Off-Topic / The "Anglicization" of Europe [132]

If any language becomes a free-for-all, it runs the ineluctable risk of turning into a toy, rather remaining the tool for
which it was originally intended! Does a blunt lead pipe really replace a scalpel for more subtle operations?:-)

We've gone from corrective re-casts on US TV interviews during the '60's, with the likes of Jon Stevenson
gently re-phrasing a sloppy sentence with charm and aplomb to today's "Awhhh, close enough!", all within a space
of forty years or so.

Off-Topic / The "Anglicization" of Europe [132]

Latin, later French, for a short time between the two World Wars, German, were treated with a certain aesthetic care and concern
for quality and correctness of expression most of all, qualities seemingly absent from Globish.

The language of Shakespeare has become a cesspool, the world's nurf ball, to be pummeled and played with any which way.
A similar fate never befell either Latin or French.

Off-Topic / The "Anglicization" of Europe [132]

Good for whom, Milo?

If what is meant is that it is somehow ideal for you, a Brit, to travel, say, to visit a friend in Lithuania, and encounter a truly bilingual society, able to communicate effortlessly as well as effectively, in your mother tongue, I shall keep holding my breath, 'cuz as I explained to Rich, it ain't gonna happen, at least any time soon:-) A pipe dream, if indeed a desirable one.

English is a stop gap measure, a meta-lang, there as almost a last ditch attempt at communication when the native's first language fails and both parties find themselves somehow at an impass!

The journalist's pet peeve with Europe, having worked for the Paris office now for nearly ten years, is that foreigners, even those who know excellent French or German among other languages, are now being actually dissuaded from applying their hard-won language skills in a venue in which they are most needed in favor of the partner's so to speak "fluent" English. She simply believes that such is marginalizing national identity.

Where once, she recalls, an American in Paris, Berlin or Rome who really knew the local lingo was a highly sought and to be sure well-paid, commodity, today's Europe will typically cut corners with second instead of first best, if only in order to save money.

Life / Poles speaking English - examples [263]

I think Tusk might well be the historic exception to the rule.
Until quite recently, Polish leaders exclusively spoke only their own language and
required an interpreter at all state functions:-)

The former interpreter for Cyranewicz and Gierek was the late brother of my second Polish teacher.

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

I'll bear that in mind.

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

Thank you, pawian, I had no idea:-)

Next time I wish to transition to a new thought, I'll send smoke signals!
LOL

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

Signal??

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:-)

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:-)

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?"

UK, Ireland / "Strange " English language.. [264]

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!

Food / What do non-Poles think about eating the following Polish foods? [1450]

Oh, I'm in heaven!!

Tasty pics.

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

I was simply listing separately an unrelated Polish idiom.

History / Polish-German alliance. [489]

Right on, Milo.

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

Aren't they though?

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

Ha, ha! Very funny, paw:-) You know that what I meant was separate from the previous post of yours.

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

Drunk as a skunk. - Spity jak bela.

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

In English, we have a "TIN" ear! The Germans have a cute spin on same. They say, roughly, "You have an [absolutely] DEAF ear.." = "ein absolutes Ungehoer.."

UK, Ireland / Why are Polish people, especially women, so disrespectful toward the English? [442]

Inquiring minds want to know the origin of such xenophobia, the trigger which sets off such hostility. Without understanding the cause, there can be no cure.

History / Warsaw Rising 1944 - National Disaster or Triumph of Spirit ? [515]

Sadly.
As the Germans themselves often say, "Unkraut vergeht nicht!" = You can't get rid of weeds!

UK, Ireland / Why are Polish people, especially women, so disrespectful toward the English? [442]

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..."

UK, Ireland / Why are Polish people, especially women, so disrespectful toward the English? [442]

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.

UK, Ireland / Why are Polish people, especially women, so disrespectful toward the English? [442]

Seems a bit over the top to me as well. At worst, somewhat dodgy, wouldn't you say?

UK, Ireland / Why are Polish people, especially women, so disrespectful toward the English? [442]

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.

UK, Ireland / Why are Polish people, especially women, so disrespectful toward the English? [442]

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?

History / Warsaw Rising 1944 - National Disaster or Triumph of Spirit ? [515]

Yes, that's right. Without local collaboration, even the most ardent SS-Personnel could probably not have
effected what they did in as short a period of time as they did!

UK, Ireland / Why are Polish people, especially women, so disrespectful toward the English? [442]

And Rightists never lie, Rich??!

What are ya smokin' today, dude?

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.

History / Warsaw Rising 1944 - National Disaster or Triumph of Spirit ? [515]

They became, so to speak, "honorary" Nazis then:-)
To be sure, all were forced to swear the oath of allegiance to Hitler (Eidgeloebnis), making them, yes in effect, "Nazis"!