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Posts by andrei  

Joined: 31 Jul 2010 / Male ♂ 		Last Post: 16 Aug 2010
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andrei   
14 Aug 2010
News / Polish, language of future - Post-apocalyptic [45]

I can't imagine the reactions of Baltic states either if you told them that they had to use Polish, esp Lithuanians.

Polish is still widely spoken in Lithuania especially in the Vilnius region where the Polish minority constitutes the majority, although Lithuanians tend to deny even the existance of Polish people there and like to call them Polonised Lithuanians (because it better fits their needs) rather than Poles.

Of course I don't say that Lithuanians should speak Polish, but someone should really do something with the problems of Polish minority in Lithuania which rights are still very limited (they have no rights to have bilingual signs and names of streets in Polish in mostly Polish populated regions) or in some cases even oppressed(they even cannot use their original Polish surnames).
andrei   
14 Aug 2010
News / Polish, language of future - Post-apocalyptic [45]

Well, much of the architecture there is the same as here. I had a tour there a year ago. The common culture of yesteryear should lead to common ties but the tour guide did tell us that they have been trying to forge a kind of 'Lithuanianness' if you will.

Yes I've also heard that... They like to promote their pagan roots because most of them see the PLC period in a bad light (slow dissapearance of Lithuanian culture, being de facto controlled by the stronger partner in the union (or even Polish occupation in the POV of some) etc.)

Actually most of today's Lithuanians are de facto descendants of Samogitians and Aukshtotians rather than the original Lithuanians. Mainly because after the GDL (Grand duchy of Lithuania) swallowed the large areas of mainly Ruthenian orthodox lands from the former Kievan Rus it quickly get Ruthenised in the XV, XVI and XVII century - simply because the number of Lithuanians was far smaller than the population of the conquered lands. Later on after the union with Poland, Ruthenians and those Ruthenised Lithuanians have got Polonised in the XVIII and XIX century... And probably that's why there are even Poles there (I think that not many of them actually ever were ethnic Poles, but calling them Polonised Lithuanians is a big oversimplification and only the half of the truth) and why nowadays Lithuanians emphasize much on their culture - simply to retain their different culture and not being swallowed culturally (or in any other sense) by Russia or Poland.

Why should they have signs, btw? Why should they have street names in Polish? They are in Lithuania, not Poland, andrei. Should Albanians insist on Albanian street names in Kosovo after becoming the majority in parts? Is it theirs?

Ever been to Opole region and Kashubia in Poland or to Lusatia in Germany? The minorities there have a right to have bilingual signs:
in Opole - Polish and German
in Kashubia - Polish and Kashubian
in Lusatia - German and Sorbian.
I don't see why Polish minority should deserve a worse treatment, especially when they constitute the majority there... damn, in Poland we even have granted places in the parliament for national minorities (most often 1-2 seats).

Cannot use their Polish surnames? Well that is just wrong. They should be allowed to.

But they cannot... their surnames have to be 100% in tune with the rules of Lithuanian langauge (with their alphabet and weird endings added to surnames like: -us -as and the likes).

I almost felt like I was in Poland when in Vilnius and Kaunas. The old traditions should be honoured and there is little logic to Lithuania being so harsh against Poles. Maybe they felt bad after the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth but I can't fathom why.

Well... the traditions of Poland and Lithuania are quite close to each other because of obvious reasons (we both were in one state for a long period of time).

The PLC is one thing which they feel bad about... but the main reason is probably our collateral relations in the XX century, especially before WW2.
andrei   
14 Aug 2010
News / Polish, language of future - Post-apocalyptic [45]

Seanus

I agree with you.

Surely that breaches the right of freedom of name? ;) What they are doing is close to fascism, albeit on a much smaller scale.

If Churchill would live in Lithuania he would have to call himself Vinstonas Leonardas Spenseris Čerèilis rather than Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill :)

What was their leader's name? It began with V, I think

Augustinas Voldemaras?
andrei   
16 Aug 2010
Study / Polish schools and Polish educational system level in your eyes [135]

Posts Merged

There are plenty of bodies willing and able to learn, but the infrastructure to provide that learning isn't in place. One directly influences the other. Until that environment is in place, you won't have a very good pool of resources to pull from.

Everything is in it's place. Poland has more academic graduates than Germany, although the best German universities are better than Poland's best, but reason of that is because universities in the West are far more elitist than the Polish ones and because the Polish higher education is free and generally more open and egalitarian. Another reason is that it's more difficult and more challenging to get a work here so higher education is almost a required minimum here.

Well, in general I agree that Poland is relatively weak in terms of patents and it lacks both big industry and govermental support in scientific research. But on the other hand I can't agree that there is low human resources pool here. The main problem though is that many of the best go west in search for better salaries and better opportunites...

There are very little of Polish patents not because our science sucks (it's actually on a good/decent level), but because there is little high-tech industry and funds here to take their ideas into being so it's easier to sell the patents to someone else (example: the polish blue laser technology).
andrei   
16 Aug 2010
Work / Quality of IT educations (Computer Science) in Poland vs. other countries [11]

Hello

I have spent about 6 weeks in Warsaw this year and it surprises me how bad the Polish youth is at English in general.

It's true that English is known on a rather mediocre level in Poland among youth (although there is a lot of exceptions from it), but at least the knowledge of English among Polish youth is very common (actually there are very VERY little young people who don't know any English) and it's rather hard to find someone who don't understand a word.

I've never studied in Warsaw co I can't help you concerning your studies, but on a other note I've studied in Krakow and saw and met a lot of foreign students and can assure you that you don't have to know any Polish in the big cities (smaller one's is a different tale) to easily communicate, in most cases only English is more than enough, and if not English then German or Russian could sometimes do.

With Regards.
andrei   
16 Aug 2010
Study / Polish schools and Polish educational system level in your eyes [135]

We're not talking about the best, we're talking about the average education that you receive. Graduates from German universities are in much better shape than their peers in Poland. School is also free in Germany, and pretty much anyone can decide to go the university path. In Poland, you get the feeling that people have nothing better to do than go to university for years on end.

In Germany or in the West many don't even think about University because they know they can easily find a job without it, in Poland on otherhand there is a strong concurrence in the labour market so you have to non-stop perfect yourself in order to even have a job, it's a harsh enviroment, but a enviroment which results in generally better average education in the whole population than in countries where higher education is just a not very important bonus to your CV.

The problem is most definitely quantity over quality in Poland. Just have a word with any professors and ask them what's going on with the system. It's really a shame that such a strong university culture has been destroyed by the notion that everyone needs a degree to work.

You must have been on some humanist type of junk or on some private universities, in the public universities (especially on the technical ones) there is still very strong university culture with very good level (Poland having one of the best IT specialist in the world and winning full of awards in this discipline is a proof for that).
andrei   
16 Aug 2010
Study / Polish schools and Polish educational system level in your eyes [135]

There was no university culture comparable to the West in Poland during the communism and there isn't anything like that at present.

Have you ever studied in Poland (during the communism or now)?

The only difference is: Unis are allowed to make money, so they bring in as many students as possible - eg. the part time students in particular.

True, but there is a very big selection during the first year of studies and most often less than half of the initial number of students finish their studies.
andrei   
16 Aug 2010
History / Norman Davies - the Brit who loves Poland and becomes one of Us [250]

I've just read very intresting biographic note about him and something which suprised me was this part of note:

For me the Polish-Jewish relations were always weird to say the least... the best what fits to them is this:
What was first: the chicken or the egg?
Turned into this:
What was first: the antisemitism or the antipolonism?

Both: Poles and the Jews are no saints to me IMO.
andrei   
16 Aug 2010
Study / Polish schools and Polish educational system level in your eyes [135]

I started in post- communist Poland and transfered to finish studies in Canada.

So what have you studied (and where)? I think you've studied in a other Poland or in uni with a poor level. As far as I've studied I've never seen a Polish prof which wasn't serious about his job (I've studied at the University of Economics in Krakow), some of them were actually on the contrary - very conservative in their attitude and with "a mission" - I had one prof on my econometrics studies who teached Microeconomics, theoretically nothing big, but in reality he was very demanding and in the end he almost kicked out half of my whole major, so I can't call such guy "not serious" about his job.

that is the same in Canada, first 2 years are for weeding out the unfit students, what I had in mind was the part-time(zaoczny) system at Polish unis, which is a big source of income

I think a bigger problem would be if there was no "poprawkowy" than if there is. "Poprawkowy" is generally only one bonus date of exam (it's not like you try the exam infinity times, and even if the uni allows more dates, then you most often have to pay for them or alternatively they give you a chance of repeating the subject in another semester(also for cash)), imo it's a fair system, especially considering some hard technical majors (like electrotechnics for example) and hard subjects (like Circuit theory for another example).
andrei   
16 Aug 2010
Study / Polish schools and Polish educational system level in your eyes [135]

because his attitude would be not something I would appreciate.

Yes he was a pain in the ass, but because of months of his terror and hard learning in order to survive I've actually really mastered the subject and really learned something, so I would say that this kind of profs are actually effective although not nice.

The subject should be taught to students, so that most of them would pass, otherwise they should not be there at all in a first place.

It's not the point, from my experience I can say that they will surely teach you the main core of the subject , but on exams they very often require extended and more universal knowledge about the subject than only the things which were on excercises or even from the lectures.

I just can say one thing which one of my profs said ones (my louse translation to english):
"Studies (Studia) are not a place were you will be taught, but a place were you have to find and STUDY the needed sources by your own", and that is actually the whole (or maybe the more important) point of the higher education - you are the master of your own education, nobody will and nobody should care about you, it really teaches resourcefulness and some wiliness which is important in later life.
andrei   
19 Sep 2010
History / Lwów, Wilno ... kresy - Poland have lost enormoust part of our heritage... [389]

I don't understand the big problem in here. Lwow/Lviv and Wilno/Vilnius were as Polish as Stettin/Szczecin and Breslau/Wrocław were German, nothing controversial about it. Stettin and Breslau - originally slavic cities which got germanized because of huge german influences and for most of their history in Germany/HRE, Wilno and Lwów - originally lithuanian and ruthenian cities and then Polonized because of huge polish influence and being for most of their history in a polish controlled state. IMO, Taking Wilno before WWII wasn't fair (despite the polish/belarusian majority) because Lithuanians deserved it more since it was their capital for long time, but taking Lwow was just as logical as Germany getting Stettin or Breslau - it simply WAS Polish back then.

Nathan, most Poles I have talked to balk even at the mention of Lwów being Ukrainian. They criticise Russia for large-scale imperialism but don't acknowledge when they themselves partake in it. They still see it as a part of Poland.

The borders shouldn't have been shifted westward (because what for?) in the first place, so more or less it's the fault of the Russians/Soviets and uncle Joe (or generally of the Yalta conference and the big 3) rather than Polish imperialism here - it's the same mood as in Germany where some of Germans still see some of our cities as theirs... and it's pretty understandable since some people don't forget and don't acommodate easy to such big changes.
andrei   
19 Sep 2010
History / Lwów, Wilno ... kresy - Poland have lost enormoust part of our heritage... [389]

First of all, "it's understandable" because when they were born, it was a part of Germany.......

Actually, My words don't collide with what you said and I didn't said it isn't one of the more important factors... going on: a other factor can be also a lot of national sentiment connected with such place (important historical events for the nation, arts and culture, architecture, genealogy and generally national/cultural heritage as a whole...), we could probably also think of other factors but this two are probably the most influential.
andrei   
23 Sep 2010
History / Lwów, Wilno ... kresy - Poland have lost enormoust part of our heritage... [389]

I never did quite understand that. I was surprised when I first heard Lwów used to be Polish as my Ukrainian relatives came from(and some still live) west of there, in current Poland, near Przemyśl.

There is no rule to this one, in those times you could probably find a lot of Poles even east of Lwów, as Poland and generally eastern europe as a whole was rather a very ethnically mixed region (apart from the native people's of eastern europe you could find back then a lot of jews in the cities, armenians, scotsmen and dutchmen in the more important trading cities, gypsies, and even germans as far as volga river).