History / Life in communist Poland - personal relations [503]

I remember when name days were a thing in Poland* and being surprised that it was the person celebrating their name day was expected to treat co-workers.....

*they seem to be partly replaced by birthdays but there doesn't say to be any kind of established etiquette about them so in a real way imieniny have been replaced by... nothing.

Language / A study on how bilingual Polish-English speakers think [86]


I remember when I lived in a teacher's dorm a Brit* was trying to pin down Americans by accent... I tried to tell him that just wasn't a thing in the US in the same way because of mobility and the existence of GAE (General American English) which is available to anyone who wants to use it.... (I don't think there's an equivalent in the UK)

That's not to say different accents don't exist or that they're not noticed (I could distinguish town and country accents in the small place I grew up in - but I found that out by accident and not in a general atmosphere of micro-examinging how people speak).

*weirdly his accent was.... partly rhotic? he pronounced the r in car but not the r in park... is that a northern thing? I think he was northern....

Language / A study on how bilingual Polish-English speakers think [86]


IIRC this was usually related to being unfamiliar with finer details of British life (one case was apparently related to pub hours).

In the US forgetting nor not knowing how minor fine-grained details work isn't such a tell (since there's a lot of internal mobility and things work differently in different places) but in the UK at the time not knowing certain things (not included in their training) was like a big red flag and spotlight.

Genealogy / English versions of Polish given names [35]


What else would it be?

Language / A study on how bilingual Polish-English speakers think [86]


Many or most African countries have day to day national lingua francas that are not European languages (Lingala in Congo, West African Pidgin* in Nigeria, Wolof in Senegal etc)

Wouldn't it make sense to institutionalize these (a long-term project for sure)


become culturally dependent on a different non-African country and facilitate emigration?

*rapidly beocming a separate language, the BBC service is interesting in that regard but their orthography (mostly traditional English spelling) is a disaster....

bbc.com/pidgin

Language / A study on how bilingual Polish-English speakers think [86]


Were they doing something sane like trying to develop and empower local languages or doing something insane like trying to recreate a state bureaucracy in a foreign language?

Africa usually goes for the latter option (one of many reasons that development gets stalled there)

Love / Do you think these renowned Poles are hot? [150]


Is that code?

Language / A study on how bilingual Polish-English speakers think [86]


Yeah the 50-50 bilingual seems largely to be a myth most have a clear preference though I'm not sure of the variables that cause one to be stronger... talking with a German Polish bilingual (both native) a few years ago and she said she was at a meeting with other Germans bilingual with other languages... and they all (despite exposure, education etc) claimed German as dominant... just an anecdote... but a weird one.

Language / A study on how bilingual Polish-English speakers think [86]


It seems to have changed meaning in the last few decades, I remember when it was restricted to people with more than one native language and didn't normally include languages learned after the age of 10 or so (or in school).

Language / A study on how bilingual Polish-English speakers think [86]


I would trust Admiral Ackbar on this one.... he knows....

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Life / POLISH MYTHS - let's debunk or prove them! [141]


or washing machines....

Life / Polish Nursery Rhymes [253]

Has no one mentioned mięsny jeż yet?

youtube.com/watch?v=nKEfy_1aAeE

Language / Short Polish<->English translations [1050]

Weird question that occasionally comes to mind.

During the PRL the Soviet Union was officially Związek Radziecki (occasionally Kraj Rad) a Polish translation of the original meaning of Russian sovet (rada).

But now Sowiecki seems to be far more common.... anyone know when/why/how this happened?

History / Poland must get back Lwow, Wilno and Brest back [345]


I never thought I'd see you admit that Kosove is no longer Serbia! Progress, man, progress!!!!!!

Also Kaliningrad, total communist invention, it should be returned to some other country (Germany? or divided between Poland and Lithuania!)

Nice to see this personal growth from you!

Genealogy / English versions of Polish given names [35]


I used to be told it was Albert, but wasn't sure, why.... according to wikipedia it was because a Czech saint who changed his name from Vojtech to Adalbert....

Genealogy / Birth in Lviv in 1926: Polish or Ukrainian nationality? [29]

In modern American usage 'nationality' refers more to citizenship than anything else. The same way "an X national" means "a citizen of X".

History / Current Polish-Russian relations.. What do the Poles think? [60]


I would modify it...

1. The model of government has not changed since the tsars, just the job titles.
2. Most people aren't 'citizens' in the modern sense of the word but subjects of the tsar
3. The vast majority of the population are obedient and passive (so they don't mind the government robbing or even killing them)
4. The government regards the subjects with contempt
5. Negative selection operates at all levels of society destroying chances for positive change.

Travel / Favorite places/Cities for Poles to travel to in Poland or around the world. [9]


Cyprus was nice enough, I have no idea of the nightlife though. If I had to choose one to go to right this minute... probably Malta (been more times know my way around better).

Also I don't remember lots of non-European migrants as you see all over the place in Malta - a number of hotel workers were from Central-Eastern Europe but hardly any Africans or Indians (this might have changed)

Question.... why is there a very large US embassy in Malta? most countries have an office somewhere (or just a consulate) I'm wondering if Malta is a way station for lots of migrants who are actually headed for the US... but I'm too lazy to research it...

Life / Famous Polish people (that we have actually heard of) [231]


In America the ads didn't have any label she just said something like "Hi, I'm Rula Lenska" as if the audience was supposed to recognize her... the ads were the pre-internet version of 'viral' in that they were the source of a lot of jokes.

I remember reading at the time that she was supposed to be famous in the UK (maybe not from what you write....)

Love / Do you think these renowned Poles are hot? [150]


Russians are into ethnic identification to a weird and unsettling degree... Soviet mindset

Off-Topic / Eurovision - Today I will be ashamed to be Polish [586]


How much money are you sending to Russia?

Off-Topic / Eurovision - Today I will be ashamed to be Polish [586]


A few years ago Australia was my favorite entry (with the lady singing coloratura on the swaypole).


Not so sure, it was heavily influenced by ye-ye* (or so it seemed to me) and a whispy not-very-strong voice is one of the defining features of the genre.... I don't think it would have worked with a stronger voice...

*en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Y%C3%A9-y%C3%A9

Off-Topic / Eurovision - Today I will be ashamed to be Polish [586]

Ukraine's winning song was partly political but they put on a show (also an important consideration) and this is very far from the worst winner...

I loved Ukraine's techno-folk entry last year (more the live performances than the video).

This year my favorite was Moldova... accordions for the win!!!!! Anyone who looks down on this (or didn't enjoy it at some level) is dead inside.....

I detest music that sounds like it's from nowhere (or could be from anywhere) so I didn't much like Sweden (or.... Poland for that matter, guy's got the pipes but he needs better material). I like Estonia cause it was goofy and he was having a great time (spaghetti western vibes didn't hurt).

To paraphrase someone else Italy didn't send a song, it sent an overwrought argument by two drama queens waiting for the night bus outside a gay nightclub at 3 am.... I respect them for that.

Language / Short Polish<->English translations [1050]


I think of it more as "Take care!" an informal way of saying bye and expressing goodwill toward the person.

History / Life in communist Poland - personal relations [503]


Of course things have different names in different places but 'curry comb' sounds to me like something you use to groom a horse....

Look up 'hair pick' or 'afro pick' on google images (wiki pedia uses 'afro pick' but the kids i knew just said 'pick').

History / Life in communist Poland - personal relations [503]


Where I'm from they called it a 'pick'.... (don't know how widespread that term was....)

Love / What do Polish woman think about Latinos (dating, relationship) [19]


Depends on what you mean by "latino".....

Southern Europe (Spanish Italian Greek looks) yeah a lot of Polish women love that.

Latin America.... more mixed.

Language / Polish from Russian [14]

Once you can understand fairly well this is a great channel:

youtube.com/channel/UCv2weqWCHMTnOlt-Q8f-PDw

Her diction is crystal clear and judging from the comments many/most of her students are Russian speakers and a lot of her lessons are about that (indirectly at least).

History / Life in communist Poland - personal relations [503]


An expression I heard a time or two was 'the train's not full unil the glass breaks'... it seems to have been PKP's motto back then...

Off-Topic / Eurovision - Today I will be ashamed to be Polish [586]


One thing's for certain.... Pootin won't.

Russia's international brand has sunk below zero (except among authoritarians and/or fascists).

Thought experiment. Drop Pootin on any random street corner in Europe (outside of fascist Serbia and/or Hungary)... how long does he survive?

Funny thread on Russian media meltdown about Eurovision (which no one cares about and is stupid and they don't want to take part in anyway and they never sent their biggest stars and they don't care and maybe they'll revive their own song contest!)

twitter.com/irgarner/status/1525482730699509762

triva:

number of times Ukraine has won Eurovision.... 3

number of times Russia has won Eurovision... 1

number of winning Eurovision songs partly or completely in Ukrainian.... 2

number of winning Eurovision songs partly or completely in Russian.... 0