Language / Polish language would look better written in Cyrillic Script? [212]

Untrue, kaprys! Then again, you entered the thread discussion a bit late:-)

Language / Polish language would look better written in Cyrillic Script? [212]

Reminds me of that classic education best seller "Eye kant reed, kan u?"

Language / Polish language would look better written in Cyrillic Script? [212]

Would you say that Russian, Serbian, Ukrainian or Bulgarian written in Latin script also look "cool"?

History / Terrible past for the Jews in Poland? [930]

Merged:

Polish-American Historian Takes Issue With Goldhagen

A US historian has come out with a book contesting Daniel Jonah Goldhagen's assertion that gentile Poles were largely complicit in the mass murder of Poland's Jews!

Be interested in hearing the Forum's views on this matter.

Language / How well do Polish people understand Slovak? [88]

Hungarian sounds to me, a native Anglophone, almost like steady, rhythmic chanting, intense and almost relentless:-) Quite intoxicating actually to listen to, especially the poetry.

Language / How well do Polish people understand Slovak? [88]

@Koszonom, Baloghbacsi.

News / Abortion still under control in Poland [2986]

If abortion is the only thing which will save the woman's life, then naturally, it should be permitted. Like collecting unemployment benefits and abusing the privilege, abortion too is a privilege, but not a right which the abortor should take lightly.

Why throw out the baby with the bathwater(no pun intendedLOL)?

Genealogy / Need some help with Bublitz family origin. [23]

There's the Jewish leader of Berlin, Ignaz Bubis, born in Poland but an immigrant to Germany as a youngster. Perhaps his name is related to your search.

Language / How well do Polish people understand Slovak? [88]

"Fake" people??LOL I'm quite real, I assure you. As to the rest of your message, I merely take it for what it is worth....not terribly much.

Language / How well do Polish people understand Slovak? [88]

@kaprys, you're clearly mistaking criticism for hostility, a typical psychological defense mechanism, if you're up on your Freud. Haven't you ever fought tooth and nail with your best friend, calling her every name in the book, only to make up several hours later after you both have cooled off a little?? 'Course you have!

So have I, so have most of us.

You and several others here only focus on the negative instead of the positive posts I've written about Polish food, music, science, and literature. Germany has a similarly noble tradition, and yet I too criticize their recent past. Does that mean I'm some Germanophobe, hell bent on their ruin??!

Use your head, for heaven's sake!!

@Baloghbacsi, I'd love to practice my Hungarian, if you are available. Legy szives irni: tarsape@gmail

Language / How well do Polish people understand Slovak? [88]

@kaprys, I really don't understand how you can assert that I don't "like" Poles! You must be trolling, brain dead or somewhere in between. Because one criticizes someone or something is no reason to assume that they are necessarily hostile to it! This is fallacious reasoning. As far as my not speaking Polish, what was I posting you in private, Turkish, Spanish..???! lol

@Baloghbacsi, many Slavs have a surface understanding of other related languages in the Slavonic group. This though doesn't mean that, say, a Pole automatically understands Slovak, Russian or Czech, for instance, without having at least studied those languages. Often, related languages are NOT mutually intelligible.

Language / How well do Polish people understand Slovak? [88]

Baloghbacsi,

I too have made inroads in my Hungarian. I knew a Pole who speaks fluent Hungarian, but he refused to speak it with me, preferring to "impress" me with his broken English, which at the time, I was way too polite to either correct or even comment on:-) Eventually, he gave in and we spoke Polish together, a relief for me, as well as frankly, relaxation for him.

I can read Hungarian better than I either write or speak it, unfortunately. NAGYON SZEP A NYELV!!

Love / Polish women are the most beautiful in the world! [1718]

To quote the great Claude Rains in the title role, addressing Bette Davis from the movie "Mr. Skeffington"(1941), "A woman is beautiful, so long as she is loved."

:-)

Life / Why are Poles always so miserable? Why do they never smile? [512]

For the umpteenth time, Poles, much as with many Northern Europeans, can superficially tend to look serious and focused in repose. This smiling vacuously at complete strangers is as unnatural for Poles as it is considered somehow "friendly" here in large areas of the rural US.

Thing is, people, just because an American may appear "friendLY" in no way means that they are being your "FRIEND"!! What we often term "friends", Europeans traditionally would simply call "acquaintances":-)

Genealogy / Do I look Polish? (my picture) [376]

I concur.

Life / Why are Poles always so miserable? Why do they never smile? [512]

Spaniards, Southern French, Greeks, and Italians give the surface impression of being more happy-go-lucky, more prone to break out into a smile or a spontaneous show of joy than perhaps one's initiial glance at Swedes, Dutchmen, the English, Germans and Poles.

Then again, it's all a matter of American expectations as well as the historical development of countries such as Poland, Germany etc.

Life / Why are Poles always so miserable? Why do they never smile? [512]

It isn't! All I'm saying is that I can remember quite well Polish supers in New York apt. buildings as a teenager, and most were middle-aged men with bad attitudes and sour pusses because they were frequently taking their orders from minority tenants (the late 70's remember and affirmative action for women, blacks, Hispanics etc.) who had far less education than they, but were literally forced to work at some job, and being by luck somewhat dextrous as well as tough looking, were able to bribe their way into a job they could hold onto for life without working too hard. Meager salary at the time compared with now, but plenty of sick days and a modicum of job security.

Once, our Polish super had a wee bit too much to drink on New Year's Eve and made a slur in front of our African-American neighbor. She complained blue murder, but the super barely got a slap on the wrist.

A double-edged sword now, isn't it?

Life / Why are Poles always so miserable? Why do they never smile? [512]

Ahem, someone looks for work as either an engineer, teacher, doctor or lawyer, yet is told nearly every step of the way, "THERE'S A GLUT IN YOUR FIELD, DUDE!! LOOK ELSEWHERE AND DEAL WITH IT!", duh- I think that's sort of a no-brainer that it may be time to pull up stakes and GO!!! Yeah, TheOther, that's what I call being forced to leave:-)

As to the rest of your statement in the second paragraph of your post, I'd have to agree 100%, having lived for a spell in Austria, Germany, and even more briefly, in The Netherlands. Poles too generally have little to any pretense about their immediate wishes, one reason perhaps why they can often come across to us as appearing somewhat "rough around the edges". Like the Israelis in fact, Polish people in their body language often seem to be saying,"If something's clearly wrong, why waste valuable time being polite about it? Simply eliminate the problem and set things right, that's all. Offend the other person's thin skin??

Too f*****k bad!!"

Not a difficult to understand position. It doesn't though take into account foreign diets which may or may not lead to diabetes etc., conditions which make many middle-aged American women, for instance, exceptionally thin-skinned. Perhaps in Poland, the latter is far less of an issue, add to that, in such a relatively homogeneous country, everyone probably has similar problems and so knows how to deal with them.

Life / Why are Poles always so miserable? Why do they never smile? [512]

Poles here are slightly different from Poles at home. If you were a trained professional in your country and were forced to work way beneath your level every day of your life in America, while inferior people around were making much more for doing much less, you'd be grumpy too!

Life / Why are Poles always so miserable? Why do they never smile? [512]

I as well, TheOther. Heck, I lived there long enough. If I couldn't have stood the heat, I would've gotten out of the Continental kitchen a LONG time ago!!

Give me honest to gosh German or Polish grumpy face any day of the week compared with the passively false smile of the US.

At least in those countries, ya nearly always know where ya stand:-)

Life / Why are Poles always so miserable? Why do they never smile? [512]

Seems quite similar to my initial contact with Germans, both East and West! A smile upon initial eye contact was as rare as the Star of India and considered a gift rather than merely an expected reaction as is true here in the States. When I received one, I felt myself lucky that day:-)

Travel / Why do you visit Poland? [223]

One's never to old to see new things, merely too poor or to lazy:-) I guess I fall into the second categoryLOL

History / Poland and Britain started WW2 [356]

Hitler, as the Nazis on the whole, possibly even German society as unmasked by the meteoric rise of the entire regime, were neither Christian nor even Judeo-Christian, but PAGAN to the bone, and apparently never Christianized! Hitler himself often mocked Christianity as having too much of a Jewish conscience:-) He considered the Germanic "race" barbarians, proud of being barbarians!

Genealogy / Why are some Polish people dark complected, and others very light [511]

Misspelled the name. Thanks!

Genealogy / Why are some Polish people dark complected, and others very light [511]

The only extant languages to which is even distantly related are Khansky (??) and Mansi, spoken in Eastern Siberia:-)

Genealogy / Why are some Polish people dark complected, and others very light [511]

Hungarians, compared with Romanians I've encountered, (in this way similar to Poles) often have blue eyes but dark hair, brown usually, and of medium to stocky build, depending on where in the country they're from. There's plenty of Roma influence in Romania which might account for the swarthiness of many Romanians as well:-)

@Maf, as to the respective languages, Romanian remains essentially a Romance tongue dating back to Caesar's time, yet with a heavy Slavic overlay as evidenced by her word stock:-) Hungarian is distantly Uralic or Fenno-Ugric with substantial influence from here Germanic and Slavic neighbors. The other language "isolate", Albanian, is Illyrian with Balkan vocabulary intermingled with non-extant ancient Indo-European root words in addition to even some Turkish admixture.

Life / Why are Poles always so miserable? Why do they never smile? [512]

True.

Life / Why are Poles always so miserable? Why do they never smile? [512]

Poles are generally focused and serious when in the presence of strangers aka foreigners of unknown quantity or intention. In this way, they're not too unlike many Northern Europeans, such as many North Germans and the Swedes Among their own in a casual setting and the right amount of alcohol, they smile and laugh plenty, just like anybody else, believe meLOL

Genealogy / Why are some Polish people dark complected, and others very light [511]

Romanians tend to be darker complected than certainly Poles, Russians, Czechs or most other Eastern Slavs, typically with pencil-thin eyebrows, acquiline features and medium stature. I have known Romanians who are tallish, blond, and light-eyed, but am wondering whether or not this might not be the exception:-)

History / Can anyone from Poland tell me about Auschwitz and The Ghetto? [625]

Survival often breeds deviant behavior which is why it's the strongest of all human emotions.