Food / Making American cheeses (Polish and EU ones are terrible!) [100]

Of course, at specialty stores and high-priced eateries, one can get anything of stellar quality as good as anywhere in Europe, but this is the exception, not the rule. Since I luckily have a choice, why in the world would I waste my money on Velveeta when some tasty imported Camembert or Gouda is readily available??

Some California wines however, do measure up to the best of the Rhone, I'm told:-)

Food / Making American cheeses (Polish and EU ones are terrible!) [100]

It's true though that compared with Europe, American food in general is tasteless, above all, PROCESSED, both in texture and ingredients! Poles, Germans, most of all, the Italians and the French bellyache bitterly about US meals, so much so that on certain tourist menus in Paris, there is offered "cafe" or "cafe americain":-) Don't even ask about our bread, vegetables, and fruit. Polish apples for instance really DO taste better!!

Needless to say, no self-respecting Frenchman would order anything American-style LOL

Language / "Czego się pan napije" meaning [15]

Merely wish to add that "napic" is ALWAYS going to use reflexive "sie" + genitive, while "wypic" requires neither:-)

Language / "Czego się pan napije" meaning [15]

I certainly am:-) In the latter, if someone says, "Trink mal aus und lass uns gehen!", what is meant is doubtless much the same as "Wypij a idzmy!", cf. English,

"OK, drink up (vs, the common 'Germlish' confusion, "Drink OUT".....!"LOL) and let's go!"

:-)

Work / I have to decide between two job offers, Berlin vs Wroclaw [44]

Just an aside, jgrabner, conversely, a Polish translator colleague remarked that she found Italian much easier to pick up than German, as Italian is primarily a vocalic language, and so is Polish in the sense that it has only open, short vowels compared with German:-)

Work / I have to decide between two job offers, Berlin vs Wroclaw [44]

Knowing Berlin well, Wroclaw not at all, I'd naturally opt hands down for Berlin:-)) Knowing the basics of the language though in either case is an absolute must!

Language / "Czego się pan napije" meaning [15]

I should add that ALL "wy-", "na-" verbs are ALWAYS going to be perfective, their usage depending often on context as in my above explanation.

Love / English proposing to a Polish lady [31]

Agreed. A hunk as big as a bloody goose egg is going to scare the poor girl off, considering you've all but just met her:-)

Language / "Czego się pan napije" meaning [15]

Both mean "to finish drinking", although as I've heard both used, the former points more to the act of drinking to completion, yet not within a fixed interval of time. A reasonable period would be then roughly from the time one starts to drink up until the time one has finished the drink. The latter one you mention is almost like finishing a drink practically in one shot aka "down the hatch"! Both designate completion, but one is continuous completion, the other isn't:-)

Does that make sense?

Wish you knew some German as well, because such prefixed verbs are part of the DNA of the language, far more than in contemporary English!!

Work / I have to decide between two job offers, Berlin vs Wroclaw [44]

If you know either Polish or German reasonably well, both places might indeed have their appeal. Other than that, you'd be wasting your precious and money, pal!

Adult educated European professionals are tiring real fast of foreigners weedling their way into their society without knowing the language and expecting to be treated as royalty, even if the average Polish or German YUPPIE knows English quite well.

Language / "Czego się pan napije" meaning [15]

The prefix/preposition "na-" in Polish can sometimes indicate the completion of an activity, as in "pic" vs. "NApic", "pisac" vs."NApisac" etc.....
This belongs to one of numerous hurdles we foreign-born students of Polish must overcome.

Correct aspect use along with verb conjugation however, is said by experts (among them Dana Bielec) to be the most frequent cause for errors by foreigners (even Poles too) in mastering the Polish language:_)

Life / What do Poles think of Indians? [35]

You're certainly welcome to participate by joining in with already existing discussions, only that rambling remarks might be interpreted by some members as trolling:-)

Hope you understand.

Life / What do Poles think of Indians? [35]

Not sure quite what your point is.

News / Which French candidate for president will be best for Poland? [512]

Hope our pres. bears that in mind.

Love / English proposing to a Polish lady [31]

Don't despair too much there, Towarzysz:-)

I was even younger when I visited Denmark and Sweden before I was in my mid-twenties. This was some ten years earlier and almost all of my male contemporaries had had a girl friend at least since high school.

Interestingly though, the concept of proposing marriage seemed to most young Scandis at the time delightfully quaint, silly, and old-fashioned! How strikingly different from the Poles, back then especially.

News / Which French candidate for president will be best for Poland? [512]

Cold wars can easily turn into hot ones and on a dime. The lesson is to appease the enemy, not necessarily compromise, but deal with Putin, Kim and the rest, otherwise risk a nuclear catastrophe.

Love / English proposing to a Polish lady [31]

When I was first in Poland, roughly around the same time I was in Hungary and Czech Rep., I was in my early thirties and noticed practically every man my age was married with at least one child in tow. This was around the mid-'90's, but I was often asked whether or not I was married. Although I was in fact just engaged, I somehow felt that if I answered in the negative, I'd have been treated as a virtual leper:-)

News / Which French candidate for president will be best for Poland? [512]

Does yet another wrong make it right?

Love / English proposing to a Polish lady [31]

Poland has still a conservative, largely homogeneous Roman Catholic population. One of the tenets of Catholicism is to take a mate, be fruitful and multiply.

Such is not as much the case in Russia:-) Most of the rest of Europe as I said earlier is just the opposite - D.I.N.K. (Double Income No Kids), many in Northern Europe don't even marry at all.

Greece as well is going through a similar crisis!

Love / English proposing to a Polish lady [31]

I must concur though with jon357 on this point! Poles, as with most of the planet, were once encouraged to marry as young as possible, particularly the girls.

However, as you must know, study, military service, internships etc. take a number of years, and so one can't in all honesty and fairness expect a would-be brain surgeon, even a university teacher to marry at the same age as a carpenter, electrician etc.. whose journeyman training often lasts not more than a year compared with the 3-4 years for a doctor's residency, much less the dissertation period for a university teaching post:-)

We've also got to consider the country vs. the city. Urban Poles, women as well as men, surely must marry later than those in small towns or villages.

Love / English proposing to a Polish lady [31]

...therefore, jon, it would follow that as quite a large number of those who reside in areas such as Greenpont, Maspeth etc. are from the working classes, they typically learn a trade after their requisite high school years, get a job, meet a girl, marry, and usually start having a family within at the latest two to three years upon getting hitched:-)

Those who study, travel etc. will usually marry at the earliest, thirty-one, up to as "late" as the end of thirty. For a man, this remains acceptable, for a woman, the bloom will quickly start to fade on the rose!

Love / English proposing to a Polish lady [31]

Eastern Europeans tend to marry earlier than in the West, I've observed. Even here in New York, Greenpoint, Brooklyn, married couples typically don't exceed their early thirties, and Polish women especially often get engaged right after high school, at the latest college, so yes, I can sympathize to some degree with your feeling "old":-)

On the other hand, there's the old saying "Marry in haste, repent at leisure!" to sober you a little!

Work / Portuguese Speaker considering a costumer service position in Poznan. [11]

Ziemowit, right on!! Keep up the good fight:-)

@Towarzysz, be thankful that you have an educated native to correct you, and for free no less.

Language / "Czego się pan napije" meaning [15]

"Czego" is the genitive form of "Co" or "what".

Co to jest? = What is this? (Nominitive Case = naming case, stating what something/-one is called)

"CzEGO szukasz?" = What are you looking for? literally "Of what you look?" (Genitive case = case indicating, among other things, possession or belonging to something/-one, "of" someone-(thing) etc......)

A little clearer now?

News / Which French candidate for president will be best for Poland? [512]

I concur roundly with this assessment.

Law / Poland three year residency [30]

At least the attempt shows people that you're both interested and have a requisite respect for their language, be hanged if you don't know it fluently or have a poor accent!!!

The double standard persists that it's somehow acceptable for a Pole to sound like a Pole speaking English, but an Anglophone must try to sound like a Pole speaking Polish or the battle's lost before it even begun:-)

In some countries, natives can be most helpful to foreigners struggling to speak their language, such as in Czech Republic when I first tried to ask a question at the main train depot in Prague and the woman on the platform answered "Anno" which I stupidly took to mean some form of "No"LOL Rather than trying to switch to English, the woman merely nodded her head, indicating that in fact I was in the right place!

Only a little later did I find out from looking it up, that "Anno" in Czech of course means "Yes":-)))

Language / "Czego się pan napije" meaning [15]

"What are you having to drink?", would I suppose be the most suitable and literal translation. The"sie" of the reflexive form of the verb "napic" > "napoj" = drink, beverage, is the equivalent of the English "one", e.g. "How does one.. aka "you"...?" etc.

Many verbs in Polish require certain cases which seem a complete mystery to Anglophones. The genitive is simply part of daily usage in any number of situations. "Potrzebowac", "szukac", "napic" etc.all require the genitive, as do ALL verbs (except for "byc" = to be) expressed in the negative, for instance:
Accusative - Bardzo lubie polska kielbase. vs. Genitive - Nie bardzo lubie polskIEJ kielbasY.

There are many such instances of the genitive in Polish, in fact, it's the most widely used case in the language, including after all wishes such as

"DobrEJ zabawY!" = Have fun! Have a good time!

SzczesliwEGO NowEGO RokU! = Happy New Year!

SmacznEGO! = Bon appetite! Enjoy your food!

and so forth.......

News / Which French candidate for president will be best for Poland? [512]

Again, America should take the best of Europe. Lord knows, she learned how to take everything else!

News / Which French candidate for president will be best for Poland? [512]

Europeans also have the vote of no confidence, should the candidate elect do a p##-poor job his first term. Pity we never followed suit on that one. Would have saved us a lot of time, grief, and money!!!!

Law / Poland three year residency [30]

The Brits often bragged that they would travel the world without ever having had to utter a single word in a foreign language (stated usually in the enviable finest of Public School RP!).

And herein lies the essential difference between the Americans and the English, and why in this regard, I can accept the arrogance of the English, but not the benighted ignorance of the Americans. In the case of the Americans, the reasons for not learning a foreign language are based upon pure laziness and intellectual naivete, whereas in the case of the English, the exact opposite often holds true; they have such well-deserved pride in their mother tongue, they usually don't see why on earth they should even bother to learn another language, much less to hear it butchered by those who cannot speak her properly. I'm reminded here once again of the famous quip attributed to Voltaire when once asked whether he planned on learning some English in order to meet with a certain Lord Chesterton, to which he is said to have replied, "But my dear, what is English anyway but merely French spoken badly?"

After all, it is still British English which remains the world standard in serious negotiation, not American. For the latter, we Yanks have only ourselves to blame:-)