Life / Questions about Polish names Pola, Gracja, and Grażyna [29]

There used to be a famous US silent film star named Pola Negri, from Poland:-) Oddly enough, despite her immense popularity, her first name never caught on among girls.

Her American equivalent is most likely "Paula"/"Pauline", yes?

Language / I was born in Poland and I cannot pronounce 'CZ' [35]

"I oughtn't GO", for example, without "to" is perfectly correct and accepted standard English in the States, Dominic:-) Hate to disappoint youLOL

Now, "I ought TO...." in the affirmative MUST have "to", as "I ought go" is clearly substandard British, American, Canadian etc..

Foreigners aka non-native English speakers will often use/say "I oughtn't to go....", but it's not natural usage, as an English teacher, you can trust me on this one.

Language / I was born in Poland and I cannot pronounce 'CZ' [35]

Dom, NotForForeigners IS correct, for British though, not American:-)
lol

News / Berlin terrorist attack -- Poland's ethnic homogeneity a true blessing [436]

Powell ran against Harold Wilson for PM in the late '70's, didn't he?

Language / Polish Village - German to English translation... [11]

I find no fault with your translation, sirena, only that for "prayerhouse", I'd substitute "house of worship". For "dismissed from his duties", I'd prefer "relieved of.....".

As to the very last sentence about which you had some doubts owing solely to the archaism of the original, as a native English speaker, "news" should ALWAYS be singular in American English, anyway. "Vocation" = Beruf vs. Avocation= Hobby, Zeitvertreib.

Probably, both a smoother as well as more accurate rendering of the final phrase might indeed be instead ".....there is no news as yet regarding his vocation, as we had expected."

marekzgerson@yahoo

Language / Polish Village - German to English translation... [11]

The first line indicates that the village lies on the Bober River within the county/dutchy... of Loewenberg (??). The rest I'd have to translate more carefully, although the text itself is quite straightforward, not "literary" or in dialect or some such thing:-)

Language / Polish Village - German to English translation... [11]

Although written in Fraktur aka "German Gothic" script, I can divine from it that it is a description of the location of a village, along with its landmarks and natural points of interest.

Just glanced over it though on wide-screen enlargement, to tell you the truth:-) If you like however, I can give you the gist of what it basically says, written in the typical prose of the time.

Language / I was born in Poland and I cannot pronounce 'CZ' [35]

Slight correction. Spanish speakers DO have a "ch", yet oddly cannot pronounce the same sound in English, much less Polish etc.

Language / I was born in Poland and I cannot pronounce 'CZ' [35]

"CZ" is equivalent to an English "CH-"sound, German "TSCH", and Italian "C" before most vowels! As not all languages such as Spanish, have a "CZ" to relate to when learning Polish, for example, it can be a challenge.

In addition, I'd have to agree as a foreigner that Polish "Ć" is much harder than "CZ", and may in fact be unique to Polish, same with "Ś":-)

Nasals, for French speakers, oughtn't pose too much of a problem.

News / Berlin terrorist attack -- Poland's ethnic homogeneity a true blessing [436]

Traditionally, intermarriage, interracial offspring and the like, have been understandably taboo throughout most of the known world. The not so recent attempts of modern industrialized countries, particularly in Northern Europe, to bring so-called diversity to a staid and established continent, have been largely failed attempts at best, fatal missteps at worst, all, predicated on the lure of importing cheap labor as well as to imitate the US, as I've stated repeatedly here on this forum!

What "works" (and apparently not so well) in the New World, need not necessarily be a template foisted upon the Old, at least not without some sort of plebiscite:-)

News / Berlin terrorist attack -- Poland's ethnic homogeneity a true blessing [436]

Frauke Petry would be a horror for Germany, just when she seems over the past decades or so to be emerging from the long shadow of Hitler and his unique brand of xenophobia!!

To the current slogans I respond simply "PETRI UNHEIL!!"
:-)

Language / What's the difference between "idź" and "przejdź"? [19]

Thoroughly plausible, Chemikiem. Again, thank you ma'am!

News / Berlin terrorist attack -- Poland's ethnic homogeneity a true blessing [436]

II can't realistically argue with that statement.

Language / What's the difference between "idź" and "przejdź"? [19]

If "pojechać" though is perfective because of "po-", then wouldn't it signify a single aka NON-repeat action in the above sentence? Perhaps I misunderstood your explanation.

News / Berlin terrorist attack -- Poland's ethnic homogeneity a true blessing [436]

Maf, maybe the long-dead Nazi past is long dead to you as well as others, but to Merkel and her generation it's present on a daily basis and her way is to try to care for all the sort of people HER people tried to murder a mere seventy plus years back:-)

I agree that they have no right to acquire refugee status, same as here in the States. That still doesn't change matters, I'm afraid!

Language / What's the difference between "idź" and "przejdź"? [19]

"On jechał rowerem/pociągiem itd...." = He rode EVERY DAY. vs. "On POjechał......." = He rode AT ONE TIME ONLY...

This is essentially the difference.

News / Berlin terrorist attack -- Poland's ethnic homogeneity a true blessing [436]

Maf is technically right about not having allowed the present mess to have spun out of control in the first place. Merkel's between a rock and a hard place; she'd damned if she does, and damned if she doesn't! Either she gives in to Bachmann, Petry and others from the far right, or, turns her back on those who desperately need the help of a rich, industrial nation.

News / Berlin terrorist attack -- Poland's ethnic homogeneity a true blessing [436]

Clearly globalism has not been the success which was hoped for by the Social Democrats. The nagging question though remains as to what Europe intends to do about the situation.

Thus far, I have yet to see any "reasonable" solutions. Nor, I imagine, has anybody else!

News / Berlin terrorist attack -- Poland's ethnic homogeneity a true blessing [436]

Sort of like a '68 Prague Spring in reverse, you mean?
Hmmm. Well, these days, looks as though anything's possible:-)

News / Berlin terrorist attack -- Poland's ethnic homogeneity a true blessing [436]

We all realize deep down why Merkel as well as her followers continue supporting her clearly failed and failing multi-cultural policies! Germany along with Germans, particularly of Merkel's generation, still are living down the Hitler period, laboring under the as yet unpunctured delusion that the more immigrants to Germany, the better.

Although it's arrogant, not to mention unrealistic, to expect to change a homogeneous European mindset, Germany no more "deserves" such tragedies than any country in her position.

The solutions are clearly not simple, yet as well know, retaliation only begets more retaliation.

News / Berlin terrorist attack -- Poland's ethnic homogeneity a true blessing [436]

@TheOther, "Wir schaffen's!" is the best translation of "Yes, we can!", doubtless Polonius' question regarding the difference in English between "to make" vs, "to manage":-)

@Wincig, if Chancellor Merkel doesn't get her act together by summer of next year, she'll lose to AfD with little question!
Hate to be a harbinger of bad tidings, but there's greater festering resentment against Muslims in Germany than many of us even realized.

Incidentally, our man was shot and killed in Milan on his way from Oberhausen!

News / Berlin terrorist attack -- Poland's ethnic homogeneity a true blessing [436]

Życzę pani udanego Nowego Roku! = Ich wuensche Ihnen ein erfolgreiches (literally: "gelungenes") Neues Jahr!

Yes, Polonius. I know Polish, but not as well as German as I essentially grew up with the latter spoken at home and didn't officially study/learn Polish until the ripe old age of thirty:-)

As far as Merkel's failed policies, it'll most assuredly cost her in the '18 elections. Frauke Petry's doubtless already licking her chopsLOL

News / Berlin terrorist attack -- Poland's ethnic homogeneity a true blessing [436]

Polonius, the phrase in "colloquial" German for what Merkel is supposed to have said, is rather "Wir SCHAFFEN es!", often translated as "We can do it!" in the sense of "We will MAKE it!" (from "schaffen" = to make, manage, also, to create [as a strong verb ONLY].

:-)

Yep, German meticulousness got but another well-deserved black eye. Comeupance for their pride in being the best?

News / Berlin terrorist attack -- Poland's ethnic homogeneity a true blessing [436]

Absolutely correct! If the US has faced her extreme challenges in absorbing non-Western, non-Judeo-Christian foreigners over the last century or so (and we're supposed to be the "Schmelztiegelgesellschaft" or melting-pot society), it's plain chutzpah on Ms. Merkel's part to expect from a basically homogeneous country a culture of welcome to foreigners who attack her citizens, often flat-out refuse to learn German, and to top it off, start dictating Islamic dietary rules for Germans to follow at the LATTER'S own century-old festivals and celebrations!!! Imagine hypothetically in reverse, German refugees to Syria insisting the locals drink alcohol, engage in open sex and eat pork, speak in German instead of even the basics of the native language etc.LOL

That's the kicker:-)

News / Berlin terrorist attack -- Poland's ethnic homogeneity a true blessing [436]

The mistake is to think that heterogeneity in and of itself is the wellspring of social peace. In US history, apart from the "Indian-Wars", there was considerable social disquiet in the Far West, bandits fighting opposing (other ethnically white) groups and any hint of foreignism as instigator of such killings wouldn't have entered anyone's mind way back then:-)

Language / What's the difference between "idź" and "przejdź"? [19]

That's basically what I figured. Good to know. Thanks all!
:-)

Language / What's the difference between "idź" and "przejdź"? [19]

Yes, Ziemowit, I realize that. "Niech + pan(I)" etc. is though quite polite in Polish, am I right?

Slightly off thread, although not off 'topic', isn't " Niech pan siada!" more formal than "Proszę usiąć!"?

Language / What's the difference between "idź" and "przejdź"? [19]

"Przejść" means "to go/come through", e.g. "Czy mogę przejść? Tak, przejdź pan!" Cf. the noun "przejazd" = thoroughfare.

"Iść" means "to go", as in the imperative "Idź pan!" = Go [on]! (formal masculine singular) vs. "Chodź pan!" = Come here, [sir]!

Make sense?

Life / What is the reaction of Poles to Russian? [95]

No, my point was that history is written by the winners, and so it usually depends on the history you read. That's all I meant.

In a Russian history, Marshal Zhukov is the ultimate Soviet hero. Read a US history, Patton and Eisenhower are at the top, and read a German history FROM THE PERIOD, Paulus and Guderian were the point men for the military whose "perfect" strategy was merely thrown off by the Russian winter, through not fault of their own:-)

Guess the latter forgot conveniently about NapoleonLOL

Life / What is the reaction of Poles to Russian? [95]

Molotov gave the impression of being "pro-German", which he might in fact have been. Fact remains though, he was wary of, if not intimidated slightly, by Hitler:-)

As far as Germany "courting" Poland, hardly a whirlwind courtship, if any!LOL The relationship was scarcely equal, since Germany merely looked upon Poland as fodder for the German Reich, as a nation populated by ignorant, drunken peasants (whom Hitler even referred to as "Untermenschen"), there if only to do Hitler's bidding!

Poland was one of numerous former Soviet "satellite" states/republics, used by Moscow for her own ends right up through the fall of Communism in around 1989-90.