News / Poland hopes to attract hard-working, trouble-free immigarnts - Ukrainian, Belarusians and Vietnamese [139]


You're talking about deeply entrenched human trafficking networks, any publicity you put out will be countered on the ground by the trafficking representatives...

The problem is once let in many migrants suffer enormously but don't want to look like failures and so they end up encouraging others to follow them.

The situation that exploded in 2015 had been building for well over 5 (closer to 10) years and the EU _knew_ it and still did so little that it might as well have been nothing.

I'm in general theory in favor of the EU but in practice it's bloated (and I'm sure lots of officials in it have their thumbs in the trafficking pie as well).

Language / Ethnic backround of suffixes of Polish surnames [54]

Scan it and post it (or post a link to a scan) the bigger the better and maybe someone can help....

News / Poland hopes to attract hard-working, trouble-free immigarnts - Ukrainian, Belarusians and Vietnamese [139]


No welfare state?


Human trafficking. Yet another reason that crummy dictator Lukashenka must go!

News / Poland hopes to attract hard-working, trouble-free immigarnts - Ukrainian, Belarusians and Vietnamese [139]


The ones on the Eastern border at present have no intention of staying in Poland, they're headed for greener (in welfare terms) pastures, which is why the EU is actually passively supporting Poland.

Language / Polish opinions on foreign languages? [54]


Already know a couple (that cuts down learning time drastically) But no, for the first language there's no way to _learn_ (as in really learn) a foreign language quickly and easy - that's why years of school are devoted to it (when those teaching/learning are serious).

Language / Harmless old-fashioned Polish swear words/phrases [159]

Then what do you think it could have been?

One problem is no pronunciation is given (especially for -i- is the -i- in machine or the -i- in bite?

The only thing that comes to my mind could maybe be something based on German kleine (if 'glida' rhymes with Ida (english pronuncation)

Googling also turns up glajda an old poznanian word meaning 'mud' or 'messy woman/girl'...

Any ideas?

Language / Harmless old-fashioned Polish swear words/phrases [159]


maybe 'ty gnida' (or 'ty gnido' not much difference)

ty - you (Familiar)

literally, 'gnida' means 'nit' (egg stage of head lice)

but it's also a pretty strong insult, here defined as "scheming, two-faced malicious person"

The minister of education recently tried to get a university professor fired for calling a member of parliament 'gnida' in a (later deleted) tweet.

History / What do Poles think about Turks? [761]


No doubt, but how many Turks belong to them? According to wikipedia no more than 20,000 which is a smaller percentage than Kurds involved in crime....

Interestingly Iraqi Kurds seem to be very, very different from Turkish Kurds (generally more educated and more secular).

History / What do Poles think about Turks? [761]


In Europe (especially Germany) the "Turks" are divided into two groups that don't necessarily have a lot to do with each other. The Ethnic Turks and the Kurds. Almost all the crime problems come from the Kurds.

News / Poland hopes to attract hard-working, trouble-free immigarnts - Ukrainian, Belarusians and Vietnamese [139]


Always legitimate targets (even if they're on your side... they're legitimate targets).


That's an exaggeration but the fact remains, more people want to live in Europe (that is Western Europe and the EU) than can possibly be let in without economic and social collapse.

And again, if you read/listen between the lines, Poland's tough stance on the border has the support of the EU. They can't say it openly, but they stop short of saying "let them in!"

It was similar in 2017 when the Spanish government obviously had gotten EU support to end the idea of Catalan independence.

No European government wants a rerun of 2015 and lots of precautions have been taken to prevent that. Will they work? We'll see.

News / Poland hopes to attract hard-working, trouble-free immigarnts - Ukrainian, Belarusians and Vietnamese [139]

Who on earth wants to sneak _into_ North Korea?

News / Poland hopes to attract hard-working, trouble-free immigarnts - Ukrainian, Belarusians and Vietnamese [139]


The logical assumption is that they tapped into existing human trafficking networks


If course not. They promise them access to the EU border, because if they cross the border and say 'asylum' they will most likely never be sent back to whatever sh\thole they're running from.

Real Estate / Termination of fixed term lease in Poland [28]


The way Poland works, this would probably require statements from doctors that would take time and effort to collect (and the landlord would have lots of opportunities to challenge those)....

I'm not saying that's the way it works but it's more likely than not.

Poland is not a place where you say "Ya know that kitchen seems to be making us sick, can we get out of the lease?" and get the answer "Sure, that sounds reasonable."

Real Estate / Termination of fixed term lease in Poland [28]


If he's a typical Polish landlord he doesn't care....

Food / Best Polish vegetarian food and other general queries [21]


but there are some posters who are against any thread that isn't about them and do their best to remedy that.... it's best to just ignore them...

Life / What's the immigration status in Poland? [12]


Poland has been offering to do that for a long time, but Belarus has not allowed them to enter (they are still on the Belarusian side where soldiers won't let them leave). Let's remember this isn't primarily about migrants but about a crummy little dictator waging hybrid war (and trying to sow chaos).

Food / Best Polish vegetarian food and other general queries [21]


There are some where I am too, and a couple of vegan restaurants (maybe more since that's more fashionable now) as well. So it's not like the 90's where people (who remembered ration cards) looked at people rejecting meat as if they were not quite right in the head....

There is the whole no-meat Friday tradition still observed by some (though fewer and fewer). Is that still a think in Ireland? What about Christmas Eve?

Please don't take the thread off topic

Food / Best Polish vegetarian food and other general queries [21]


A lot of these soups will be based on meat broth...

And things like little bits of skwarki (little bits of fried pork skin) might be dribbled over otherwise vegetarian dumplings (this happened to a friend who explicitly said 'no meat'... he didn't say 'bez skwarek'... so.....).

But this was a while ago and vegetarianism is a bit more known now. Even Biedronka (largest grocery chain) has vegetarian and vegan products (look for labels like wege, wegański).

There used to be a vegetarian restaurant chain "Green Way" but I haven't seen any lately.

Finally, it should be remembered that in living memory food was not plentiful in Poland (no one starved but having food required effort and forethought in a way that's not an issue now) so the idea of cutting things out of your diet is still pretty suspect to the older generation.

Food / Best Polish vegetarian food and other general queries [21]


In most of the country tips tend to be pretty small... mostly just round up the bill a bit if paying by cash (no more than 10 per cent).

Kraków might be a bit more tip oriented (Austro-Hungarian heritage and lots of tourists).

Poland is not easy for vegetarians (esp for those who don't know Polish)..

Travel / Roads with magnificent views / scenery in Krakow area. [13]

From spring (once the leaves are in) to late summer the express (with no stops) from Warsaw to Krakow is very scenic - nothing spectacular but lots of pleasant nature and small towns villages and farmlands. It's better in person than in description.

Polonia / POLES vs BULGARIANS [160]

Actually the pronunciation of Łodź by itself is better rendered "wootch" since the final dź is devoiced (pronounced like ć )

if you add an ending the vowel changes to o (like Spanish o) and the dź is pronounced like dź

W Łodzi (in Łódź) v WOH-jee

Many (most? all?) people from Łódź tend to say 'miasto Łódź' instead of Lódź (at least when talking to people from other parts of the country:

'Mieszkam w mieście Łodzi.' rather than 'Mieszkam w Łodzi.'

Genealogy / Do I look Polish? (my picture) [378]

He's testing our ESP powers.... I didn't fall for it, those beady brown eyes gav...... oops.... yeah, send a picture, none of us here have ESP or anything....

Polonia / POLES vs BULGARIANS [160]


IME Russian speakers with no previous experience of Polish can become functional within a matter of weeks and fluent in a few months. Croation speakers understand nothing on arrival but after a few weeks start to understand a lot.

Some phonological features of Polish make it very hard for speakers of other Slavic languages to understand at first but once the mind/ear adapt they can learn very quickly.

Ukrainians mostly speak Russian but they've had Ukrainian in school and they get survival Polish with almost no study. Those in customer service positions have to know a lot more (obviously).

Belarusians know less Belarusian than Ukrainians know Ukrainian but still any Belarusian they do know will help them adapt more quickly than those knowing only Russian.

Almost no Poles under 50 know any Russian and those trying to use it are in for a world of non-understanding.

News / The ruling party in Poland tries to take American owned TV news station off the air [528]


You and your wife are walking down the street and pass a wretched homeless person hacking up blood and staring at the ground while mumbling about the Queen of England being a reptilian who eats babies... then he looks up and calls your wife a slut (and worse)...

Do you physically attack him (exposing yourself to whatever possibly contagious illness he has)?

Or do you shake your head sadly and think "there but for fortune...."

Same principle. Someone who doesn't know someone and calls them "a nasty slut who f*cks dogs and worse" on first meeting is clearly mentally unwell and can't be taken seriously. Preventing them from acting out their illness physically is another question, but as long as it remains in the crazed ranting department.... pity and Christian charity is called for, not violence.


He does and you do...


If you follow European politics at all instead of larping and fantasizing about a single country, you would have sussed long ago (at least two years, maybe more) that despite what they may say, no European leader wants anything like a repeat of 2015 and Merkel's ghastly failure and they've been quietly taking steps to make sure it doesn't happen.

But if it makes you feel good then fantasize about PiS knocking EC heads together all you want. I'm in favor of increasing human happiness and if that kind of daydream does it for you, then knock yourself out....

News / The ruling party in Poland tries to take American owned TV news station off the air [528]


Why should I care what someone who supports neo-PRL policies thinks?

News / The ruling party in Poland tries to take American owned TV news station off the air [528]


yes I would, if you don't protect speech you find abhorrent then you're not in favor of freedom of expression but are still stuck in the PRL mentally


of course, I support freedom of expression I'm not a neo-PRL-ite

And what is your proposal for the border at the moment? If people start dying it's gonna be a lot worse for Poland's standing.....

News / The ruling party in Poland tries to take American owned TV news station off the air [528]


As much as it may distress you, there is freedom of speech in Poland.

Would you prefer a more Belarusian-style system? The situation is pretty bad (weather has not been conducive to camping outdoors. The migrants in question are being prevented from turning back by Lukashenka's thugs.

Probably the only thing that can be done is secure the border which may involve letting in some caught in the middle (would you prefer they die of exposure?).

It's not like they're likely to stay in Poland...

History / What do Poles owe to Hungarians? [275]


His problems go waaaaaay beyond language. He needs to learn thinking and logic.

News / Israel furious as Poland signs law to limit property claims [200]

No comments on my link, anyone?

Okay I'll throw out a provocative bit of bait....

The ones most against this law are the ones who want to profit dishonestly (or want others to).

News / Israel furious as Poland signs law to limit property claims [200]

Let's start things up again.

This article describes a lot of the problems around "reprivatization" that the new law is trying to stop. It's not primarily about Jews (as hard as it is for some to understand that)

theguardian.com/cities/2017/dec/18/stole-city-soul-warsaw-reprivatisation-chaos#comment-109853947

some highlights:

there is an open market where people sell and by claims

claims are based on pre WWII land divisions which often have little to do with modern divisions.

many/most of these buildings were piles of rubble in 1944 (after the uprising) and any rebuilding was done by ordinary people why should "reprivatization" return property built long after WWII?

lots of phony claims (my favorite was the absent 130 year old "living" owner who "could not be located"

lots more in the article.

My position: the law is a good idea but handled in the usual cack-handed PR disaster bumbling way by PiS