UK, Ireland / Former minister admits UK messed up on immigration [78]


What a ridiculous person. To have five children and expect others to pay for their keep. The British model of a welfare state was a huge mistake. It simply rewards the idle and irresponsible.


It has benefited employers and Poles. It has reduced the income of Working Class Brits.

Life / Where in Poland would be a good place to live for freshwater fishing? [4]

That's true. I've been translating the tourist brochures for Zachodniopomorskie. Lots of stuff about species of fish I'd never heard of before.

News / Anybody watch Adam Michnik on Lis this evening? [50]

I have to say I'm completely with Antheads and Wielki Polak on this one. Delphi and Harry are showing their abject ignorance and rabid Polonophobia by not accepting the Smolensk Conspiraloon theory as fact, as any true heterosexual, Catholic person of Slavic descent would do.

The world is not as the Polophobe, crypto-Jewish traitors of PO would like to paint it. It was those very same distinguished scientists who have cleverly unravelled the Smolensk plot, despite never having been to Smolensk itself, who unmasked the great round earth hoax, perpetrated by Jewish infiltration of NASA, as the following video clearly demonstrates:

youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=99E-aTIk9xM

Language / Is Polish an easy language to learn and is there a way of learning it easily? [105]


I do. It's quicker than using a dictionary. And whenever I translate texts I'm getting paid for doing so.

Of course, you have to know how to use it.

Language / Is Polish an easy language to learn and is there a way of learning it easily? [105]


Agreed. Those who say otherwise have made no serious effort to learn it.

Life / The best English newspapers about Poland? [22]

News in English for 27.10.2013: wroclawuncut.com/2013/10/27/sunday-news-supplement/

Life / The best English newspapers about Poland? [22]

I can give you mine: sz-n.com.

Smurf 3,2 .... 1

Other news sites, try googling them:

thenews.pl
wroclaw uncut
the kraków post
new poland express

I would strongly recommend this every Sunday: wroclawuncut.com/2013/06/16/uncut-sunday-supplement/

Language / Is Polish an easy language to learn and is there a way of learning it easily? [105]

That's a pretty good way to learn the language. Watch (good) films, and the news in Polish. I'd recommend watching with English subtitles first, however.

Films I'd recommend would be: Rejs, Seksmisja, Miś (classics). The new film 'Ambassada' is also good, though it got panned by the critics.

I thought you were Polish, with your name and writing style.

Language / Is Polish an easy language to learn and is there a way of learning it easily? [105]

Well, you're the only one here. Obviously, in a legal practice, formal register is required. Here, it is not.

This isn't a convention for aspiring nineteenth century literary critics.

Language / Is Polish an easy language to learn and is there a way of learning it easily? [105]


It has its own difficulties. Tones. An alphabet of 20k characters.


Polish isn't so difficult for speakers of other Slavic languages. Welsh isn't exactly a world language, but can be learned far quicker than Polish because its grammar is far less complex.

Some languages are more difficult than others.

Language / Is Polish an easy language to learn and is there a way of learning it easily? [105]


It is an 'easy' language.

We don't have cases or genders and very few declinations.

Of course, one or two aspects are 'difficult'. However, if you were to take (say) a Japanese person who knew nothing of either language, I feel confident he or she would learn English far quicker than Polish because of its comparative simplicity.

Language / Is Polish an easy language to learn and is there a way of learning it easily? [105]

You are confusing verbosity with cleverness.

Language / Is Polish an easy language to learn and is there a way of learning it easily? [105]

Rotting away in cemeteries, I'd imagine.

Language / Is Polish an easy language to learn and is there a way of learning it easily? [105]


People said much the same about standards declining in the ancient world. You are not writing in a register appropriate for this forum. Therefore, you come across as 'pretentious'.

However, it's up to you, I suppose.

Language / Is Polish an easy language to learn and is there a way of learning it easily? [105]

Fairly obviously, there are more and less formal ways of speaking Polish. Just as in any other language.

Language / Is Polish an easy language to learn and is there a way of learning it easily? [105]


You give the impression of trying too hard. You seem to be far more interested in showing off your knowledge than in actual communication. Good language skills mean being clear and concise rather than verbose. I once read that in Polish it is the writer who is more important whereas in English it is the reader. I believe there is some truth in that observation.

Language / Is Polish an easy language to learn and is there a way of learning it easily? [105]


True.


Not true. Polish is hard. I can compare it with Welsh.

Welsh simply appears difficult. Its grammar, however, can be learnt in a few months. That's not true with Polish.


But eventually you will almost always end up speaking the language it is easiest to communicate in.


Or your language skills aren't sufficiently advanced for you to recognise nuances of register in Polish.


No, I mean it sounds pretentious and unnatural.


I'm an educated native speaker over forty.

Language / Is Polish an easy language to learn and is there a way of learning it easily? [105]

Your English is very odd.

Language / Is Polish an easy language to learn and is there a way of learning it easily? [105]

If you managed to learn the grammar in four years then that's amazing.

Personally, I don't see how 'foreigner sounding grammar' is avoidable.

You are, after all, a 'foreigner'.

Language / Is Polish an easy language to learn and is there a way of learning it easily? [105]

To be honest, I completely disagreed with your comments about language learning. I've lived in Poland for over fifteen years, have a Polish wife, and frequently translate Polish texts into English (but never the other way round).

I'd say that trying to learn the grammar first was a big mistake. There is simply so much of it that you are setting yourself a near impossible task. However much I learned of Polish grammar, I realised there was still more to learn.

My advise would be to simply immerse yourself in the language. Watch lots of Polish films, read Polish texts and so on.

After a while you will develop an instinct as to the correct ending.

I tried to learn the way you did, but it was a failure. What was more useful was watching the news in Polish every evening and reading the news in Polish online.

Just my two cents, as Americans say.

Language / Is Polish an easy language to learn and is there a way of learning it easily? [105]

Can you speak Polish, and if so, how well?

Just curious.

USA, Canada / Why do Americans (and Canadians) hate Polish people? [226]


As far as I can make out, you seem to want one rule for yourself and another for everyone else.

When people call you a 'dumb Polack' you complain.

When a black girl complains that people in Poland use racial slurs against her, then you tell her, "she shouldn't move the furniture".

It's either one or the other. If you have a right to complain, then so has she. If she should keep her mouth shut, then so should you.

So, should people complain about racial slurs made against them? If you are right, then so was the black girl who you told us was "a guest trying to move the furniture."

USA, Canada / Why do Americans (and Canadians) hate Polish people? [226]

I thought you were against asking the furniture to be moved when you were in someone else's house. At least, that's what you told us.

Life / Poland: The land of -isms [63]

You are not a particularly pleasant person.

Regarding your comments about 'guests' in other people's countries, please let me remind you that Poles far more often demand the hospitality of others than host guests themselves.

Life / Poland: The land of -isms [63]

I don't get it. Why people make feeble excuses for racism. As if Poles were mentally disabled people who weren't capable of civilised behaviour.


No, it isn't. But that doesn't make racism acceptable.


How is homogenity an excuse for racism?


If that's the case, why have you just been excusing their racism?

Delphi's been here about five years or so, but doesn't appear to know a great deal about Poland. However, I would think two and half years is sufficient to get the flavour of a country. You comment about the UK without ever having been there.


I worked with John Godson for a year when he lived in Szczecin. During that time he got beaten up twice. He's what blacks in the UK and US would call an 'Uncle Tom'.


I've known such places. You'd have to be very brave to report them. Would you do it?


I'm glad you wrote that. If you genuinely want things to get better then stop making excuses for your people.

Life / Poland: The land of -isms [63]


No, it doesn't. If two guys had acted the same way towards you, would you have replied:

"Excuse me, Sir, do you happen to be the owner of this establishment?"

Actually, you seem to lack basic common sense and life experience, so you might possibly reply in such a manner.

Life / Poland: The land of -isms [63]


Because you and your ilk clearly aren't.

Life / Poland: The land of -isms [63]

I agree with you to some extent. However, it's up to us whether we learn to recognise the irrational racist impulses within ourselves for what they are. Furthermore, society determines whether racism is socially acceptable or not.

Btw some people genuinely aren't racist, believe it or not.

Life / Poland: The land of -isms [63]


You don't get so many racist incidents because in many places there isn't anyone to racially abuse.

Life / Poland: The land of -isms [63]


As I've told you before, Delphi, you don't know Poland.