Language / Game - guess Polish idioms/sayings in direct English translation [1756]

....maybe because (certain) pupils see fit to cop an attititude, forgetting who in the end remains the ultimate
authority in the classroom:-) The time a teacher, professor, instructor feels they must defer to every trouble
maker who comes down the pike, is clearly the time for that person to pack it in and look for another line
of work!

Just what, pray, do you consider "constructive" criticism vs. simply getting on somebody's case?

Genealogy / Which Polish first names are considered unpopular / obsolete in Poland? [124]

Thank you

Genealogy / Which Polish first names are considered unpopular / obsolete in Poland? [124]

Or how about "Slawomira"?

Genealogy / Wladyslaw and the English equivalent [22]

Might Wallace be an equivalent? Wladek = Wally?

Genealogy / Which Polish first names are considered unpopular / obsolete in Poland? [124]

Suppose names go through phases, just like any other fashion:-)
Had an English student from Zakopane of late, first name S-E-W-E-R-Y-N!

He claimed the name is ultra uncommon, being only nineteen at present, and felt his parents were trying to punish him with such a name! Wonder if there's any truth to that.

Language / Game - guess Polish idioms/sayings in direct English translation [1756]

Yes you were. Good for you!
:-)

Language / Game - guess Polish idioms/sayings in direct English translation [1756]

"Da liegt der Hund begraben." is the exact translation.

Life / Would getting a Polish eagle tattoo be frowned upon?? [39]

Poles apparently are more comfortable with patriotic expression than are the average German today between, say, 40-60!
The very young are experiencing a resurgence of nationalism, particularly in the once-depressed East Zone.

However, perhaps singing Polish folks songs would not be looked on askance, if I began singing "In einem kuehlen Grunde..."
on the streets of a German city, it would certainly set people off with a dirty look, maybe even some unflattering commentary
aka telling me to get stick it:-)

Language / Game - guess Polish idioms/sayings in direct English translation [1756]

Same as in German. Only in English, perhaps an appropriate (if neither colloquial nor idiomatic) translation might be "Ah, there's the rub!"

"Aye,....!" to be more precise:-)

Off-Topic / Social Media - who uses Facebook or similar? [45]

Indeed, paw! It's called watered down, dumbed-down English for the rank-and-file who've never read the NYT and who don't care too either:-) You're sure right about that one! Trump's a twit and his tweets are embarrassing:-)

Off-Topic / Social Media - who uses Facebook or similar? [45]

Trump uses Twitter the way most of us regurgitate, spewing forth verbal diarroeha in a non-stop bout of bowel slinging free-for-all!! The putrid
stench of his rants pollutes bodies and souls alike.

Just ask yourself what Barry Goldwater, Ronald Reagan, John McCain would have said.
Once saw an old sci-fi film "The Shape of Things to Come" by William Cameron Menzies (1936), featuring a look at the post-modern
world, round about the dawn of our current century. It featured impressive precursors of cell phones, flat-screen TV sets, robots, all
sorts of neat stuff.

If people today spoke on their iPhones etc. the way those teens way back when did, even about innocuous stuff, I'd be a happy man:-)

Life / Are Poles suspicious of Facebook? [50]

Your nightmare, so it would appear, is our pipe dream:-)

History / How different would WW2 turned out if Poland accepted Hitler's offer [219]

The lure of cheap labor's a darned powerful aphrodisiac for unscrupulous bosses, Rich!
The US, round about the 1870's or so, having several successful military victories behind her, could
handily have attempted to transfer certain funds to the then poor continent of Europe and help
revitalize, indeed, build up, their sluggish economies. But we didn't for a number of reason, continental
skirmishes being in fact the least of them.

Instead, America found it more useful to employ either cheap 'coolie' labor aka 'railroad Chinese', eventually
a steady stream of illiterate or semi-literate Europeans to this country to eventually perform the labor which
native born US citizens would probably not do, thus saving money, allowing the big bosses, ranchers etc.
to become mega-wealthy off the "wet" backs (pun intendedLOL) of those new arrivals through Ellis Island,
willing to work until they dropped dead in order to supposedly have a random shot at living better than
they could have ever imagined back in the Old Country:-)

Them's the facts, kiddo, harsh as indeed they are so wake up and smell the coffee!

Life / Are Poles suspicious of Facebook? [50]

If you consider that successful.

Ill-gotten gains benefit only the one who has the goods, and not those upon whom such gains are lavished.
Long ago, the super young and successful considered their youth as mere coincidence, their success as more of a burden to be nourished, above all, taken ultra-seriously.

The name Orson Welles comes to mind here; so young in his professional prime, and still, in comportment and demeanor, more like twenty-four going on almost fifty-four!

Zuckerberg, if you listen to him, any upcoming upstart nowadays sounds more like twenty-four going on fourteen....or lower.

History / How different would WW2 turned out if Poland accepted Hitler's offer [219]

We learned, sadly too late, yet nevertheless eventually, (everybody except Neville Chamberlain!) that you can't negotiate with Nazis!
Any offers from Hitler would most assuredly not have ended in anybody's favor, save the Fuehrer's.

Pretty much a foregone conclusion.

Life / Are Poles suspicious of Facebook? [50]

As with much ("anti-")social media nowadays, I consider Facebook, along with Twitter, to be a consummate waste of valuable time, both intellectual as well as social! Plain verbal flatulence, I call it.

Zuckerberg's a fraud and Assange can't be that far behind:-) When prodigy types start behaving like adults rather than children, I'll start to sit up and take notice.

Language / Game - guess Polish idioms/sayings in direct English translation [1756]

My guess is that honesty is a quality considered of close physical proximity to the human body, at least in English, also in German, albeit from another part of the anatomy. As to the meaning aka origin of the Polish equivalent I have no clue, I'm afraid.

Language / Game - guess Polish idioms/sayings in direct English translation [1756]

"Lies have short legs"

Yup, "Luegen haben kurze Beine" tracks the same in German.
Enjoy observing in language how idioms with like or same meaning are approached with
different images, e.g. "Straight from the SHOULDER" vs. "Prosto z MOSTU", literally, "Straight from the BRIDGE"
In German, "Frei von der LEBER weg", literally, "Straight from the LIVER".

Genealogy / KUKULA ancestry [32]

Quite similar then to the original German "Kuckuck", as in "Kuckucksuhr" or "cuckoo clock or the bird.
Interesting if in fact there is zero relation to "Kukkula":-) Most intriguing.

Language / Puns and language games in Polish adverts [33]

Naturally, I was referring in this case to the flavor of the language, not the beverage:-)

Language / Game - guess Polish idioms/sayings in direct English translation [1756]

"If it smells at the bottom, it stinks at the top."

Genealogy / KUKULA ancestry [32]

Any further evidence in your research to indicate some connection whatsoever, however remote, between "Kukula" and the Finnish "Kukkula"?
I realize that certain double consonants in Polish, such as "kk", for instance "Mikke-Korwin" do exist. It's simply that again, I knew somebody named

"KukKula" who was from Finland, and the name just stuck with me:-)

Language / Puns and language games in Polish adverts [33]

I've always maintained as both a teacher and as a learner (both are mirror "opposites" of the same image, aren't they?) that
ad slogans are often among the most effective pedagogic tools in imparting the true flavor of any culture:-)

Genealogy / What does my Polish name mean? [402]

There's a famous Metropolitan Opera tenor with precisely that surname:-)

Genealogy / KUKULA ancestry [32]

I know of Polish company in Greenpoint, Bklyn., "MIKULA PLUMBING"
Again, the only Kukula's I know of are Finns:-)

News / Abortion still under control in Poland [2986]

One related statement meant to illustrate that for everything in life, there is cause and effect!

News / Abortion still under control in Poland [2986]

Poland may well be better off than the US, as she takes a more proactive role in assuring a single law for the whole country!

Incidents of rape in Poland are undoubtedly lower than in the US:-)

News / Abortion still under control in Poland [2986]

Betcha zloties to paczki you were a Phyllis Schaffy supporter way back when. Ya sure talk like one with such psychologically inflammatory
rhetoric about "baby killers", indicating you obviously were never a woman:-)

News / Abortion still under control in Poland [2986]

It has everything to do, Rich, with pointless, unthinking double standards which contend it's mostly or only blacks who violate or gang-rape whites, whereas I'm only saying that in way too many (unreported!) instances, it's also the reverse as well.

Study / Various education and school issues in Poland. Opinions, stories, controversies. [1006]

Maf is correct regarding Polish modals. Indeed, often when Polish uses such verbs as "musiec", roughly "must" in English, we would probably use "should" or "ought to" instead.

As an applied linguist by training, I've found that (successful) language learning usually requires that the learner abandon preconceived notions of WHY something is, but rather accept WHAT that something is, and then attempt to internalize it.

Obviously, much more easily said than done:-)