Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4500]

It's a popular family name, for example one of the presenters of the Polish state TV is Janowski. So don't expect it to be easy to find exactly your family.

Life / Where to buy cosmetic items such as razor and pumice in Poland? [39]

Well, they should have them somewhere.

The Internet, even the Polish one, is not helpful here, because if you google for "where to buy a safety razor", it finds mostly posts of people from a subculture who want to buy them to cut their skin...

In the past it was easier, such razor blades were used not only for razors, but also in many other applications, for example in pencil sharpeners. Now it is no more so.

Some people say there should not be a problem to buy them in any newspaper kiosk or in a big supermarket like Real or Auchan.

UK, Ireland / Time for Polish Leaving England [15]


What turns out in polls, referendums, etc. to be what people actually want is often really surprising.

Look at the support Erdogan has in Turkey. People want him. Even though he violates all the human rights, and starts going towards religious country instead of Western Europe-style one. Some people were telling that he is like Putin. But now he seems to be rather like Stalin. Explicitly arresting thousands of people having nothing to do with the army, although the coup was military - but being just enemies of the system. It looks like stalinism, but just right-wing instead of left-wing. Although... he has support of the people. Doing all this explicitly. In Stalin times there was no free media in the Eastern Europe, showing what the country was actually doing. In Turkey there (still some) are.

The same mechanism is with Brexit, the same mechanism is with PiS winning elections in Poland... Tell people that you will give them money. Many will believe it's just election sausage (is there a proper English term for that? election sausage is how we call it in Poland) and they will get nothing, but even more believe in that, or will at least think - other parties don't say they will give away money, the main opponent party ruling for 8 years until now have only been increasing taxes, this one says it will be giving away 500 zł for each child every month, so let's vote for this one, there is a chance that they don't lie. Now the support of PiS grows even more, because they are actually realizing this promise.

Most people think just about themselves only and in short term. "I will get 500 zł. Not stupid investments, from which there is nothing [yes, because it takes time, but people don't notice that...], I will have pure money in my pocket. For which I can buy something.". And it is how it works.

From what I know, in the Brexit campaign they also used this money trick.

This is how democracy works. People get a task to rule a country, but they don't feel responsible for it. And the main deciding factor is in reality:

Now it's time to invent a better political system. But, supposedly, there is no better political system :(

Communism? In all known cases where it was introduced, it leaded to abuse, which had more or less, on larger or smaller scale, the same effects as now in Turkey (to which pure democracy leaded). And, by the way, communism is also democracy. By another way, it inherently leads to economical crysis.

Monarchia? Dictatorship? One king or a ruler of any other kind might be good, and then it will be defintely better then democracy, but the next one can be terrible and destroy the country.

Who will invent a new better political system, will be a genius.

UK, Ireland / Time for Polish Leaving England [15]

And where will the UK find people willing to work for Polish wages? :-)

Personally for me it's not so bad - it will be easier to find a specialist when you need to make a renovation in your apartment.

Although actually, if you throw the Poles out (and you won't do it, because for economical reasons you will most likely stay associated with the EU, which means you will have to obey all the rules anyway), they will go to Germany, Denmark and Norway. So... do it :-) But I don't think you will manage to do it without an economical collapse of your country.

Life / Activation of purchased Poland Orange/T-mobile/Play mobile data / SIM card? [19]

If you want to use the card after January 2017, you will have to register it. The easiest it will be to do it in a shop of your provider, e.g. if you get an Orange SIM card, go to an Orange shop to register it.

Genealogy / Looking for Polish Spelling of Last Name [17]

It's definitely not the proper spelling, if you wrote it phonetically in English, because we don't have "ea" in Polish and "ch" is pronounced totally different than in English (it's pronounced like in Loch Ness).

It would be written Sperczek, but there is no such last name in Polish, Google doesn't find anything.

Maybe someone will have an idea about possible Polish surname that sounds similarly.

"Tanak" also isn't a Polish name, even though in Polish it would be read almost same as in English. Google says that Tanakh (pronounced Tanach with ch like in Loch Ness) is a Jewish name of a part of the Bible. Maybe it's not a Polish, but a Jewish name.

Language / The "end piece" of a loaf of bread in Polish [80]


"Przylepka" sounds generally like something sticky or being sticked. Compare it with "nalepka", which actually means "sticker".[/quote]
I understand it so that when you slice this end piece of the loaf, it fits to its place. And only there. "Normal" slices are all of more or less the same size.

About the flour types - actually, I am not sure, what's the English terminology. Isn't it actually so that all the bakery products are called "bread" (in Polish: pieczywo)? Then the Polish classification is just different.

In English the main category is "bread" (as equivalent of Polish "pieczywo"), and the main division seems to be between just bread (in loaves) and bread roll or bun (which is small and often circular, although not always).

In Polish the main category is "pieczywo", and it can be divided into two types: "chleb" and "bułka". Chleb is in loafs and it contains rye flour (wheat flour usually as well, but the proportion might be different, depending on the type of the "chleb"). Almost everything else is called "bułka". From the bread-like (loafy) things - although it goes more in the direction of cakes - you will find also "chała" (a kind of sweet bread shaped as a braid, it's of Jewish origin) and "ciasto drożdżowe" (yeast cake). From smaller things - "rogal" (croissanty-like thing, I would say a croissant is a subtype of "rogal")And, of course, a whole variety of sweet buns ("bułka słodka", "drożdżówka"). For sure I have forgotten about something.

Language / The "end piece" of a loaf of bread in Polish [80]

I don't know what's the point of digging out a 3-year topic, but answering to the original question, the end piece of a loaf of bread is, at least for me, przylepka.

Although this word may differ in different regions in different cities. I am from the area of Łódź.

The word "dupka" is also used, but sometimes you may want to avoid it, as it comes from "dupa" - "ass". Even though it makes sense.

Talking about regionalisms, the most known example is a kind of bun/bread roll, which is of the size and shape of a loaf of bread. But it doesn't contain rye flour, it's made of wheat flour only, that's why it's not bread, it's a bread roll.

It looks like this:



In my area it's called "angielka", but, actually, literally each city in Poland has its own word for this.

USA, Canada / Package sent to USA stuck in Origin Post Preparing Shipment in Poland [6]

My experience with the Polish post is rather good. I sent a few letters internationally between Poland and Germany, and while they were leaving Poland almost immiediately, the same with reaching the addressee once they entered Poland, the German post was holding them for a long time, or once even failed to deliver a letter.

I have once even sent a letter from Poland to Poland - but with a return address in Germany. And with advice of receipt. So the letter was sent domestically, but the advice of receipt, with the signature of the addressee, had to be delivered to Germany. At the post office they didn't really know how to handle it, because their computer system just doesn't take such a possibility into account (the lady said that before computers there would be no problem at all), but they did it. It came to Germany. Later than the reply to the letter (sent by the addressee after receiving it!), but it came.

And, what's interesting, sending this letter, I filled in two forms for the advice of receipt - the Polish and the international one (I thought that when the advice of receipt has to be delivered abroad, it should be on an international form, but the lady at the post office suggested to fill in both) - and which one came to me to Germany? The Polish one :)

Just let the sender of your parcel file a complaint at his post office. He will get the money back. Maybe he will have to wait a month or two, but he will get it. It's worse if the content was worth more than 10x sending fee, but in such a case he should have declared the value of the parcel content - in such a case he would pay more for the sending, but now he would get the whole amount.

Does it happen that a parcel gets stolen by a post employee? I wouldn't say it happens frequently, but yes, I have heard about such cases. It's not about lack of competency. The post processes so many parcels every day that it's normal they fail to deliver a small amount of them all.

Life / Proper way to format a Polish mailing address when sending to Poland? [24]

[First name] [Family name]
ul. [Street name] [House number] m. [Apartment number]
[Postal code] [City/town name]
POLSKA

Of course you add "m. [Apartment number]" only if there is more than one apartment in the house. The address may also look different in case of villages - if the village has no own post office and belongs to a post office from another village or town, or if the village has no street names.

You should always write the address in such a way, as it is written in the target country. It's the post of the target country who delivers it. For the post employees in the US it's enough to know that the letter goes to Poland - they don't care, where exactly in Poland. So it would be reasonable to write the country name in English rather than in Polish (I usually do it in both languages).

I am not sure about this, but I think that the scheme with the city first, and the street in the next line, was used in the past. If you do it according to the first version (given to you by your mother), the letter will also reach the target, but the second version is the correct one.

USA, Canada / Package sent to USA stuck in Origin Post Preparing Shipment in Poland [6]

You cannot do anything. The sender can make a complaint at the post office from which he sent it. There is a special international form for that (poczta-polska.pl/hermes/uploads/2013/10/DMA250.pdf), they will give it to him at the post office. And they will return some money. The value of the parcel content, but there is a limit for that. If I am not mistaken - 10 times the price of sending.

Life / Where to buy cosmetic items such as razor and pumice in Poland? [39]

But I don't want a natural sponge, I want a normal synthetic one, which I could buy for something around 1 euro, and which would be robust.

Life / Where to buy cosmetic items such as razor and pumice in Poland? [39]

By the way, to those from Germany or knowing this country - where do you usually buy bath sponges? In "normal" supermarkets they are almost impossible to find. From what I remember, I managed to buy one in Rossmann - but its quality was very low and it got totally destroyed after 2 months of usage. Now I use one brought from Poland (which was, by the way, a few times cheaper) - I was using it for half a year in Poland before, now I have been using it for the next half a year and there is no sign of destruction. And they usually work for a few years until they just destruct.

I mean a sponge of this type:



(which would be called "gąbka" in Polish)

Not of this type:

[Bath sponge]

(I wouldn't definitely call it "gąbka", it's rather "zmywak")

It's not a problem to buy a dish sponge, but it's really difficult to find a proper bath sponge in the shops here.

Classifieds / Random Classifieds Ads Poland [261]

Well, it's good the oil is organic, and not synthetic :) Synthetic oil can be good for your car, but not necessarily for you to eat :)

Life / Where to buy cosmetic items such as razor and pumice in Poland? [39]

That they sell razors (blades) in their shops in Germany, it doesn't mean automatically, that do the same in their shops in Poland :)

But they should have such a stuff. If you don't have Rossmann in your neighbourhood - you should anyway have a shop selling such stuff. Called "drogeria", "sklep chemiczny", or anything like that.

Such a razor blade is called "żyletka" in Polish - but some people call so safety razors as well, so if you will be asking the shop assistant for help, it might be best to just show a photo :)

Genealogy / Meaning of surname Wlodarski [26]

They are quite popular. Maybe not ones of the most popular in Poland, but usually you know someone who has a such or similar surname.

Life / Consumer Rights & Returns in Poland [22]


I think that in a shop like Media Markt they will probably agree. Just go and ask them. I think they shouldn't even mind if you connect both of them to your own computer and compare.

Life / Consumer Rights & Returns in Poland [22]


Exactly. The law says that they have to make conditions to try out the product in a store, so if they are not able to do it, they usually let try it out at home and let return it after a number of days.

You can always ask the store staff to let you try the mouse out in the store. In big consumer electronics stores it's usually not a problem. In Media Markt and Saturn they have even recently started to put the remotes next to the TVs on the store exhibition, for customers to be able to try them out easily. Or when I was buying a vacuum cleaner, it wasn't any problem to connect each one in the shop to the power outlet and check how well it sucks (when most of the things suck, it's not good, but when a vacuum cleaner sucks, it's good, isn't it?).

Life / Consumer Rights & Returns in Poland [22]

The consumer laws in Poland aren't bad, in many cases they give more rights than in the USA, for example a 2-year guarantee is a standard here (even if it's not granted by the manufacturer, the law entitles you to write a complaint and get the product repaired or exchanged to a new one). The problem is sometimes with their execution. Especially in case of shoes the shops like to argue, that they were used in a wrong way and it's the consumer's fault that they got broken. There are also cases with consumer electronics, where the service decides that the product had a contact with water even if it's nothing close to the truth.

The consumer law states they have to give such a choice. Maybe in case of new shoes it doesn't make much sense, but for some other products yes. They did it correctly.

And that's true that the shop doesn't have to accept a return of a product which works and you return it because you have bought a wrong thing. Only online (and other mail order) shops have to accept such returns.

Law / Are non-Polish senior citizens entitled to use free public transportation ? [20]

Warsaw: ztm.waw.pl/?c=142&l=1
- any person that is at least 70 years old uses the city public transport for free, ID card or any other document with a photo and the birth date is needed

- pensioners below 70 years old are entitled to a 50% discount, document: pensioner ID or a bank printout showing that the person gets a pension
In both cases it doesn't say that it must be a Polish or Warsaw citizen, so foreigners are also entitled.

Wrocław: mpk.wroc.pl/bilety/prawa-pasazera-i-ulgi
- persons from 70 years old up: travel for free, they need to have an ID card or another document that has a photo and confirms the age

- pensioners (in practice - those below 70 years) are entitled to a 50% discount, but a Polish pensioner ID card is demanded

Kraków: mpk.krakow.pl/pl/bilety2/uprawnienia
- as in both previous cities, persons being at least 70 years old travel for free with a document confirming the age and the identity
- pensioners below 70 years old need a pensioner ID card

So, in all these cities, 70+ members of your family can use the public transport for free with a passport or ID card. Those who are below 70 years old and are pensioners - rather not. Remember that, at the entrances to the Warsaw Metro, there are gates, for which you need a ticket to open them, so if you want to use the Warsaw subway, either enter and exit the station using the elevators (then you omit the gates), or follow this advice:

Food / I SCREAM FOR ICE CREAM - the best ice cream shop in Poland? [34]

In Poland we have also this type of ice cream, which is not popular in many European countries, where the ice cream comes from a special machine directly to the cone. Known in Poland under different names: "lody włoskie" (Italian ice cream - even though I haven't found them in Italy), "lody z automatu" (ice cream from a machine), a very specific type of them is called "świderki", "lody kręcone" (curly ice cream) or "lody amerykańskie" (American ice cream).

Language / The shame! I can't pronounce my Polish wife's name (Ola) [69]


They will make something between Polish Ola and Ala, and Ala is a different Polish name. Ola is a diminutive of Aleksandra, Ala of Alicja (Alice) :)

It should be just o. Clear o. Not like the name of the letter "o" in the English alphabet, where it starts to be Polish "o", but then goes to something closer to English "w", Polish "ł" or Polish "u".

You don't have to be perfect, the same as Polish people aren't perfect in English pronounciation. Think, how many Poles can correctly pronounce "th", or "a" in, for example, "man" (so that you can distinguish it from "men")? Just remember that you have to pronounce "Ola" as "Ola" (with short, clear "o"). If you pronounce it like in "coast", then if you want to spell this pronounciation in Polish, it will be something like "Oula" or "Ołla". By the way... let's get rid of "a" in "coast". You have "cost" with... something looking like exactly this kind of "o" which you need.

See: dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/cost - and play the recordings of the pronounciation. The American version is wrong (I mean, if you want to use the same vowel for Ola; in American English for coast it's correct), it goes too much towards "a", but the British version sounds - for me - perfectly OK. Even though the phonetical symbol present there looks like "a" wirtten upside down, this what I here is exaclty what is needed in your's wife name.

Language / How to correctly pronounce "złoty" in Polish? "ł" letter [17]


zwoty - something like that.


Only talking to foreigners. Don't ask me why. Even the English teacher in my school, already quite a few years ago, was telling "zloty", not "złoty", and even creating plural as "zlotys" (for English native speakers: how would you create plural from that? złotys or złoties? or would you just leave the singular, telling e.g. "twenty złoty"?), explaining that "there is no letter ł in English". Well, I understand writing "l" if you don't have "ł" on your keyboard (actually we don't have it as well, we type it using Alt+L), or if your computer is not able to handle it; I understand pronouncing it as "l" when you don't know that it's actually "ł" and it should be pronounced like English "w" - but when you know it, just pronounce it correctly...

The same is with the city Łódź. I understand that many foreigners may know it as Lodz, pronounced "Lotz" or "Loch" (with "ch" like in cheer, not like Loch Ness), and it is so actually, they are often amazed when I tell them it's pronounced "Wooch". But if I know how it should be pronounced - I always tell "Łódź" correctly. Only adding, that is maybe known for the person I talk to as "Lodz", when the person tells he has never heard about this city.

In German there is an adjective from this city name: "lodzer", and this one I would definitely pronounce with L, not Ł, and with DZ, not DŹ. It comes from this incorrect pronounciation - but I have never seen nor heard "łódźer", this looks really awkward in German, while "lodzer" is something I have seen and even heard; there is even a noun from that, used also in Polish: Lodzermensch. Not Łódziermensch, but Lodzermensch.

By the way, is it possible to create an adjective from Łódź/Lodz in English, similarly as it is possible in German? Will it be also Lodzer (analogically to Londoner), or will it look differently?

Law / Are non-Polish senior citizens entitled to use free public transportation ? [20]

Each city has its own regulations on this topic. The age threshold might be different in different cities, there can be special conditions, the public transport for senior citizens may be also not free, but only discounted. You must tell us the city you think about.


If I am not mistaken, you are from Germany... Is public transport free for seniors in Germany? I don't know, but it's likely that it isn't at all, since Germany has a totally different system of discounts in the public transport.

For example in Poland students are entitled to 50% discount in city public transport, and if I am not mistaken, it's guaranteed by the higher education law. Theoretically people from other EU countries shouldn't be discriminated with respect to the Polish citizens, the same rules should apply - but in some cities it's for example required from the foreign students (studying in other EU countries) to carry not only their student ID for the discount to be applied, but also a translation of the ID to Polish, made by a translator authorised for translation of official documents. Although... I have a German student ID, and it doesn't contain almost any text (only the words meaning "student registration number" before the proper number, and the name of the study field). What is more, on the rear side there is a... commercial. Should the commercial also be translated? :) Or for example in Łódź it's required from them to have... an ISIC discount card, which is treated as a student ID. But a competing Euro-26 discount card is not accepted. And it's quite weird to accept just a discount card, which isn't any official document. The same is, by the way, on all the trains within the country (although the discount there is based on other regulations).

And how is it in Germany? I am on a student exchange in Karlsruhe, and the students there don't normally have any discount for public transport, but in the city of Karslruhe, and in the area around, the public transport is free of charge for the students - only for those from the higher education schools in Karlsruhe - on the evenings after 18:00 and on weekends and holidays. And also for one semester for the whole week only for those of these students who live in Karlsruhe. So the system is totally different.

So you must check the regulations that hold in the specific city. This is the only way.

News / Poland Sports News [1080]

Throughout the history != now.

Although we currently have some players who are really praised in the European football clubs, but when it comes to the national representation, it seems that they cannot create a good team...

Maybe the thing is that they change the coach every Europe or World Championships, and it takes more than 2 years to make the team playing well?

Law / Old Polish money banknotes - what's their value today? [415]

I am afraid, it's no longer possible (if it's the old złoty, from before 1995). And how much of that do you have?

1000 zł from before 1995 (PLZ) = 0.10 modern zł (PLN) = roughly 0.02 EUR

Travel / Best place to exchange money in Poland? [98]


Exchange shops are a good option. If you have a bigger amount to exchange, like 1000 USD, negotiate the price. Exchange shops in the airports and train stations may have worse exchange rates than those in the city center.

I don't know how it is with banks, if their exchange rates are comparable with those of exchange shops, or worse.

Exchange shops are called in Polish "kantor", but they usually have English signs as well.


Big supermarkets sometimes accept euro, but they will have a bad exchange rate and you will get your change in the Polish currency. Definitely exchange the money to Złoty earlier.


It depends on your bank, the one that issued the card. If you have a card with free withdrawals in the whole world or Europe, it will be free.

If you withdraw the money from an ATM and it asks you about the currency of the transaction, don't choose the option with the "guaranteed exchange rate", select the option that you want that the transaction will be carried out in the Polish currency. The exchange rate of your bank/card operator/whoever is responsible for that will be better than the one offered by the ATM operator and showed to you.


If you are from Saudi Arabia, then it's good for you.

Life / What's the best Polish radio station? [36]

For many PiS voters Radio Maryja would be an appropriate station. But no, don't do that.

RMF FM and Zet are biggest and most popular stations, you can receive them almost everywhere, but they are nothing special. If I listen to them every day on my way to school, I get fed up of them after a short time, as they repeat totally the same songs all the time.

What I personally like most are regional stations of Polskie Radio (the public broadcaster), e.g. Radio Łódź (not everywhere the name of the station comes from the name of the city, for the Wielkopolska area it's Radio Merkury, for the Mazowsze it's Radio Dla Ciebie, for the Lubuskie region it's Radio Zachód).

A station playing a bit more ambitious songs is Trójka (the 3rd channel of Polskie Radio).

RMF and Zet play both modern and a little bit older songs, a station which is more focused on modern songs is Eska. But as for me, it's the same crap, after some time I can't listen to that any more.

Rather than RMF and Zet, I prefer Złote Przeboje more. The profile of the station is similar, maybe they play less modern songs and more 80's or 90's, but it's somehow easier to listen to that than to RMF and Zet. But they don't have coverage everywhere, as the first two mentioned stations do.

Sometimes local stations may be better.

If you want something with spoken, with discussions, you have yet less choice.

The options are:
- Tok FM
- Jedynka (Polskie Radio Program 1)
If she is a PiS voter, don't choose Tok FM. Jedynka is quite universal, they have some music too.

Spoken is also Maryja, but this is a catholic station, which is very church-oriented.

And Tok FM will not receive all the time as you drive through the country, only in a distance like 30 km from bigger cities. There is no much choice if you want something receiving in the whole country.

Language / Short Polish<->English translations [1043]

far away

But it's a special word, it's rarely used in normal conversation (if so, then usually as "gdzieś hen daleko" - far away in an uknown place), more in literature.

Language / Slavic languages words similarities with Polish [238]


It has already been explained on the forum that these words don't seem to be connected, Czech "pozor" is rather connected with Polish adjective "pozorny" (apparent), from which you can create a noun "pozor", used mostly in the expression "pozory mylą" (if you assume that something is really such as it seems to be, you may be mistaken).

I think "pozor" in Czech may mean something like "warning" or "attention", because it's always a headline on different safety labels, like "danger! high voltage inside" (in Polish: uwaga! wysokie napięcie wewnątrz) on electrical appliances.