Language / Why is the Polish language so difficult? [309]

You're right about that, jon.
Recently finished a lengthy piece about modern Italy post-'45
and apparently even by the mid-'60's, in major cities, except for
the professional classes, the majority of Italians, especially
Southern Italian men, couldn't read or write.

Love / Swedish Love for Poland [46]

Jeg ogsaa, men Kobenhavn er blevet farlig.
In '86, Olaf Palme was assassinated in Stockholm and
now this in what many once considered the most peaceful
metropolis anywhere, certainly in Europe!

What's this world coming to?

Study / "Dirty Polish" - I want to buy this book [22]

Hmm, looks tempting!

Language / Why is the Polish language so difficult? [309]

Goral language and Polish seems nearly as different from the other
as Sicilian and Standard Italian.

History / Russian Greatness - and its Polish Contributors [77]

Russian is morphologically less complex than Polish,
however Russian pronunciation continues to dog me,
especially those palatalized consonants!

Language / Why is the Polish language so difficult? [309]

:-) Nice one.

Love / Swedish Love for Poland [46]

Certainly back to Hoovervilles and Shantytowns.
America was even more of a violent country then than than it is now.
But from 1946 or so, right after the Second World War, through around 1963,
America was about the most financially prosperous nation on earth.

Again though, this doesn't mean things were perfect or even close.
It never is.

Language / Why is the Polish language so difficult? [309]

My, my. If all of us were such cynics, nothing would ever have gotten done.
Better to die innocent than live forever in a perpetual state of rancor.

Love / Swedish Love for Poland [46]

Memo to Rich: Forget Trump who really wants to take us back in time rather than forward and remove
your cancerous hatred from Polish Forums ASAP:-)

Language / Why is the Polish language so difficult? [309]

Hey, Rich! Post-War Germans ain't stupid. They know on which side their bread is buttered.
They reject US-cultural imperialism while cleverly realizing that if this crazy world of ours
isn't to become even further unglued, we've all got to work together as one and somehow
learn to trust one another...OR ELSE.

Language / Why is the Polish language so difficult? [309]

No, it was more like this; "You Americans are all like Homer Simpson. GET YOUR MISSILES OFF OUR SOIL!!!"

Love / Swedish Love for Poland [46]

I found Swedes quite different temperamentally from Poles!
First off, Poles are Catholics and Swedes overwhelmingly unaffiliated
Lutherans who typically keep a healthy distance from the Church,
particularly the young.

Although Swedes too had long been the butt of jokes here in the
US during the latter half of the 19th century, e.g. "the dumb Swede-
My name is Jan Jansson, I come from Wisconsin", Sweden after WWII
became one of the most envied nations on earth, both economically and
socially.

Sadly, Poland was still considered a backwater until perhaps only the middle
of the 1990's.

However, there are also a number of positive similarities as well. For example,
both Sweden and Poland produced some of the finest world class cinema
during the post-war period. Sweden gave the world Bergman and Mai Zetterling,
Poland gave us Wajda, Andrzejewski, and Polanski.

History / Did Poles living in Germany support Hitler's rise to power before World War II? [135]

Correct, Alien.

Language / Why is the Polish language so difficult? [309]

"Dumb Yank" jokes were also the rage in Germany when I was there
as a young student during the mid-'80's as well!

Teasing cuts both ways, you know.

Life / Is there a self-help movement in Poland? [13]

Yes, probably.

Life / Polish sentimental ballads [38]

Quite, jon. 1947 is the exact year,I checked. Sorry!

Life / Polish sentimental ballads [38]

Not entirely related, but the sentimental wartime Polish film "Zakazane piosenki" (1944)
naturally contains a number of such ballads, albeit resistance songs, among them
"Warszawianka" along with several others.

Life / Is there a self-help movement in Poland? [13]

Mary Baker Eddy's Christian Science Movement of self-healing inspired that quip by
humorist Tom Lehrer in the '60's when he commented re: politicians
having their hands tied and therefore not able to pass legislation that
it was not unlike a Christian Scientist with appendicitis!

'Esalen'? No. EST was the abbr. for "Erhard Seminar Training" and was
the nightmare brainchild of an American businessman with the pseudonym
Werner Erhard adapted from the family name of the German economist and post-war
Chancellor who succeeded Adenauer, namely, Dr. Ludwig Erhard.
Apparently this American (who happened to be Jewish, by the way) so admired
former Chancelllor Erhard, that he decided to adopt his last name. Go figure.

Life / Is there a self-help movement in Poland? [13]

Norman Vincent Peale was the long time minister of the Marble Collegiate Church in
mid-town Manhattan! A lovely looking edifice as I remember.

Ayn Rand's character Howard Roark the architect in "The Fountainhead has been used to
heighten a Republican philosophy of total self reliance, even mocking the need for both G-d
and religion itself.

Hers was the forerunner of the EST movement during the late '70's "We are where we are by choice alone",
as you might recall.

Actually, the first self-help books in North America were both written by actor Douglas
Fairbanks around 1917, "Laugh & Live" as well "Making life Worthwhile", personifying
the American "Can do" spirit in more naive days. They pre-dated Dale Carnegie and Napoleon
Hill by at least ten to twenty years.

History / Honoring - Otto Schimek [47]

Still don't get what your game is, but it's getting really annoying!

Life / Why Poles are so much different than other slavic nations? Poland must return to mother Poland. [38]

You don't give up do you.
Remember that Emerson quote
"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds".

Life / Is there a self-help movement in Poland? [13]

Self-improvement books seem largely unpopular on the Continent.
Not sure about Poland, but I know personally that for years, this US-style
self-help as well as exercise culture a la Jack La Laine or Vic Tanney, not
to mention Dale Carnegie, John Molloy ("Dress For Success") etc. didn't seem
to resonate much in France or Germany.

Perhaps things have changed some.

Life / Why Poles are so much different than other slavic nations? Poland must return to mother Poland. [38]

Do you know the definition of an idiot?

History / Honoring - Otto Schimek [47]

Plenty, considering they're either Danish historians or simply interested in Danish history.
His works have been translated, you know.

UK, Ireland / "Strange " English language.. [264]

Correct!

Life / Why Poles are so much different than other slavic nations? Poland must return to mother Poland. [38]

Neither, Mr. sea slug.

Life / Why Poles are so much different than other slavic nations? Poland must return to mother Poland. [38]

You troll incessantly like a child and expect that by repeating the same moronic question like a robot (or an idiot, take your pick!),
that you will arrive at truth, just like these ******* lawyers who like to badger the witness.

Geez Louise, give it a rest, Rich.

History / The Two Saddest Nations on Earth... Poles and Jews [243]

Not necessarily sad, Alien, however defensive most definitely!

History / Honoring - Otto Schimek [47]

????? Huh??!

Life / Why Poles are so much different than other slavic nations? Poland must return to mother Poland. [38]

That's no indicator, Rich, and you know it.
Cleverness and intelligence aren't mutually exclusive.
While intelligence is surely a part of cleverness, cleverness
in and of itself is not necessarily the same thing as intelligence!

Example. Someone is intelligent enough to realize that if one
enters a burning building, they too will probably get burned...or worse.
Someone who is clever will estimate which is the strongest section
of the structure and the proceed to either enter from there or simply
stay away.

A clever person might be able to outsmart another person, yet smart and
clever aren't the same thing either in and of themselves.

Second example. A smart person knows how to figure out the answers on
the test. A clever person might be able to figure out exactly what the teacher
wants the student to say/write.

See the difference?