UK, Ireland / How to pay a Polish utility bill from UK? [6]

No one else has said it so I will..... (since you don't speak Polish and might not be up to the minute on Polish norms and expectations)

It's a good idea to make it as clear as possible (as many times as possible) that this is a temporary one time kind of situation. It's far too easy to fall into a situation where a Polish family decides that "rich" relatives in some other country will simply pay all their bills in perpetuity... and stopping such payments can generate a _lot_ of ill will on all sides.

Just sayin'....

Life / What is Poland going to be like in the 2050s? [72]


Because of things like the welfare state! Europeans were also dysfunctional before ideas like welfare came along and a lot of pre-welfare dysfunction is still around.

The mafia is what happens when the state just lets families depend upon each other.

Yes, there has been overreach in some countries (Scandinavia par example) and it can induce lethargy and apathy (underclass in the UK) but overall a social safety net is an indispensable part of civilizational advance.

Life / What is Poland going to be like in the 2050s? [72]


There are lots of countries with no welfare and where people have to depend on their families instead of the state... they're called sh1th0les....

Freeing people from the tyranny of the extended family is one of the greatest achievements of western civilization. It has some downsides but they are far outweighed by the advantages - move toward meritocracy rather than nepotism, greater equality between the sexes (rather than institutional violence against women), greater support for innovation (since that tends to come from oddballs who don't necessarily get along with their families), the demise of family feuds and vendetta etc etc etc

Your vision of a welfare-less state that's not a dysfunctional nightmare is an illusion. go spend time in Somalia or Haiti or Mauritania or Cambodia and get back to us.

Language / Poszłam or poszedłem [30]


Not really the same thing

powinienem is an abbreviated version of "jestem powinien" or "powinienem jestem" with deletion of the 'jest' as the -m goes to the adjective
(transposition of endings used to work with the present tense of być )

so
powinien jestem
-jest
= powinienem

Language / Polish names without a nickname (or less frequently shortened) [61]


Did he worry about what people would say?

One thing that's weird for English speakers (in Poland and also Germany) is the male version of Irene (Ireneusz and Irenäus) because I've never heard of any equivalent in English

In Romanian they even have a male version of Katarzyna... Cătălin.... (the original(?) name is Greek Αἰκατερίνη and in some languages, maybe first French the r became an l)

Language / Poszłam or poszedłem [30]


Co robisz?


Co robiłeś?

Co zrobiłeś? Would mean "What did you do?" or "What have you done?" (not really distinguished in Polish by tense)

Language / Poszłam or poszedłem [30]


They mean the same thing, just one (coś zrobił) is slightly more country and/or old fashioned than the other...


Who uses it? Theoretically it exists but it's pretty rare - I've only heard it a handful of times (usually by people living for years in a country whose language has past perfect so I assume some mental translation is going on)? I'm not sure how much transposition of endings can happen with it... I'd think co zrobiłeś był would be the normal form (if people used it....)

Language / Poszłam or poszedłem [30]


wut?

The -m in the past tense indicates 'ja' (first person singluar). A long, long, long time ago this was something like (j)eśm and over time it became -m

In the past (and occasionally now in some types of Polish) this -m (and other past tense first and second person markers) didn't have to follow the verb, for example my former boss (now retired) used to sometimes jokingly ask "Coś zrobił?" instead of "Co zrobiłeś"

In modern Polish the tendency is for the endings -m, -ś, -śmy and -ście to always remain on the verb.

If you look at Czech grammar then Polish grammar makes a lot more sense (the evolution has been different but the modern differences... often show where the modern language comes from)

News / Poles say a big YES to our European Union [996]


But JK loves wheeling and dealing and scheming...


When push came to shove PiS put its own interests over that of the public... for all their many faults (which are many, many, many) PO never came close to the reckless disregard for public safety that PiS has shown...

Language / Poszłam or poszedłem [30]


Well, the past tense forms are originally third person forms plus person clitics ( for example był, była + -m - so that 'e' in masculine forms doesn't indicate the masculine it's just to prevent otherwise unpronounceable words like *byłm) that's also why the plural forms should probably be written byli śmy etc.

But there's a lot of evidence that most speakers no longer perceive them that way which is why some people stress the i in byliśmy, modern speakers perceive the past tense more as a single thing and part of that will probably eventually include decoupling first person forms from some third person stems...

Not this year or next, but in 20 or 30 or more?

Language / Poszłam or poszedłem [30]


Or poszeł (similar to Russian)?

for that matter, what's wrong with poszł?


Why not poszedła?

This kind of weird split tends to be resolved one way or another over time, whether language authorities accept it or not is the only real question... extreme conservatism leads to dysfunction along the lines of the Arab world where (largely religious) motivation preserves the myth of a single Arabic language (which almost no one actually speaks on a daily basis).

News / Presidential elections 2020 - your opinions about campaign, candidates [2222]

News headline - Gowin resigns from the government over its insane commitment to hold elections May 10... JK apparently furious....

wiadomosci.wp.pl/koronawirus-w-polsce-i-wybory-prezydenckie-dymisja-jaroslawa-gowina-co-dalej-z-liderem-porozumienia-6496941438048385a

Remember: When the chips were down JK cared more about his personal power than keeping the public safe..

Never forget!

Life / What is Poland going to be like in the 2050s? [72]

I hope not, that's hideous....

Language / Poszłam or poszedłem [30]


That's the reasonable hypothesis... also the feminine form is one syllable shorter (and people tend to be lazy and over time prefer shorter to longer forms).

What about se?

Language / Poszłam or poszedłem [30]

you can say it but they would notice... a former colleague, although generally very fluent, had a strong tendency to use- łam forms (because that's what he mostly heard from his Polish wife and daughters).

If they can tell you're a non-native speaker they'll mostly ignore it (and maybe chuckle now and then)

News / Presidential elections 2020 - your opinions about campaign, candidates [2222]


I saw one story that suggested that Szumowski (who I can't strongly criticise, he's done as good a job as is possible given the circumstances) had convinced both Morawiecki and even Duda that the elections shouldn't happen on May 10... but JK remains rigid (big surpiso!)

Meanwhile more and more people are wondering why PiS is spending so much time and effort on making May 10 elections happen when no one wants them (and kind of ignoring much more important issues....)

Life / Pawn shop in Poland [6]

Lombard means 'pawn shop' in modern Polish, they're all over the place now. Just walk around a downtown area and you'll see them.

News / Scandals, conflicts, tensions, arguments - real life examples from Poland [543]


What do you think should be done about the presidential elections?

Have them as scheduled?

By mail?

Extend Duda till 2022 (via constitutional change)?

Declare a state of emergency (which they've basically already done) and think about the elections once that's over?

USA, Canada / Historic(al) Americans and their ties with Poland/Poles [78]

Walter Kronkite? He was a pol-am?

News / How hard will Poland be hit by the economic crisis? [116]


No you don't, you just blame poor countries for being poor.


Oh grow up, I don't dislike Germany (on the whole) I like the language and Germany does lots of things very well. But it's a world class elite economy tied to a bunch of second and third rate economies with very different economic systems and different economic interests. tha'ts not a recipe for mutual development at all...

What would happen if Japan entered a monetary union with the countries of SE Asia? How well would Japanese interests coincide with Thai economic interests? That's kind of the EU....

News / Presidential elections 2020 - your opinions about campaign, candidates [2222]

They are ever more shameless!

wiadomosci.onet.pl/tylko-w-onecie/wybory-prezydenckie-2020-nowy-pomysl-pis-kadencja-dudy-ma-byc-przedluzona/qxwe8fx

My idea is that they're floating this even worse idea in order to make their terrible, awful mail-vote idea look less horrible in comparison.

News / How hard will Poland be hit by the economic crisis? [116]

Well German economic influence on EU (and euro) economic policy is more negative than positive....

News / Presidential elections 2020 - your opinions about campaign, candidates [2222]


Actually now he's trying to make the entire election by mail (enabling massive fraud?) and maybe endangering letter carriers?

No ethics beyond trying to cling onto power for his obedient puppet.

News / How hard will Poland be hit by the economic crisis? [116]


Did I?

News / How hard will Poland be hit by the economic crisis? [116]


Shipping is a service.... as is tourism (the only part of their economy that had been working and now that's dead...)


Without significant language or cultural differences (though those are growing and some form of secession is.... not regarded as impossible as it was even 10 years ago....)

And... it has transfers which Germany has specifically fought against...

The EU as a single real union is kind of a non-starter because of entrenched cultural and language differences... adopt a single official language and economic transfers for 50 years and get back to me

News / Scandals, conflicts, tensions, arguments - real life examples from Poland [543]


Well she was safe... and high school students don't vote, so.... what's the biggie? PO did worse! (channeling Iron for that last)

News / How hard will Poland be hit by the economic crisis? [116]


Germany has a production/export economy (and a lot of exports within the EU)

Greece has a service economy with minimal production and very few exports... the euro is absolutely not designed for service economies....


Germany's been buying up assets in Greece... have they been building production? Where are they going to export to? Within the EU exports and imports sum out to zero - Greek gains mean German losses... Greek exports outside the EU would also be in direct competition to Germany...


Until there's a pull back of austerity and/or restructuring of the euro... yeah. There's literally no economic progress possible...

News / How hard will Poland be hit by the economic crisis? [116]


too bad nobody thought of that when they were planning the euro.... there's no way that the Greek (or Spanish or Italian) economy can be run the way the German economy is, to think that it can condemns the population to eternal poverty...

News / How hard will Poland be hit by the economic crisis? [116]


Listen to Mark Blyth - short story, austerity is a good idea in good times, but when hard times hit the government has to prime the pump, if the government cuts back when everybody else does the only accomplishment is to contract the entire economy. If everybody is holding on to every cent then the economy gets smaller not bigger...

News / How hard will Poland be hit by the economic crisis? [116]


It specifically says that there is "a clue"

To be clear, if this happens it would be very, very good, the best thing the EU has done in over 10 years. But as the old saying goes "many a slip twixt cup and lip"

Austerity (both at national and pan EU levels) needs to die as quickly as possible or the economic dislocations will be massive...