News / First Coronavirus case in Poland? [30]

I've read though that a virus can "travel" from one site and then be picked up by someone, not necessarily
from the "source area", but who happened to be there by sheer coincidence, maybe a tourist....and not
a Chinaman either:-)

I'm not a scientist either and so what I'm saying is naturally speculation on my part.

News / First Coronavirus case in Poland? [30]

China though is not the root of the problem.
Historically, they have long been known for tricky and slipshod sanitary practices, they'd be the first to admit it!

News / First Coronavirus case in Poland? [30]

Prejudice is an even more pernicious malady, guys. At least for Coronavirus, there's a cure....if you catch it in time!

Love / 20% of adult Poles are single and live with Mummy! [241]

My son rightly pointed out that I came of age in a slightly better economy than he. As such, I did what most self-respecting fathers would have done in my position - I used some of my connections where I worked to cut a deal and have the realtor give Steven a slight "break" on his first year's rent. The rest, I reminded him, was up to him. But if ever he needed some honest advice, I would always be there. You see, this stuff goes on all the time, only people normally don't talk about it. Anyway, I'm proud I was able to help. At least it gave the boy a feeling of independence, right?

Worked like a charm:-)

Motto here is that there is often a cover story to the erstwhile "I pulled myself up by my own bootstraps!", Horatio Alger routine.

Frequently, as George Jefferson from the now long defunct TV series would have said, Thing is, somebody done give 'em the boots and the straps!" lol

Everybody's situation is different.

Love / 20% of adult Poles are single and live with Mummy! [241]

Again, if parents are ready, willing, and financially able to send their kids to school, a "good" college like one of the Ivies, who am I to stand in moral judgement?

On the other hand, as a father, I'll be damned if I'd spoon feed my boy after he'd legally old enough to provide for himself proper! Not that I haven't helped when and where I could. However, Steven soon learned neither to accept nor to expect "handouts" from dear ol' dad!

Love / 20% of adult Poles are single and live with Mummy! [241]

I think that parents who have the means to help their children are morally (although NOT legally!!) obligated to do so! Any father who'd allow his son to suffer in a lousy economy, as if things were exactly as they were during the Great Depression, ought to have his parenting license revoked....as soon as he gets one:-) After that, have his head examined.

However, surely all young men who are over the age of 25 for certain, should make every attempt possible within the limits of the law, to seek adequate domicile for themselves, and of course, secure a bare minimum of employment.

This is though more the Anglo-Saxon way. Countries such as Italy, Greece, and Spain have traditionally encouraged their children both sons as well as daughters, to live at home and even raise their families where they themselves were born, should they be lucky or privileged to do so.

Neither way is ideologically right or wrong. Yet times change and parents must accept that some things cannot, indeed should not, be as they once were. There was plenty about the "good old days" which wasn't good.

Genealogy / Online access to public / parish records search in Poland? [20]

I see.

Genealogy / Online access to public / parish records search in Poland? [20]

Do perhaps mean parish records?

Genealogy / Families from Poland - finding out their names prior to immigration? [6]

Maybe a local land registry would have recorded those names.

Law / The right to own guns: would you support such legislation in Poland? [2237]

Yup, sounds just like the US.

Life / Polish films... where to find them? [51]

I'm currently watching a recent Polish movie, "Zimowa Wojna". Anyone familiar with it?
It comes with Polish subtitles and so it's ideal for learning:-)

Miswrote the title! It was actually "Zimna Wojna" and it was made by Anton Pawlikowski.

Language / What is your biggest problem with Polish language? [158]

@Rich, you're welcome!

@Exx217, as a Polish native speaker presumably, you probably wouldn't have difficulty with something with which you grew up and to which you were exposed since grade school:-)

As a foreigner from a bilingual German-English background, the issue of aspect is one upon which I often still must reflect when speaking, more so though, when writing.

Usually, I get it within a matter of seconds. Other times, it may take a little longer.
For instance, "brac" vs. "wziac udzial" looks relatively straightforward, however, when I read a Polish text from a responsible journal, say, "Wprost", I figure the article is written perfectly, and yet I sometimes think I've learned the correct pattern, only to be corrected by Polish acquaintances. When I ponder the question of such usage, the apparent subtlety is about as fine as when I've explained English tenses even to advanced Polish speakers!

Usually, their word choice is nearly perfect, their accent so-so, but their use of simple vs. continuous tenses, a disaster.

It's all a matter of thinking in the language, really.

Language / What is your biggest problem with Polish language? [158]

A Pole wouldn't have to ask, Rich. After all, it's their native tongue!!
Would you go to a foreign country to ask foreigners about English tenses??

Rich,
As I make my living as, among other things, a Polish-English, Polish-German translator, I charge a hefty fee to my clients and get a nice chunk in return:-) Sorry to shock you.

Language / What is your biggest problem with Polish language? [158]

For the same reason a Pole who's serious about their English would want to better know how to use tenses or anything else related to correct usage a la Strunk & White, that's why?

I sometimes wonder, Rich, whether you are serious about the questions you ask, questions with such obvious answers:-)
If you're not going to say it right, might as well not say it at all. Or at least with the proviso that the speaker is practicing whichever foreign language they happen to be speaking, and is therefore grateful for any (polite!) correction they can get.

Language / What is your biggest problem with Polish language? [158]

Back to the thread topic question, I guess what I still find difficult is knowing what is considered perfective or completed action to a Polish native speaker and what isn't! While in general, I finally think after all these years that I have it right, mistakes, even basic ones, do crop up in both my writing as well as my speaking from time to time. Frequently, I find myself thinking in Polish, although on other occasions, I don't.

Although nobody's ever said that they can't understand what I've written, I realize it could be said differently, that is, better.

Language / What is your biggest problem with Polish language? [158]

Merely different, Rich, surely though neither better nor worse.
Every language has its own spin on life. That's what makes language learning both practical, not to mention, so endlessly fascinating!

In the above instances, those two words I gave as examples, German is oodles more compact than English, hands down:-)

Language / What is your biggest problem with Polish language? [158]

Quite the contrary I'd say, Rich!

In German, "Gemuetlichkeit" needs ZERO explanation or addenda; one word speaks nicely for itself.
Try it yourself. "A feeling of cozy familiarity, often in a relaxed setting within the warm, bosom company of lifelong friends with whom you can just be yourself...." YUCCCHHHHH, what a mouthful:-)

Or try "Feierabend". In English, "quitting time". And yet, it's much more than that in the German. The English doesn't do it justice. It really means, almost literally "celebratory evening.....[well deserved after having busted your hump from nine 'till five!!]"

Nope, just can't swallow your arguments there, buddy.

Life / How to really meet Polish people in Poland and actually socialize with people in their Late 20s/Early 30s? [34]

@Lenka,
I'm glad we agree:-)
As to what I'm "on", I've only had one cup of coffee so far today and so it probably isn't caffeen.

Life / How to really meet Polish people in Poland and actually socialize with people in their Late 20s/Early 30s? [34]

Explained indeed, though surely not to anyone's satisfaction!
What you did say was that no Brits with whom you'd spoken ever criticized your English, that's something entirely different though:-)

Life / How to really meet Polish people in Poland and actually socialize with people in their Late 20s/Early 30s? [34]

My question as to whether or not your story was inconsistent with the truth.
Again, if you claim that Brits in London mistook you for English because you spoke/knew it so well, who the heck am I to argue:-) If true, and I'm not doubting it is, my hat's off to ya.

Likewise, when I say that I was quite briefly in Szczecin, visiting acquaintances of my Polish teacher on the outskirts of the city, who are you to claim otherwise?

Language / What is your biggest problem with Polish language? [158]

Without a dictionary, right off the bat, I'd translate the above roughly as "One fifth of which earnings?".

@Rich et al.
As far as Polish seeming as though it were a "barbed wire fence", while I do like the analogy in fact very much, at least from a literary viewpoint, just please try if you can to imagine how English must look to the average foreign learner:-)

Moreover, in terms of "no other language coming to the point" as English, I can think of several examples off the top of my head where certain expressions in German, for example, where one word is worth at least a sentence of explanation, e.g. "Gemuetlichkeit" and "Feierabend"!

Life / How to really meet Polish people in Poland and actually socialize with people in their Late 20s/Early 30s? [34]

My story is no more consistent or inconsistent than any similar one which you've told concerning Brits' reactions to your English.
It's your word against theirs:-)

And yet I am decent enough not to call you a liar! Herein lies that crucial difference between us.

Language / What is your biggest problem with Polish language? [158]

RIGHT ON, TORQ!

In addition, the motivation for say, a Pole, to learn English is entirely different from that of a native, college-educated Anglophone. The former learns English much the way the rest of us dullards learn arithmetic - with great difficulty and no special talent for numbers whatsoever. As untold numbers of people count on the fingers instead of in their head as we've been taught, the random Pole has a similar ability with English, in my varied experience!

Somebody from abroad might actually try and get rid of their foreign accent when speaking another language. Yet, this seems to dog most European speakers of English, with exceptions precious few and far between.

Language / What is your biggest problem with Polish language? [158]

By filling them with pierogi, bigos, assorted golabki and other heart attacks on a plate?
Hmmm, I take it then you're referring exclusively to Polish women:-)

News / Polexit? Almost half of the Poles believe that Poland would be better off outside of the EU [548]

See my private message. You're on the money, Tacitus.

News / Polexit? Almost half of the Poles believe that Poland would be better off outside of the EU [548]

I concur.

Language / What is your biggest problem with Polish language? [158]

The best way to a person's heart is through their stomach:-) Rich needed to expand his waistline!

Language / What is your biggest problem with Polish language? [158]

I qualified my answer with "foreign language majors". The latter are scarcely your rank-and-file Anglophones, forced into learning high school foreign language requirements! However, for the masses, at least here in the States, I would have to agree, unfortunately.

Method aside though, we don't as often hear about lazy Europeans who speak lousy English:-)

News / Polexit? Almost half of the Poles believe that Poland would be better off outside of the EU [548]

Yet, Delph, can you or anybody name us a country such as the former GDR that successfully made that transition from "planned" to "market" economy?

In complete honesty, I can't think of one! Slovenia comes close, yet still hasn't quite attained the level of capitalist neighbors.
Hungary under "Goulash" Communism? Maybe, yet still a tough sell from my point of view.

Language / What is your biggest problem with Polish language? [158]

The only difference is that Poles, French, Germans, the whole bunch, are literally inculcated, year after year after bloody year with mind-numbing hack English instruction by sinecure monsters sponsored through state-sponsored bribery to even get such government jobs! Typically, they are native speakers of their mother language, not English, and consequently, Europeans in this case, learn English with no particular desire to "sound like" Anglophone out of some desire to reproduce the aesthetics of the English tongue!

A skilled and diligent Anglo-Saxon foreign language major at university from the UK or the US is a different animal all together. They are in my experience from college often ravenous to devour as much of the best which foreign languages have to offer.

Therefore, many on the whole speak a foreign language better than their foreign interlocutor knows English.