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Posts by Ziemowit  

Joined: 8 May 2009 / Male ♂
Warnings: 1 - O
Last Post: 8 Nov 2023
Threads: Total: 14 / In This Archive: 7
Posts: Total: 3936 / In This Archive: 2187
From: Warsaw
Speaks Polish?: Yes

Displayed posts: 2194 / page 50 of 74
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Ziemowit   
11 Feb 2013
Language / Does Polish have a plural of "You"? [51]

"One", is a number. It doesn't work for ordinary English speakers.

Doesn't Prince Charles usually say "one and one's wife", meaning, bien sûr, "me and my wife"? But, true, he is not in the least what you may call an "ordinary English speaker".
Ziemowit   
7 Feb 2013
Genealogy / Can one become Polish? [21]

Take the example of this epitome of the Polish soul, Frederic Chopin; French name, born of a French father, lived most of his life in France,

If anything, Frédéric Chopin was a Polish emigré to France rather than a foreigner who became Polish. He was born in Poland, had lived in Poland from his birth in 1810 until 1830; thus he lived twenty years in Poland and nineteen years in France. His father Mikołaj (Nicolas) was a polonized Frenchman who migrated to Poland at the age of sixteen. I happened to read Frédéric's letters to parents from his summer holidays in Szafary, the "Kuriery Szafarskie" of 1824-25, which were supposed to be the parody of the Warsaw biggest daily newspaper "Kurier Warszawski", and which were written in very amusing and brilliant Polish!
Ziemowit   
6 Feb 2013
History / Powstanie styczniowe (The January Uprising) [5]

I think that the January Uprising of 1863 was a very important one in Polish history. It was the first one which was of all-nation concern rather than one of the gentry. For me and my family it has been an event which isn't known from books, but is living history. The first time I have heard about it was when I was so young that I could not even read; my GF was telling me that his GF took part in it. The story of those, often dramatic, events was told in the family, even if the first name of the ancestor taking part was not even known to my GF!

Whereas the preceding November Uprising of 1830 can only be pure history for me with which I am not able to form a personal link, the Powstanie Styczniowe, although quite remote in time, will always be within the scope of my own "experience".
Ziemowit   
5 Feb 2013
Language / Does Polish have a plural of "You"? [51]

The plural "you" in Polish isn't as important as in Russian or French, for example. They use their plural "you" as a polite form to address a singular individual! In that respect they tend to approach the pattern of English language. When the French say "vous êtes", they may be saying it to one person only or to more people.

It is true that I myself "internally" asociate "you" more with the singular than with the plural. Addressing an elderly person in English, I am inclined to think that I am saying "ty" rather than "wy" to them, so I am inclined to "judge" myself being a little impolite. And that is an obvious impact of my native Polish on me in which language I have the distinctive singular and the distinctive plural at my disposal. It is possible, however, that I could have avoided that association, had I previously learned to link "you" to the plural rather than to the singular form, such a form in fact being "genetically" plural in English, as it was the singular which borrowed "you" from the plural and not vice versa.
Ziemowit   
5 Feb 2013
Language / Does Polish have a plural of "You"? [51]

Aren't they just ancient cases of the singular "you" (nominative and dative)?

What does the "you" originate from: singular or plural? If you know a bit of Gernan, you will know: compare the German "ihr" with the English "ye".
Ziemowit   
5 Feb 2013
Language / "Niemal" & "Konkurs" do they mean the same as in German? [8]

I wonder what meaning does the German word for "konkurs" take? In Polish it will always imply some sort of "competition between those who participate in the event". But in French, for example, it may mean: contest, competition, but also the opposite: cooperation, support.

Here is an example of the latter meaning in French in an article on digging up the skeleton of Richard III at Leicester and then tracing his DNA as far as in Canada:

Par un concours de circonstances extraordinaire, l'historien John Ashdown-Hill, auteur de The Last Days of Richard III, a réussi en reconstituant l'arbre généalogique du souverain à mettre la main sur une descendante vivant au Canada, mettant fin à cinq siècles de mystère et des années de quête scientifique.

The word "concours" means "coincidence" or "support" here, something quite far from "competition". In Polish, we would say "dzięki zbiegowi nadzwyczajnych okoliczności" for the first part of this French sentence.

Can you comment on the German usage of the word?
Ziemowit   
3 Feb 2013
UK, Ireland / Do Poles in the UK pretend to be uppity because they have an inferiority complex? [60]

Then what's the point of coming/going to Britain? you might as well hav stayed in Poland, if everything Polish is so f*cking wonderful.

That's exactly what I have been doing all my life!!!

citizen67 Is word sarcasm known in the place you live?

Yes, it's appaling that young Britons have lost that famous sense of sarcasm that the older generation was so famous and so proud of in the whole world ...

Schade, wirklich schade, young man!
Ziemowit   
3 Feb 2013
UK, Ireland / Do Poles in the UK pretend to be uppity because they have an inferiority complex? [60]

They MUST drink Polish beer

What's wrong about drinking Polish beer?

They MUST visit a Polish dentist.

What's wrong about visiting a Polish dentist??

He needs a Polish Computer Shop in Cardiff

What's wrong about needing a Polish Computer Shop in Cardiff???

If not anywhere else, there should definitely be one in Cardiff !!!! Cardiff without at least one Polish Computer Shop is an ugly and awful place.
Ziemowit   
1 Feb 2013
News / THE PARTYS OVER... NO MORE EUROS FOR POLAND'S ROADS [71]

But Poland’s Regional Development Minister Elzbieta Bienkowska said the European Commission’s decision was “incomprehensible” and “curious.” She insisted that the case highlighted the efficiency of the Polish authorities in cracking down on suspected abuses.

“Poland is the injured party in this case, because it is Polish investigators who discovered that there may have been – in two or three cases – a price-fixing deal by contractors,” Bienkowska told the Polish Radio public broadcaster.


Though Bieńkowska has been stressing the role of the Polish authorities in cracking down on suspected abuses, the crucial moment in the affair for the Commission may be that among "those charged are 10 current and former managers for large construction firms and one highways agency director".
Ziemowit   
1 Feb 2013
News / THE PARTYS OVER... NO MORE EUROS FOR POLAND'S ROADS [71]

I was told they were a bit ashamed of it and wanted to replace it with some steel and glass modern thing. What a horrid idea.

Your picture is lovely; I remember using this "station" once when I acompanied my friends from Britain to their flight back to Liverpool. But to call it "Balice International Rail Station" is a sort of sophisticated and deliberate exaggeration on your part, if it is not a very clever example of your British sarcasm. This "station" is nothing more than a clumsy stop for a shuttle train from Kraków Główny to Kraków's Airport in Balice; no other trains stop there, not even mentioning international ones. The stop is just awful in the rain, so it really should be replaced by something else. Anyway, its present look is clear proof that the EU has not been spending that much in unnecessary funding in Poland as in Spain

Like in Spain, millions of zl/euros are wasted (empty stadiums and airports, just to give 2 small examples)

, or it even says to the contrary to what our Franco-Spanish friend claims.

...like Poland. The Russian bear to the rescue?

That is even not an example of British sarcasm. It is an excuse to remind you of the notorious British bear which had been coming to the rescue of Ireland (you indicate Ireland as a place of residence in your profile) in the past and which effectively held it in its firm grip for several centuries.
Ziemowit   
30 Jan 2013
Real Estate / The current property boom in Poland is a bubble [342]

The theory of cognitive dissonance in social psychology proposes that people have a motivational drive to reduce dissonance by altering existing cognitions, adding new ones to create a consistent belief system, [...]

Having read your lecture in social physiology directed at Pip, I strongly find that the contents of this lecture matches yourself to a much greater degree than Pip or anyone else taking part in the discussions of this thread
Ziemowit   
29 Jan 2013
Real Estate / The current property boom in Poland is a bubble [342]

Pip, you don't understand one basic thing: if someone repeats a thing a thousand times, this becomes a sacred true. If someone says there is a bubble a thousand times, that buble exists and that is all there is to it !!!
Ziemowit   
25 Jan 2013
Language / When is speaking Polish showing off and when is it ok? [46]

Indeed! As a participant in international conferences here and there, I find that some Germans speaking English are often hard to understand due to their harsh Germanic accent. Even worse than they are perhaps some French speakers (Christine Lagarde excluded :-) with their harsh Gallic accent. I once attended a meeting at which all the twenty people of different European countries taking part could hardly follow a presentation made by a researcher from France since afterwards no one dared ask her any questions as people were not sure of what she had said.
Ziemowit   
25 Jan 2013
Language / When is speaking Polish showing off and when is it ok? [46]

So speaking Polish as a foreigner to a group of Poles who don't want to speak in Polish with you, but insist on speaking in English instead, would apparently be a sign of "showing off" on the part of those Poles?

If so, I concur with this view wholeheartedly.
Ziemowit   
25 Jan 2013
Real Estate / The current property boom in Poland is a bubble [342]

There are plenty of bubbles that are visible now ... if you wanted some Polish examples then i would suggest the shares of LPP which at the moment cost about 5000 zloty each.

The soaring price of a share may be, but also may not be a bubble. There were a lot of examples of inflated share prices on the Warsaw Stock Exchange, of which the most famous perhaps was the price of the shares of Universal, the so-called "caesar of speculation", back in the 1990s. But if the rapidly increasing share price matches the rapidly increasing company's profits or vice versa, there is no reason to call it a bubble.
Ziemowit   
22 Jan 2013
Genealogy / Are recorded birth dates sometimes different from the actual? [16]

The Julian calendar came into use about 1752 in most western countries.

That is not at all true. Such a statement reflects the peculiar view that Britain and the British empire should be what you have called "most western countries". The Gregorian calendar (and not Julian calendar as already pointed out in my previous post) was adopted by four European Catholic countries on the day specified by the Pope's bull, that is in 1582, these were: Spain and Portugal (and their possessions), Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and most of Italy. France, Austria and most of the now Benelux countries followed suit, in 1582-1583. Many protestant countries objected, but most of them did adopt the Gregorian calendar between 1700 and 1701 (Denmark, Norway, Germany).

The British Empire did indeed adopt the Gregorian calendar in 1752.
Ziemowit   
21 Jan 2013
Genealogy / Are recorded birth dates sometimes different from the actual? [16]

The Julian calendar came into use about 1752 in most western countries. I think Russia didn't start using it until the 20th century sometime.

The Orthodox Church found mostly in Ukraine and the area would celebrate 2 wks later since they use the gregorian calendar.

Gjene, you confound those two names. There where you use the name "Julian", you should use the name "Gregorian" and vice versa. The name "Julian" was made after the name of Roman emperor Julius, the name "Gregorian" after the name of pope Gregory who introduced the reform of the Julian calendar into the western world.
Ziemowit   
21 Jan 2013
Genealogy / Are recorded birth dates sometimes different from the actual? [16]

It's interesting if someone's birthday is per the Julian calendar, then they moved to where the Gregorian calendar is in use,

If he was born in Western Ukraine, the calender in use there was Gregorian (Austrian partition). If he moved to Warsaw, the official calender there in use in 1886 was Julian (Russian partition), so quite the opposite ...
Ziemowit   
21 Jan 2013
Genealogy / Are recorded birth dates sometimes different from the actual? [16]

The other thing to remember and look into is the change from Gregorian to Julian calendar.

Yes, this might be essential. The difference between the two is approximately, but not precisely, two weeks. For example, I am now looking at the electronic copy of the Kurier Warszawski of the year 1863. Almost exactly 150 years ago, just two days before the breakout of the January Uprising in Warsaw, the day was the 20th January (Gregorian calender) or the 8th January (Julian calender). The paper prints both dates, but why it is Tuesday (wtorek) on both dates, is something that I can't underdstand.
Ziemowit   
14 Jan 2013
UK, Ireland / Polonization of Britain - Tipping Point Confirmed in 2011 Census [97]

Thanks for informing me. Such 'wars' are imbecilic, and I'd prefer not to take part in them.

You should tell it to the now suspended Harry who has been the principal animator of such wars on the PF for a long time; the most trivial of them all was when he endlessly chased the Polish-Americans over the allegedly wrong use of the term "busia".

I'm very proud of our multicultural island.

As a Pole who has been living in Poland all his life, I also have a great esteem for the multicultural island. The British people whom I meet in person are totally different from the majority of the British people whom I "meet" here on the PF. If I didn't meet any real people from Britain, and if I judged the British people on the basis of the attitudes of the notorious British "gang of three" (one member exempted perhaps) and its supporters here towards Poland, I would have thought that the multicultural island is in fact a most xenophobic and megalomaniacal "island" of all "islands" of the world.
Ziemowit   
11 Jan 2013
Law / Value of Zloty and UK £ in Poland [21]

Below is the graph showing the dollar/zloty rate from 1st January 2006 until 1st January 2010. It seems to me now that the dollar followed a long path of decline versus the zloty which lasted since the second half of 2006 until the middle of 2008. Then it rose sharply over a relatively short period of time to reach the heights of about 3,80 zloty for 1 USD.
Ziemowit   
11 Jan 2013
Law / Value of Zloty and UK £ in Poland [21]

THAT was a real euphoria. $1 stood at PLN 2,08.

I doubt it was a euphoria. Goldman Sachs and/or the like manipulated the rate exchange of the Polish currrency. It didn't last a long time, though ...
Ziemowit   
7 Jan 2013
Language / Polish in a Nutshell - Language Patterns Reference (verbs and nouns) [18]

Without being disparaging of kcharlie's efforts, I think he is giving too much information for the average person to take in.

Yes, I agree. For the sake of quick retrieval and better visibility, he shouldn't mix the verbs and the (evil) noun (system) in one post, for example.
Ziemowit   
7 Jan 2013
Language / Polish in a Nutshell - Language Patterns Reference (verbs and nouns) [18]

Chiałabym Kawę ( I would like coffee ). Literally translated, i would coffee.

Pam, translating it literally, you should not omit the verb in it and that verb is "chcieć", so your translation should be "I would want coffee". And since Polish doesn't employ the concept of countability/non-countability, the word "kawa" will mean both "coffe" (substance in its uncountable form) and "a cup of coffee" (a measure of that substance which when put into a container in its liquid form can be countable in English, though in fact these are cups that you count and not coffee itself). So your literal translation should really be "I would want a measure (cup) of coffee".

We use "want" in the conditional mode in the sense as the English use "like".
Ziemowit   
6 Jan 2013
Language / zraniłem się w + Polish accusative? [8]

That's correct? It's accusative and not "ręce"?

"Ręce" would be Dative or Locative, and not Accusative (as already pointed out). But beware of the declension of "ręka". The noun has some archaic forms which are directly inherited from the ancient Dual (neither Singular nor Plural) number.

1. Ence, pence, w której ręce? (Locative)
2. Mam cię w ręku! (Locative as well!, but originally meant to say "I keep you with my both hands/I can control you on something" (the Dual number form that has survived until today, even if the Dual ceased to exist in Polish some 200 years ago).
Ziemowit   
6 Jan 2013
Language / Polish Language - Basic concepts [52]

If you are really not a native speaker and you have learned all these declensions which you present, chapeau bas devant vous! But maybe, after all, you're a "half-native" speaker of Polish?

The reason for the occurrence of two different endings in the dative of masculine gender nouns is that the -u ending was the ancient ending of approximately half of the Polish masculine nouns (those with the old stem in -o) which ending had been replaced by the ending -owi present in the other half of them (those with the old stem in -u) in all except the most frequently used nouns in which the old ending has remained. Although the process had already been accomplished by the Middle Polish period (from 15th/16th to half of 18th century), several nouns such as those you indicate above (also: diabłu, ojcu, księdzu, księciu) have resisted this change until today. Just look at this Polish proverb which has as many as three masculine nouns with this ancient, now irregular, dative ending: Panu Bogu świeczkę a diabłu ogarek.
Ziemowit   
4 Jan 2013
Language / Polish Language - Basic concepts [52]

You might have noticed that I have seldom mentioned gender or feminine, masculine or neuter nouns. The reason is that the they're not at all important.

While I agree that it's completely useless to learn abstract case endings, I wouldn't say that learning the gender of the noun is "not at all important". You would test it if you tried to utter a phrase that employs a numeral in it. Try to complete the following phrases (here I"m testing your working knowledge of Polish) using the numeral "two" in them: Widziałem ...... mężczyzn; widziałem ........ kobiety, please notice that both these nouns end in -a.

More important than that is that knowing the gender of a noun is indispensable when you start to use it with a verb or an adjective as it determines which ending of the verb or of the adjective you should use.

because 99% of the time, the final letter determines the pattern. No Polish person really thinks of "lampa" as being somehow womanly or feminine. It's a lamp for heaven's sake. It just ends in "a" and other words that refer to it must also end in "a". That's it.

I have been neglecting the gender of the noun when learning French and I'm in linguistic trouble because of that. To memorize it now I think of the French nouns in terms of being somewhat feminine or masculine as the gender of a French noun often does not match the gender of a Polish one. And although the Polish person doesn't think of "lampa" as being humanly feminine, they certainly think of it as being gramatically feminine; this is - I suppose - done by the fact that the intention to use the noun lampa triggers in the brain the readiness to use potentially associated words as, for example, the determiners as ta, tamta or adjectives ending in -a etc. This process should certainly occur in the minds of the native speakers of Polish, otherwise we wouldn't be able to use correctly nouns like mężczyzna, cieśla, kolega, poeta (nouns of masculine gender, but ending in -a).
Ziemowit   
4 Jan 2013
News / Polish bishop caught with 2,5 promille [45]

He will get off lightly, as opposite to ordinary Polish people in this situation who would (rightly so) severely be punished.

As has already been stated here, the bishop has (unless the court notice that this sentence is a farce, which is highly unlikely) got away with a sentence far lighter than that imposed on the average person who gets caught driving while that drunk.

We now hear that the court has acted against the deepest wishes of the two notorious "friends of Poland", sobieskiand Harry, and has turned down the attempt of the bishop to get away with a "8 months of community service" sentence. What is really shameful is that the prosecutor had earlier agreed to the bishop's plea. I shall be informing the forum of the final court ruling in the case.