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


"Leyen did not give details on how it would be funded"

"saying only it would be guaranteed by all EU countries"

by who?


I'll believe it when it happens...

Language / Cultural disparities shown through Polish and English languages [195]

just as "door open?" is succint... the main point is that there are fewer restrictions on using imperatives in Polish than in English (esp NAmerican)

Language / Cultural disparities shown through Polish and English languages [195]

Well the disparity is in the imperative.... "otwórz drzwi" is fine in Polish while a plain "open the door" is not so.... nice in English (at least where I'm from I'm not sure about rude people from other places).

I probably wouldn't write "open the door" and certainly wouldn't say it (unless I'm feeling a bit confrontational). I'm more likely to ask "could you get the door, please?" texting I might write a question "door open?" counting on the addressee to fill in the blanks.

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

His thinking is pure, distilled PRL.... I wonder if Szumowski (who's done a very good job so far) will resign? He seems very frustrated with the whole situation.

Even the usual PiS defenders here can't bring themselves to get behind JK's crazy PRL style manufactured consent...

Language / Cultural disparities shown through Polish and English languages [195]

Why wouldn't they?

In your situation the door was locked and you wanted it unlocked, so 'open' makes sense. In the situation I described it was already unlocked and I was saying there's no need to lock it and take the key since I'll be back very quickly....

Language / Cultural disparities shown through Polish and English languages [195]


I'd be surprised if you could find speakers of a language that didn't do that... I'd only say 'unlock the door' if the door was meant to stay closed.... and even then I'd more likely say 'just leave the door unlocked' (as I used to say to an office mate before we both had to change offices)

News / Throwing away the constitution in Poland? [626]


There is no way that will happen.... I personally know of a couple of former PiS supporters who can't swallow their current election tactics....even if they make it through somehow.... it's the end of any credibility for most people... it's like the PRL in early 1989....

UK, Ireland / Irish (live in London) moving to Poland [44]


As was Hungary in its own way (accepting 'refugees' from Romania was an extreme break from Iron Curtain diplomacy)....

But still, in terms of size and international profile it was Poland at least 51 %


Not quite sure if I'd put it exactly the same way but point taken. And things are just different here, ime I've often been able to come to constructive agreements with people I hate, and who hate me while finding agreement with allies is incredibly frustrating and next to impossible... learning to work with people you don't like (without ever actually coming to like them) is a valuable skill but it's not always fun...

Stick to the topic please

UK, Ireland / Irish (live in London) moving to Poland [44]


Poland did more to overturn communism that every other country in the region combined... and there's no shortage of public figures speaking out very eloquently against the government. I'm not as pessimistic as you are... Polish people, for all the static in the foreground have a better track record in favor of freedom than most countries in Europe....


I'm very sorry that happened to you both, how does he feel about that episode? Has it made him consider moving?

Language / Instrumental case in the Polish language. Am I understanding it right? [68]


There's also gardzić (czymś) - to despise

Gardzę takimi ludźmi...

Gardzi dorszem.... (s/he despises cod...)

UK, Ireland / Irish (live in London) moving to Poland [44]


No... not really, it's a neo-PRL system of patronage and petty dishonesty and corruption where for the government connections count more than competence ---- but they're not jailing opponents or censoring the press, there are no violent crackdowns, in other words there are none of the things a normal person would expect from a real right wing authoritarian government. It's tawdry and embarrassing but not a real challenge to democracy (at least not yet).

I also had no idea you actually dislike living here.... maybe you need to move somewhere that you and hubby can both be happier... he didn't like the UK or Ireland?


Poland is not a user friendly country and your wife is unlikely to fully realize how alien and confusing things will be.... (depending on how long she's been in the UK she's liable to be having her own readjustment issues and won't necessarily be as helpful as either of you might like).

And... be aware that successful adjustment to Polish realities will absolutely depend on your ability to be assertive (not a general strength for English speakers ime). Arguing with people is not something people avoid and if you try to just get along you'll end up with footprints on your forehead....

Poland can be a great place to live if you can adapt, which includes not just the language (non-negotiable for longer term residents) but also lots of cultural issues. If you expect things to be like the UK (and or want to wait the country out to become more like the UK) then... it's not for you.

News / Throwing away the constitution in Poland? [626]


Huh? Why? I can imagine that the European diaspora aren't happy with PiS but American Polonia (further away less contacts less informed) were more dependable....

Or is this late stage corruption (a la Greece whose citizens abroad are not allowed to vote despite that right being in their constitution)?

Life / Do you think women have the place they deserve in modern Polish society ? [66]


A large majority of Polish women have worked outside the home since 1944.... Poland never had a suburban housewife culture...

And the social status of cooking is very different from the US which inherited(?) the British view of housework (including cooking) as menial and of low status, a servant culture (like the British aristocracy) inevitably leads to any kind of physical work being of low status...

In Poland, thanks to decades of communist food scarcity cooking and serving food (deciding who eats what) was of much greater status, not overt but

This is one reason for larger discrepancies in life expectancy for men and women in Poland, for decades an elderly woman was a benefit and great resource for a household while retired men had no particular role to play.

News / Throwing away the constitution in Poland? [626]


They are terrified of this election... how many people are they willing to endanger to cling on to the presidency?

Language / Instrumental case in the Polish language. Am I understanding it right? [68]

It depends... I'm one of those Americans who doesn't distinguish cot and caught (and I pronounce 'sorry' and 'sari' the same way...)

Language / Instrumental case in the Polish language. Am I understanding it right? [68]

Japanese si is definitely the same as Polish si.... so that desita is pronounced deśta (roughly)

Language / Instrumental case in the Polish language. Am I understanding it right? [68]


I agree...

USA, Canada / Are there any Polish people in Florida? [311]


I don't know about now, but it used to be

Tourism,
Construction,
Drug dealing

(I'm not sure in what order....)

Language / Instrumental case in the Polish language. Am I understanding it right? [68]

you mean maszyna? (szef in Polish is more likely a direct borrowing from French, maybe maszyna is too....)

You seem to be talking about how Polish speakers render the English phoneme /ʃ/ (or sometimes rendered as /š/ when speaking English - a topic I'm not especially interested in (since even after all these years I barely hear any difference between wieś and wiesz....)

USA, Canada / Are there any Polish people in Florida? [311]


IIRC there was one in.... Korona? in Flagler county? (or were they Finns?)

USA, Canada / Are there any Polish people in Florida? [311]


you have my deepest sympathies.... I used to have to go Cape Coral regularly for work... never liked it.

Does the German American club still exist? I never set foot inside I just thought it was kind of cool....

Language / Instrumental case in the Polish language. Am I understanding it right? [68]

I really don't think so, if you look at how words with 'sh' are spelled in Polish it's always 'sz'.. can you give examples of words with 'sh' that would be polonized with ś?

Language / Instrumental case in the Polish language. Am I understanding it right? [68]


No... English sh and ch are usually (always?) pronounced sz and cz in Polish... this can also be seen in the way some words are respelled.... Waszyngton finisz

it's also why some aren't, because sequences like dżinsy or czipsy violate traditional spelling rules...

Language / Instrumental case in the Polish language. Am I understanding it right? [68]


Marsza marsza marsza!!!!

(inside US pop culture reference from a generation or so ago.....)

Language / Instrumental case in the Polish language. Am I understanding it right? [68]


It depends on a lot of factors and a lot will be up to individual choice, I think.

If a word ends in -tha it will probably (in speaking) be changed to -ta so that I think most people would "o Marcie" (the same as Marta) but I don't know how they'd write it.

And many might simply decline to decline such words "o Martha" rather like foreign female names that don't end in -a o Alice o Janet etc...

Language / Instrumental case in the Polish language. Am I understanding it right? [68]


I think I used hypothetical names...

Language / Instrumental case in the Polish language. Am I understanding it right? [68]

Some years ago I asked a number of people (not language specialists) how they would decline words ending in -ha... often etymological factors came into play, often they said if the word seemed related to the Kresy (where a voiced h is related to Polish g) then -że and otherwise with -sze (or not decline it).

Language / Cultural disparities shown through Polish and English languages [195]


More like common courtesy (US southern style which is more like Poland than either is to mainstream US norms). IME I'd say adding "miss" (pronounced 'mizz') before first names was more common than adding mr before first names..

Similarly, in a lot of the south you'd never answer a question with just "yes" or "no" (unless you were common) the correct forms were

"yes sir" "no sir" "yes ma'am" and "no ma'am" (no comma because there's no pause)

For more well off families (which liked to name kids after elders) 'young' or 'old' might be added before mr or miss...

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


The problem is that, unlike flu, it has the capability of completely overwhelming a country's healthcare system... there are other unknowns, problems but that's the main one. "It's just the flu" overlooks the fact that it's hospitalization rate is over ten times that of flu and requires lots of attention and resources...

This isn't the time to be some juvenile edgelord but to err on the side of caution...

Language / Cultural disparities shown through Polish and English languages [195]


Poland is on the whole not as dysfunctional as English speaking countries?