Genealogy / What does Germanised mean? [29]


I once saw a contemporary documentary film on Polish TV in which the inhabitants of Pana Maria in Texas still spoke very good Polish with some American accent. I was truly astonished that the Polish language there has surivived almost untouched since around 1850! The people were telling where their ancestors originally came from in the Opole region in Oberschlesien and showing the letters of their relatives in Oberschlesien to them, and all this in near-excellent Polish except for only a few of them who could only speak American English. Do you know perhaps what was their village of origin in Opolszczyzna (Opole region)?

Po polsku / Dlaczego uczysz się Polskiego? [101]

Sądzę, że ortograficznie (spelling) piszesz znakomicie. Owszem, robisz błędy, ale np. Twoje błędy w tym wątku to są raczej błędy gramatyczne i składniowe, a nie błędy pisowni, czyli błędy ortograficzne. Tylko cztery błędy można uznać za błędy pisowni (spelling): prakticznie, przypięknego, n.p. (powinno być "np."), poćwiczić.

Zatem szczerze gratuluję, gdyż wiem jak trudno jest pisać ortograficznie poprawnie w języku obcym takim jak język francuski. Język angielski jest ortograficznie dużo prostszy od francuskiego, polskiego czy niemieckiego.

History / The beginning of the Polish state [11]


I would. Western Slavic tribes comprise as well the Czechs, the Slovaks, and the Polabian Slavs on whom Mieszko I had no authority whatsoever (although his son Bolesław Chrobry conquered Bohemia, Slovakia, and Lausatia and Milsko).


Today these theories are largely dismissed by historians


The Gall Anonymous chronicle tells about this shift and archeological findings confirm it. Old settlements (in the vicinity the town of Kalisz) were destroyed and new one were built in the north-east parts of Great Poland.

Life / Poland and every aspect..... Please help me learn and understand the realities? [108]


966 is the starting year for Poland as a state. Poland had become part of the Christian world in that year on 14 April, thus having been recognized by other Christian states of Europe. Mieszko I was the prince who united Poland. His legendary predecessors were: Piast (son of Chościsko), Siemowit or Ziemowit (one after whom I take my nick on the PF), Lestek, Siemomysł or Ziemomysł. The capital of Poland at that time was Gniezno. The nearby town of Poznań started to be erected in 940 according to the newest dendrological findings (or at least trees which were used for this construction were cut down in that year).

Po polsku / Dlaczego uczysz się Polskiego? [101]


Chyba coś w tym jest. Tym niemniej, ja osobiście uważam że mówienie, jako bardziej pierwotne dla człowieka niż pisanie, jest sprawą podstawową. To powiedziawszy (having said that), stwierdzam z niejakim zdumieniem, że nigdy nie potrafiłbym uczyć się języka obcego bez równoległej nauki pisania w tym języku. Zatem Twoja nauczycielka dobrze wiedziała co mówi.

Co to znaczy "aby wynikowo się uczyć języka polskiego"? To być może jest jakaś kalka językowa z angielskiego. Zapewne chodziło Ci o: "aby z dobrym wynikiem/skutkiem/rezultatem uczyć się języka polskiego".


Tutaj z pewnością wystąpiła kalka językowa z angielskiego: '...belonged to our lessons'. Po polsku powiemy: 'Dyktanda były istotną/ważną/integralną częścią naszych lekcji'.

History / An American studying medicine in the PRL 1978-1985: my story [142]

It is and you don't have to be a descendant of a French miner in Wałbrzych to explain that. Edward Gierek not only spoke French, but also Dutch. The Dutch and Belgian leaders were astounded at that.

Travel / Can I get to Płock from Warsaw by boat? [7]

No, but by horse, why not?

History / An American studying medicine in the PRL 1978-1985: my story [142]

Isn't it that in Poland the word "menu" is used in the French sense of "carte" rather than in the French sense of "menu"? The phrases le menu à 15 euros or the 15-euro menu cannot be translated into Polish using the Polish "menu"; you would have to use the word "danie" to render properly the French or English word "menu" here, it will sound ridiculous to say menu za 15 euro.

The French expression "manger à la carte" would be either "wybrać z karty dań" or "wybrać z menu" in Polish; would be the same in English: "to eat à la carte" or "to order from the menu". In other words, "menu" seems to be "dishes' list" in Polish, seems to be both "dish" and "dishes' list" in English, while it only seems to be a "dish/set of chosen dishes" (menu à deux plats, par exemple, ou repas) in French. The list of dishes would exclusively be "carte" in French, it would never be "menu".

USA, Canada / Who is better informed, the expat or the Polonia crowd? [144]


I can assure you that Polish spoken (in the kitchen or anywhere else) 100 years ago would be fully legible today, the differences in declension or pronounciation would only be minor, and with some words in the vocabulary of your ancestors, very few indeed, being extinct today.


As well as the Kashubians, the Górale may and like to feel somewhat different than the rest of us, the Polish in Poland. But in contrast to the Kashubians, who are descendants of the Pomeranians, an ethnicaly different tribe from the Polish tribes in the Middle Ages, the Górale are no other ethnicity than Polish. The most distinct feature of their dialect, the stress on the first syllable rather than on the one-before-last, as elsewhere in Poland, is also of purely Polish origin which their ancestors, the Malopolans, took with themselves to the Tatra region while moving in there in the14th century when this feature of the language was an all-nation one which only lasted for a rather short period in all other parts of Poland, but has remained unchanged ever since then among those Malopolans who moved to the Tatra region and stayed there relatively more isolated from the rest of the country.

News / Who controls Gazeta Wyborcza?? [216]

Personally, I have come through some very biased reporting in Gazeta Wyborcza which concerned the company I worked for, and as I knew the matter as an "insider", I could clearly see the reporting did not want to mention a highly critical report by a certain government body on the action of the person whom GW defended with that reporting.

Whoever controls the GW, be it the FBI or the KGB, treating it as the only source of reliable information is not enough in today's Poland (and yes, I read it sometimes, among other daily papers and several high quality blogs).

Language / GCSE Polish experience. [51]

French must be easy for the English. English is French spoken badly. By learning French the English get the chance to speak their language properly.


I wrote this as an answer to the English persons who replied how easy French is for them. The quote "English is French spoken badly" has been taken from the PF where someone once put it as a saying by a known English writer whose name I've forgotten. According to estimates, some 50 % of the contemporary English vocabulary is of Norman origin.


I am Polish living in Poland. Perseverence is the right word in learning a foreign language.


IMHO, it is a very good method. That's what I did all the time when I was learning English, but it is what I tend to forget these days when I learn French. For example, I didn't remember the words coquille and escargot when I once saw them isolated in contexts other than the most typical one for them: coquille de l'escargot.

I wish you good luck with your perseverance in learning Polish, although perseverence has little to do with luck, and luck has little to do with perseverance.

News / Who controls Gazeta Wyborcza?? [216]


I believe you are right. The admin should grant the OPs the right to execute the closing down their own threads to avoid abusing it by others who promote their personal obsessions in those threads and whose further contribution doesn't really interest anyone except themselves. Slowly but steadily it adds to the deterioration of the contents of the PF.

History / Was PRL Poland? [37]



Again, I am explaining this as follows: being so preoccupied with this famous case of Albania in the question of the invasion of Czechoslovakia, I have used the word 'role' where the word 'case' would perhaps be more appropriate. But anyway, the word 'role' is justified - as despite the fact they did not take part in the intervention - you had brought up the case of Albania for the disputed question of the Warsaw Pact intervention in Czechoslovakia.

History / Was PRL Poland? [37]


Indeed, I was wrong with that. Being so preoccupied with the role of Albania in the invasion of Czekoslovakia, I made this obvious mistake for which I apologize. Surely, my intention was to write:

Why should such a plan provoke the military intervention of the Soviet Union along with its Warsaw Pact allies (with notably Albania not among them, as one of the PF member would certainly stress) against the country?

I'm sure the famous case of Albania having been a European communist country, but not being an ally of the Soviet Union from a certain point of time, that you put forward in one of the previous threds will now stick to my mind properly.

History / Was PRL Poland? [37]

Was PRL Poland? The given reponses answer either 'yes' or 'no'. In reality, the answer is not a 'black or white' one as many would want to see it.

Czechoslovakia is an example that better illustrates this dilemma. Was ČSSR Czechoslovakia? If it was, why the leader of the Czechoslovak communist party at the time, Mr Dubcek, could not introduce "socialism with a human face" into his country in 1968. Why should such a plan provoke the military intervention of the Soviet Union along with its Warsaw Pact allies (with notably Albania among them, as one of the PF member would certainly stress) against the country? 'Socialism with a human face' would inevitably mean more than 'one brand of shaving soap' in Czechoslovakia, but the Prague Spring of 1968 was not allowed to go ahead. Two brands of it was a luxury that would be too much of a bourgeois thing, and thereby not Czechoslovakian at all?

Language / GCSE Polish experience. [51]

French must be easy for the English. English is French spoken badly. By learning French the English get the chance to speak their language properly.

History / Czech and Polish character in World War two [81]

I must say I couldn't stop laughing when I read 'szmaticzku na paticzku'. But it was a good-natured laughter (the expression is supposed to means 'parasol', isn't it). It reminded me of another, a Japanese one this time: sam-go-pcham-go, which was intended to mean 'car'.

History / Czech and Polish character in World War two [81]


That depends on when the consensus was done. In 1919, the Polish were the majority in the whole entity of the former Duchy of Tscheschen (this not being part of the former Kingdom of Bohemia), and pretty much possibly they were also the majority in the Olsa Territory (Zaolzie, the left bank of the river Olsa). I'm sure that Boletus, if he passes through this thread will be able to provide the statistics, he's very good at finding old ones). Things have changed over time, however, and if in 1945 Poles formed a very significant part of the Zaolzie population (I believe still the majority at that time), their number has been constantly coming dowm until today when they are truly a minority.

People should really learn to laugh at it rather than feel ashamed. Helena Vondrackova and Maryla Rodowicz once performed a song in Sopot singing together the song "Laska nebeska" and both waving a blue stick around. The audience were laughing good-heartedly, and nobody felt ashamed. Until the crash of Poland in 1795, the Masovians were the subject of constant and wide-spread mockery all around the rest of the country because of their dialect whose certain features were judged extremely silly in all other regions (e.g. telling 'ziamia' instead of 'ziemia'), so anti-Slavic language mockery in Poland may not be particularly directed at the Czech language.


Why was it so for you then?

Language / GCSE Polish experience. [51]


... "if I shoud be using Perfective or Imperfective" is the right formulation and this difference is very imortant, though it may seem minor to many.

Personally, I would vote for the importance of listening (and speaking) compehension in learning a foreign language. That's what I did for learning English a long time ago. However, this exercize should be accompanied by memorizing the entire passages. Memorizing should be done from listening, not from reading, which means looking into the written text. It should be done systematically, but not too much volume at one go. When you master the passage, you may then try to write down what you've learned and what you've remebered. For the human mind, listening and speaking is much more intrinsic than reading and writing. The latter is the invention of culture, the former arises from our biology and evolution and was invented by Mother Nature. Repeating is essential for internalizing the foreign language.

For the last several years, I've been learning French mostly through reading and quite rarely through listening. When I went to France this year, I did get on well, but I was annoyed by not being able to formulate my sentences instantly and without the perfect rythm and intonation proper to the language. On my return to Poland, I decided to start learning French in a different way: I watch and listen to the news in French or French films just trying to concentrate on the rythm and intonation of the language, not even trying to understand what is being said. And imagine: words and meanings come to me by themselves; I begin to grasp the forms of words that I come across for the first time ever (later on, I check them in a French monolingual dictionary), all this without even trying to "hear" words or structures in the speech. All this seems to come up naturally and effortlessly when I am well "de-concentrated" on the meaning of the words and phrases being uttered.

In a year, I hope to build up a sufficient collection of words and phrases to be able to pick what I need of them in a given context instantly, without hesitation and with the rythm and intonation characteristic for a French sentence. Will I succeed? One never knows ...

History / Czech and Polish character in World War two [81]

In September 1939, Poland was allied to Britain and France, as far as I know.

Obviously, the Polish annexation of Zaolzie as well as the Hungarian action to grab part of Slovakia in 1938 cannot be justified and was clearly a political mistake; there's no doubt about it. But I wonder why, when stressing the role of Poland and Hungary in shaping the fate of Czechoslovakia, you dare not mention the role of either Britain or France who both came to sign a pact in Munich with Herr Hitler, a treaty on Czechoslovakia to which Czechoslovakia was not even invited? What was Britain and France up to in that place? To drink a cup of the superb English tea that Chamberlain got from his aunt for his birthday?

History / Czech and Polish character in World War two [81]


Correct me if I am wrong, but hasn't this happened following the agreements made by the big three: Russia, Unites States and Britain in Yalta and Potsdam? At least, the expulsion of the German population from Silesia, Pomerania and East Prussia after the WWII was done on the basis of those agreements.


You mean the ethnic principle had to be applied in Czechoslovakia in 1918? Then almost half of the historic territory of the Kingdom of Bohemia could vote to become part of Germany rather then becoming part of Czechoslovakia. Notice that this territory had always belonged to the Kingdom of Bohemia since its very beginnnig in the Middle Ages, and the Kingdom retained its borders intact, even during the times of the Habsburg Empire. By the way, the Duchy of Cieszyn had been a separate administrative unity until 1918, when it was part of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire, but not part of the Kingdom of Bohemia.

News / 70% of Poles like Komorowski. Do you? [120]


Who was Tusk's grandfather?

History / Interactive map of Poland 960-2004 [43]


Did I tell in this thread about any treaty in which support was promised? Or did I tell in about any support which was promised to Czechoslaovakia? As far as we all know, there was no treaty between Britain and Czechoslovakia at the time.


Schock, horror: Or perhaps you could tell us then why did Britain go to Munich to sign the pact with Adolphe. What was Britain up to in this place?

History / Interactive map of Poland 960-2004 [43]


Formally yes, but no one will ever believe that the Czechoslovak government acted volontarily in conceding to the Polish demand of giving them Zaolzie in 1938.

Contrary to that, Britain and France had volontarily signed the Treaty of Munich with Adolf Hitler which gave way to the annexation of the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia by Nazi Germany in March 1938.

Or am I wrong saying that Britain and France signed the Munich Pact with Adolf the Great volontarily and without any pressure from external circumstances?

Travel / Polski Bus experiences in Poland? [17]


As you once said you couldn't find your way to the train at Warsaw Central railway station, I think you should stick to coaches, even if you are bound to get sick on them.

Coaches are generally cheaper than trains in Poland, although some time ago it used to be the other way round!

UK, Ireland / Hyperthetical question about publicising information about a Polish citizen in the UK [8]


The Sun for sure would know if they incur it or not. Do you think they are not professionals in publicising information?

Real Estate / Poland's apartment prices continue to fall [1844]


Now, it's actually nicer that you repeat after Schopenhauer than that you repeat after Harry.

Still, your own predictions for a property price slump in Poland are very, very, very far from being "accepted as self-evident".

Polonia / Can I travel to france with a polish visa typeD multi? [7]


Basically, france and poland are both within the Schengen zone, and if I understand the rules of the zone well, once you've crossed the border of the zone, you may freely circulate within it, with no additional visas of Schengen zone countries other than the one issuing your visa. In other words, a Polish visa should be a Schengen zone visa.

Real Estate / Poland's apartment prices continue to fall [1844]

You applaud it in the same way as Harry did applaud one of yours:



Milky, not that you repeat all the time the same boring little statements that one day property prices will come down, you have just started to repeat things after Harry!

Real Estate / Poland's apartment prices continue to fall [1844]

I think you've misread my point. By saying "enough", I didn't mean the number of pages and prospective pages in the thread. I just meant that you would tell us if


the slump in Polish apartment prices that is supposed to be registered at page 94 would be "enough" to tempt to you into buying property in Poland! Next page, please!