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

Poles abroad are, as with many nationalities, usually different AT HOME!!!

Indeed, coming from a country upon which centuries of both economic as well as cultural abuse had been heaped, as "second fiddle" to richer neighbors, surely a certain attitude, if you will, is bound to come out when in foreign lands:-)

Not that I'm giving the Poles as a group any excuses, but if one were female from a certain part of the world, and the immediate perception was that of either slut or drunkard or dumbell or both, well, I think that person would develop a bit of a crusty exterior also.

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

The English though are somewhere in between:-) On the one hand, most swear by the modicum of civility and friendly "Cheers!" when processing my train ticket. On the other hand, many, like a lot of Poles, are singularly grump looking when asked to do something outside their job description.

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

Northern and Northeastern Europeans particularly are often known for a bit of the dour in their demeanor, not exclusively the Poles BY ANY STRETCH:-)))!!

Yes, I also found on my first trip to Poland aka Szczecin in the mid-90's that it seemed the women especially, anywhere from eighteen to fifties, had such a pained look on their faces. Then again, this wasn't long after the collapse of Communism still fresh in everyone's mind, and so it wouldn't be fair to judge them on that basis now, would it?

The Germans were long known as sour pusses - in - residence throughout much of the continentLOL

In defense however of our Polish brethren, it must be said that we Yanks are all too frequently long on smiles, yet short on actions!

I'd frankly no end prefer a doughty dour European who gives straight answers to straight questions and doesn't bother with a lot of empty phrases such as "Yer the best!!!", "Hey, how are you today?" and such verbal diahhrea etc. ad nauseum....

Genealogy / Typical Polish Eye Color [77]

Suffice to add, however, that a healthy majority of Poles have, at the very least, "light" eyes, shall we say:-) Blue, light amber, or green, I've occasionally met Poles with dark brown eyes (though never black!), although they've maintained to me that they may be of Polish highlander aka góral origins, or possibly even Slovak.

Genealogy / Are all Poles blue eyed and blonde? [450]

@Mirten,

I'm of Pomeranian descent, but grew up with English and German here in the States:-)

Bavarian are ya! I was in Muenchen and Berlin, from Berlin I traveled on to Szczecin aka Stettin to you, where I German woman I knew was anxious to visit.

While stereotypes DO die hard, many are well grounded in fact, among them, that Poles are distinctly "Slavic" in appearance, particularly around the jaw and facial bone structure!

Genealogy / Are all Poles blue eyed and blonde? [450]

One issue at a time there, Mirten! The Poles whom I met were happy to speak German with me when last in Poland, as my Polish was at that time quite rusty and nobody within earshot spoke a syllable of comprehensible English:-)

Elderly Poles (I speak now about gentile Poles only) might indeed harbor residual animosity, however younger Poles definitely do not. Certain student-age types I met claimed to dislike German owing to her perceived "difficulty", while other spoke it far, far better than English, and were the first to say so!

Whereabouts in Germany are you from?

Language / Polish Sweet Phrases About Home [10]

Good to know. Thanks, Looker!

Genealogy / Are all Poles blue eyed and blonde? [450]

As far as the original Russians, we all know therefore that Rurik was actually a Swede! Or vice-versa.

Poles typically have high cheekbones, coarse, rather than fine hair, and often piercing cobalt-blue eyes. Radek Sikorski, for example, exemplifies this type, although Duda (with light brown eyes and hair) also cannot to my mind be mistaken for anyone other than a Pole, if for no other reason, his facial bone structure:-)

Language / Polish Sweet Phrases About Home [10]

Or how about "Gość w domu, Pan Bóg w domu"? Although this is perhaps more concerning hospitality rather than "home" itself:-)

Genealogy / Are all Poles blue eyed and blonde? [450]

Mirten

Poles have considerable "Germanic" ethnic background, more than many other Slavs, except perhaps for the Czechs. Some Poles appear Baltic, others more akin to darker-skinned Eastern neighbors:-)

Po polsku / Wolności słowa w Polsce nie ma?? [93]

@Wulkanie,

prawie każdego tygodnia jest artykuł w czasopismach oraz gazetach, n.p "Nowym Dzienniku", "W prostu" itd., gdzie okazują się zdjęcia studentów a innych ludzi protestujące przeciw PiS'a wszędzie w Polsce!!

Po polsku / Wolności słowa w Polsce nie ma?? [93]

@Uwaga, Panie Wulkanie!
Rząd Beaty Szydło zagroża wolnością słowa. Zgadzasz się z tym? Teraz wreszczie zrozumiesz?
:-)

Po polsku / Wolności słowa w Polsce nie ma?? [93]

Ludzie, w KAŻDYM kraju jest cenzura!!! Tylko co pisowano n.p. we "Wprostu", "Polityce" oraz "Do Rzeczy" wolnością słowa codziennie od rzędu Beaty Szydło zagroża.

Po polsku / Wolności słowa w Polsce nie ma?? [93]

Więc Twojim zdaniem zakazanie wolności słowa w Polsce nie jest gorziej niż w innych krajacj europejskich?

Po polsku / Wolności słowa w Polsce nie ma?? [93]

No, Szwecja? Rozmyślałem, że jest wcałkowita wolność słowa w krajach skandynawych!!
Nigdy nie to wiedziałem, Wulkanie:-)

Dziękuję za informację.

Language / Extremely Hard - Polish the hardest language to learn [226]

Language ease vs. difficulty's relative anyhow:-)

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

You're probably right, cinku! I tried even reading a Czech newspaper a while ago and was nearly lost:-) Polish is similar, yet as we know, false friends lurk practically around every sentence turn, e.g. "pozor"/"pożar" etc....

Genealogy / Are Sorbs Polish? Does anyone know about Sorbish enthnicity? [62]

Sorbs didn't maintain Germanic birth.

They most certainly did, Crow! As to the rest of your comments in the same sentence, kindly keep your not so disguised Germanophobia to yourself:-)

Sorbs, like Kashubians, were native-born Slavs whose birthplace was between Lusatia and the present-day border between Poland and Germany. Most were bilingual German speakers who however suffered under the Nazis.

Genealogy / Are Sorbs Polish? Does anyone know about Sorbish enthnicity? [62]

The Sorbs, also known as the Wends, suffered as well under the Nazis. Whilst maintaining Germanic birth, they were nonetheless considered Slavs by Hitler, much as with the Catalonians under Franco! The latter were purely Spanish by birth, but, like the Basques, were thought to be of variant ethnicity and who similarly spoke a different language from Spanish.

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

I once observed, for instance, that in Czech "Pozar!" means "Attention!" (in Polish "Uważa!") while in Polish "pożar" means "fire", though not as in calling out "Fire!" (in Polish "Pali się!")

Most intriguing this thread.

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

Slavic, like Scandinavian, languages are NOT mutually or seamlessly "intelligible"! A Slovak native speaker trying to communicate with a Pole in the former's native tongue will have numerous difficulties, apart perhaps from sound-alike greetings, maybe counting numerals etc.

Yes, as in Scandinavia, Slovaks, Czechs, Slovenes and Poles will doubtless attempt communication in English nowadays. Of course, this is usually the choice of least resistance and becomes all too often a comic exercise in makeshift futility, that is, so long as a native English speaker's around if only to listen in on the inherent humor of this familiar routineLOL

I'm a speaker of Polish, and while by no means a native (nor even completely fluent), I can glance at another Slavic language such as Czech or Croatian, one also written in non-Cyrillic alphabet, and more or less grasp the gist of similarly lexemic phrases. Other than that, I'm lost, what with the umpteen false friend booby-traps awaiting me at every bend and turn!!

And SPEAKING or understanding them in a spoken context?? Forget it most of the time:-)

Genealogy / KUKULA ancestry [32]

The double 'k' for sure. The Polish spelling with a single 'k' may well be native Slavic, perhaps even of Hungarian origin (there again, the Uralic connection):-)

Genealogy / KUKULA ancestry [32]

Interestingly enough "kukkula" (with two 'k's') in Finnish means "flower", I believe.
:-)

Language / Polish was chosen the HARDEST LANGUAGE in the world to learn... :D [1558]

Atch, now here's a question for you. Do you think on a sliding scale of difficulty that Irish aka Erse (Irish Gaelic) is comparable in "difficulty" with Polish? Celtic languages have a reputation for a fiercely chaotic phonology and many morphological mutations, e.g. Welsh as well as a phonetic disconnect for Anglo-Saxon speakers, making it nearly impossible for us non-Irish to correctly pronounce the language without much practice, for instance "Slante!", the first name "Siobbhan" etc. So too Polish.

How do you feel about such a comparison?

UK, Ireland / British guy refused work because of Polish workers [39]

Unless of course the Polish people in question don't know English and therefore don't wish to embarrass themselves by speaking in a language not their own, thus making any number of gaffs:-)

UK, Ireland / British guy refused work because of Polish workers [39]

Sorry, Dolnośląsk. Do you mean "ever" or "never" was refused?

UK, Ireland / British guy refused work because of Polish workers [39]

Conversely, I wonder just how many POLISH guys have ever been refused work by BRITISH aka English workers.
Only curious:-)

Language / Polish was chosen the HARDEST LANGUAGE in the world to learn... :D [1558]

Begorrah! Was that himself who wrote that message?

TanksLOL

Appreciate the reference as well. And to answer your question, no, I've not the slightest bit of Celtic background, just Teutonic:-)

Language / Polish was chosen the HARDEST LANGUAGE in the world to learn... :D [1558]

Often times though, a thesaurus cannot realistically provide all the myriad possibilities for productive verbal aspects in Polish. While such a volume can indeed be helpful for listing synonyms, apart from that, its usefulness is frequently limited, at least in my experience.

@its'me,

What you and certain others fail to acknowledge is that translations or definitions may vary, except of course where the "meaning" is cut-and-dried, e.g. kapelusz = hat, góra = mountain etc....

"Pomieszkiwać" can indeed mean to live somewhere for a long, long time, since "pomieszkać" > "mieszkać" means "to dwell for a while".

Don't think I can be cowed into submission. I put up a mean fight and play to win!!!