Language / Grammar question about conditionals in Polish. [20]


I beg to differ. When to is a pronoun then 'by' forms shouldn't be joined with it. When it's a conjunction more or less synonymous with więc (as in my example) it should:

sjp.pwn.pl/zasady/161-43-4-Z-wiekszoscia-spojnikow-a-zwlaszcza-z-nastepujacymi;629507.html


I didn't want to overwhelm the OP

News / Poland's resentful and frustrated poor losers' camp still at it [53]


Rule by party leader rather than rule of law. Classic PRL.


obtaining more power to settle stale old scores (while burning a white hot hole in the middle of the economy)

Life / Polish people and racism. [943]


Then maybe the British government shouldn't have done so much to disenfranchise the working class....

News / Poland's resentful and frustrated poor losers' camp still at it [53]


which makes special rules for him okay?

News / Poland's resentful and frustrated poor losers' camp still at it [53]


So Pride of Poland was a "good change"? Creating a massive hole in the budget with unfundable giveaways is a "good change"?

Not seeing it. Sorry.

News / Poland's resentful and frustrated poor losers' camp still at it [53]


If you're referring to harry, we are far from mates and I've often disagreed with him pretty strongly (and probably also do about some of the specifics now).


As if you've never done that.

Pride of Poland was a failure because PiS cared more about finding jobs for cronies than about competence.

They removed removed worldwide renowned experts who've built networks over the years creating a small, but prestigious worldclass Polish brand. And they wrecked it because..... no good reason.

I see no reason to expect any different in any other of their endeavors since party loyalty and znaojomości count more than ability and character.

News / Poland's resentful and frustrated poor losers' camp still at it [53]


Like Pride of Poland?

News / Poland's resentful and frustrated poor losers' camp still at it [53]


squeeze them udders! Squeeeeeeze!


Coming from a PiS supporter that's the funniest line today!

News / Poland's resentful and frustrated poor losers' camp still at it [53]


You are literaly the last person on this forum who has any business complaining about rancor and antagonism.


He might try to talk some financial sense into the economic illiterates running the party he's attached himself to. Or he could try to find a party with a better grasp of economic reality.

Constructive and helpful enough fer ya?

Life / Polish people and racism. [943]


Anybody can be pushed too far (including you or me). The governments of western Europe seem to be on a bizarre quest to systematically push their citizenry too far. I do not understand how anything good could come of this.

And freaking out because someone says "I am racist" will just contribute to pushing him too far.

The agressive tolerance-uber-alles pushers are racking up a pretty horrendous record themselves (Rotherham and Cologne for starters) So a little less self-righteousness all the way around is a good idea.

Life / Polish people and racism. [943]


The word has seen so much hysterical over-usage in the last few years that it's last almost all practical meaning. It's a non-accusation anymore.

News / Poland's resentful and frustrated poor losers' camp still at it [53]


The flight as planned was treating Katyń as a sideshow or also-ran in the president's itenerary. If it was worth going to then do it right by flying into a real airport and proceed by car (or take a train). Don't just fly in (especially by a president with a proven history of poor judgement about safe conditions) and fly out.

And whatever you do don't put all the heads of military on a single plane. Whoever planned and/or allowed that should be in prison (if they're still alive).

Life / I am moving to Warsaw. (Could anyone tell me about life there?) [49]


But a young woman can easily use a man's name in the West as a nickname and people think it's cute. Not every name of course, but Max as a young woman's nickname seems fine. But in Poland... maybe Maksia?


It's a nickname not her real name (Vietnamese phonetics can't have x at the end of a word - also in Vietnamese x is pronounced like s). There used to be a tradition of giving students target language names in language classes and I think that still happens a lot in Asian countries. It doesn't really happen in western europe AFAIK. And in SE Asia a lot of people go by nicknames on an everyday basis (Thai people tell you their nickname very early on and expect you to use it).

Life / Polish people and racism. [943]


Well Hungary seems to be doing a little better economically (the NYT was recently complaining that a supposed labor shortage meant that employers had to pay people better). I was just on vacation and for the first time IME there were a lot of Hungarians there too.

Putin is simply reconstructing the USSR which a great majority of ethnic Russians liked just fine and so they like him.

Poland didn't like the PRL that PiS wants to create and they don't respond well to propaganda either.

disclosure: I think that Orban isn't that bad (not great but nb, during the refugee crisis he was pilloried for saying that EU laws should be followed). Putin is pretty terrible and PiS would be a lot better off if they could divest themselves of the toxic elder generation. But tha'ts not gonna happen soon so they're pretty terrible too.


Actually it was bloomberg

bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-08-04/hungary-s-labor-woes-may-trigger-wage-explosion-minister-says

News / Poland's resentful and frustrated poor losers' camp still at it [53]


Well yes. Turning what in the best possible light was the predictable result of a bunch of bumblers' poor planning into some kind of martyrdom is in very poor taste. If there was foul play involved I'm convinced it was coming from those bleating now about what a tragedy it was....


Magical unicorns who sh1t golden nuggets? It makes as much sense as anything else they say economically.

Life / I am moving to Warsaw. (Could anyone tell me about life there?) [49]


You'll need a Polish name too, I'm not sure if Max works well for that (sounds male in Polish).

Not sure if anyone pointed this out yet.

queviet.eu/cong-dong

if they have forums they can probably help you more than we can.

Life / Polish people and racism. [943]


When has Poland had cutthroat capitalism? Answer, never.


PRL talk.


Made people feel secure enough that they could flirt with a government devoted to handing out free ice cream. They'll regret it soon enough.

Basically Poland reached the point of development where productivity is high but wages are frustratingly low, that gets corrected eventually, but instead Polish voters chose to regress to the 1990s rather than stick out the current century.

PiS won't stay popular because a government devoted to handing out freebies finds that the more free stuff they give away the more the recipients want. The question is whether people will wise up before Poland becomes the next Greece or Venezuela....

News / Poland's resentful and frustrated poor losers' camp still at it [53]

Or simply looking at who's benefitted from the removal of the more conciliatory and slightly more level headed of the brothers? It certainly hasn't been Komorowski or Tusk or Putin or anyone that gets mud thrown at them about Smolensk. And family members are normally prime suspects....

I'm not saying anything about who I think is responsible, but I tend to suspect people who bleat the loudest about an issue and what party is doing the loudest bleating?

Life / Polish people and racism. [943]


Oh give it a rest, you're a party loyalist, we all know that.


i.e. free stuff today and who cares about tomorrow? socialism hasn't worked well anywhere, ever. Why should PiS suddenly become an exception?

Life / Polish people and racism. [943]


One of the best ways to do that is to actually represent what the local citizenry wants (as opposed to what elected officials think they should want).

Unless a bunch of politicians in the west change tack then you're going to see ever more extreme rightists form (and get bigger).

The resurgence of the identitarian right is almost entirely due to elected officials not doing their jobs. They're getting yellow cards all over the place and not paying attention.


Merkel's folly makes zero sense by any rational calculation. And I refuse to cede the moral high ground to her. Her actions cannot be defended on logical, humanitarian or economic grounds.

News / Poland's resentful and frustrated poor losers' camp still at it [53]


... or brother........

Language / Grammar question about conditionals in Polish. [20]


1st and 2nd (etc) Conditionals are a heuristic device for teaching English (esp to Poles). They aren't concepts that most native English speakers know about. I never heard the terms until I was in Poland.


My non-native translations (with explantions).
nb I'm assuming these are all adressed to a single male that the speaker (also male) is on friendly terms (ty) with. I'm also assuming everyday rather than more formal usage.

1. Jak będę miał czas to ci pomogę.

Notes: Replacing jeśli with jak is common in everyday spoken usage, I have the idea that jak in this case suggests that the speaker would like to help, jeśli sounds a little more... distanced. (not sure if native speakers would agree with that).

2. Gdybym miał czas tobym ci pomógł.
3. Gdybym miał czas tobym ci pomógł.

Polish does not normally distinguish "If I had.." (where the situation could change even if it's unlikely to) and "If I had had..." (where change is no longer possible).

Don't sweat it. It's one way that Polish is easier than English.

Also, although the form is called 'conditional' is most textbooks it serves a number of other purposes as well, most notably the subjunctive
"Wszystkim kobietom sugeruję, żeby rodziły dzieci"

to-all-women I-suggest that they-have children

I suggest that all women (should) have children.

Also the object + infinitive (to want smn to do sth)

Chcę, żebyź mi pomógł

I-want that-you me help

I want you to help me.

News / Poland's resentful and frustrated poor losers' camp still at it [53]


For rule of party leader! Long live the glorious leader of the glorious party!

Life / Can a secular muslim live in Poland? [24]


Oops, but i was wrong about the name. A shtreimel is a kind of fur top hat worn by men (very cool looking), a wig worn by a jewish woman is a sheitel.

Life / Can a secular muslim live in Poland? [24]


In addition, most orthodox Jewish women don't cover their hair with scarves but mostly shave their heads and wear wigs (sthreimels) sometimes with scarf like items as accessories.

And (like Mennonites and Aimish, and unlike Muslims) they don't proselytize.

Life / Can a secular muslim live in Poland? [24]


Very intellectually dishonest, that chart.

Comparing nuns with lay women is not comparable. Also Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic women are only supposed to cover their hair in church (and many don't bother then, not one in twenty in Poland bothers to cover her head in church).

Hair covering is an old part of all middle eastern religions, is probably most related to regional cultural habits and is about the least spiritual way to express one's faith I can imagine. It's hard to take very seriously as a way of life.

More women covering their head in a modern European context is dog-whistle for "more muslims" since the hijab (a very modern thing) has become a way for muslims to exclude themselves from western values.

News / Talks on re-polonising Pekao bank under way [58]


It had been destroyed a lot earlier back in the early 70s when the government started subsidizing bread prices to prevent unrest (so that farmers were supposedly feeding livestock bread rather than animal feed). To make the subsidies work they began borrowing and that was all she wrote.

I completely do not trust PiS to do something just as misguided (I trust PO a little, just a little, more to not do something catastrophically stupid, the corruption is a small price to pay for greater financial stability).

Real Estate / To live in flat in Hoża street (Warsaw Srodmiescie) or Single room in Warsaw university's dorm? [4]

hoża is a great street! I love that neighborhood

youtube.com/watch?v=CwgNF7I2Dao

News / Talks on re-polonising Pekao bank under way [58]


I sometimes wonder what he sees when he sees colors of what he hears when he hears natural sounds. Does a sandy beach feel like basketball court to him? Does the sound of the waves reaching shore sound like a bowling alley?

He's an interesting case study if nothing else.

News / Talks on re-polonising Pekao bank under way [58]


Where did I say such a thing? You're the eliminationist, not me. Catholic social conservatives are fine, as long as they keep their religion to themselves.

I don't even have much of a problem with polonization of the banks as long as those in charge know what they're doing. But the way PiS is burning a hole in the budget I have no confidence in them not wrecking the banks.

morawiecki even has some good ideas, too bad he's hitched up his wagon to a bunch of incompetent losers, he won't be able to carry any of his good ideas out because PiS is too much into tax and spend and reward cronies over merit (see Pride of Poland disaster).