Work / What Jobs are there in Poland for an Englishman besides teaching english? [70]

"Prosze" is certainly a start, but I feel that the best (perhaps not the only) way to win the confidence of Polish ESLers is to address them in their beautiful native tongue.

Heaven knows, they've been so maligned lately, they do need a pick-me-up.

What better way then than a simple, sincere "Dzien dobry a witam! Mam __________na imie i zycze Wam........". The pupils probably are somewhat jaded already and expect an English teacher to know and speak only English. What a pleasant surpise when they discover that their teacher has taken the time to learn their language!!

News / Israel opposing potential new Polish law to criminalise term 'Polish death camps' [1539]

The Jews are damned if they do and damned it they don't!

They try to defend themselves, they're dubbed racists, they turn the other cheek aka ceding land to the Arabs on the West Bank like the late Yitzak Rabin, their fellow

Israelis castigate them in public, excoriate them by calling them "peaceniks" and then turn their backs on them.

Geez, what a tribe. I'm only Jewish for the solidarity of the Shoah, other than that, I wouldn't wish what we've morphed into on a dog:-)

Work / What Jobs are there in Poland for an Englishman besides teaching english? [70]

Unlike throughout much of Europe, such as Germany, France, Spain, even Italy, "prosze" alone will scarcely get you much in Poland, other than a polite smile at your efforts! Best to enroll in a serious crash course BEFORE going over so that you're prepared, rather than frustrated upon arrival:-)

Powodzenia,

Law / Weapons laws in Poland. Carrying a concealed handgun? [918]

@Johnny, I'm not trying to bait anybody....I'VE SUCCEEDEDLOL

Just a wee bit tired of that ol' Archie Bunkeresque refrain "G-d, guns, and guts are what made American great!" malarky.
Any thinking person knows that what matters at least as much as brawn are brains:-) Seems some of us are lacking in the latter department.

How many more have to die for you people to get the message?

Law / Weapons laws in Poland. Carrying a concealed handgun? [918]

Johnny's dreamin' again, TheOther! One too many sudafeds in the morning:-)

News / Israel opposing potential new Polish law to criminalise term 'Polish death camps' [1539]

Correct, but without concession by Lord Rothschild, any land deed wouldn't have been worth a plug shekel!

Life / The Art of Complaining by Polish people [47]

"Psia krew!" or "Psa krew bydlo!" is rather a now somewhat old-fashioned curse, isn't it?

News / Israel opposing potential new Polish law to criminalise term 'Polish death camps' [1539]

Partially right, Dirk!

The English in fact ceded former Palestinian land to the Jews, living at that time in what would be after 1948, the State of Israel. Balfour and Allenby, while perhaps not "friends" of the Jews (any more than Abe Lincoln was a "friend" of the black man, per se), were imminently practical men who foresaw the possibility of a single Jewish state as but one way to attempt maintaining stability in the region.

Life / The Art of Complaining by Polish people [47]

One Pole said to me, "We Poles aren't complainers, we're merely suspicious of optimists!"

News / Israel opposing potential new Polish law to criminalise term 'Polish death camps' [1539]

I only report the news, I don't edit it:-)

News / Israel opposing potential new Polish law to criminalise term 'Polish death camps' [1539]

Israel has the right to defend herself, her people, and to protect her borders just like any other country! Why was the State of Israel founded in the first place?

This double-standard is what angers Israelis no end.

On the other hand, Israel isn't perfect either and should be held just as accountable for provable wrong doing just like anybody else.

News / Israel opposing potential new Polish law to criminalise term 'Polish death camps' [1539]

It's always easy to ignore history by fitting it into one's own parochial weltanschauung. Polish Jews living and working in Poland have told me on several occasions that they were/are especially wary of revealing their Jewishness in public for fear of having their car tires slashed, being harrassed at work etc. I know each of these individuals and they blend into Polish society seamlessly.

Surely such warnings are not mere attention-getting devices and should be taken seriously.

So much for a harmonious relationship between Jews and gentiles in Poland across the board.

News / Israel opposing potential new Polish law to criminalise term 'Polish death camps' [1539]

Katyn, in which innocent Poles were slaughtered by Russians, and the Holocaust, is like comparing apples and oranges.

@kaprys,
If you'd kindly allow me a private post in your native language, I'm sure we could straighten out your misunderstanding. If not, then I can't help you.

News / Israel opposing potential new Polish law to criminalise term 'Polish death camps' [1539]

Trump's not a total loser.

News / Israel opposing potential new Polish law to criminalise term 'Polish death camps' [1539]

@kaprys, I have but your word that your family were "victims" as well. If they were, then of course, I am profoundly sorry.

The point here is that the sufferering of Polish gentiles was not quite on the same par as that of the Jews in Poland, as the former were nonetheless Christians, unburdened by the yoke of Jewishness which has plagued the Hebrews for centuries.

If the Polish resistance foolishly quit resisting the Nazis and conceded to living as their slaves, they would have been given the option of living as subjugated beings or dying as free people.

The run-of-the-mill shtettl Jew, Jewish on both sides of their family and without the capability of bribing their captors, was presented with no such option!

@Wizard, I agree. The entire situation IS terrible and should be addressed by Messrs. Morawiecki and Duda.

News / Israel opposing potential new Polish law to criminalise term 'Polish death camps' [1539]

@kaprys and company,

Ever heard the saying that the sins of the fathers are (sadly) visited upon their children? 'Course you and your generation are not responsible or guilty. However, in order to insure that those events never repeat themselves, one must be extra vigilant, that's all I'm saying.

News / Israel opposing potential new Polish law to criminalise term 'Polish death camps' [1539]

@Again, kaprys, you pretend not to understand my English!

I most certainly DO feel contrition for what happened to African-Americans during those Civil War days. Guilt though would mean that either I personally or my immediate family had some TRACEABLE link directly to slavery itself. I can only hope that I would never mistreat people of color in such a despicable fashion.

Can the same be said of you?

Study / Studying in Poland without speaking Polish? [15]

'Course, Alex, it's a no-brainer:-)

News / Israel opposing potential new Polish law to criminalise term 'Polish death camps' [1539]

This means that only a minority of American Jews, namely a handful or so of major Hollywood moguls like Goldwyn, Mayer along with a few others, showed slaves and Native Americans in a stereotyped, disparaging manner. While this is unforgivable by today's standards, it's not the same as reminiscing with the family over Passover, say, and showing old photos of uncle so-and-so, or great-grandad shooting up a Native American village, for instance. America's Jews nowadays can only trace their heritage in this country to Ellis Island, at the earliest around 1889 and after.

US-born Jews do not have a common link to these atrocities that, for example, current rank-and-file Germans have with the crimes of their grandparents or even now great-grandparents! The latter can actually claim, "Look, grandpa in '44 with Jewish prisoners leading them off to be shot in open graves...!" etc.

Language / Issues understanding "to go" verb in Polish language [18]

Ah, yes. The narzednik often doesn't require a preposition, I merely forgot momentarily:-)

"Interesuje nowymi samochodami". etc.. and such. Right, German would have required one. Just confused the two for a sec.

Remember now.

WHHHOOOPSIDAISY!!.

"Interesuje SIE nowymi samochodami."

Need to proofread extra before I click "post message":-) Apologies, just a typo, but nonetheless, a mistake.

News / Israel opposing potential new Polish law to criminalise term 'Polish death camps' [1539]

@kaprys,

Don't rationalize matters! Not all atrocities can be relativized.

News / Israel opposing potential new Polish law to criminalise term 'Polish death camps' [1539]

In the end, those acts during the war years in Poland were perpetrated by Germans. The historian Dieter Zimmer, a German and a non-Jew, made this most apparent in his Rowohlt paperback many years ago about the Holocaust.

News / Israel opposing potential new Polish law to criminalise term 'Polish death camps' [1539]

I really ought to have made abundantly clear that I am NOT an advocate of so-termed "collective guilt/shame", or I never would have invested so much of my time and money in living in Germany as well as visiting, not to mention enjoying the brief period I spent in, Poland! That's for starters.

Secondly, even though a third-generation American, ergo,one whose ancestors weren't involved in either slavery or the slaughter of Native Americans, I nonetheless DO feel a twinge of guilt in as far as those crimes were committed on the soil on which I live.

Concerning Pani Kurek, I'd have to read her work both in the original along with in entirety to be able to judge for myself.

News / Israel opposing potential new Polish law to criminalise term 'Polish death camps' [1539]

You throw that example up to ME??!

News / Israel opposing potential new Polish law to criminalise term 'Polish death camps' [1539]

I know Gross has been attacked, WielkiPolak. Truth tellers usually are when the truth becomes too uncomfortable:-)

Language / Issues understanding "to go" verb in Polish language [18]

@Thank you, Johnny and kaprys!

You're welcome, sir! One never stops learning about their native language included.

@kaprys,

Careless of me. Naturally, "PO"- and not "PRZY-"jechal" in that context. I ought to have remembered when I was in Poland, the announcements saying "Pociag ODjechal!", in Polish, English, and German:-)

He WENT by car to the restaurant. = On przyjechal do restauracji (..no need to mention "..ze samochodem.."!!).
She took a cab. = Ona pojechala z taksowka,
The bus/train already left. = Autobus/Pociag juz odjechal.

My memory occasionally needs to be jogged, thanks!

News / Israel opposing potential new Polish law to criminalise term 'Polish death camps' [1539]

"@dolno, hate to disappoint you, but Jedwabne and Kielce themselves shame the Polish nation. Historians such as Jan Gross and others have merely brought it to the much needed attention of the an all too gullible public!

Language / Issues understanding "to go" verb in Polish language [18]

In addition, if one wishes to indicate "going" ON FOOT vs. some other way, such as taking the bus, one may, of course simply use "isc"/"pojsc" pieszo or piechota!

Predzej poszedlbym pieszo niz przyjechal z autobusem. = I'd sooner [rather] go on foot than take the bus.

News / Israel opposing potential new Polish law to criminalise term 'Polish death camps' [1539]

@G,

To submit to the attitude of "that's the way it is", almost a resigned Calvinist "Laugh and the world laughs with you, cry and you cry alone.." mentality is precisely what mainstream Western tradition ISN'T all about!! Passivity and fatalism are the enemy in this case. Holocausts ARE preventable, so long as one sees them coming and can change hearts as well as minds. Fairness is what the Judeo-Catholic tradition strives to achieve.

@dolnoslask,

I never once uttered the statement that either the Polish gov't. or the vast majority of Polish people were directly "complicit" in the Holocaust. Go back and re-read my various posts, which are written in plain English:-)

What I did say, is that, while Poland did in fact take more than a hit during WWII, moroever, had a strong, nationwide resistance movement against the Nazis, Jedwabne and particularly Kielce (perpetrated AFTER the War was over), shall remain Poland's Nan King Massacre, their My Lai, their shame. The Kielce Pogrom was not committed during war time and therefore cannot be justified as such.

News / Israel opposing potential new Polish law to criminalise term 'Polish death camps' [1539]

Noone should "get used to" something which is already an aberration and should never have been in the first place.