News / Tragedy of Polish couple; Polish woman repeatedly raped in Italy, her partner almost killed [101]

The latest news is that they have fingerprints and video monitoring footage of the probably assailants. Let's hope the police find and arrest this inhuman scum!

Language / Where did you start or the best techniques for learning Polish. [85]


So... you're used to paying bribes in the US?

UK, Ireland / 31 year old Polish man causes accident under influence of alcohol and kills 8 [198]


There's a high percentage of people here that that doesn't apply to....

At least the likely guilty party in this case was caught and will face justice (may it be impartial and if he's found guilty may it be harsh!). Last I heard the filfth (probably by North African migrants) that attacked a Polish couple in Itlay (and later a transgender person) are still at large.

UK, Ireland / 31 year old Polish man causes accident under influence of alcohol and kills 8 [198]


so... you just want restrictions on Poles? What's up with that?

And how many Brits are driving professionally in Poland anyway?

UK, Ireland / 31 year old Polish man causes accident under influence of alcohol and kills 8 [198]


It's almost as if opening the entire job market to people from very different cultures was not the brightest idea ever. In addition to the infrastructural differences (left vs right) the driving culture in different countries tends to be very diffeent. An excellent reason to limit professional driving jobs to those who've lived in the country for a time who demonstrate a deep understanding of the relevant laws.

You are on fire with arguments for restrictions on movement today, jon! What has gotten into you?

News / Tragedy of Polish couple; Polish woman repeatedly raped in Italy, her partner almost killed [101]

I'd prefer a different type....

UK, Ireland / 31 year old Polish man causes accident under influence of alcohol and kills 8 [198]


three whole weeks? He should spend many years in prison, as should the scum you've yet to denounce that brutalized a Polish couple in Italy.

Language / Where did you start or the best techniques for learning Polish. [85]


meh, Poland actually doesn't have that big a problem with bribes, they're mostly restricted to a few select areas (cars, sometimes building permits) but it's less a bribe culture than a negotiating culture. I've always gotten what I want form the bureacracy and I've never paid a bribe...

News / Tragedy of Polish couple; Polish woman repeatedly raped in Italy, her partner almost killed [101]

that's not how the law in any civilized country works though I heartily wish that the scum that did this is caught and spends as much of their miserable lives in jail as possible.

of course some will be more concerned that no one says mean things about their ethnic-group/religion, to each their own...

Law / My Poland born father served in a foreign army - Polish citizenship questions [76]


It's my impression the OP is not interested in any of that, he just wants Polish citizenship for some other reason...

News / Tragedy of Polish couple; Polish woman repeatedly raped in Italy, her partner almost killed [101]

The term is 'frontlash' the way the western media often seems less concerned about people killed by crazy islamic weirdos (as in Barcelona, and somewhere else soon) than about the possibility of people saying mean things about/to muslims afterwards.

It's like 'hate hoax' (a fake 'hate crime' committed to generate sympathy at the individual or group level). In the US very many 'hate crimes' are eventually revealed to be hate hoaxes but the media doesn't want people to think of the concept so it just drops the issue....

News / Tragedy of Polish couple; Polish woman repeatedly raped in Italy, her partner almost killed [101]


jon and harry are wondering how they can bring them to Poland.....

Law / My Poland born father served in a foreign army - Polish citizenship questions [76]


Is no longer in force....

Life / From Sweden to Zakopane (permanently), possible? [23]


Of course they do, but their particular dialect is part of the tourist experience (going to Zakopane and hearing the locals sound just like everybody else would be a letdown) and so they maintain it publicly (and it sometimes might be useful to discuss things they don't want outsiders to know about).

Language / Where did you start or the best techniques for learning Polish. [85]


Those pronunciations are far more common in everyday usage than the 'official' pronunciations. Teach people what they will actually hear and not what some people think they say...

Language / Where did you start or the best techniques for learning Polish. [85]


yay? Although I think traces still show up in the weird declinations of body parts that come in twos (oko - oczy) and in set expressions like 'pod oczyma' (instead of the more usual pod oczami)


I tried to not talk about children too much..... though I did learn dwoje dzieci very early on so I may have used it


I usually end up saying dwajścia.... (I also usually say szejset and pięcet)

Language / Where did you start or the best techniques for learning Polish. [85]


I thought about them, I just never tried to decline them (because the system is needless complicated and confuses many native speakers)

one - jeden (easy, just an adjective I did decline that)

dwa, dwaj, dwie, dwoje, dwóch (just in the nominative!) no thanks I did dwa and dwie, eventually adding dwaj (though I usually when the dwóch route)

It's a question of cost and benefit (important in an immersive environment). Learning all the 'correct' forms of numbers would give me no practical benefit* while costing lots of time and effort.

*I never experienced any problems with misunderstanding related to numbers, while other endings gone wrong could and did interfere with communication

Study / Polish dictionaries and works by Polish authors [17]


Well they have special smaller dictionaries for that "słownik ortograficzny" since Polish people are convinced that Polish spelling is very, very difficult...


Back in the early 90's it seemed every educated family had the big three volume monolingual dictionary on the shelf in the living room, but it didn't look like it got a bunch of use....

static.tezeusz.pl/static/product_gallery/10/10766_6_small.jpg

Study / Polish dictionaries and works by Polish authors [17]


That doesn't work well wtih Polish where there's not a huge tradition of using (monolingual) dictionaries. For an English speaker, used to using dictionaries all the time, it comes as kind of a shock to learn that Polish people mostly.... don't.

Monolingual dictionaries in Polish traditionally are either too small to be realy useful (if they exists at all) or too big to be really useful (except as reference books that aren't used too often).

Also, you kind of have to know Polish fairly well before you even know how to find words in the dictionary based on the form you see on the page.

History / For what the Germans owe Poland one trillion U.S. dollars? [299]


I'm relatively sure they won't. They know that if they do the chances of actually getting any reparations are very slim and they lose reparations as a tool for exciting their perpetually aggrieved base.

Study / Studying English in Krakow, private tutors, schools or universities [49]


Not a big fan, maybe doing one or two is okay but learners shouldn't make a habit out of them


that's the poblem, the levels that are part of official english teaching are mostly crap. the books are designed to graduate students to the next level book, not the real world at some point there has to be a wrenching away from teaching materials to real world materials and the longer that's put off the more painful it is

Study / Studying English in Krakow, private tutors, schools or universities [49]


I would tend to disagree because a lot of the vocabulary in those is essentially made up. They can be good for very advanced students, but that's not the way to learn.

The best genres to learn are highly fomulaic and/or ones with lots of repititon. Murder mysteries (with endless repititons of the events of the night in question and the behavior of people before and after) and romance (where the plot has big flashing lighted arrows moving the reader along).

Only when the reader is really bored with those easier levels should they move on to fancier stuff.

History / For what the Germans owe Poland one trillion U.S. dollars? [299]


You are soooooooo close to a major breakthrough here......

History / For what the Germans owe Poland one trillion U.S. dollars? [299]


They've worked long and hard to get that status (and still are...).

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


She's said repeatedly she just wants the thing to be over (I'm sure she's been compensated to say that but still....).


Yes, it exposes (among other things) some of the worst aspects of the US legal system

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


Yeah, all the stories have in common that the judge first accepted a plea deal and then backed out and so he bailed. But there's no single story about why the judge backed out of the deal.

Study / Overview of the WSGE university in Poland [42]

Yes, the UK has a long and proud tradition of terrible universities and it behooves us to leave none out!

News / Poland's Public TV News Propaganda "Wiadomości" hated by viewers [31]


Sounds like now. I actually watch tvp news occasionally now just to remind myself of how awful it is, the only government hands they're watching is the one handing them their paycheck....

This issue's Newsweek has a story on in-fighting at tvp between two factions of PiS (similar to a story, forget where, on infighting between two Smolensk factions). Interestingly Macierewicz looms large in both...

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

Can't say for sure in this case, but in some cases judges are elected.

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


One version that I read is that the judge initially signalled they'd accept the Polanski plea deal and then changed their mind (thinking of an upcoming political campaign) that's when Polanski bailed.