Language / spojrzenie, podejmowac - correct word usage [15]

I'd also say that 'o-glądać' implies that you look at a thing from several different perspectives, but not necesarily and not always in detail (the verb 'glądać' which no longer exist in Polish as an independent verb, but needs a prefix, does exist as such in other Slavic languages meaning "to see" or "to look at", whereas the prefix 'o' suggests that you were looking at a thing 'around' it). A sequence of images may be then involved (oglądam film/telewizję/mecz/wyścig), a set of objects in a certain sequence (oglądałem wczoraj garnitury w sklepie), or a set of some different aspects of an item (oglądałem przed chwilą nowy samochód szwagra). Notice that the perfective form of 'oglądać' is 'obejrzeć'.

Lyzko
Thanks for this very precise, yet a very good description of the Present Perfect Tense.

Language / spojrzenie, podejmowac - correct word usage [15]


I think spojrzenie, spojrzeć is a one-time act, while 'oglądać', 'obserwować' is a sort of a continuous process whose duration is unspecified, though.
What's the difference between oglądać i obserwować. Try to work it out yourself while reading your book.

And here arrives Lyzko with 'patrzeć', yet another verb of the kind! Maybe the usage of the three of them is a matter of connotations. Let's take 'television':

Oglądam telewizję. [This one is OK.]
Obserwuję telewizję [This one is stupid.]
Patrzę na telewizję [This one is less stupid than the previous one, but very unusual and not 'normal', yet I once met a native speaker when I was in a sanatorium who frequently used to express himself like that: Idziesz patrzeć na telewizję? I always got annoyed and was always refusing his invitation to watch TV!]

Real Estate / Good suburb in warsaw for house [23]


In that case I suggest you should look for it in 'okolice' Warszawy rather than 'przedmieścia' Warszawy [let's stick to those Polish terms in order to avoid confusion in regard to their translations into English]. Inside Warsaw maybe Bialołeką would match your financial requirements. But if prices are lower somewhere, it is beacause the place has its disadvantages, in this case poor transportation.

Real Estate / Good suburb in warsaw for house [23]

By the classic definition, the English term "sub-urb" [Latin: sub-urbs] or the Polish term "przed-mieście" would describe a place outside the city limits. In Poland and in Warsaw it was indeed so in the past as the name of the street "Krakowskie Przedmieście" which had been for a very long time outside the administrative city limits shows. These days the problem is that boundaries of cities are often set beyond strict 'township' areas, sometimes comprising arable land or forests within them. For this reason, "przedmieście" is commonly used in Poland today to describe an area beyond the city center, but within the city limits.

A colleage of mine was once searching for the best suburb of Warsaw to build his house some 15 years ago. As he is a very inquisitive guy, I'm sure he did his best to accomplish the task. What he arrived at was the southern [areas around Piaseczno] and northern [the suburbian town of £omianki] suburbs of Warsaw [I would call them 'południowe i północne okolice Warszawy' rather than 'południowe i północne przedmieścia Warszawy']. He has eventually had the house built in one of those chosen areas. But remember, the choice was being made some 15 years ago.

History / If Poland didn't exist, how did citizens become Polish? [57]


You didn't catch up with my [British or Polish?] sarcasm here which pointed both to the previous poster's remark about the Germans moving to the 3rd Reich in 1920 as well as to the assumed widespread anti-semitism in Poland.

History / If Poland didn't exist, how did citizens become Polish? [57]

No, the Jews were asked to apply for the citizenship of Israel.

History / If Poland didn't exist, how did citizens become Polish? [57]

The Third Reich did not exist on January 20th 1920 or for several years afterwards.

Igor Sravinsky was denied a Polish citizenship for which he applied in the 1920s. Schade, wirklich shade, we could have had another Polish composer. Until 1910 he lived in the town of Uściług which again became Polish in 1921, 128 years after it had become Russian in 1793.

Language / "to be" (e.g. 'be yourself') [23]


This is a bit complicated. What happens in this sentence:


is that the native speaker Bzibzioh replaces the genetive with an accusative in the negative sentence. I think she acts on the influence of the relatively recent phenomenon in Polish which is employing the accusative rather than the genetive with the verbs that in fact need the genetive in the affirmative statements. For example: 'ustąp mi miejsca' [genetive] may become 'ustąp mi miejsce' [accusative] in the speech of some native speakers. And although negation will change the accusative into the genetive back again even in those speakers who prefer the accusative in affirmation, Bzibzioh continues with the accusative in the negative, maybe because she is influenced by the the fact that the yet another verb which is 'potrafisz' comes before the verb 'włożyć' which makes her 'forget' about the particle 'nie'. Nevertheless, it is quite an interesting sentence which seems to have been uttered naturally and which seems to reflect the dominance of the accusative case over the genetive case in some native speakers.

This is my explanation. Anyway, I wonder what case would she employ if she were constructing the sentence without actually using the verb 'potrafisz' in it?

USA, Canada / Going back to the Old Country of Poland after more than 25 years! (from USA) [249]


I was younger than 21 years of age in 1978, but I had left for the UK in 1981 for a rather long visit where I could have stayed as a permanent resident, yet chose to come back the following year. And even if I have not left my home country since then except for several short stays abroad, I very often feel in Poland as if I indeed have been living in a foreign country these days. So much have changed ... but still, in many ways I may feel myself a man of the past, of the People's Republic period in which I was immersed until 1989. Yet, changes in mentality are not so swift as a change in the economic system. They take tens, if not hundreds, of years. You may see from the posts of foreign people living in Poland and writing on this forum that the former "communist" mentality is still here as far as the organization and functioning of society is concerned. The younger generation tends to be quite different, however, though not everyone and not everywhere - I'm taking of the Warsaw metropolitan area where I live. In short, I find the Polish society a sort of mixture now - it is a society on the path from its past towards its future.

Love / American woman falls in love with a charming Polish man upon his visit to the U.S. [36]

Personally, I think he was abusing the word, or using it "figuratively", if you like. The Polish language had known this word long before it started to be used in its specific meaning as of today. At that past time, the meaning had no sexual connotation whatsoever (it only meant: to disturb, interfere with, or annoy) so for Polish speakers the two meanings, the previous one and the present one, may somehow mix to the effect that the word is eventually much less "stronger" for some of them than for the avarage American speaker.

Law / The Stock Exchange - Poland (GPW ... or WSE). Do you invest? [34]


But is it really better than the AK-47?


The same? No, I can't name any other investment bank except this French one which had been fooled with such an enourmous fraud by one of its employees. If you can, je suis preneur ...

Law / The Stock Exchange - Poland (GPW ... or WSE). Do you invest? [34]


How dare they open their mouth again after a certan Jérôme Kerviel had shown they are total crap?


What the hell is AR15?

Language / Rzeczpospolita Polska - translation? [42]


Curiously enough, I support the view of Delphiandomine here. The name "Republika Polska" would better reflect what we are now than the name "Rzeczpospolita Polska" does. I guess the noun 'commonwealth' in English tends to express an idea of a union - the British Commonwealth, the Commonwealth of Independent States - which is what Poland used to be, but no longer is. But again, it is the force of tradition and pride that makes us hold to this purely historical name. If it had not been for tradition and pride, why should the British keep their sovereign rather than try to behead her or him in front of Buckingham Palace and say (not-so-)proudly: We are republican! Down with the Queen! Vive la République britannique!

Language / Rzeczpospolita Polska - translation? [42]

The term 'Rzeczpospolita' had been conceived by our ancestors as the Polish word-for-word translation of the Latin term 'res publica'. At the time of its first appearance in Polish, that other term, the term 'republika', might well have not existed in the language at all. As it had been conceived later on, both of them have started to be used paralelly, the former term "Rzeczpospolita" taking preference over the latter in home political contexts and as the official name for the polital entity consisting of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The term was adopted by force of tradition for the name of independent Poland which re-appeared on the map of Europe after 1918.

Before the word 'republika' had come into usage, it was natural for 'rzeczpospolita' to be used as a common noun (which is very unusual these days), as in this old literary cliche: 'takie będą przyszłe rzeczpospolite, jakie ich młodzieży chowanie".

Language / POIROT NEW SERIES - "Psia krew" Swearing in Polish? [10]

"Psiakrew" would perhaps sound a bit unusual in the lips of a young person these days, but it is perfect in the usage of Monsieur Poirot and people of his age, and in movies in particular. By the way, on which channel do you watch Poirot every Friday?

Law / The Stock Exchange - Poland (GPW ... or WSE). Do you invest? [34]


I agree that discipline is probably the most important (not only in investing or trading, by the way). As for the B&H strategy, one of the richest people on the planet, Warren Buffet, has made his money using precisely that strategy. What makes you think that he is an idiot?

Law / The Stock Exchange - Poland (GPW ... or WSE). Do you invest? [34]


I didn't mean that. I meant: are you prepared for it if a share price itself is idle for, say, two or three years - aren't you tempted to sell because you've stopped to believe that it can ever go up. That's what happened to me and I have not become a millionaire as a result of my lack of perseverence; I could have sold later on the shares I've mentioned for two million euros approximately.


Imagine that when the market collapses and you are struggling with the double glazing of your window in your appartment on the 15th floor to throw yourself out of it as a result of the crash, the market suddenly recovers and you are saved thanks to the double glazing. The losses that you've made between the crash of the market and its recovery, the ones that you did't materialize (although you've tried to do so through the act of your attempted suicide), but which at some time occured to you, are usually refered to as "paper losses".

Law / The Stock Exchange - Poland (GPW ... or WSE). Do you invest? [34]


Tell us first what your portfolio is. And what are your gains made on the guidance of your friend. Are these just paper gains?

Does investing on a stock exchange require a lot of time or does it not? If it does, would you still have time to read through the PF any more?

Will people tell you on a public forum what shares they hold if they're sure they've just bought a goldmine? I once bought a rather small amount of shares of a company, sold it after a year or so with a decent profit, and after another year or so these shares skyrocketed into what would have made a millionaire [in euro terms] of me. This has been the best company of the last ten years or so on the WSE in terms of biggest gains, so if you are an investor, you'd be able to tell its name. Are you prepared to keep your shares for five or ten years?

No, I've never kept a large portfolio. I am or - better say - I used to be a risky investor in shares.

History / Esperanto - an effort by a Pole ... [122]


Who he was then? Was he Belarussian [a Belorussian father]? Was he Lithuanian [a Lithuanian mother]? Was he Russian [a Russian Jew as he identified himself]?

In a way Zamenhof can be compared to Adam Mickiewicz. The latter described himself as Lithuanian, was born in Russia [since he was born in 1798 in Zaosie or Nowogródek which were Russian since 1795, but now are in Belorus] and died in Constantinople.

The concept of Polishness in the 18th century and then into the 19th century was quite different from what it is now. It is somewhat similar to the concept of "Britishness" of today. At the end of the existence of Poland as a soveregn state, the adjective 'Polish' referred to the territory of Poland as it was then, that is to a state which included ethnic Poland, ethnic Lithuania, half of ethnic Latvia, almost the whole of ethnic Belorus and half of ethnic Ukraine. Since formally Poland was a federal state until 1791, the inhabitants of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania were reffered to as 'Litwini' [Lithuanians] irrecpective of their ethnicity, wheras the inhabitants of the Kingdom of Poland, that is mostly the ethnic Poles and the ethnic Ukrainians were commonly referred to as 'Koroniarze' [inhabitants of the Crown as opposed to the inhabitants of the Duchy] since the term 'Polish' had become too much universal.

In other words, the term 'Polish' had evolved over time to the level of resembling somewhat the term 'British'. Someone like Adam Mickiewicz described himself as Lithuanian and Polish, just as someone today may say of himself as Scottish and British. Being Scottish or Irish doesn't exclude being British at the same time [but being Australin or Canadian does, although they speak English as a mother tongue and have the same head of state as the British people]. This natural concept which is quite strange, however, to contemporary Poles, continued into the 19th century and even to the beginning of the 20th century. No wonder then that someone who was born in 1859, had a Belorussian father and a Lithuanian Mother, both of Jewish ethnicity, would have been naturally described as 'Polish' by their compatriots living in the Russian Empire on the territories which were once the integral part of the Rzeczppospolita of Both Nations. In this aspect, the term Polish depicts a certain historical, cultural or - to some extend - 'citizenship' concept and simply cannot be treated in the narrow ethnical or national terms of today. Zamenhof could have not felt Polish in this sense, just as an ethnic Scott will never feel English today, but he would have not objected - in my humble view - to have been called Polish in the broader sense of the word.

News / Poland goes bankrupt? [110]


All likelihood is that neither Palikot nor PJN count in the game irrecpective of whether they choose to do anything or not. It is clear for everyone who observes the political scene in Poland that Palikot is nothing more than a showman who naively thought he might form a new quality in politics, while Kluzik-Rostkowska and her PJN have just been slowly sliding into the political black hole since the very creation of their movement ...

News / Poland goes bankrupt? [110]

What does 'going bankrupt' mean exactly for a country? None of the P.I.I.G.S has gone bankrupt so far ...

Language / Napić się kieliszek koniaku [25]



So, as far as I can understand these two above statements of yours:
"Napijesz się kielich?" would just mean "would you like to drink?"
while
"Npijesz się kieliszka?" would mean something like "do you want some of my good stuff? come on, let's have some good time".

Am I right in thinking so?

Language / Napić się kieliszek koniaku [25]

You don't have to. You try to get to the essence of things and that is what is important!

Language / Napić się kieliszek koniaku [25]


No, of course not. What I was trying to explain in my off-side comment


was that the noun 'kielich' is in fact a 'substitute' for 'vodka', so the expression really is : 'Napij się wódki'. And because of that the noun 'kielich' is used - strangely enough - in dopełniacz rather than in biernik. But from a strictly formal point of view, this bizzare usage of 'kielicha' in 'wypij sobie kielicha' escapes the otherwise


very sensible comment that you've made.

Language / Napić się kieliszek koniaku [25]


I am all for the explanations that you gave, Strzyga. However, you must know that it is very common to say "wypij sobie kielicha" or "napij się kielicha" or "chlapnij sobie kielicha". No one at their common senses, that is before any drinking, will ever say "wypij sobie kielich". So the native speakers who do not drink too much vodka or drink it in small volumes such as Puella, for example, may get confused when it comes to drinking only a kieliszek of vodka.

[For those who don't know: typically "napij się kielicha" is only an invitation to start drinking vodka in some bigger volumes.]

Language / Changing Polish punctuation? [23]


Does "western" here mean "american"? Yes, it may mean "of the American Wild West".


It's not Western, Polonius. It's not English, Stu. These days it's Anglo-Saxon.
The Polish norm follows exactly the Western European norm. I suspect the norm could have come into Polish via French, or if it was adopted earlier, via Italian or German. The same story can be observed with the word 'bilion' which in French and in Polish is called 'milliard' or 'miliard', wheras the Polish 'bilion' equals one thousand of Anglo-Saxon billions.

Language / Declensions, prepositions and pronouns [16]


He speaks 20 languages and he is ... British. Very impressive!

What srikes me is that he speaks with a perfect rythm and faultless intonation in Polish, even if he makes a grammatical error here and there. This leads me to the conclusion that it is better to master intonation and rythm of the language than its grammar to make a favorable impression in regard to speaking a foreign language.

The point he's making is that one doesn't have to attend any language school in order to master a foreign language. If people fail to master it, it is because they don't know proper methodology to learn a foreign language efficiently and effectively. What David J. James does is diffusing this methodology free of charge across the internet so that anyone who wants to listen may benefit of it. The guy works as an auditor.

Did anyone look in detail into his methodology? And if so, what are your opinions?

Language / Is My Painting Title Correct In Polish? [23]

What about "Pieśń od sześciuset lat w Olsztynie" ?

Language / Is My Painting Title Correct In Polish? [23]

It is always a real challenge to find a good title to a good piece of art. The same is true about translations of titles; translations of cinema or theatre pieces, for example. Notice that they are often completely different from original titles. The translation must seek the spirit of the language into which the title is converted. If a literal translation goes well with the spirit of language, that's OK, but it as often does as it does not.

Personally, I would make the Polish title a little more monumental, somewhat in line with the monumental character of this painting. My proposal is to change it to: "Pieśń od sześciuset lat". I originally thought of "Muzyka od sześciuset lat", but although the word 'pieśń' refers to one piece only, it is obviously used figuratively here, so it may eventually be better, but I am not sure on that. While "re-writng" the time range as in the expression 'od sześciuset lat' [literally in English: for 600 years], I wanted to underline that the 'music' or 'song' has been lasting for so many years.

Now that I've read it once again, I'd choose "Muzyka od sześciuset lat".

Travel / A business trip from Warsaw to Bialystok - transportation? [26]


You should guide Sobieski through it!