Language / Bilingual Polish-English books with audio for listening and reading learning method [75]


That's how it's done and I do that myself at work. I have to manage a difficult team and they don't realise how much of their language I know. A useful tool....

In Poland if you're a foreigner who's settled there it can work the other way around. You know how Poles can be 'awkward' sometimes and I've found it a big advantage that I speak Polish far better than most of them, even the young and educated, speak English.

People you don't know can sometimes start speaking English to you in a really patronising and arsey way and it wrongfoots them when you reply in Polish without much of a foreign accent.

Work / Are Poles workaholics? [164]


Usually the bookkeeper does all that or nowadays in the U.K. an app does it.

How much are the normal holidays in the US? I've heard some horror stories about only 3 weeks or some such. In Poland, it's 25 working days plus statutory public holidays. I get 90 days and am trying to negotiate it to 120.

Language / Bilingual Polish-English books with audio for listening and reading learning method [75]


I'd not learn more than a few words for a short holiday just as I don't plan to learn much of another far more obscure language for my next holiday. A few basics though, since we'll be off the tourist track.

If you're monolingual, you're limited to package tours or the most touristy places.

Time spent over the years in France and Germany would have been much poorer without a knowledge of those languages and Italian and Spanish have come in useful in Italy and Spain. And three years in West Africa would have been quite hard without good French. Not just in shops etc but meeting people, making friends etc.

Language / Bilingual Polish-English books with audio for listening and reading learning method [75]


So don't. Some really enjoy it.


It depends a lot on how, when and why you study something. If it's for something you really want and you're feeling good about learning. it's very different from studying because you have to.

Plus of course with languages, the way people acquire them has changed. For French and German at school we 'learnt' it in much the same way as we learnt Latin. Nowadays, lessons focus on speaking first rather than copying verb tables.

Language / Bilingual Polish-English books with audio for listening and reading learning method [75]

Generally they're ways to communicate.

And millions around the world enjoy learning them.

Language / Bilingual Polish-English books with audio for listening and reading learning method [75]


Plenty in Poland, especially in the west of the country.

More students want to learn English these days; and it is generally compulsory across the continent now.

[quote=Novichok]What I will never do is "study" Italian to spend three days in Venice.[/quote

You would if you wanted to spend time in Italy several times a year for a few decades.

And not get ripped off by taxi drivers.

Of course you're as free not to learn languages as others are to learn them.

Off-Topic / Will German Farmers change the EU policy? [45]

Everyone in Europe knows already.

Some of us were hoping they'd riot.

Off-Topic / Will German Farmers change the EU policy? [45]


You didn't.


It's a pretty big topic; and Micron suddenly caving in to farmers who were threatening to starve the capital of food is very big news.

Micron is crazy to cave into their demands however the French like the Germans have a habit of backing down in the face of opposition.

Off-Topic / Will German Farmers change the EU policy? [45]


Yes it is.

News / How will Poland be affected by WW3 which has now started [559]


No. It went on for much longer. Why did the German government use legalistic contractual clauses to prevent another country from aiding Ukraine as they saw fit?


Especially in Germany, including a former chancellor and key army figures. There are spy trials going on right now and even elected politicians in parliament openly sympathetic to russian economic interests..

Not however in the U.K. where russia's political influence has been at best negligible. We had one very minor and obscure backbencher in parliament who favoured increased trade and cultural links; he is currently suspended and is likely to be deselected completely before this year's election.


Bilateral? Be careful about what you wish for. If Micron supported Ukraine they may as well hoist a russian flag in Kyiv.

History / Pol-Shorpy Photo Thread [950]

A typo: "monument to" rather than "monument not". Autocorrect.

History / Pol-Shorpy Photo Thread [950]


It would be a beautiful place for a monument not the uprising fighters given how much fighting took place there.

A nice place to walk and some nice restaurants on the north side. I hope the rebuilding doesn't spout too much of the park.

Krasiński (Krasinski Gardens) is good too. It would be a shame to lose green space in central Warsaw. There are already a few prime sites that for-profit developers have their eyes on.

Hopefully the move towards home working will bankrupt a few of them, or at least make the people less likely to give them planning permission.

History / Pol-Shorpy Photo Thread [950]


In Polish.

The whole point in translating one language to another is that the target language and the source language differ.

Jak stary jesteś?

History / Pol-Shorpy Photo Thread [950]


Yes, given that the alternative doesn't make sense and it's been called Saxon Gardens in English for at least a century.


No, too boring and if they can't be bothered to get a text proofread, I doubt they'd take notice. Repeated mistakes by non-natives doesn't make a mistake correct.

I bet some of them translate Marszałkowska to 'Marshall Street' too.

The best thing I saw on one of those websites was a listing for a play that they called 'Everything is good that finishes good'. Some lazy twat just translated the Polish name of the play back into English.

News / How will Poland be affected by WW3 which has now started [559]


Down there they're well into it. Further north it's all Spain.


When I was in Sudan I liked the people from the south, though I'd not want to spend time there post independence. Apparently the police are permanently drugged up (not in itself a bad thing) and more likely to rob you in broad daylight than the robbers. Sudan proper is a country the west ought to court rather than demonise. They've got a pretty handy Red Sea port as well. The older generation follow cricket due to the days of empire.

In Mauritania (fvck, I miss that place) they're jumping with joy since they win one match, a very rare occurrence for them. They nearly beat Cape Verde (almost a local derby for them) too.


City for ever.

History / Pol-Shorpy Photo Thread [950]

Saxon Gardens is a lovely place to walk.

I'd not rebuild the palace though; it's better as it is now.

News / How will Poland be affected by WW3 which has now started [559]


And preferably keep her there. Maybe suggest she goes swimming with crocodiles or maybe that she should try to get friendly with wild hippos. The single tooth they have in their palates could punch through her thorax in one go.

It was a typo of course. Population not pollution.

Language / Bilingual Polish-English books with audio for listening and reading learning method [75]


Probably quite a lot, especially if you'd been in the countryside.


Polish is useful to me in Poland. Even very since at home we speak only Polish and most people I know socially in PL are not English speakers. Lucrative too since I translate professionally including best selling novels which can be a nice cash injection.

I've only used German in Germany (apart from chatting with elderly Germans in Spain). You are right; German is largely useless. It is a minor language.

Having good French though has helped me at, opening up work opportunities and social interactions in French-speaking countries. Plus, it's been handy watching films and reading.

News / How will Poland be affected by WW3 which has now started [559]


Probably not the way forward in terms of sentiment or resources. Sooner or later Nigeria is going to be a thing. Their pollution will overtake the US in a few decades. Libya may surprise; they're not as anti-west as you'd expect. Generally anti-France though due to Macron pointlessly binning them, and oil rich part of the country suffered terribly due to russian interference. I was in Benghazi on business for a few days in 2022 and the remains of the city centre (which looks like Mariupol) was the saddest thing I've ever seen.


Yes. A few surprises. Less popular in Africa than you'd think. Most of Africa north of roughly Congo is crazy for either Real or Barca or for Man U (yuk) or Liverpool.

Off-Topic / Will German Farmers change the EU policy? [45]


You're a bit out of date. The French government caved in and the farmers' protests in Paris wound down yesterday.


I doubt that a bourgeoise juvenile activist determines the policies.

News / How will Poland be affected by WW3 which has now started [559]

If that made sense rather than just being pointless contrarianism,..

Food / Why Poles not like rice? [98]


Same.

The North African way with cashew nuts, almonds, raisins and chopped lambs liver is nice.

In PL I do it without the liver and just sling a bag of bakalia in.

News / How will Poland be affected by WW3 which has now started [559]


We'll have to look beyond the west.


True though, given that the government there blocked another country for supplying Ukraine with arms by incoming a legalistic contract clause, and have apparently withheld other arms for no good reason.

Plus of course Schroeder who may as well be part of the Moscow politburo and of course some senior figures in the military and in politics who have supported russia, including some who have spied for them.

A world war is precisely that. A country who started and lost the last two is on the basis of their form with world wars far from the best judge of the next one.

We'll need to look far for allies, and nobody trusts Micron etc.

News / How will Poland be affected by WW3 which has now started [559]


We've not seen that yet however the current climate protests are self defeating ones by spoilt bourgeoisie. They usually fail to appreciate the importance of heavy industry. A dangerous thing in the run up to a j mg skit war.


Not from you. It is however thousands of kilometres away from Poland and from most people on here.


Moderate your language. It does not reflect well on you.

News / How will Poland be affected by WW3 which has now started [559]


We're talking about matters thousands of miles away from you, not the internal affairs of your adopted country.


They made a lot of promises yet at one time they were actually trying to block other countries from helping. It remains unclear whose side they are really on.

News / How will Poland be affected by WW3 which has now started [559]


We're talking about their government, not the trash you meet.

Buzz off.

News / How will Poland be affected by WW3 which has now started [559]


We have much the same in Britain.

Deluded people from affluent country towns who go to "independent coffee shops". They protest against efficient agriculture and what they call the "old industries" or anything do with the defence industry not even realising or caring that for millions of people in urban areas such industries are current rather than 'old', that we're one of the world's major industrial economies, an oil/gas exporter, that in the defence/aerospace sector we're the fourth largest producer in the world after China, the US and r*SSia and that their nice affluent middle class lifestyles are funded by the Labour of people working in those sectors.

Putler and Micron are probably doing dark PR to influence them.


A global approach is needed to tackle a global problem. The Yanks always want to try and lead since without a stable Europe/Middle East, they have very few export markets.

Language / Bilingual Polish-English books with audio for listening and reading learning method [75]

And the linguistically challenged miss out on so much.

Only being able to go to bars and restaurants that are tourist traps, getting ripped off in shops and taxis, unable to speak with people they meet.

However we aren't talking about the unfortunate; r are discussing parallel texts as a learning aid.

As I say, they are useful for some learners.

Food / Why Poles not like rice? [98]


As it did before with healthier grains


It has its uses however in some countries' cuisines it dominates.


I do it the Delia Smith way. Works every time.

Work / Are Poles workaholics? [164]


In Poland for decades.

One thing I've noticed is a big difference between the work ethic among Poles in Poland and those who've travelled to the U.K. for work.