News / EU triggers Article 7, could strip Poland of voting rights [91]


How so? The current government is trying to bring the court system and judges under direct partisan control so that they will issue judgement according to what the government wants at the moment and is jettisoning any judges that might no be willing to rule in the government's favor. It could not be clearer that that's what they're doing in violation of EU and international legal standards.

They also helped force this issue hoping it will turn the public against the EU (rather than against them).

I realize that being Serbian you don't understand concepts like 'rule of law' and 'civil society' preferring primitive tribal loyalties above all else but that's not the world that most Polish people want to live in (I hope....)

It's also worth noting that the reform is making businesses jittery because once it's finished the government can go after private businesses and loot them for their political cronies at will.

Genealogy / What does my Polish name mean? [402]


I've read that that was largely a myth that name changes had other sources...

smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/ask-smithsonian-did-ellis-island-officials-really-change-names-immigrants-180961544

Also here

ancestralfindings.com/changed-name-ellis-island

Genealogy / Americans of Polish descent. How many of us are on Polish forums? [216]

The word 'catholic' is related to Greek 'kathe' (all). If catholicism is not all-ecompassing it's no longer real catholicism.

Genealogy / Americans of Polish descent. How many of us are on Polish forums? [216]


The church has no one but itself to blame for that. compulsory religious lessons in schools have had the effect of massively undermining support for the church (which flourishes in Poland as an alternative to official power insitutions and not part of them).

Talk to some young polish people if you can about how they remember religion class...... it was a major own goal (gol samobójczy) by the church if the hierarchy had any sense they'd make religion classes illegal.

Genealogy / Americans of Polish descent. How many of us are on Polish forums? [216]

I've never denied the homogenous and Christian majority part I might say that I don't think Poles on the whole are nearly as religious as some people think they are (people I know who attend church regularly say attendance is down) and most young people are not especially conservative.

Genealogy / What does my Polish name mean? [402]


A long time ago I knew someone with a different last name than the rest of her family (she would have been born in the 1970s) whoever registered the birth at the hospital spelled the name wrong (let's say using ż instead of rz or the reverse). the family looked into having it legally changed but ultimately decided it would be more trouble than it was worth (communist bureaucracy......).

Genealogy / What does my Polish name mean? [402]


Yeah, that's very reasonable.

Genealogy / What does my Polish name mean? [402]


When did the ethnic group start identifying as Polacy (as opposed to Lechici or whatever they called themselves earlier)?

Genealogy / Americans of Polish descent. How many of us are on Polish forums? [216]


Your boy crush on Putin is not very representative of Polish thought nor is your hatred of the EU. There are things that a lot of Poles don't like about it but there is nothing close to widespread belief that the country should leave it.

And only Rydzykites really care about Jesus as King (when did that happen? it was certainly unremarked upon by any of the people I know....)

Genealogy / What does my Polish name mean? [402]

My guess is that family names were often created on the fly, so a single Pole among a lot of Germans (or whatever) might be so used to being referred to that way that when they have to think up a family name for a census or church or whatever they just supply what other people call them.

Lengyel (Pole) Cseh (Czech) Szlovak (Slovak) Horvat(h) (Croat) and Szerb (serb) all seem to be relatively common family names in Hungary and were probably formed in similar ways...

Genealogy / Americans of Polish descent. How many of us are on Polish forums? [216]


If you're going to let some weird website with no real connection to Poland (very few Polish people actually post here) question your commitment to Polish traditions then you've already decided to junk them and you're just looking for an excuse, no matter how flimsy. Fine, just be honest with yourself.

I'm a (non-Polish) American who's lived a long time in Poland and the amount of "America bashing" that goes on is very minute and trivial. Poland is about as pro-American a country as you'll find in Europe (including the UK and maybe Ireland). In over 20 years residence the number of instances of 'America bashing' I've heard (in the media or in real life) can be counted on the fingers of my hands (or maybe one hand).

There are some anti-Americanish folks from the British Isles here and a few Putin-paid-trolls and a couple of permanent grouches - but overall this place is not representative of Poland anymore than Ottawa is representative of Mexico....

Language / Dziadzia / Babcia - help me with spelling/pronunciation [81]


I got that right away! German loans are easy and as are some Czech words like kamrat (probably from kamarad - kolega) others are harder. My favorite part of Silesian is the first person singular past tense with -ch in some varieties (instead of -m) probably a holdover from the old aorist .

Language / Dziadzia / Babcia - help me with spelling/pronunciation [81]


I regularly read books in standard Polish and translate a few academic articles from Polish to English every year.

But Silesian hardly at all.... Standard Polish being so widespread and so uniform across the country has it's benefits but a big drawback is that I'm useless with dialects because I don't get enough exposure to them....

I've bookmarked the article and will give it a shot in a day or two.

Language / Dziadzia / Babcia - help me with spelling/pronunciation [81]


weird spelling, should it be starzyk or are there dialects where rzi is possible?

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


that's your problem, not theirs (unless you actually give in to your violent wishes) why so angry?

Life / Why Do You Love Poland? [907]


Who's next in the line of succession?

Life / Bilingual kids in Polish schools [30]


Then stop lying. Your comment made it sound like you'd heard about this as a regular phenomenon when you were actually (at most) talking about a single teacher and school (if you were accurately relaying what you heard which is... who knows?)

Life / Bilingual kids in Polish schools [30]


Sounds weird to me, more like a saloon girl (Miss Kitty on Gunsmoke) than a teacher though who knows, maybe they do that now. I can just about imagine it in kindergarten but not after.

To the extent it can work it can only be with men or unmarried women (Mrs Katie sounds really odd*). Very small children sometimes address adult women with Mrs and the name of her child "Mrs Bobby" (for Bobby's mom) but that's not common.

When I was in school it was always Mr(s)/Miss and last name from grade one through high school. It was after high school that I had an instructor who wanted the class to call her by her first name. It was weird for a couple of weeks then normal. I had a few more through university but it wasn't the norm.

*in most European languages the married honorific has pushed out the old unmarried forms (pani over panna, frau of fraulein, signora over signorina etc) but In American English the unmarried form sounds too marked for neutral usage and miss sounds a bit more neutral than Mrs (maybe from its use with entertainers?) Is that true in Britain too?

Life / Bilingual kids in Polish schools [30]

What a very weird idea, and anyone who knows the first thing about Polish education knows that if a teacher were misguided enough to suggest such a thing colleagues would immediately let them know what would happen.

Story from years ago.

An instructor from a Far Northern Country at a Polish university: "Everything is far too formal here, I want my students to call me by first name as they would do in my country!"

Polish colleague: "That's really not a good idea."
Far Northern lecturer: "Nonsense! It will improve rapport and they'll learn more!"

one month later

Far Northern Lecturer: "What can I do? Students aren't coming to my class anymore!"
Polish colleauge: "I tried to warn you...."

In Poland, a teacher who's too casual/informal with students is sending the message: "You don't have to do anything in this class, you don't even have to show up (cause I might not).Dont' make me do any work and I'll give you a 3, deal?"

Life / Why Do You Love Poland? [907]


Is there any thread that you're not going to spam with you migrant fixation? Granted it's an important issue but it doesn't need to be discussed on every single thread.

Genealogy / What does my Polish name mean? [402]


The American Englkish word Pollock/Pollack (pronounce Polak with an American accent) is derogatory in the US. Of course Polak in Polish is not.

UK, Ireland / Racist ex-priest Międlar tries to fly from Poland to U.K. again. [293]


Yes American and British (Isles) semantics are essentially independent by now. In the US Asian primarily means SE and NE Asia while there's no unambiguous way to refer to people from the sub-continent (I think colloquially Indian is used though that has obvious problems.... South Asian would work but it's more a specialist term not in general use).

Polish usage tends to follow American semantics in this case; Azjat(ka) sounds weird used of people from South Asia who would be Hindus(ka) even if they're not Hindus...

News / Should Poland traitors face the death penalty? [105]


I'm talking about what real life people tell me in real life.

News / Should Poland traitors face the death penalty? [105]

Those are the people making the comparison, the ones with the clearest memories of the PRL are the ones who recognize the same MO from the current government.

UK, Ireland / Racist ex-priest Międlar tries to fly from Poland to U.K. again. [293]


And every migrant they help get to Europe makes them stronger. Why are European governments and NGOs so bound and determined to strengthen human trafficking gangs? What's the end game? They already have slave auctions in Libya, maybe they want to introduce that into Europe? The human trafficking migrant scam is already halfway to slavery.

UK, Ireland / Racist ex-priest Międlar tries to fly from Poland to U.K. again. [293]


Or Kalkstein to Kaczyński.....

News / Anti-Defamation League want Macierewicz (Poland defense minister) appointment withdrawn - GW [42]


Welcome to the Club. The idiotic and non-sensical thread merging is one reason I no longer try to start threads. I was considering starting a thread about how Macierewicz wants to promote a bunch of generals that were in the PZPR but I assumed it would be attached to a thread about wildlife or disabled rights (about the level of coherence of some actions by mods).


they don't care

News / Anti-Defamation League want Macierewicz (Poland defense minister) appointment withdrawn - GW [42]


Drop the word communist (change it to capitalist or speculator) and that could come straight of the of mouth of a PRL government spokesperson....


Who says they shouldn't? But winning an election does not give a government carte blanche to subvert the rule of law and back out of signed agreements.

News / Anti-Defamation League want Macierewicz (Poland defense minister) appointment withdrawn - GW [42]


Soo.... the new third (shouldn't that be Fourth?) Polish Republic there is no freedom of speech? That's the kind of country you want to live in?

News / Should Poland traitors face the death penalty? [105]


escuchame pendejo.... it's PiS that brought this to Poland, not a few MEP's who cannot support them.