Love / Are Polish men romantic and caring or... "plain"? [85]


It's not just about being mean. It's the same story with guys from "cities" (and Poland has what, like a city and a half total? lol) picking on guys from "villages," or rich ones picking on poorer ones, or tall ones picking on short ones, or whatever else they can find to be a "notch above" others (mainly in their own mind) and make a good impression on the girls.

And it's not that men in the UK are any different, they just have different criteria on how to judge themselves successful and respectable than being from a city or from a village.

Life / WHY DO POLES USE ENGLISH WORDS IN CONVERSATION? [396]

I think the truth behind it is that the US is undoubtedly the dominant cultural power in the world, and the language just spreads, because new ideas and new concepts are created more frequently in the US than anywhere else, and are just given English names. During the Soviet times, Polish language acquired and adapted a lot of Russian words. When the French dominated the European culture a couple centuries before, the French language was considered the most "sophisticated" and copied everywhere else. I mean, think of how many Latin words we still use because Rome was such a huge cultural center thousands of years ago.

Who knows, maybe at one point we will come up with something better than kielbasa for everyone to remember the Polish name of it.

History / Should visitors to Auschwitz pay an entrance fee? [82]

skysoulmate

well, a lot of museums and memorials where I live have free admission, but they also ask for voluntary donations. I think a lot of Jewish people would donate money to see the place where so many of their fellow people suffered died is kept up and in good repair, don't you?

it's sad that people still think of Auschwitz in terms of costs and politics, and I'm sure there are other items in the Polish national budget where way more money is spent wastefully and nobody cares. I don't think Auschwitz is going to be the one thing that makes Poland go bankrupt, but if foreigners, Jews or otherwise, would be willing to donate money, I say we take it and use it for the intended purpose.

Life / Are Poles bigots and xenophobes? [205]


what exactly do you know about Texas that makes you so condescending? i think my point is proven, that Poles think they're better than everyone else, for no good reason.


again, point proven. It wouldn't even cross your mind that it's wrong, you're just trying to come up with justification for an irrational example of bigotry.


ditto

Dude, you're a living proof of what I wrote.

btw, I hope you give a discount on your English lessons.

Life / Are Poles bigots and xenophobes? [205]


I appreciate the explanation, and I'm sure there is a lot of truth in it. But it just makes me wonder if it's even possible to be a non-Catholic in Poland, with religion being taught at school and even on days off (rekolekcje) as a mandatory activity. If one of the basic freedoms which many other countries take for granted, is restricted by generations that have not experienced WWII or communism, I just don't see much hope. I think it would be very difficult for a non-Catholic to live in Poland, not to mention someone whose diversity is visible at first sight, like a non-Caucasian race, or being openly gay. Obviously it doesn't help that the Catholic church is frantically anti-gay.


so you think I am or I'm not Polish?

Life / Are Poles bigots and xenophobes? [205]


My husband is Polish. I was watching Colbert Report and the piece on the giant statue of Jesus, which was hilarious, so we started talking. We know a lot of Polish people in the area and they're far from intolerant-and-proud-of-it, which seems to be the case with some folks posting here. So I started the thread and wanted to hear on what you think.

Life / Are Poles bigots and xenophobes? [205]

Omg, Asik, you totally take the cake...


hmmm... either lazy OR well-organized...
I'm sorry you had first-hand experience with stealing and prostitution. I'm just saying, you had to, because otherwise a smart woman like you wouldn't be making general statements about a whole nation based on some hear-say and stereotypes.


like, say, a concentration camp?...


oh, right, way worse than being a murderer or a thief, or a liar, or a closed-minded bigot...
nah, being gay is THE WORST ever...

Life / Are Poles bigots and xenophobes? [205]


I would hope it would translate into compassion and charity, and mutual solidarity, and selflessness, not dogmatism and narrow-mindedness. I'm sure there are good Poles doing good things. And then I can also see and read some dimwits here. I don't need to point my finger, they're waving their own white-and-red freak flags...

I hear it was quite difficult to opt-out of the Catholic activities at school 10-15 years ago, I hope things changed. Kids felt left out if they didn't participate in the whole First Communion thing, or if they had to wait in the school's hallway for an hour while all their peers attended religion classes. The option not to be a Catholic kid was there on paper but it wasn't valid given the peer pressure or how such family would be treated by neighbors.

Life / Are Poles bigots and xenophobes? [205]


Lol, what do you get for 1,000+ posts? carpal tunnel? dude, seriously, get a life...

I was hoping to get into an interesting conversation, but it seems that some people mistake interesting for hostile... Particularly people who seem to follow very rigid criteria on who is and who isn't Polish. Or who dismiss the opinions of anyone who does not live in Poland currently but are perfectly happy to make statements about regions and places they haven't been to themselves, or make assumptions about other people based on their address or their place of birth.

Way to go, people, you would make Kosciuszko proud... I'm actually very happy some of you seem to live far from Texas, and judging by the openness of your mind, you'd all probably get scared sh*tless just trying to leave your village anyway.

Life / Are Poles bigots and xenophobes? [205]

wasn't the 30-year war in the 1600s? that's gotta be the longest-surviving national grudge ever... well, think about it this way, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger :)

I know, damn Polish wussies... The Germans got their asses kicked in WWI and who they came up with? Hitler!

Deutschland uber alles!

Life / Are Poles bigots and xenophobes? [205]


you're right, Germans would never come up with that. They would only put together some cute little slogans about the higher mission of the Aryan race, and racial hygiene, and Lebensraum... No wallowing in self-pity, just dry-humping some obnoxious idea of national destiny.

So, speaking of losers and dry-humping, is


your mantra before Hitler Jugend Singles evenings?

Life / Are Poles bigots and xenophobes? [205]

Grzegorz_

For the duration of three "zdrowaśki" every day before bed. Unless my stomach hurts, then longer.

I'm sure you're asking because you want to defend it. I'll be happy to hear how you can justify their "Jews killed Jesus" comments.

Life / Are Poles bigots and xenophobes? [205]


further than Germans?


I totally agree. I've never seen any other nation so mindlessly following authority.


keep your Lederhosen on, the obsessive/delusional is just not my type

Life / Are Poles bigots and xenophobes? [205]

You guys are so cute when you get all worked up...

You're still missing the point. Discrimination is wrong anywhere, in Texas and in Poland. Your answer to my question is basically, Yeah, we're racists and nationalists and homophobes but it's totally ok because other nations are too.

Short, can you like close your eyes, clench your teeth and squeeze your butt real tight and try to come up with an actual point to your posts?

Life / Are Poles bigots and xenophobes? [205]

It should be phenomena.

Well, it's interesting that everyone is telling me to clean up Texas apparently (incidentally, nice to see so many experts on all things Texan here), and not to throw stones because discrimination in Texas is contemptible but if it happens in Poland it's just tough life, and it's ok and acceptable, not to mention some freaks out there like D are flat out happy about it.

How can I say it so that it's dimwit friendly? It's not OK to justify your being a bigot by showing examples of other people being bigots. And it's definitely not OK to justify it by saying, well, sh*t happens...

Life / Are Poles bigots and xenophobes? [205]

I'm not complaining. I threw a question out there, hoping for people to say it's just a few bad apples out there (which some smarter people did, thankfully) but instead I got a bunch of boneheads proving that intolerance is as mainstream as it gets among Polish people.

Life / Are Poles bigots and xenophobes? [205]


ok, I'm replying. you're right. nobody's voting for them any more. good.

to everyone out there offended and sobbing and wailing and not being able to deal with life today - I didn't make you read my thread, or post here, so how about I send you a brand-spankin new dollar bill from Texas and you go get yourself some pierogis.


how touching, torq... particularly that there's nobody more hell-bent on proving it than you and some of your buddies there.

You guys are really making my day here... I'm not quite a polish-hater yet, but after reading this, I'm getting there. I think I'll start my own Pole-hating group here in TX, Pierogi Nigdy Wiecei, and the mission will be to send you gay-donated blood and English-language textbooks, looks like both are equally unpopular in whatever hell hole you come from.

now, Short, and the rest of you, go ahead, keep the fun coming...

Life / Are Poles bigots and xenophobes? [205]


that would be awesome. also, a giant Jesus-building manual. and a book on how to build a Roma concentration camp with barbed wire and cow ****. Or how about the proper way to attack tanks on horseback. Or how to tell if blood is gay. I hear you spill some on giant jesus and if Jesus starts crying, it's gay. Or Jewish. Same difference... I would also love a picture of your latest screen door submarine.


I'm sure you don't have one. Because all your polish husband are belong to us.


No, the other are just innocent by-standing masochists.

Life / Are Poles bigots and xenophobes? [205]


It's a cultural reference, you wouldn't understand. I'll tell you when you grow up.


I guess we just hang out on PF a little too long.


so, in other words, nothing changes.

oh, c'mon, you guys are making this too easy... throw me something more difficult. like some more statistics, or laboriously dug-up internet links about stuff nobody cares about, or a few more tricky "English" sentences. these are good, btw. better than sudoku (z, another reference you won't understand probably, don't beat yourself up over it)

A few more posts I'll make millions (of those offensive brand-spankin-new dollar bills) on a new edition of "Polish Jokes, or how many Poles it takes to argue with one Texan."

Life / Are Poles bigots and xenophobes? [205]


there, there, get your mind out of the gutter... I know, you guys say, co kraj to obyczaj. Now, what we say is, What happens in Poland, stays in Poland. For good reason, too, because such sh*t would never go over well in TX.

Life / What do you like about Poland? [100]


I wonder if there's anybody who has visited Poland after a long while, let's say since they moved away, and what you think about how it has changed since you last lived there.

Work / What qualifications are needed for English teachers in Poland? [49]

well, I was hoping you would, actually, since you're from Texas, too, and I'm guessing must have some knowledge about how schools work in Poland.

My husband keeps talking about Poland, and how he'd like to move to the "old country" one day, so I'm just wondering if there's something I could do over there. He really loves Poland, and he's a really good guy, and I love him, we've been married for 11 years, so if it's going to make him happy, I would move.

What's the worst that can happen? We have enough resources to live there for a while without working, but I don't want to get bored, and it looks like there's a lot of people teaching English there, so it must be good business. And a good way to meet people.

It's just kind of scary to go somewhere where you don't know much about people, so I thought I'd join PF and find out.

so, it's a serious question, and it would be awesome to get some firsthand info.

Work / What qualifications are needed for English teachers in Poland? [49]

Really? A lot of PF people seem to like doing it. Are there better and worse schools to work for over there? Like private vs public or richer/poorer neighborhoods? Will they pay you more if you have a graduate degree?

My husband thinks all schools in Poland are great, but then he thinks everything there is great. Which is so cute...

Work / What qualifications are needed for English teachers in Poland? [49]

this is all really good information. so, public schools are not a good place to work. well, kind of like here.


that seems odd. if you can compete with others and show you're better than they are, why wouldn't they pay you more? isn't that how it works?

what's a State Dept clearance? you mean, they check if you're not a criminal or something? that should be a non-issue.

I think I've got that training part covered, with three degrees (two in literature and one in business... I know, it's nuts...) and I can't say my Polish is too great, but I think I could manage to learn more.

I kind of agree with L on the native speaker issue. Not that locals can't offer anything valuable but I've seen people coming here thinking they know English and in fact they were taught the craziest phrases and funniest pronunciation by well-meaning non-native teachers. It just makes you stand out and look funny, and does not help, trust me.

now, do corporations hire English tutors? I've heard "business English" is something people are interested about (although, trust me, there is no "business" English. Women talk shoes and guys talk football while doing business as much as any other topic. It's part of the process.)

I'm kind of thinking I could do in Poland what I do here, but then it's exciting to do something different every now and then. Life's too short!

I would really want to hear, though, why I shouldn't move to Poland. Z thinks I would regret doing it. It can't be worse than South Dakota now, can it? And since my husband is from Poland, there's gotta be more good-looking guys there, why wouldn't one want to move there? ;)

Work / What qualifications are needed for English teachers in Poland? [49]

oh...

i see.

i guess...

so, how do you get ahead then?

Work / What qualifications are needed for English teachers in Poland? [49]


well, i get it, business is business, you do offer the lowest salary the best guy will accept, but then you can't like totally lowball the guy, because all you'll see next day is your best guy going to work for your competitor across the street, and he's going to take your best customers with him, and now you lost part of your business... companies (and schools) will hire the best they can afford, that's why the best guys (and girls!) get the best paying jobs at the most profitable companies...

hasn't Poland been a capitalist country for the past 20 years or so?

Work / What qualifications are needed for English teachers in Poland? [49]

well, it's not like we're in the 19th century, I hope, when capitalism was completely unchecked and people were treated as mere cogs, and you were either at the very top and literally wallowing in it, or at the very bottom trying to survive (also literally, unfortunately).

is it really that bad when millions of people "in the middle" have fairly high standard of living, and improving? my FIL (he's Polish) was telling me how he would ride Komarek to work at the factory each morning, and then would spend 3 hours in line to buy shoes made in the USSR, and would only get 1 pair, because he had a coupon for one pair.

things happened since then (I mean the 19th century), people came up with more sophisticated ideas of management (mostly by trial and error), rather than carrying a big stick, now they figured it's better to offer a big carrot.

now you have to finish the story, though. did your brother find a guy?

to Lyzko:
Z is saying it's not like in the US. you're saying it is. I'm just curious.
can you tell me about the affirmative action? do you have a lot of minorities there?

Work / What qualifications are needed for English teachers in Poland? [49]

oh. wait, wait, let me guess what happened, they guy installed the wires backwards, and it short-circuited, and burned the building down, so they learned to offer a better wage next time? :)


no, I get it, I just want L to elaborate on his post