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


A quick note: You =/= "many Poles"

Your stye is PRL not necessarily the labels. The PRL blamed all its problems on shadowy conspiracies and so do you (with a few changes in the identities of the conspirators). You write like a pro-catholic socially conservative Urban would. (that's not a compliment)

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


Arise! Ye prisoners of starvaaaaation!
Arise! Ye wretched of the earth!
The Internationaaaaaale,
Unites the human race!

Why do so many things you write sound like PRL propaganda?

Love / Polish guy and courting? Confusion. [35]


The thought that this guy is gay and doesn't realized the signals he's sending crossed my mind and it is a (small) possibility. But I don't think so, because

1 the gay guy-straight woman friendship dynamic isn't as common in Poland as in some countries

2 if he's in England, he'd probably be out (if not to everybody, he'd tell a close friend)

There's also a small possibility that he's kind of gay and doesn't realize it yet or that he's asexual and just wants friendship but again those don't seem that likely.

There's a slightly larger chance that he's staight and just doesn't know what he wants in terms of a relationship himself (a small subset of 'shy' guys in Poland at the same time both want and don't want relationships and repeatedly go through the initial stages of courtship before backing off) but again that's a small possibility.

I do think Myself is real and the most likely explanation for his behavior is that he's waiting for clearer signs from her.

Love / Polish guy and courting? Confusion. [35]


And from what you write, that's what he's offering.... The choice is up to you. This doesn't mean you have to jump in bed right away, but if you care about him you need to let him now that it will happen sooner or later.

But you shouldn't wait too long or he might give up on you. Even the greatest gentleman can't wait around forever....

Love / Polish guy and courting? Confusion. [35]


Lots. It's not necessarily the most common type, but it's not rare either.


Given the behavior you describe, it's not just about sex for him either (guys who just want sex are much more straightforward).


If your'e going to do that, break things off with him first. It would be unspeakably cruel to make him think he has a chance if he doesn't.

Getting sex for a woman is not an accomplishment. Finding a guy who's committed to more than her body is.

Giving all the signals that you want a relationship and then sleeping with someone else would be very cruel of you.


Sex plus companionship and becoming close at the spiritual, not just physical, level.

Love / Polish guy and courting? Confusion. [35]

So my guess is still that he wants a romantic relationship and is waiting for you to show real interest in that. If you don't want that then stop accepting invitations to be alone with him (or just tell him). Polish guys can take a long time to get the message on their own.

Food / How would someone get some Hostess twinkies in Poland? [5]


I think they're trolling you. I gave a Pole a twinkie once (obtained thru a friend who could shop at a US military store). His face crinkled up in disgust and complained the chemical aftertaste lingered for hours.

"I thought you said they were good!" he said in an accusing tone.
"I _never_ said that! I said they were uniquely American. Good does not enter the picture!" I defended myself.

I've mostly heard of similar reactions to Poles' first twinkie "experience".

Love / Polish guy and courting? Confusion. [35]


In like Flynn is an idiom it means: will have no trouble achieving their goals

My thoughts. A lot of Polish men are actually pretty shy and not that... assertive about pursuing relationships*. By contrast many Polish women are very upfront and assertive (most foreign-men w/ Polish-women relationships I've ever known and very many Polish relationships I've known were initiated by the women).

From everything you've written and my experiences with Polish people, my best guess is that he wants a romantic relationship with you but is mostly waiting for you to initiate more intimacy the same way a Polish woman would. He's giving all the signals and waiting for you to act on them.

*this is especially true among the more educated, lower class men tend to be lots more assertive (there are exceptions both ways of course)

Life / Polish people and racism. [943]


"don't discriminate against them."

"discriminate someone" is incorrect.

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


Wrong! The PiS answer is you imagine you have all the money in the world and set up entrepreneurial training schemes and thorough decommunization (except for insiders of the party doing the decommunization). Then the powerhouse of the Polish undustrial behemoth would make the world tremble! Tremble! I tell you!


This is true but probably more due to naivete than sinister plans. Poland _greatly_ over-estimated the goodwill of those buying Polish industry (though to be fair a lot of it was essentially in ruins).

The key question is, do you obsess on the mistakes made then forever? Or do you concentrate on building a better future? PiS is mostly about obsessing on the past, PiS is more like Miss Havisham, time has stood still in 1989 and 1992 and 2010 and they want to turn the whole country into a memorial museum rather than focus on solving current problems.

UK, Ireland / Polish Integration in Irish Society [4]


It's called "reverse culture shock" and can be more traumatic than plain old culture shock because most people don't realize it exists and so it hits them harder.

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


With a giant hole in the budget...

biznes.onet.pl/wiadomosci/finanse/zadluzenie-skarbu-panstwa-w-2016-roku/elbhh2

summary: In just over six months of this year, the debt liabilities of the State Treasury have grown over 64.5 billion zloties. It's as if the debt increased by almost 15 million zloties every hour.

Tylko przez sześć miesięcy tego roku zadłużenie Skarbu Państwa wzrosło o ponad 64,4 mld złotych. To tak, jakby każdej godziny dług wzrastał o prawie 15 mln złotych.


That is a concern.... I have a PKO account and I don't know if I want PiS to get their socialist spend-and-crash mits too close to it.

Life / Family, Community --> Society "The Polish Way" [29]


You know what happens on those pilgramages don't you? The reputation is walk and pray by day, party hardy at night.... (just google pielgrzymka i seks and get back with what you find).


First, that's incorrect use of the word "gadget" in English. Second, yes, selected parts of the communist or pre-communist past are growing in popularity. Especially those parts dealing with heroism (and/or struggle against a government - like the wyklęci). That armed rebellion against the government is a trending idea (even symbolically) should worry some politicians but Polish politicians are no more aware of what's going on than western ones.

You know what has no traction whatsoever with Polish youth? Smolensk and Magdalena. Only old fossils like you care about those.

Travel / What is your opinion of Gorzów Wielkopolski? [11]


That's the case almost everywhere west of the interwar western borders. Wrocław manages to somehow blend the German and Kresy elements pretty well but it's the only one AFAIC. The most soulless place I've been was Lubin back in the 90s, a small village before WWII that grew after the war due to copper. It was newer (and cleaner) than almost any other Polish town I'd seen but also kind of.... blahhhhh with a particularly... aggressive working culture.

Life / Family, Community --> Society "The Polish Way" [29]


I support what works. PO worked pretty well for a time but it's day is probably over. Obsessing about 1992 and cliques that never existed don't work.


The pendulum isn't swinging back to God, family and country, that's as over as progressivism. Again, this is something new that has room for both more traditional liberal/progressives and conservatives but cannot be monopolized by either.

Milo Yiannopoulos and Paul Joseph Watson are good examples of different.... poles in the emerging movement (both are Brits). The flamboyant gay guy with a thing for black men defends Christianity and describes himself as catholic while PJW is mostly kind of neutral about religion (though very much against the current european push in favor of Islam into the public sphere).

Travel / What is your opinion of Gorzów Wielkopolski? [11]


noun: Secescja
adj: Secesyjny (architektura secesyjna for architecture)

For other readers: in English it's usually called Art Nouveau


I've never been there but that seems a little harsh, it's close enough to Germany that it should be better. I've known a couple of non-Poles who lived there for a year or two and they said the people were much more friendly than in most other areas...

News / Streets closed in Warsaw during NATO summit [146]


Forgiveness is meaningless without repentance. Germany has owned up to and apologized for its past actions which makes it possible to forgive (without forgetting). Russia still thinks it was in the right or that if some Poles were killed, so what the Russian government killed even more Russians and they don't care (they really don't). Russia semi-officially blames Poland for starting WWII.

Without Russia acknowledging its past and trying to make amends there's no moral foundation for forgiveness.

News / Streets closed in Warsaw during NATO summit [146]


At the personal level, maybe, many Poles like elements of Russian culture. But Poles (for very good reasons) will always instinctively mistrust the Russian state, whether Tsarist, the USSR or Putinstan. Trying to get Poles to forget hundreds of years of terrible history for the sake of a small insignificant country like Serbia (in the broader scheme of things) is a non-starter.

News / Streets closed in Warsaw during NATO summit [146]


Crow doesn't get that Poles tend to regard Russia more or less the same way Serbs regard Turkey - a large hostile power that has invaded and oppressed people before and probably would again if it had the chance. Ethnic Slavic solidarity is a non-starter for most Polish people (as regards Russia, it's a kind of a positive factor in relations with Ukraine).

Life / Polish people and racism. [943]


Actually comparative IQ results (esp in first world, it's trickier elsewhere) are about the most enduring and robust scientific findings in the social sciences (that is they are replicable unlike many most social science findings).

The fact that the results do not make for happy fairytales is a separate issues.

News / How would Poland change for the better (or worse) under a PiS government? [257]


It's between meal snacking. Back when Poles ate three or three and a half meals a day (and nothing in between) fat people were hard to find (although the food was not exactly diet friendly.

Some time after western style snacks started appearing and children began having potato chips and chocolate bars between meals you started seeing fatter kids (and adults).

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


Why would this be a selling point? If anything it means Warsaw becoming a little more like the crap they want to get away from.

Food / Polish Drink Vs Irish People [20]


The old miller bottles and labels are classics of great design, but it's terrible beer with an awful soapy aftertaste... blchhhhh

Life / Polish people and racism. [943]

I agree with the rejection of "multiculturalism" but Slovakia is not ethnically homogeneous. Around a quarter or so of the population are ethnic hungarians (and knowledge of the language is still widespread in the south). There's also a couple hundred thousand gypsies (so they already have an economically undeperforming underclass, no need to import a new one). And almost all slovak adults are passive bilinguals who effortlessly understand Czech.

This is not a monocultural place. They know the difficulties of different ethnic groups living together and are not keen on increasing those difficulties.

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

I've known a few Indonesians in Poland mostly they do okay.

The language is important and must be learned as soon as possible (and there will be other culture shock from Sweden to Poland) but IME Polish people don't have a problem with those who keep their religion reasonably private.

Traditionally Indonesian practice of Islam was more like modern Christianity in much of the west (in having very little impact on adherents' everyday behavior). If she's like that she'll do fine.

News / Good-change government raising minimum wage in Poland, cutting SB pensions [213]

Merged: Another good change - less foreign money for Polish horses!

The Pro-Polish good change government has a new achievement. While last year the Pride of Poland auction of Arabian horses in Janow Podlaski earned 4 million filthy foreign euros, this year has cut the amount of foreign capital flowing into the Polish Arabian industry down to 1.3 million!

tvn24.pl/wiadomosci-z-kraju,3/aukcja-koni-pride-of-poland-w-janowie-podlaskim,668408.html

Food / Where to find a good bottle of wine in Poland? [18]


Maybe you're getting "półwytrawne" (semi dry) instead of "wytrawne"?

Food / Where to find a good bottle of wine in Poland? [18]


You don't say where you live, but all larger cities now have wine speciality shops, just ask for 'bardzo wytrawne' and then select for price.

Life / Polish people and racism. [943]

Prosperous countries like France, England, Sweden and Germany can afford to believe in the fairytale that large groups of low social capital muslim immigrants can be integrated into their countries and will be able to support themselves financially - and then pay for their welfare when they predictably fail to do either.

Countries like Poland and Hungary can barely afford minimal social benefits for their own citizens - let alone a bunch of middle eastern losers.

It's pretty much that simple.

Food / Golabki - Oven or Stove top [11]


That makes no sense. Gołąbki are essentially a northern version of dolma with cabbage instead of grape leaves. Intermediary versions between Poland and Turkey use fermented cabbage leaves (bulgaria, romania) or cook the gołąbki with sauerkraut (romania, hungary) (presumably to mimic the sour tartness of grape leaves).

Since the original were made with rice I don't see any reason to keep rice out of gołąbki (though barley or buckwheat might make more regional sense).