Life / Stereotypes about Polish people being stupid? [281]

...the fastest RECORDED human....
:-)

Statistically, there are no fewer non-Jewish chess grandmasters than Jewish:-)
Some chess mavens, both Jewish and gentile, have contended that in sheer number of games won vs. number of new strategies invented, Alexander Alekhine (a Russian non-Jew!!) may have been the most successful chess player of all time.

In short, stereotypes are based upon according to which yardstick we measure such perception, and nothing else.

Life / Stereotypes about Polish people being stupid? [281]

What group doesn't help the other, Mr. Wiech? Germans help Germans, Poles help Poles etc..

While to a large extent it is true that Eastern Europeans for instance tend to use more black-market
trickery aka bribery to get jobs than perhaps the average Swede or Brit, don't forget that before the Sicilian mob in America, it was the Irish (Boss Tweed etc.) who taught the US the meaning of pull:-)

What do you mean "worry" about stereotypes? It's not only that some Americans can't find their own country on a map of the world, most couldn't even identify POLAND on a world map at first glance without at least some coaching:

Newscaster: As you can see, (using a pointer)....
Assistant: Ahemm. you're pointing to Finland,....now you're in Russia,...THERE!!
Now you're in Poland!

LOL

Life / Stereotypes about Polish people being stupid? [281]

@Polonius et al, the Jews are no more astute in business per se than Negroes are excellent in sports simply because they're Negroes, and necessarily poor in math and science simply because of same!

If you've studied the history of the Jews, you'd realize that they were forbidden from entering any field aka professional guilds as were the Christians. They were even forbidden from serving their country in the military!

As they were forced to become money lenders, tax collectors and enter other "unpopular" fields, off limits to gentiles because money changing was considered sinful and therefore forbidden, they simply were forced to hone certain skills, possibly anathema to them under more normal circumstances.

As you grow older, you'll find that there are usually as many exceptions to the rule as examples of it:-)

Life / Stereotypes about Polish people being stupid? [281]

Any sort of national stereotype is just that, the result of ignorance and bigotry. Frankly, I wouldn't even dignify this thread with a reply.

Work / South African wants to move to Poland, please provide some input? [59]

Oh, yes RubasznyRumcajs! I know basically fluent Dutch and can meander a bit through Afrikaans, despite the legion false friends between the two languages:-) In most of Scandinavia, English is so widespread, I've even experienced Swedes and Danes chatting together in English, blissfully unaware of how ridiculous it sounds or even how their mistakes aren't picked up by the other, unless really egregious.

Afrikaans reminds me of 'baby Dutch', sort of in arrested development since the Southern Dutch first emigrated to South Africa in the early 1800's.

Genealogy / Polish & Prussian/German town name cross-reference. [100]

For the umpteenth time, Prussians were Balts long settled in German territory:-)

Work / South African wants to move to Poland, please provide some input? [59]

I too, dolno! They don't have the 'attitude' of so many Brits I've encountered over the years and they seem honestly delighted to share their native language, cuisine and culture with foreigners.

Work / South African wants to move to Poland, please provide some input? [59]

The joke back in the late '70's was, "D'you speak Cobalt?" - Well, my Fortran's kinda rusty!

Work / South African wants to move to Poland, please provide some input? [59]

Russian, also German, I would think.

Work / South African wants to move to Poland, please provide some input? [59]

Afrikaans, much as Dutch itself, is yet another language with a relatively low speaker percentage world wide. "Nice" as she may sound, Poles would probably benefit far more from competent English instruction from a truly BILINGUAL South African with both Afrikaans and English as a mother tongue:-)

While as a linguist myself by trade, I'm scarcely discouraging you from offering Afrikaans to Poles, you're most likely not going to find all too many takers, I fear.

Work / South African wants to move to Poland, please provide some input? [59]

The Ruhr Valley ('Kohlenpott') has always been a sort of melting pot, ever since the late 1700's, frankly, when Poles began to work in the mines, later replaced by other foreigners, Turks, Spaniards etc...

Work / South African wants to move to Poland, please provide some input? [59]

@Adrian,

Turkish has become a semi- (un-)official "second" language in Berlin for nearly two decades now:-) It's status throughout many of the larger German cities is a lot similar to Spanish here in the States (especially in New York and LA)!

:-)

Work / South African wants to move to Poland, please provide some input? [59]

Just do yourself and your new neighbors the respect of learning some of their language! Polish may not always be quite as transparent for you as English, but your efforts to learn Polish will be well worth it in the long run:-)

Language / Slavic languages words similarities with Polish [238]

Would the Polish noun though not be "pozÓr" in the singular? Probably just a typo:-)

@Polonius, indeed that could be fatally embarrassing, as could Polish "pukać" vs. Russian "pukat", as doubtless referred to prior on PF!

Language / Slavic languages words similarities with Polish [238]

More embarrassing is the Czech vs. Polish distinction between "stały" and "staly" or "zapach" and "zapach":-)

Need I say more?
LOL

Language / Slavic languages words similarities with Polish [238]

Indeed, the Polish Vocative essentially no longer exists in present-day Russian! Whereas in Polish, it's used daily, both in speech (Cześć, Krysiu!) as well as writing, in contemporary Russian, I believe I learned years ago that the Vocative is confined to literature:-)

Apropos similarities of Slavic words with Polish, there's Polish "pożar" (fire) vs. Czech "pozor" (danger). Lexically unrelated, but semantically linked.

An endlessly intriguing thread for the Slavic linguist.

Language / Slavic languages words similarities with Polish [238]

Correction. The counting systems in Polish and Russian are nearly identical (as with much of the daily basics in most Slavic aka related languages). The pronunciation is different here, I'll grant you, as is much basic vocab.n but a great deal of the grammar is similar enough:-)

Language / Is Polish amongst the best-sounding languages in the world? [123]

Polish often sounds almost chirpy to my ears, particularly when spoken by women.

Life / Warsaw is a difficult city to adjust to (coming from Canada and having lived in South Africa) Prague? [46]

Ziemowit, you misunderstand! I was saying the Szczecin is a provincial, if large, city in comparison with Praha:-)

Life / Warsaw is a difficult city to adjust to (coming from Canada and having lived in South Africa) Prague? [46]

More Americans live and work in the Czech Republic than in Poland, I believe:-)

Life / Warsaw is a difficult city to adjust to (coming from Canada and having lived in South Africa) Prague? [46]

As an American, Praha seemed to me a more "western" Central European city than Szczecin. Then again, Szczecin, though a larger city by any standards, seemed relatively provincial and compared to Czech Republic, had more of an Eastern European feel to it.

I've never visited Kraków or Warsaw however, true cosmopolitan areas I'm told, and so I reserve any final judgements up to this point:-)

Life / Warsaw is a difficult city to adjust to (coming from Canada and having lived in South Africa) Prague? [46]

Czech-Canadian, how hard (or easy) was it to learn Polish? You never quite answered my question before:-)

Apropos your ancestral home, I visited Praha and like most, fell immediately under her spell, particularly the Haradzin, Vaclav Nemesti and the Karlovy Most. Praha and Budapest probably are the most unspoiled beautiful European capital cities!

Life / Warsaw is a difficult city to adjust to (coming from Canada and having lived in South Africa) Prague? [46]

"I may be Czech..."

Aren't you sure? Just kidding!

Coming from The Czech Republic then, I assume you don't have a language barrier (albeit Czech and Polish are not mutually intelligible). Or are you using some variety of English?:-)

I'm from the States and have only been to Szczecin. Wasn't there long enough unfortunately to form any meaningful opinion either of the city or its inhabitants, but my overall impression was generally positive.

UK, Ireland / The best way for a Polish person to learn English? [34]

ENGLISH close caption TV (on a daily basis!!), BBC/ABC/CNN/C-SPAN news broadcasts or podcasts and English (not Polish) subtitles in the beginning of the English phase, when watching a movie!

Language / Polish Language Exchange Thread [141]

kadamus,

After several (as yet unanswered) e-mails, my offer still stands: my Polish for your English:-)
marekzgerson@yahoo

History / History of two Neighbors: Poland - Germany Interrelations [283]

Skacia,

Much of present-day Poland, i.e. since before the Polish Partition and the Polish "Corridor", long prior to WWII, was once part of German territory, dating back to the earliest days of the Kingdom of Prussia:-) The majority of Polish city and town names therefore often have a German equivalent, e.g. Szczecin/Stettin, Gdańsk/Danzig, Bytom/Beuthen, Toruń/Thorn, Poznań/Posen, Wrocław/Breslau, Włosława (??)/Lesau etc...

Poland and Germany have indeed been neighbors with a most challenging relationship.

Life / Bribery and corruption 'fact of life' in Poland? [152]

Remember folks, when dealing with those East of the Oder (or South of the Rio Grande): GREASE MY PALMS!!! A black market leopard, no matter how Anglicized, never changes their spots:-)

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

Maybe. Although what I've gotten to know of the gentleman in question (including his QUITE fair-haired, light-eyed father and siblings), I'd tend to doubt it:-) Never met his mother though, as she'd passed away long before we'd met. Perhaps on her side of the family lies the answer! He wasn't adopted either, at least so far as I can tell.

Thanks,

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

Large numbers of so-called "North" even "Nordic" Europeans may indeed often exhibit dark (at times wavy) hair and dark eyes. What distinguishes therefore a "dark" Pole, German, or Scandinavian from a Belgian, Frenchman, Italian etc. is above all in my experience the facial bone structure, usually squarish, occasionally oval among Poles, lantern-jawed and with low foreheads!

An acquaintance of mine from Wrocław aka Breslau has both darker, if coarser, facial hair than I (who am Jewish i.e. of Semitic origin) as well as dark brown eyes, yet is to my mind unmistakably "Polish" in outward semblence. Upon first bumping into one another at an international student gathering many years ago, I instantly started speaking to him in Polish.

Turned out I was right:-)

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

Admixture, in some cases excessive, clearly accounts for the variety of complexions among Polish people! Intermarriage as well surely has been a factor:-)