Language / Short Polish<->English translations [1050]


I might be wrong but I sting the first two are both commonly used in standard Polish (often by the same person to the same babcia...)

The use of a common noun as a form of address goes beyond Pan Pani of course.
I got funny looks once years ago when I was introduced to a priest (I was visiting a friend when kolęda happened) and I used Pan rather than ksiądz with him.

A friend in healthcare says some (mainly older) patients use Siostra to nurses (I tend to use Pani)
And of course its very common in families. Interestingly when that happens a common pattern in Polish (and in some other cultures) is to address the person from the point of view of the youngest member of the family - so an elderly man might call his wife 'babcia' (from the point of view of their grandchildren rather than from his point of view as her husband).

Language / Short Polish<->English translations [1050]


It's weird. Polish is the only Slavic language (I think) that doesn't use wy (second person plural) as a polite form in the singular. I've heard it's sometimes used or even common in Eastern dialects but I can't say I've ever heard it.

In the PRL it was routinely used in the civil service, police (and I assume military) and of course among party members.

What's also unusual (not related to the PRL AFAIK) is the mixing of forms, that is using pan/pani with second person verbs, like "Co pan robisz?" or "Co pan robicie?"

I've also heard of using third person plural forms as a form of respect, a co-worker told me of an acquaintance who sometimes says things like "Ojciec kupili" (My father bought (it))

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


the picture in the wikipedia entry for struga is far closer to what creeks look like where I'm from.... streams are to small and clear and potok is too... babbling...

pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Struga_(hydrologia)

The way my mother used to say if (she said it often) was "Good Lord willin' and the cricks don't rise" apart from that the word was rhymed with Greek....

News / Poland's post-election political scene [4080]


I'm assuming (though it's difficult to parse the gibberish he spews) that he's referring to the phenomenon of higher than expected numbers of young women who decide they're transgender for a time and then change their mind after beginning medical interventions (sometimes fairly radical ones). Some have said it's the kind of social.... transmission that's common among teen girls but far less benign than some kinds.

Again, that's part of the transgender movement which has gone off the rails in recent years. Some gay people (men and women) are among the strongest critics of the current transgender movement for very good reasons. Douglas Murray is a good example. But you're more liable to have an intelligent discussion about that with a lawnchair than with dirk who can barely put together a sentence before littering it with reactionary gobbledygook...

News / Poland's post-election political scene [4080]


Your whole argument comes down to "being different is bad"....

But I'm impressed for your de facto argument that celibacy among the priesthood is weird and not normal (even among Christians). The overwhelming majority of sexual abuse cases in the RC would disappear if priests could marry.

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


wrong meaning..... (I looked in google images and struga was the closes to my mental image)


The Polish version is so much softer than the Russian version (А у вас негров линчуют - And in your country they lynch Blacks!)

News / Poland's post-election political scene [4080]


And it has seen fit to keep homosexuality around.... so......


Probably over half of all men that have ever existed did not reproduce and sometimes the ratio was especially brutal with 17 times as many women reproducing as men....

Given those odds getting upset that 2 or so per cent of men don't reproduce seems kind of silly....

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


Since you mentioned GWTW it may interest you to know that one of Margaret Mitchell's working titles was "Mules in Horses' Harness" referencing Mammy's description of Rhett and Scarlett (with the same meaning as sticking out of one's shows)

Jak struga nie podnosi się...

News / Poland's post-election political scene [4080]


You're mixing things up terribly....

Mother nature doesn't care. The most base, natural sexual inclinations of heterosexual men and women are very, very different.... this is one reason that society tries to direct and temper raw sexual desire of both into the least damaging modes possible.

also, most human sexual contact is recreational rather than creational... only a tiny, tiny percentage of human sexual acts involve fertilization and only half of those reach the stage of implantation.

homosexuality is simply recombining natural human desires in new ways (liking recreational sex and emotional bonding with one's one sex) the differing nature of male and female sexuality also show up in the different ways that gay men and women prefer to order their sex lives.

People who prefer their own sex emotionally and romantically have existed in every human society and no punishment gets rid of it. It makes more sense to temper and direct it into socially constructive channels.


People with no stake in the way a system operates have no stake in preserving it (why should they?)

Gay rights are about redirecting raw sexual urges into ways that can work for society (and giving gay people a stake in society).

Law / My Great GrandMother was born in Poland sometime before 1915 - any chance for Polish citizenship? [37]

No sane person wants to live in a place with _real_ diversity, which has to include things like accepting different legal systems in the same place at the same time.

In really diverse societies different groups tend to live alongside and not with each other. Your life prospects (how much education you can get, what kind of job you can get, who you can marry, where you can live) tend to be constrained by the group you live in.

What people who say they want 'diversity' really want is what I call color coordinated mono-culture. This can be seen on lots of US tv shows where racially diverse casts play characters who share the same fundamental values and quirks are kept at home rather than brought into the public arena.

News / Poland's post-election political scene [4080]


But is that a real thing? I was assuming it's mostly something to distract attention away from PiS's own scandals (like ballotgate or respiratorgate).

They've also revoked the immunity of a prosecutor who wasn't sufficiently crazy enough (it's about Smolensk) as the first step of proesecuting him?

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


There's a difference between families and households and individuals.... but enough of that.

News / Poland's post-election political scene [4080]


Konfederacja = no match for poster boy of the rebuilt PRL.....

In other news, any opinion on the angora headline suggesting that JK wants early parliamentary elections in the fall? Sounds insane, is it a real plan?

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


Only a very small percentage of people (even of rich people) ever had slaves in the South. The non-slaving wealthy were just as likely to lose their money after the war (maybe more likely it's a complicated question).

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

Okay, "they had money once" is a way of referring to people who are the opposite of nouveau riche, that is they don't have money now but they still have the manners and refined sensibilities of the upper classes (it's an especially beloved category of people in the traditional Old South - anyone can make money, but _class_ ....that's an accomplishment).

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


Close, it's more like someone who isn't accepted by other members of a group they belong to (usually but not necessarily family). Harry Potter is treated like a redheaded stepchild by the muggle family he's living with at the beginning of the first book.

Mieli kiedyś pieniądze. (very regional - Southern US)

News / Poland's post-election political scene [4080]


Like Kurski's somehow arranging anullments for himself and his second wife so they could get married in church? Since when is dumping a wife and getting a shady anullment to marry her replacement a traditional Polish value?

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


And I thought it would be too easy...


Close, to drink the kool-aid means uncritically believe something in order to claim or maintain membership in a group with the strong implication that it will eventually do harm to the person. The drinking specifically refers to accepting the beliefs.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drinking_the_Kool-Aid

I'm pretty sure I've seen oranżada used as an equivalent in subtitles (variants of the phrase often occur in American scripts). I asked a friend once if he understood the reference and he had no idea....

Hopefully an easier one.... (the first google hits are references to the expression)

Kim jest rudy pasierb?

Law / My Great GrandMother was born in Poland sometime before 1915 - any chance for Polish citizenship? [37]


It's my understanding that if you can show some kind of Polish ancestry then it's very easy to get permanent residence if you'll actually want to live in Poland.

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

close, but what does it mean?

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


that comes later, this is about the reason for drinking.

News / Poland's post-election political scene [4080]

What's going on with JK's behavior at the ceremony where Duda received the resolution that he won the elections.

Kaczyński arrived late, sitting down while Duda was speaking and was out the door the second the ceremony ended (French exit - the same as the Polish "English exit")

onet.pl/informacje/onetwiadomosci/jaroslaw-kaczynski-spozniony-zaklocil-wystapienie-andrzeja-dudy/hp7d01z,79cfc278

Most are assuming that it was a message to Duda just how little JK thinks of him....

Will AD find his spine and stand up to the man who so consistently humiliates him?

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

I'll start with an easy one (including a cultural substitution)

nb My cultural frame of reference is American.

Wypił oranżadę.

News / Years of Poland in the EU - assessment of pros and cons [1199]


Though being an unrepentant commie prosecutor is just fine!

It's about single party control and nothing else.

Classifieds / Game of poker in Krakow? [15]


I don't get the appeal of Texas hold 'em.... I prefer the old draw poker... much easier to follow...

News / Poland's post-election political scene [4080]


But PiS apologists are bound and determined to make it a referendum on gay rights (and to try to pretend it was some kind of landslide).

I completely agree that economic mismanagement by the blundering kleptocrats that make up a lot of PiS _should_ be the issue but those will be coming home to roost soon enough (and I'm preparing to act like Family Guy's 'black woman in hindsight' )

News / Poland's post-election political scene [4080]


You don't know what you're for unless you know what you're against (and can articulate both and give some consistent reasoning behind them).

I'm all for individual gay rights (and marriage equality or at least civil unions) but there are things out there under the LGBT banner that I cannot support.

The problem with the sloganeers is they equate things like laws regulating civil unions with the fringe activities...

It's like equating "traditional family values" with the forced marriage of young girls to middle aged or old men (which is a traditional family value in a lot of the world).

News / Poland's post-election political scene [4080]

Then why is it blurred? The stories about the incident make it sound very uncomfortable....


As long as I've made my point.....

News / Poland's post-election political scene [4080]


But we don't encourage priests to have unsupervised time with small children either...


"very few" is too many.... unless you think flashing his crotch to kids is okay...

News / Poland's post-election political scene [4080]


Okay mr picky, "sexually suggestive drag queens" are adult entertainment ....

How many pantomime dames are registered sex offenders? (there are at least two other similar cases)

youtube.com/watch?v=VjV5IP6hOno

Also, from a feminist perspective:

womensliberationfront.org/feminist-objections-to-drag-queen-story-hour/