UK, Ireland / Why can't the poles speak english, if they want to work in England? [35]


That'll mean a lot of Glaswegians going home too.

Law / CRB checks in Poland? [26]


I think it's more about which kind of violence, as well. Obviously, violence against kids or 'at risk' would disqualify you from such work straight off.

Law / CRB checks in Poland? [26]

What is idotic about a UK CRB is that it is not always valid across the board. My sister works in a sports centre, so has CRB. My nephew's school were going to the zoo and my sis was going along as a parent. I offered to go to.

"You can't, you're not CRB'd".
"I am, I'm working in a summer school and have a current CRB".
"It's probably not valid in this region or for this activity".

Seems for some work it has to be a local organisation which applies.

Then, to top it all, I was working in one summer school and one of the AL's had a conviction for violence (he'd been in a fight one night and was a karate guy...). Seems British Council don't demand 100% CRB.

The lad was a great guy and very good at his job, so I have no qualms about him personally.

UK, Ireland / UK passports if resident in Poland [19]


About 18 months ago I was trying to get some temp work in UK and went to register with a company or two. I was told the Home Office had decreed that DL were not valid id and only a passport or birth certificate (because it's obviously YOURS!) were valid for UK citizens.

I was told it was to do with a high number of forgeries but I think it was more to do with labour govt trying to push UK id cards through.


In UK? maybe things have changed with Con-dem govt.

UK, Ireland / UK passports if resident in Poland [19]


A UK driving licence is no longer considered as a valid form of id in UK. Go figure.

Law / Thinking of opening up a Greek restaurant in Poland, bad idea or good? Jenkei [45]

Or chopped cabbage and szmalec

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


Not sure if you understand, it is meant to sound like English spoken with a german accent.

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


I once showed it to a german girl and an Irish girl. The irish girl kept complaining that they'd messed up the spelling and she couldn't read it... the german girl was in hysterics.

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


I think at a certain level, the intellectual and financial elite are indeed another, parallel world.

A friend of mine once interviewed Austrian women who had married British soldiers and moved abroad. She asked a very rich lady if she'd ever missed home. She replied, "My dear, at a certain level of society, there is no difference!"

Just think, at one time the monarchies all spoke French (even in Russia).


Just for you, BB

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


Indeed, my job now is to teach them English so they can go abroad and make more money than me...


yeah, and we'll get the Polish workers to do it.

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


The same way as those who go to study at English language schools and colleges in their own country, perhaps?

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


we weren't hostile... we just wanted to educate them... and it was them who tried to introduce laws against using English words.

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


Is this when you eat too much kebab and then make a noise like donner?


Admit it, it's the militaristic culture and plans for universal domination which attract you to it ;-)

Law / Thinking of opening up a Greek restaurant in Poland, bad idea or good? Jenkei [45]

There used to be a chain of Greek restaurants, now called greco. Decent and cheap enough. I think a higher class place would be a welcome addition.

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


as i mentioned, allegedly the second biggest constructed language after esperanto.

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


And yet when they become adults they vote clowns into power!


Only as a saner alternative to learning Klingon (you don't have to wear a plastic mask to speak esperanto).

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


I think german culture to a Turk consists of "No, you can't call you child Ali, it isn't on the german name list!" and "Stand still, put your hands on your head and spread your heels!"

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


Ah, it's all coming out now! I bet you don't like clowns either because one scared you when you were 5.


urgh! What a weird idea... as a brit ex-pat the idea of learning the language of the country where I'm living is just appalling!

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


Part of my heritage is Scots and Irish, but i don't speak Scots, Irish or Gaelic, nor was I brought up with a huge education in any of those cultures. At least, no more than I could get from a bookshop or a record shop.


I thought it was more Romance based.


He obviously grew up with Jewish-Hungarian roots and awareness of/ exposure to that culture.

It's worth considering that many intellectual families often disassociate themselves from ethnic cultures and simply embrace intellectual culture anyway.

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


So why do natural languages die out? is the revival of a dead language (Old Prussian etc) any different if the culture behind it is dead?


But the cultures behind them are often dead, so why learn it? Esperanto is bigger than many natural languages and is still being used as a lingua france, albeit on a much smaller level. Obviously, the power of English makes it less and less of use... a bit like French and German, i suppose.

Arguably, WW2 destroyed the main hotbeds of Esperanto (European Jewish intellectuals and Germans) but does that mean that you are lonely with 2 million other people speaking the language? Soros learned it when it was still a thriving part of European intellectual society, before WW2.

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


That's a good point. If I am experiencing another culture (Polish, Macedonian, Egyptian, Finnish, Saami etc) in English, is it any different to experiencing it in Esperanto?

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


But if you are brought up in a place where there is no access to a language culture other than the speakers you encounter, how does the culture influence anything? I mean, European scholars used to study ancient dead languages and many could converse in them... but there was no living culture.

If I lived with an aged grandparent who was one of the last speakers of a language and she taught me from birth, would I be a native speaker if i could speak with a few old people?


Esperanto has around 2 million speakers. That is more than some 'natural' languages.

It has a history, a literary, musical and (for all I know) artistic culture.

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

Sorry Nomadatnet, you've lost me.

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

Seems that a language can create it's own culture:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_J._Henriksen

A danish parent and a Polish parent...

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


The amount of English language culture in that house was slim.

Esperanto isn't isolated when you have a community of esperanto speakers and daddy is a writer.

Perhaps his mother spoke Hungarian to him and daddy spoke esperanto. His father claimed he'd taught him from birth.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esperanto_native_speakers

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


The home was his environment. His father was an esperanto writer who taught him from birth.

If his parents were speakers then maybe they knew other families who spoke it.

I have friends who are german and Polish and speak English in front of their kids. The kids are growing up at least bilingual, with an understanding of English thrown in.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esperanto_native_speakers

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


His parents were both speakers and he was learning it from birth.

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

I don't quite get how Esperanto could have prevented the Holocaust when it was persecuted under the Nazis.

I also don't see it totally as a 'failed experiment' as a fair number of people still speak it, an Esperanto writer got the Nobel prize a few years ago and George Soros, of all people, is an Esperanto Native Speaker.

What is scary, however, is that as one of a number of artificial languages, it is top of the tree... the second biggest AL is Klingon.

News / Pubs in Poznan kick out Roma? [256]


He was also on "Who do you think you are?" and covered his family's time in Britian during the war.

Interesting, Jerry Springer as born in Britain to Jewish war-time refugees.

History / Poland obliged to make war reparations to Austria and Germany after WWI. Why? [119]


Sorry, Prussian king to 1918, Post-WW1 war reps... seems vaguely relevant.