The BEST Guide to POLAND
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Posts by Lyzko  

Joined: 12 Jul 2013 / Male ♂
Warnings: 1 - O
Last Post: 1 day ago
Threads: Total: 41 / Live: 27 / Archived: 14
Posts: Total: 9621 / Live: 5503 / Archived: 4118
From: New York, USA
Speaks Polish?: tak
Interests: podrozy, rozrywki, sport

Displayed posts: 5530 / page 117 of 185
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Lyzko   
26 Aug 2019
Off-Topic / The "Anglicization" of Europe [132]

Stumbled across an op-ed piece in today's NYT with the title of the current post, in which the author, one Patricia Dannerman (?) bemoans
the gradual loss of language identity through the seeming 'stranglehold grip' (the author's words) of English across the entire continent.

She feels, and rightly so, I think, that in this world of buzzwords such as "cultural diversity", Europe should start by encouraging her
own rich tapestry of linguistics variety into the business-trade-tourism area once again, rather than blithely insist that English-ONLY
become her sole lingua franca.

If a visitor from abroad is sincerely confounded by being addressed in rapid-fire German at Berlin's major airport, then of course, all
staff should be (and in fact are) bilingual in at least fluent English.

However, to openly discourage non-natives from speaking in French, German, Italian etc. as the open battle cry from the international
economic community is to railroad a learned SECOND language through nearly every communication with a non-native interlocutor,
the author feels is downright foolish, and I would concur.

Curious as to how the above has affected Poland.
Lyzko   
24 Aug 2019
Life / Polish Organizational Skills [83]

Funny thing, people used to complain in much the same way about the Spaniards. Oddly, or perhaps aptly, enough,
generations of hour- to hour-and-a-half long siestas after a work-week lunch actually were found to increase worker
productivity...and organization:-)
Lyzko   
23 Aug 2019
Off-Topic / DALMATIA - How much Poles love Dalmatia ? [123]

Don't be fooled by Bibi's "American education" or his fine speaking voice (compared to Trump) and glib argumentation; he's a slick operator who plays the voters' psychology as a violinist plays a Stradivarius:-)
Lyzko   
22 Aug 2019
Off-Topic / DALMATIA - How much Poles love Dalmatia ? [123]

Ahem, the Mufti and Hitler did in fact converse together in earnest about the so-called Jewish "problem".
However, it is indeed nonsense to conclude that Hitler got the idea from the Mufti.

If anything, Hitler's inspiration for the Holocaust was said to be the remark of a close aide, at the time Hitler was debating the efficacy of a Final Solution, to which this individual remarked, "But who will remember Armenia?"
Lyzko   
22 Aug 2019
UK, Ireland / "Strange " English language.. [255]

Face it, over the past nearly forty years or so, the "English" of what once constituted Received Pronunciation has eroded
almost beyond repair among the vast majority of the rank-and-file Britisher I encounter almost daily here at our school.

Although admittedly most are tourists of indeterminate pedigree, the delight in the Upper Crust pronunciation, sadly so
connected with Britain's truly stifling class system, has all but disappeared, lest one be branded (horrors) a snob, a bigot
or both, someone "woefully out of touch" with the changing reality of London's aka England's long growing diverse population.

As an American who visited England first in the mid-'70's, later on during the late '90's, I saw the decline in cultural as well

as linguistic standards just about as soon as we arrived in our hotel near London's Theatre District.

Where once West End fops, braggarts, and assorted eccentric types once roamed when I was there as a teen, now have been
replaced by an atmosphere practically beyond recognition.

Not sure if I'd have called it "progress" exactly, but it's important to know about such non-stop trends.

I realize time doesn't stand still, yet is stasis always that deleterious to a country's growth? Seems to me, based on what I see, Britain's

thrown the baby out with the bathwater!
Lyzko   
14 Aug 2019
UK, Ireland / Why are Polish people, especially women, so disrespectful toward the English? [437]

The first Polish primer I ever used to learn Polish before formal instruction was called "Pracowita Matka", an early Communist Era text from around the mid-'60's. Quaint, perhaps even silly-looking now, it stressed in the beginning chapters the emphasis on diligence and nose to the grindstone.

Typo.

"....classroom culture clasH..."
Lyzko   
14 Aug 2019
UK, Ireland / Why are Polish people, especially women, so disrespectful toward the English? [437]

Many Poles, it is true, along with other Europeans, find this typically Anglo-American "warming up in the bullpen" before simply coming out and saying something, most irritating, you're quite right about that!

As I've posted so many times prior, what comes across as "rudeness" is often merely cultural difference and usually nothing more:-)
A colleague of mine came to me in our faculty lounge during lunch time, complaining bitterly about a student of his who apparently does nothing but challenge the teacher, every single lesson. He turned to me and asked what he should do about it, to which I inquired as to the student's nationality. He replied "Israeli", but not Palestinian, to which I blithely retorted that Jews argue with everybody, their teachers, their cabinet leaders, their parents, even with G-d!LOL

He then too chalked the whole thing up to a classroom culture class, and so I presume everything will be just fine.
Lyzko   
14 Aug 2019
UK, Ireland / Why are Polish people, especially women, so disrespectful toward the English? [437]

I agree with you to a large extent.

First of all, Mafketis is right when he posted that it isn't the Poles per se who are doing stuff who ought to be blamed, rather, the Government, allowing many groups into the UK, usually for the purposes of encouraging cheap labor and in the end, a "throw-away society" of low ballers underbidding native-born workers.

As an American living in the US, Trump is merely a reaction to years and years of failed liberal policies, allowed to go unchecked for way too long for comfort!

Germany, Sweden, Denmark only mirror the misplaced liberal tendencies in which this planet has become awash over the past thirty- five years or
so and counting.
Lyzko   
14 Aug 2019
UK, Ireland / Why are Polish people, especially women, so disrespectful toward the English? [437]

While Poles have rightly long prided themselves on their diligence, industry, and hard work, when it comes to actually GETTING the job at which one is able to excel, don't rule out a "friendly little lapowka" under the table, just to make certain:-)

@Polesgohome,

Is the basic problem in your opinion that the Poles of whom you speak never bothered much to integrate linguistically?
That can indeed be a thorny issue, even here in the so-called "Melting Pot" America, where folks are getting bleedin' sick and tired of foreigners setting up shop, yet not knowing enough of the lingo to communicate effectively with native locals:-)

Germany continues to grow fed up with certain people from Syria as migrants to the Federal Republic, who in some instances have even insisted that Germans learn THEIR language rather than that the Syrians learn German.

Makes you think sometimes that the tail is wagging the dog, what?
Lyzko   
13 Aug 2019
History / Warsaw Rising 1944 - National Disaster or Triumph of Spirit ? [515]

We do too, Dirk! Maybe you'd have passed already and your toxic spirit along with you.

@Rich, those recruited, such as the Belgian Brigades of Nazi sympathizers did in fact have to swear a loyalty oath as well....upon pain of death.
Lyzko   
13 Aug 2019
History / Warsaw Rising 1944 - National Disaster or Triumph of Spirit ? [515]

Factually incorrect, Ironside!

Hitler recruited from numerous neighboring countries whose racial lineage he deemed suitable for his Master Race, among others, Holland, Lithuania, Latvia, Norway, Estonia, even Finland, not to mention little Croatia.
Lyzko   
11 Aug 2019
News / Poland's LBGT Seen as Dangerous Foreign Idea. [39]

Considered "perverted" by those at ideological odds with established religion, not human biology:-)

No, Johnny, live and let live is essential to permitting this planet not to become any more unglued and
out of control than she already is!
Lyzko   
11 Aug 2019
News / Poland's LBGT Seen as Dangerous Foreign Idea. [39]

LBGT rights everywhere have always been at risk.

My feeling is that we should simply live and let live. After all, deviance from the norm is
a human right, not a sin, unless of course one takes the written word of any holy scripture literally,
which is a dangerous idea anyway.