a Black person can refer to themselves/be referred to as African American (or Afro-Caribbean) or a "brown" or "yellow" (no racism intended) person can be referred to as British-Asian, Chinese etc (when they might never have gone to China, Africa, India etc)?

In the days before passports were huge, there were often large communities in other countries who maintained their cultural identity and it was no considered unusual for them to be referred to as whatever the nationality was. It's perhaps only since the notion of a nation-state that it has become problematic.

Do Poles from Kresy get reffered to as "Plastic Poles"? Did szlachta in the old commonwealth get told, "No, you're a plastic Lithuanian, you were actually born in Poland"?

Imagine a 17th century conversation in Gdansk ...

"Hello, I'm Scottish..."
"Do you speak Polish?"
"No"
"Where you born in Scotland?'
"No, here in Gdansk, my parent s are both Scottish, as are my grandparents"
"Kurda! szkot plastyczny!"
Trevek   
2 May 2009
Life / Why is cheating at schools in Poland accepted?! [155]

A Polish colleague is heavily involved with Cambridge FCE testing. He claims that the FCE listening papers have had to be revised and multiple versions used in each new sesion because students have been recording the test on mobile phones and selling on the internet/ passing on to friends.

Two biggest culprits... Greece and... GUESS WHERE!
Trevek   
26 Apr 2009
Life / Polish culture do's and dont's? [106]

Don't forget to buy a ticket for the bus two weeks in advance because the driver probably won't have any to sell you and will ask why you didn't know you would be travelling that time and that day.

Buy a ticket for your luggage, even if it is on your knee.

Don't expect any mercy if queueing for the post office.

Don't stand behind someone at the cashpoint but do expect people to stand right up your @rse at the post office counter, usually sighing heavily.

My boss told me not to talk to people with my hands in my pockets. He also suggested not whistling whilst walking along the street.

Don't pour your own vodka in a house, let the host/hostess serve you.

If you are a Brit, don't laugh when someone tells you Sopot has an amazing pier.

If driving, it is customary (if you are obeying the speed limit) to use the hard shoulder to allow others to pass you (whichever direction they are coming from).

AM I CORRECT IN THINKING YOU SHOULD UNWRAP FLOWERS BEFORE GIVING THEM?

AM I ALSO CORRECT THAT YOU SHOULDN'T SHAKE HANDS OVER A THRESHOLD?

Don't say 'dziękuję' when paying for anything until you get the change (they'll take it as a 'keep the change').
Trevek   
23 Apr 2009
UK, Ireland / What do you hate about England and English people? [142]

The other day we had a staff meeting at work and one English colleague suggested that we should postpone Christmas party (which we organize every year) until the end of January so that everyone could attend and no one would feel offended! Why would you call it a Christmas party then?

Maybe he was thinking about the Russian and Ukranians (although their christmas is at the beginning of January).

Germans took over England in the 1700s.

The Scots took England over in the 1600's. The whole concept of "Great Britain" was invented by that Scottish king who went down to England and took the English crown, then filled his court up with Scots (no, not Tony Blair!). James VI.

He then proceeded to kick the cr@p out of various of the Scottish islands, as well as a few folk in Ulster.
Trevek   
30 Mar 2009
Study / American Muslim girl thinking to go to Medical school in Poland... [87]

Who are the "Marius Pudzianowski crowd"?

He's a Polish champion strongman. Imagine the Incredible Hulk, but white.

I live in north Poland and although there are not many Black people around here there are a few, African, Afro-Polish and even Americans. What I have found (I'm white but I've been involved with Black people visiting Poland) is that people can be very curious if they haven't seen Blacks before (in the flesh) and have a tendency to stare from curiosity (not necessarily malice). (I've even found myself doing it, and I'm from Britain and grew up with Afro-Caribbean schoolmates). Some people can find this rather hard to deal with, especially if they are not used to being in a place where they are in a minority (I don't know what your experience of this is).

Two extreme examples I experienced involved visiting actors/dancers from France and UK. Two boys from London came over and just couldn't stand the staring. We had to explain that people just weren't used to seeing Black people. In another case a French dancer came to visit a local theatre company and they took him into one of the most remote villages in Suwalki (far north). People were friendly, polite but VERY curious (never having seen a Black guy in the flesh) and he found the attention VERY hard to deal with.

Many older women wear headscarves in Poland, particularly those from Eastern Orthodox churches (I think that's what a babuska is).
Trevek   
29 Mar 2009
UK, Ireland / Polish Beer In The UK [98]

When I was working in Paignton a couple of years ago one of the off-the-track pubs served Lech and Okocim at a couple of quid cheaper than the local brew.
Trevek   
29 Mar 2009
News / "Poles want cut on foreign workers" - (in Poland obviously) [47]

Lepper, tho zany at times, had some decent ideas. Crops are critical.

Agreed. But if you let people in to do the job because there aren't enough Poles to do it then you can hardly suddenly say, "actually we don't want you now because we've all come back".
Trevek   
28 Mar 2009
Life / Why do people think that I'm Polish ? [92]

Well, don't forget that in past times people were "classified" as Polish/German/Polonised German/Germanicised Pole. The classifications were sometimes worked on language and religion' rather than 'ethnic features.

It also worked on whether the communist goverment wanted people to stay to do the work in the fields/factories. There was a quote from one offical who had to sort through these designations about not wanting "German meat dressed in Polish gravy".
Trevek   
27 Mar 2009
News / "Poles want cut on foreign workers" - (in Poland obviously) [47]

I find it so funny. I've taught English at a number of firms in Poland. Some complained that they had to get foreign workers. When I asked why there were no engineers in Poland I was told, "Because they are all working in bars in London!"

In some cases I've either heard of or been involved in, work contracts have either been shoddily carried out or delayed for ages because there weren't enough skilled workers to do the job.

C'mon guys, you can't expect a million or so people to disappear abroad and have their jobs kept open for when they return.
Trevek   
24 Mar 2009
History / Unusual soldier (The bear - named Voytek) [71]

world war 2 slang - doing degree in literature - film script re Voytek.

Try the Polish Servicesmens associations, but maybe also somewhere like the Sikorski club in Glasgow.
Trevek   
22 Mar 2009
UK, Ireland / English teenager refused service at Polish shop [87]

Wait until you have to go to a town hall or other civic office and ask them do to something for you. Oh, you just wait.

Sorry, I was being ironic. There's a warehouse clothes shop I refuse to shop in because of the snotty cow who works the till.

Actually the tax office ladies love my helpless look and do things for me.

reported as a soft drink.

Oops, missed that. Mind you, in Poland soft is anything under 99% proofage.
Trevek   
22 Mar 2009
UK, Ireland / English teenager refused service at Polish shop [87]

The shopkeeper has probably had trouble with schoolies shoplifting.

Mind you, she says she stopped to 'buy a drink'... what kind?

Of course, I've never been patronised or belittled in Poland for not being able to order something word perfectly in Polish. Even the bus driver who couldn't understand two words beginning with a 'b' and an 'n' (bilit normalni, bilet normalny, bylyt normalni... not sure how many other two words one might possibly use on a bus) suddenly understood after 3 minutes of obviously sincere incomprehension) when I shouted "Jestem głpui cudzoziemiec i nie mowię po Polsku!" "Ah! Bilet Normalny!"
Trevek   
10 Mar 2009
Life / What can citizens do to make Poland a better place to live? [125]

I think the point is that pedestrians here often fail to observe their responsibility to their own safety.

Exactly. I mean, would you chance your safety to the reactions of a Polish driver? (don't be offended, I know some very nice Polish drivers).

What amazes me is that some of these people serious do not seem to notice a rather large chunk of metal moving towards them ON THE ROAD. They don't even seem to notice that the road is there (with no crossing). It's like they are wearing blinkers (in some cases they are, wearing hoods etc).

What worries me more is when some of these people, who are apparently myopic and unaware of their own surroundings, are unable to acknowledge a large moving piece of metal... get into their own car and drive!