Work / Native English looking for a teaching job in Poland [135]


And where you live, IME returning Polonia (especially from the US) are hardly well-respected and are often thought of as unsophisticated (from the emigrating peasant stock).

Working abroad for an international company while maintaining connections to Poland - good

Returning after emigrating and working in what are low status jobs in the host country - less so

Work / Native English looking for a teaching job in Poland [135]


There was a time when a native speaker with functional Polish language skills (good proxy for understanding how things in general work here) more or less had to beat students off with a stick. But I gave up on private lessons many years ago and when I did my focus was always getting them to the point where they didn't need private lessons (learning how to deal with authentic materials on their own).

Life / Why are Muslims seen as a deterrent to Poland? [564]


I speak Polish as an LS but I don't have citizenship (might apply someday maybe not)

I know lots of Polish people that are unhappy with some (or most) aspects of PiS rule, I haven't met a real live Pole who can stand JK or AM in years.

Winning elections does not give a party the right to crap all over the constitution and rule of law and does not exempt a government from criticism -that's PRL thinking.

Life / Why are Muslims seen as a deterrent to Poland? [564]


Then what the heck are you doing in MY country?

Life / Why are Muslims seen as a deterrent to Poland? [564]


Live here and we'll talk. Live in Chicago and you have no real active say.

Work / Native English looking for a teaching job in Poland [135]


I agree, but it doesn't fit with


It's a weird mismatch between form (pronunciation) and content (words used) a little like someone using normal modern Polish vocabulary but consistently using the 'kresowe' ł. And that's okay for productive usage, but learners do need to know lots of American vocabulary at least passively because Americans won't stop saying elevator or line or sidewalk or a bunch of other things.

thinking of my own usage, I think I distinguish rubbish, trash and garbage.... but I'm not sure how common this is for other Americans

rubbish (always marked and stilted) maybe old broken things that should have been thrown out long ago, not really discarded things

trash (discarded items in the home, put in the trash can) what gets taken out

garbage (discarded items when put in a garbage can and left at the curb for garbage men to pick up) and the contents of landfills and garbage dumps

metaphorically the rubbish is about old worn out ideas, trash is immoral art or lifestyles (or the people following them) and garbage is useless and/or damaging ideas....

Work / Native English looking for a teaching job in Poland [135]


Except that they pronounce the r's in words like 'car' and 'park' which is not mainstream British usage


I thought RP was deader than last week's wątrobianka - and many/most British people I've known are none too fond of it and resent foreigners using it as some kind of model....


Well here's the thing. At least 90% (probably over 95%) of Poles (this is very much in line with other Europeans in my experience) are not interested in learning ESL or reading books in the original language and they don't find national or regional differences interesting. They're not interested in following the latest developments in the language and they're indifferent to the expressive power of English. They have their own language for all that.

The overwhelming majority of Poles just want to be functional in a kind of neutral international English that they can use when needed and disregard at other times. An English teacher in Poland or more broadly in Europe (outside of a university department of philology or related field) will fail to attract or keep classroom students. They may find some private students who are interested in the byways of the language but private lessons are exhausting and generally not steady enough to be a person's economic base.

Work / Native English looking for a teaching job in Poland [135]


Sig, there's your problem right there! Why do you go to expat events? I went to a couple and was quickly cured.

And yes, there have been many that fit your stereotypes (unqalified and/or lowlifes) but that hardly exists in Poland anymore (because the market has mostly collapsed) and the more normal aren't likely to seek out expats (noted for their inability/unwillingness to deal with local conditions).

Language / Usage rules of ł in the Polish language [30]


Well to Polish native speakers (in careful pronunciation) the ł has four pronunciations (from a [US] English point of view).

1. like w in English (anytime it comes before a vowel)

2. like a very short 'oo' sound which doesn't count as a vowel for purposes of stress (when it occurs between consonants) so that the genitive of płeć (biological sex) is płci which sounds to an English speaker like pooCHEE

3. it's completely dropped (following a consonant at the end of a word, as in poszedł (POH-shet) or between consonants when it's not the first syllable like jabłko (YAHP-ko) it very careful pronunciation it might occur as the short 'oo' sound but this is not necessary most of the time and some consider it to be an over-correction

4. like a w off-glide (linguistic terminology). after a vowel at the end of a word or before a consonant. so that ał sounds like ow in now for example. Here, it's important to note that English speakers won't hear a difference between English 'no!' and Polish no (meaning 'well' among other things). But Polish speakers hear the difference. The English word 'no' sounds like noł to Polish speakers similarly English speakers can't hear a difference between final -u and ół in Polish but Polish speakers usually do.

News / Roman Polanski accused of unlawful sex with a minor [403]


Most of that is due to Jews not proselytizing or expecting non-Jews to conform to their behavior. Muslims do proselytize and expect non-Muslims to conform to muslim norms whenever they can force them.

News / Roman Polanski accused of unlawful sex with a minor [403]


He's been talking about this forever without much to show for it. I'll believe it when it happens, a lot of the names are more or less common knowlege by now (like BS and RR) but he still wants a showbiz career too much to go public.

Essentially child actors should never be allowed to be alone with directors or producers. Ever.

News / How will BREXIT affect the immigrants in UK and Poland. [1114]


can't find the link now, but starting around 10 years ago he was actively facilitating migration to Greece from predominantly muslim countries, win win for him, create a human trafficking industry and spread islam and destabilize an old enemy...

News / How will BREXIT affect the immigrants in UK and Poland. [1114]


Yes, this did not start in 2015, it goes back at least 5 or so years before that.

Here's a blast from the past

bbc.com/news/world-europe-11990696

there is a long tradition of German destructive meddling and fecklessness in dealing with illegal immigrants to Greece

Travel / Gdansk Christmas markets [26]


This cannot be repeated enough. There is just no big post WWII tradition of Christmas markets in Poland for different reasons.

The communists weren't about to promote or even allow such a thing

In the early years after communism people were too busy scrambling to make a living to give the idea much thought, traditional post WWII Christmases were hard enough to carry off (see below)

They're basically a German thing and after communism Poland really wasn't looking to the German cultural sphere for inspiration (unlike Czecz and Slovakia and Hungary).

Their relatively recent appearance in Poland is more about the expanding economy (and a population looking for more fun things to do) than anything related to traditional Polish christmas customs.

It should be noticed that in the early 1990s Advent in Poland was the most goddannned depressing thing ever. Pitch black night by 17.00 and freeze your @ss off weather, no decorations (big ole nada), people stomping around with big frowns on their faces, no work or other social get togethers or activities...a very hard ajustment for someone from a country where it's a time of a lot of parties and social activities....

News / How will BREXIT affect the immigrants in UK and Poland. [1114]


But why does Poland need a muslim community (apart from the indigenous Tatars in the east) at all? Having a class of muslim welfare pets seems to be regarded as a status symbol in Western Europe but it's a dumb fad that never pays off. Presumably the goal is turn the less well off against each other so the elite can rule undisturbed but that model won't work in Poland....

News / How will BREXIT affect the immigrants in UK and Poland. [1114]


So no european government can ever prioritize the need of citizens over random migrants who crash the borders!

Language / What's the difference between może and chyba? [4]


Actually that's 'chyba że' (conditional particles will attach themselves to the że)

UK, Ireland / Polish career criminal gets six years for rape [43]

it's only a terrible, unreliable newspaper when it reports things Harry doesn't like!

uh uh oooohhhhhh It's maaaagick!

News / How will BREXIT affect the immigrants in UK and Poland. [1114]


They could have also agreed pending explicit negotiations on the details, perfectly within their rights and the results would have been similar because Germany and France have no idea themselves.

But JK is a big baby who throws tantrums when he doesn't get his way.

News / How will BREXIT affect the immigrants in UK and Poland. [1114]


Actually the Merkel refugees are 70 to 80 % non-Syrian (I'm deliberately undestimate the number of non-Syrians).

News / How will BREXIT affect the immigrants in UK and Poland. [1114]


Going back is every bit as difficult (and sometimes harder) than leaving in the first place. The Poland they left doesn't exist anymore.

Reverse culture shock can be harder for returnees to deal with than their original culture shock when they left (partly because people don't expect it at all).

News / How will BREXIT affect the immigrants in UK and Poland. [1114]


It doesn't matter what her exact words were, the results speak for themselves, hundreds of thousands of unintegrateable unemployyable culturally incompatible men are in Germany for the long haul.

News / How will BREXIT affect the immigrants in UK and Poland. [1114]


Of the different stories regarding her motivation, I think the most likely was that she simply lost her nerve (she had forces on the border to turn them back and decided at the last minute the PR wouldn't be good and so she let them in underestimating how many would finally show up). Since then she's tried to brazen it out that it wasn't a catastropically bad decision creating a money pit and hurting the health and safety of citizens.

News / How will BREXIT affect the immigrants in UK and Poland. [1114]


South Europe has not faced a 'refugee crisis'. I repeat there is no 'refugee crisis'

I say this for the simple reason that the vast majority of those showing up are transparently not refugees in any real sense. Anyone following this story (which has been going on for _years_) knows this. The problem is that Southern Europe was/is systematically prevented form acting in a sane manner and closing the borders/repatriating 'refugees' back to the closest country they came from or simply deciding closing the borders.

Laws on refugees and asylum from 50 years ago are hopelessly out of date. But the EU is a slow, lumbering reactive beast.

Again, there was _no_ refugee crisis in Southern Europe, there was a crisis caused by dysfunctional and outdated laws that created false hope in tens of millions of people who would like to live in Europe.

Language / What's the difference between może and chyba? [4]

there is some overlap, the differences are (I think - non-native speaker here) is that chyba is more of a (not firm) opinion, estimation while może is just about possibility

może = maybe, possibly

chyba = probably, i think so (sort of), i'm inclined to think so, i hypothesize

Classifieds / Trying to learn Polish language in Bialystok [16]


I haven't been there in many years. The one time I was there it was weird, it felt very non-Polish (in ways that are hard to describe) and the way people were dressing looked like western Poland (where I live) did four or five years previously.

This was also in winter so I could tell parts were probably prettier in better weather but in minus 5 degrees the charms weren't so apparent...

News / How will BREXIT affect the immigrants in UK and Poland. [1114]


Then Germany should realzie that countries act in their own interests and not the interests of other countries.


Faithful lapdogs is the role assigned to Poland and Czech and Slovakia etc?


Yes, the UK acted as an unconditional ally and earned a huge amount of good will that still exists because of that. Germany and France decided they didn't need Poland as an ally and took another track. Fair enough. But that has consequences.


Fair enough, it's clear that even now Poland can't help its own citizens as much as it could/should/would like. All the more reason for not engaging in expensive misguided charity projects like inviting thousands of usntable young men without the cultural linguistic background needed for integration. Germany can afford them. Poland can't.

Classifieds / Trying to learn Polish language in Bialystok [16]


all languages are made up.... and some literary standard languages (esp Basque, Slovenian) are very artificial combinations of different dialects.

Esperanto does have a relatively large wikipedia for the number of speakers (maybe 2 million)

eo.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vikipedio:%C4%88efpa%C4%9Do

And the duolingo Esperanto course in English has over a million learners

Polish International Radio used to do broadcasts in Esperanto (apparently they generated more mail than any of the other foreign language services ) but the program was axed by the first PiS government because of Zamenhof was a Jew (that's actually the reason that was given).

News / How will BREXIT affect the immigrants in UK and Poland. [1114]


Which is one reason why Poland doesn't not feel the need to jump any time Germany says 'frog'. Germany and France created a lot of bad will by their fear of Polish labor and have done approximately nothing since then to repair it.

Their policy then also gives the lie to the fiction that the Merkeljugend migrants will ever be anything but a welfare drain because all most could ever be is cheap labor (provided you could force them into jobs which is far form certain) which Germany doesn't want

News / How will BREXIT affect the immigrants in UK and Poland. [1114]


You keep making economic arguments to people whose motives were not primarily economic. The leave vote was an expression of existential dread and increasing alienation (from the national government and EU institutions) and more money doesn't cure those.

Had the UK government done a better job of addressing those issues leave wouldn't have had a chance.