Genealogy / My dad's last name was Polak - Do I look in any way Polish? [57]


Silesians were never treated as a separate nation before - neither by Poles nor by Germans (wish you a happy search for a Silesian nation in German scientific literature of the 19th century or early 20th century) - and Silesian language can be perfectly treated as a Polish dialect and it only depends on your political stance if you must say it is a dialect or a language in it's own right) - if you are not convinced just go from Katowice to Kraków through the villages - the dialect shift is quite fluent (a dialect continuum) and was even more fluent in the past (before public education)

Genealogy / My Grandfather was born in Poland and migrated abroad - Can I get a Polish Passport? [68]


I don't think so - according to the law of that time your dad lost Polish citizenship on assuming another citizenship (the law only changed in 1950 - after that date taking some other citizenship didn't mean renouncing Polish citizenship) - but there were some changes made quite recently so you should take a closer look at it with the help of a professional

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_citizenship

Life / Polish plantlife and similar flora where you live. [81]


we were successfully growing tomatoes in ground before - they need to be planted out in the middle of may as even slight frost will kill them - all you need is to feed them significantly (and water profusely when it's hot) (I am not encouraging you to use artificial fertilizers but if you have no other choice then what can you do) - you also need to PRUNE them (sort of I'm not an expert on this - you need to have only one main stem) -

cucumbers will do well when covered with semi-transparent tissue (they like it warm and humid and as they produce a mass of foliage less sunlight is not a problem) (I don't know the right name for it in English) - it's włóknina in Polish - they need plenty of water too and will strive on compost and nitrogen rich soil

there are vegs that like company of each other and combinations that are harmful - lettuce will grow well next to radishes , lettuce won't mind the company of cucumbers so you can plant them on the borders of the cucumber plot - the lettuce will be mostly gone by the time cucumbers will start overgrowing it - some vegs don't like the company of onions

if you plant strawberry plants this spring all you will have this year is going to be a single or two fruits a small plant (if any) - but they will be surprisingly big (depending on varieties - one variety I can wholeheartedly recommend is Senga sengana - it has delicious sweet intensively coloured and fragrant fruits that are equally good fresh, frozen and in all kind of preserves

(I have no idea what square foot gardening is TBH)

as for pigwa I think they need a couple of years before they bear any significant fruit - the tree needs to be strong simply

think about green peas - they are quite simple and tolerant and wonderfully sweet and tasty when harvested in the right time (children love them) (then they turn hard and bitter) - all you need is a good bunch of sticks sticked along their lines (twigs) so they can climb a bit

ah if you never planted any dill be sure to try to sow some - some people love dill some hate it AFAIK - for me dill is lovely with new young potatoes - you just boil young potatoes and them fry them on a pan with chopped dill - the aroma is heavenly and the taste of the potatoes greatly enhanced - dill can actually fare very well scattered among rows of other vegetables - dill flowers are essential in dill pickle making (though the main ingredient is cucumbers)

Language / How do you stress the 2nd last syllable when speaking Polish? [6]

normally it's just louder - some eastern dialect have it also longer which is called 'zaciąganie' in colloquial Polish - some older people who came to the western Poland from present day Ukraine and Belarus also speak that way (as they speak 'kresowe' dialects)

Food / How toxic is industrial salt? (some food factories in Poland used it for sausages) [49]


there must have more more potassium and magnesium than sodium in these pellets perhaps even nitrogen - you were feeding the plants - sodium does not work like this - water softening stuff? - maybe phosphorus or zeolite (zeolites are potassium rich IIRC)

Food / How toxic is industrial salt? (some food factories in Poland used it for sausages) [49]

wormwood or tansy extract sprays are best for fighting slugs, beer traps also work well - looks like slugs are alcoholics; if you sprinkle soil with table salt often it will degrade it - most plants don't like too much sodium in the soil

History / Russian Labor Camps pre-WWII (in the regions of Poland) [7]


actually - someone from Silesia could not live in western SU in 1939 - I meant if any Polish person ended up in a gulag it was either Polish communist (Stalin targeted KPP - all who lived in the Soviet Union were arrested - only a handful survived) or a Polish citizen of the Soviet Union (of the said Polish minority in western SU amounting possibly to 500 000)

Food / How toxic is industrial salt? (some food factories in Poland used it for sausages) [49]


the 4 per cent Na2SO4 content is maximum - it's not and intended ingredient (but a residue from raw mined material) and it is mainly sodium sulphate that is responsible for corrosive properties of road salt

the K4Fe(CN)6 -żelazocyjanek potasu is the anti-caking ingredient - it's content is less then 30 mg/kg - it is not toxic btw - the prussic acid parts form a solid complex ion with around iron atom and are only released in very high temeperature or/and in the presence of strong acids - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potassium_ferrocyanide - it is extensively used in chemical analysis and no special precautions need to be taken (I know cause I have used it)

Food / How toxic is industrial salt? (some food factories in Poland used it for sausages) [49]


I am not sure what are the technical definitions of these two - one (professional) source claims sól wypadowa is a waste product of CaCl2 production while other sources state that brine mines in Kujawy sell sól wypadowa in which case I doubt it is a waste in the said process but most probably just unrefined brine residue - I am not sure what kind of salt is used in the Solvay process in Kujawy but I guess it's not the table grade salt and in this case it can contain some sulphur in the form of potassium and magnesium (to a lesser extent calcium) sulphates (this is because of the geology of the salt deposits there) this may be why sól wypadowa can contain sulphates (maximum 4.5 per cent according to some regulations) but I guess it is mostly much less than this

History / Russian Labor Camps pre-WWII (in the regions of Poland) [7]

there must be some mistakes in the story you were told - there were no pre-war Soviet roundups in no part of Silesia for one simple reason - the Soviets were not there until early 1945

if someone from Silesia ended up in a gulag before September 1939 they must have been living in the then Soviet Union (there was a Polish minority in western Soviet Union) or must have been a communist who was summoned to the Soviet Union only to be incancerated (the fate of most of the top Polish communists before the IIWW )

Food / How toxic is industrial salt? (some food factories in Poland used it for sausages) [49]


we have actually established it is not really toxic - it mostly contains (appart from table salt NaCl itself) subtstances that are allowed food additives in Europe (CaCl2, anti-caking agent (probably the same that is added to table salt), some trace amounts of ammonia salts - I don't think any significant amounts of sulphates are present as sulphur and sulphates are not used in the Solvay process that is the origin of the salt

Life / Polish plantlife and similar flora where you live. [81]


actually your typical varieties of tulips will only flower for as short as a week - this is often amended by planting various varieties that flower in slightly different periods in a mix

Food / How toxic is industrial salt? (some food factories in Poland used it for sausages) [49]


not true - the salt we are talking about is a waste of a Solvay process (look up wiki) - this kind of salt is not considered edible salt in Poland (by law) but is not really toxic (unless there are strange anti-caking agents added - but usually the same anti-caking stuff is added both to edible and road salt)

Life / Polish plantlife and similar flora where you live. [81]


what kind of garden do you mean - a vegetable or a flower garden

as for flowers most things that you can grow in ground in England can also be grown in Poland - you can have simple things like bratki pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fio%C5%82ek_ogrodowy (pansies heh) they flower for quite long and you can have lots of colour forms - they look quite nice as a big colourful patch in the middle of a lawn - you can introduce some flowering sage plants to create en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvia_splendens contrasting patterns - scarlet sage has dark green leaves that contrast with light green of pansie foliage and intensive redness of sage flowers also contrasts with typically mild ('pastelowe') colours of pansie flowers

if you want a lot of flowers also consider planting a couple of flowering shrubs - some attract butterflies - though summer lilac will often freeze to the ground (will restart from the roots though) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddleia_davidii

tulips and pansies - tulips will only flower for a couple of weeks in the spring though

pansies look best as a 'flower carpet'

this is not very ambitious but a good start I think

Food / How toxic is industrial salt? (some food factories in Poland used it for sausages) [49]


Polish industrial salt is mainly polonium. Should be obvious.

and more seriously the salt in question comes from purifying of CaCl2 that is produced in Solvay process - so the main contamination must be calcium chloride itself - small amounts of the substance are not dangerous and it is even approved as a food additive in Europe - perhaps some other contaminants come in play in much smaller amounts (like ammonia chloride and similar)

Language / Tips on learning the Polish language! [25]


isn't Rosetta Stone Polish supplied with voice recording? you repeat phrases spoken out by the programme and the programme records it

just enter various sentences or single words into ivona.com and try repeating what you hear - there are some basic alphabet sound lessons on youtube - search for Polish alphabet simply

Work / A Korean guy got an offer in Poland (Walbrzych)... 8000PLN (gross) [10]


yes, it is really special - Poles won't be earing this without 10 years of experience just as they say

History / Romantic Aristocrat Stories from Poland's Past [16]

Maybe try Pani Walewska and Napoleon

Work / IS THERE A PROFESSION LIKE "HEALER" IN POLAND, WHICH EXAMINATION, WHICH ADMINISTRATION? [9]


you can freely practice your profession and all you have to do to do it legally (so far) is to register it for tax purposes (you can put 'gabinet medycyny naturalnej' as the type of economic activity (you need to state what kind of activity you are going to do while registering)

Language / Need some Polish language help.....with a twist! [39]


actually, I think this is a very good idea - perhaps you can start with teletubbies in Polish (Teletubisie)- while not much is spoken at all you get accustomed to the sound of the language - after all you need to start from simple things:



there are links to Polish alphabet entries somewhere in the stickies here in the forum

another cartoon from youtube - an old Polish children's story
Kot Filemon - a nice children's cartoon

Work / Minimum basic salary in Poland [96]


it almost vanished

Work / Minimum basic salary in Poland [96]


proper education is a good base of general education plus a lot of practical skills - teaching in Poland is very much focused on feeding you facts and not making you use your resources - before vocational education was strong but with the downfall of many of industries and falling out of favour with authorities (because their ambition was that 80 per cent of youth go to universities - hehe good bye realism)

Love / Polish girls want to be dominated. Fact? [63]


if you tell someone that you need them, you actually pressurize them - and yes you show a clear signal that you can't cope with some things on your own - in most women this creates a lot of disaffection instantly (a man is supposed to be able to cope with life, yeah?)

Life / Why are Polish so conservative and religious? [240]


you know what - I would say this- we don't know if gay adoption is a reasonable thing - if we don't know and there are so many volunteers around who are so keen to have gay adoption (for whatever reason) let's just sit and wait - and see what this experiment produces - and if somebody says you have to join the experiment or you are backward village idiot I say: call me what you and you won't terrorise me with your name calling

if it takes two or three generations to know the 'fruit' of gay adoption I say - fine, we can wait that long - does it bother you?

History / Polish Officer in NATO, Col. Ryszard Kukliński. [145]


for what other reasons? would you risk your own life and the lives of those most loved ones for you just because you were offered a couple of million bucks?

Kukliński as a high ranking officer had access to Soviet war plans with NATO after being disenchanted with the communism and Soviet rule over eastern Europe he started thinking about the fate of Poland in case of the East-West war - and he realised Poland would become atomic wasteland - he must have thought about ways to prevent it and figured he would best achieve it giving providing all top secret Soviet plans he could lay his hands on to Americans - at this moment he knew very well that he was risking his own life and the lives of his family - but he was smart enough to avoid detection and to flee to the west just in time - had he thought only about himself he would have deftected without conspiring (he fed Americans various Soviet plans for good couple of years AFAIK)

Life / Why are Polish so conservative and religious? [240]


Mike, as tolerant as you would like to seem, you are rather quite intolerant indeed or at least quite insecure about the whole secular liberlism thing that you need everybody in the world to convert to your ways


now you are misinformed simply, pal - in case of rape, a pregnancy being a threat to life (and I guess incest too, because it is an unlawful act like rape) Polish law allows abortion

pûrnography? boasting about it? oh my - are you serious?

History / Polish Officer in NATO, Col. Ryszard Kukliński. [145]


risking your own life and the lives of your familiy for some greater good is heroism pure I guess


to Hitler?? you must be joking, just look at where NSDAP won the least votes in 1933 - the catholic regions

Real Estate / TRANSFORMING AGRICULTURALLY USED AREA TO FREE TIME AREA IN POLAND? [8]

no - I don't think so (but to be honest I'm not the best informed person on the subject)- but if a terrain is cultivated at the moment it doesn't mean it is classified as farming land in the developement plans (there already may be investments or housing developement planned on the land) - another thing is not every gmina has the 'plan zagospodarowania przestrzennego' (plan for the use of land) (many rural gminas (communities) don't have it)

ok - I reasearched the topic a bit more - and yes such decisions are often made with no respect to the will of the current owners - agricultural land can be transfered into housing area category (and you will have to pay a fee for the increase of the value of your land to the gmina) - it also happens with inftrastructure and in case the infrustructure is on-ground (not dug in) you will be asked to sell the property to gmina (prices offered won't match market prices because :) if you don't sell it they will take it from you (expriopration - wywłaszczenie) for compensation (which will typically be quite low compared to the market prices) - so it is best to have a look at 'plan zagospodarowania przestrzennego' in your given gmina before you buy a property

Life / Is Poland a poor country? [578]


there are such people - either on the verge of homelessness (because of some addictions or psychological issues) or older people with no families

Real Estate / TRANSFORMING AGRICULTURALLY USED AREA TO FREE TIME AREA IN POLAND? [8]

first you need to visit the 'gminia' (gemeinde) that the land is situated in - you have to check if they have something called 'plan zagospodarowania przestrzennego' which is sort of developement plan - if they have such a plan then if the land in question is devoted to some particular use in the future (like housing developement, transport infrastructure, landfill etc) you won't be able to change the current use of it (like planting a park)

if the land in question does not have any particular purpose in their plans and the soil is low class they will let you do quite a lot with the land including building a house (but there must be a public road that connects to it - also you need to officially become a farmer in Poland - a farmer in Poland has an official status and it's not enough to buy land to become a farmer (for a Polish person - if you have some agriculture background from Germany including horticulture, even raising animals you can eventually become a farmer in Poland) - aha - when we're at it - AFAIK farming land will not be freely accessible to foreigners until 2016 - you need to obtain an official consent from Ministry of Agriculture at the moment to buy farming land (and you should expect that they will expect that you create some workplaces in your newly bought farm) - anyway expect a lot of beaurocracy


and afterthought - if the thing will be supposed to be a commercial enterprise I think you actually would have to eventually 'de-farm' the land i.e. change it's official use/status - I'm not really familiar with the procedure but if the soil on this land is low quality (low class 5 and 6 are really low class 4 is borderline) then there will be much less problem with 'de-farming' it - I said eventually 'de-farm' because I think it can be plausible to start out without 'de-farming' and planting an official 'tree plantation' on the land (this does not require you to change the official status of the land i.e. 'de-farming') - some minor landscaping on such a tree plantation is plausible but if you planned something bigger (a pond, some bigger artificial hills) you would need some official consents to it - a lot would depend on your relations with the decidents in the area (you would need to let yourself known, attend and throw some parties - you know socialize with the right people)