Language / Difficult verb pairs in the Polish Language; iść-chodzić, jechać-jeździć [34]

You're much too kind, ma'am:-)

Yes, they were apparently much too complex.

History / The ongoing de-Germanisation of the Nazis and the Holocaust adds to Poland's Responsibility [124]

Exactly! "Jewish" simply means "adherents or descendents of adherents of those who followed the Jewish faith...were the scion of the inhabitants of Judaea, excluding gentile Romans, Greeks or Arabs.

On the other hand, "Hebrew" must refer solely to the culture of the JEWISH countrymen from Israel as well as to the national language HEBREW, and not "Israeli" which refers to the nationality only!

Furthermore, Jews are Semites, therefore of a different ethnicity within the Caucasian family, much like inhabitants of India. They are still considered "white", but not European Caucasians:-))

Back to the "ongoing de-Germanization", for the umpteenth time, they Nazi conquerors were German, yet, compared with the Danes or the Bulgarians, a large percentage of Poles participated in helping local Nazis.

Language / Difficult verb pairs in the Polish Language; iść-chodzić, jechać-jeździć [34]

Once again (:)), as closely as I can tell, "chodzić" represents a repeated action. "iterative" in that it is "reITERATed" numerous times, or not?

As it can't be my sentences, it has to be my explanation with which you and Dominic are finding fault.

This then clinches things for me! It confirms what I (almost) thought I knew.
lol

History / The ongoing de-Germanisation of the Nazis and the Holocaust adds to Poland's Responsibility [124]

Tell that to the former KGB!! On every Jewish citizen's passport in the old Soviet Union, there was marked "Ź" in a large initial for "ZHYD".

I saw them myself.

Language / Difficult verb pairs in the Polish Language; iść-chodzić, jechać-jeździć [34]

In a way, although Swan doesn't really even allude to it, what you're describing is almost similar to progressive vs. simple tenses, cf. "I'm going to the store.." vs. "I go to the store [...every Friday afternoon],vs. "I will go to the store tomorrow.." etc..

Nonetheless irritated with myself for glitching on this basic stuff. Usually, I have no problems speaking to Poles and using the above, although, as you can plainly see, EXPLAINING the stuff correctly, doesn't always happen:-)

Language / Difficult verb pairs in the Polish Language; iść-chodzić, jechać-jeździć [34]

To Dominik and Chemnikiem, my sincere thanks!
:-)

Still puzzling over a bit where precisely I veered off. Oh, well, if Swan doesn't do it, guess I must be slowLOL

History / The ongoing de-Germanisation of the Nazis and the Holocaust adds to Poland's Responsibility [124]

The Jews are both a religion as well as an ethnicity.

Indeed, Rakosi in Hungary was an especially nasty piece of work.

History / The ongoing de-Germanisation of the Nazis and the Holocaust adds to Poland's Responsibility [124]

With only the last half of your second sentence are you correct, Ironside, ok? I'm giving you that much, at least.

Yes, it is true that the Nazis were the instigators of the Holocaust and it is also true that not ALL Germans were Nazis or even Nazi sympathizers, for that matter:-)

Many Poles however, DID aid the Germans in some of their dirty work. Uncomfortable as you may be with this FACT, I'm uncomfortable with what my Jewish brethren over in Israel have done to many of their Palestinian, non-Jewish brethren.

I'm not going to sit here and be the only one who's uncomfortable, allright? Let's spread the conscience around a little here!!

History / The ongoing de-Germanisation of the Nazis and the Holocaust adds to Poland's Responsibility [124]

I repeat, lots of Jews jumped on the bandwagon of helping to collaborate with the enemy. The only difference which must be noted is that presumably the Jews weren't intent on annihilating their own people:-)

What one does in order to survive is separate and apart from what the perpetrators do in order to instigate an inescapable situation.

@Dolno, the Nazis were the 'Vordenker', the originators, of the perfervid misdeeds in which many Poles sadly took part. Sometimes, it was for money, other times, a hatred of Jews fueled mainly by centuries-old Christian anti-Semitism!

Language / Difficult verb pairs in the Polish Language; iść-chodzić, jechać-jeździć [34]

I shall ask then for a comparison between the verbs "iść" vs. "pójść" (not one of the verbs asked about). The way I learned it, so-called perfective/dokonany verbs are nearly identical with FUTURE constructions, thus, I might say/write either "Pójdę jutro do sklepu." as easily as "Będę jutro iść do sklepu." Probably, I wouldn't use "Chodzę...", because I'm not going to the store EVERY SINGLE day, unless perhaps I'm delivering to the store and go there on a daily/weekly basis:-)

History / The ongoing de-Germanisation of the Nazis and the Holocaust adds to Poland's Responsibility [124]

I'd go even further, by adding that it largely depends on the PERSON as well. Society is still quite polarized on this subject and it's likely to stay that way for some time now:-)

Admittedly, the younger generation aka the children of the '68er generation are rather sick of the entire topic, as rabidly UNwilling as their now 70+ something parents were doggedly insistent on wrenching the truth out of THEIR mothers and fathers of the so-called "Taetergeneration"!

History / The ongoing de-Germanisation of the Nazis and the Holocaust adds to Poland's Responsibility [124]

Really??? German "guilt" (wina) over the Holocaust, yea Hitler to boot, far outweighs Polish misgivings over their partial complicity by an indescribable measure, dolno! Rest assured, Germans, especially over fifty, don't sleep easily either:-)

Language / Difficult verb pairs in the Polish Language; iść-chodzić, jechać-jeździć [34]

As far as Poles (in Polish) have explained matters, "chodzić" is considered an "iterative" verb, that is, "niedokonany" because it shows a regular activity such as "chodzić do szkoły" (I'll omit "chadzać" from this discussion, if only not to confuse things), or, "going to school"!

My first-year Polish instructor, thankfully a bilingual German-Polish speaker with a doctorate in Polonistik from Poznań, compared the former with "iść", thus contrasting the above with "iść do szkoły", "going" in the sense of "walking" to school, though not (necessrily) attending:-)) This verb he termed "dokonany" and he did so in both German AND later on, in Polish so as I could hoepfully internalize the structure in a native-speaker context.

He didn't trust his English in this instance, frankly, neither did I.

While I may have misunderstood his explanations, he provided at the time nearly identical examples to what I wrote and illustrated how they were to be used correctly.

History / The ongoing de-Germanisation of the Nazis and the Holocaust adds to Poland's Responsibility [124]

The death/extermination camps, a majority such as Auschwitz, Sobibór, Majdanek, along with sterilization or euthanasia centers, were present in Poland, though under GERMAN management and supervision, Poles or Ukrainians serving in an overwhelmingly lower-level capacity!! The Germans were the chief, indeed often SOLE, organizers and executants of those death factories along with the bulk of concentration camps.

Poland remained the killing field for Jews, much as Lithuania and Latvia. German staff however, Mengele, Clauberg, Wirth etc. were the ones exclusively in charge:-)

History / The ongoing de-Germanisation of the Nazis and the Holocaust adds to Poland's Responsibility [124]

Needless to add, there were "good" Poles who often risked everything in order to help their Jewish neighbors, friends etc. There were also numerous "righteous" Germans such as Hans and Sophie Scholl, Kurt Huber and the rest of the White Rose who gave their lives in defense of decency and democratic values, no sour grapes here please!!!!

On the other hand, many a Pole was all too glad to hand over their Jewish fellow citizens into the hands of the Nazis. Sadly, a majority of Germans bought into Hitler's cruelty hook, line, and sinker, to the extent that ever after the War, many never even thought about what they'd done as necessarily cruel or inhuman, the truly frightening part:-)

A sizable number of Jews all too regrettably became turncoats and turned in their own as Kapos etc., a number of others, even began a "Judenrat" or "Jewish Council" to try to appease Hitler and, heaven forbid, cooperate with the enemy in order to save their own skin.

Sin is found on BOTH sides, let us be clear on this point! The motivation was doubtless not identical, the result was all too often the same.

Language / Difficult verb pairs in the Polish Language; iść-chodzić, jechać-jeździć [34]

First of all, Polish verbs are divided as you are doubtless aware, into what are known as, "aspects" aka "points of view" from the vantage point of the speaker! These aspects, unlike tenses in other languages, indicate solely the DURATION vs. the TIME FRAME within which a given action is being or has been completed. They are divided variously into the categories "determinate", and "frequentative", known simply as "perfective" verbs because of their finite nature.

Into the latter group belong "iść" [determinate], "jechać" [frequentative], and "spotkać się", this as contrasted with
"chodzić" [iterative or REPEAT action!!!], "jeżdzić", and "spotYkać się", each of which is an "IMperfective" verb owing to their INFINITE nature!

A few examples should suffice: PERFECTIVE

Idę teraz do kościoła. = I'm going to church. [Right at this moment!]

Jutro jadę z moimi rodzicami do Berlina. = Tomorrow I'm driving with my parents to Berlin.

No, spotkamy się przed głównym wejściem kina, dobra? = Well, let's all meet in front of the main entrance to the movie theater.

Now, for the IMPERFECTIVE:

Od kilka lat Krysia chodzi do szkoły podstawowej. = Chrissy's been [continuously] attending primary school for several years.

Codziennie jeżdzę od Sopota do Gdańsku. = I drive every day from Sopot to Gdańsk.

Na Paradze Pułaskiego spotykamy się na rogu 46ej ulicy i Piątej Aleje. = We [always!!] meet for the Pulaski Parade at the corner of o 46th Street and Fifth Avenue.

History / The ongoing de-Germanisation of the Nazis and the Holocaust adds to Poland's Responsibility [124]

So Ironside believes the Poles were guileless victims of Nazi terror and innocent of the wrong doing attributed to them and he asks ME to "grow up"??!!

That's the pot really calling the kettle black:-) I've heard of being in denial, but this is ridiculousLOL

News / What impact will Donald Trump's election have on Poland? [331]

There was a once famous US-American Hollywood musical actress from the '30's, Una Merkel, yet no one seems to have picked up on the "connection". Trust me, we pronounce her name "Mirkel", not even "MirkELL" at thatLOL

History / The ongoing de-Germanisation of the Nazis and the Holocaust adds to Poland's Responsibility [124]

@Dolno,

I am willing to "build bridges" of solidarity with Polish gentiles, always have been, always will be. Wonder though whether the reverse holds EQUALLY true:-)))

@Polonius,

The difference in your example is that the Kapos did what they did in order to survive, presumably NOT fueled by anti-Jewish hatred, empowered by the Nazis themselves!!

History / The ongoing de-Germanisation of the Nazis and the Holocaust adds to Poland's Responsibility [124]

Again, the Germans were instrumental in setting the gears of the death machinery in motion!

Only, there was sadly plenty of help from the Poles, maybe even as much collaboration as actual resistance.

Many Polish farmers DID indeed take in Jews for extended periods, only others, either did such for money/shaking down the poor wayfarers, or ended up turning the Jews in to the local gendarmerie, who in turn handed them over to the Germans-)

Clear cut the whole business ain't, that's for sure!!

History / The ongoing de-Germanisation of the Nazis and the Holocaust adds to Poland's Responsibility [124]

Poland has been trying to deflect her own complicity for years, Polonius! Although clearly the Germans aka Nazi government, spearheaded NOT by Hitler per se, but rather Heydrich, Eichmann and others within the latter's inner circle were the ones instrumental in setting the Holocaust machinery into active motion, the death camps in what is now Poland (then German-occupied territory) would never have worked as "efficiently" were it not for those local Poles aka non-Germans, along with many Ukrainians and Slovaks, for example, who did in fact collaborate with the Nazis.

There was to be certain a far more active resistance throughout Poland compared with in Germany at the time, nonetheless, Poland cannot be let off the hook quite so easily either:-)

News / What impact will Donald Trump's election have on Poland? [331]

I know that, upthecreek, I was merely being facetious, since as we know, foreign languages frequently make allowances for their own native pronunciation when conversing in a foreign language:-)

Merkel may indeed lose out to the PEGIDA or AfD, you're sadly correct!

News / What impact will Donald Trump's election have on Poland? [331]

Germans say "Tramp" because they have no short "uh"-schwa sound:-) They're dead set AGAINST "Donahlt Tramp", by the way!

Genealogy / Create gene bank of Slavic and therefore Polish people? [44]

Sounds like a Slavic "Lebensborn" to me.

News / What impact will Donald Trump's election have on Poland? [331]

Poland will learn too that a Donald Trump will NOT work for Poland:-)

News / What impact will Donald Trump's election have on Poland? [331]

When people say, "Those others have empathy fatigue.", one begins to wonder whether they ever had any empathy at all.
Tolerance is tough, but despite mismanaged immigration etc., there must be a better solution that what Trump and his followers propose!!

Po polsku / Dlaczego uczysz się Polskiego? [101]

Zgadzam się z Tobą! A jej język ojczysty jest bardzo inny od polskiego:-)

Po polsku / Dlaczego uczysz się Polskiego? [101]

Tak, prawie doskonała piszesz po polsku! Czy znasz angielski tak dobrze jak polski?
:-)

News / What impact will Donald Trump's election have on Poland? [331]

Sadly Johnny, your ideas seem hopelessly out of step with the march of today's society!

While perhaps there once was some saving grace in the homogeneity of a single culture within a single nation, the poor from predominantly non-white, non-Christian countries nowadays want a peace of the pie also.

Perhaps Canada should serve a model. When in Toronto some years back, I encountered a perfect symbiosis such as I have never witnessed, before or since; citizens of various shades and ethnicities speaking Canadian ENGLISH as their mother- in fact, only, or at least primary tongue, completely comfortable identifying with their Anglo-Canadianness to an extent I've yet to see in this country!

Maybe it was only on the surface, but its success looked convincing to this astute observer:-)

back on topic please

History / German history of my new home in Poland [30]

Older Germans still often refer to 'Vor- u. Hinterpommern' when referring even casually to post-War Pomerania:-) To many, it remains German.