News / Polish final report on Smoleńsk aircrash [870]


Which is why he's appointed to a position where he has to deal a lot with foreigners? I fail to grasp the logic....

News / Polish final report on Smoleńsk aircrash [870]


Of course. Job number one of any government is to look out after the interests of its citizens first (legal residents next and anyone else after that).

I just think that subverting the rule of law and the endless witch hunt for enemies in our midst is not a very productive way of doing that and I've yet to see any evidence that PiS is capable of anything else. It's dependence on a pathological personality like Macierewicz kind of indicates that.

News / Polish final report on Smoleńsk aircrash [870]


Quick Crow. Name three things that the Serbian state has done that have harmed other peoples. Name an instance where a Serbian government did something that hurt non-Serbians and that you regret.


I don't. America doens't (historically at any rate, if anything quite the opposite).

News / Polish final report on Smoleńsk aircrash [870]


It's a model of Balkanesque nationalism* where the nation is utterly helpless (like an infant) in a hostile world. Any harm done by the nation is not its fault and any harm done to the nation is definitely the fault of malevolent actors. It's a retreat to childhood safety and avoidance of judgement. Once you're aware of the model you can't miss it in the real world if you're paying attention.

*I first read of the concept by a Croatian author (pretty sure it was Dubravka Ugrešić) who was disgusted by the grotesque forms of nationalism propogated in the newly independent Croatia in the early 1990s.

News / Polish final report on Smoleńsk aircrash [870]


It has to do with rejection of responsibility. If Poland is an eternally victimized country then there's no need to ever reflect on things that Poland might be responsible for. If it becomes a prosperous country in control of its fate then it can and will be judged like any other country. That's a terrifying prospect for some people. It's easy to retreat into the warm security of victimhood where only other actors need be held accountable.

News / Polish final report on Smoleńsk aircrash [870]


If by 'funny' you mean "a tragic waste of time and resources that would better be spent on something else" then yes, it will be funnier and funnier.


I was watching Macierewicz emote last night on the news and I had an epiphany. He wants Poland to be a poor, downtrodden, victimized country. He hates the modern, more well off country that Poland is becoming and can't stand the idea of Poland not being invaded or occupied by somebody. He wants to live forever under the heel of oppressors. He desperately needs Russia to oppress Poland and he'll settle for nothing less.

But this issue is a _major_ loser among younger voters and PiS pursues it at the risk of losing them (all the ones I've talked to voted against PO rather than for PiS and they are not.... enchanted by the party that has shown up in the Sejm). The issue they care about most is job creation and PiS is essentially doing nothing there (because there's nothing they can do but that's a separate issue).

News / Polish final report on Smoleńsk aircrash [870]

I


Without concrete charges you're typing out your &ss (and hardly for the first time). Name _specific_ crimes that you think he can be charged with or give up your pathetic non-Christian hate.

Feedback / Is it Polish forum or foreign forum? [159]

Just to clarify,

PiS =/= you
Polonia =/= you
Church =/= you

And yes, you absolutely missed your calling, you completely should have been Jerzy Urban's apprentice, you're almost better at what he did than he was. That's a feat!

Feedback / Why are threads deleted or send off topic list? [60]


Well I was agreeing with him and he managed to turn it into an ugly fight (not agreeing in exactly the right way is apparently also a grave offense). He certainly seems intensely angry at something or somone and I think this is just a convenient target. The forum has seen worse I suppose just ignore politely until he gets bored is probably the best policy.

Feedback / Is it Polish forum or foreign forum? [159]


Whatevers. It's very frequently used (also often referring to the old distinction between voiceless ch and voiced h (not maintained anywhere in Poland AFAIK). I've certainly seen kresowe more often than sceniczne or aktorskie or whatever else they used to call it.

lingwistykon.wordpress.com/2008/02/10/kresowe-%E2%80%9El%E2%80%9D/

Feedback / Is it Polish forum or foreign forum? [159]


An amusing theory, but not backed up by the facts which were that the communist media tried to keep up the kresowa pronunciation in formal contexts as long as it could and only gave up when not enough speakers could be found who could manage it.

The change of ł (or 'hard' l) in slavic languages into u, v, w or o sounds takes place across a number or Slavic languages either informally or formalized in the writing systems (note Serbo-Croation forms like bio for był) or Ukrainian бив (byw) for był.

The process is simply far more advanced in Polish than in the others where it's limited to certain positions.

Feedback / Is it Polish forum or foreign forum? [159]


So... (trying to think like an Australian) they would later be jammos? (working on the seppo model).

The only Australian I've known in Poland didn't have anything to say about the word Pole (don't remember if he used it) but he had lots of interesting and colorful remarks on the bloody (or whingeing) Poms (as he called them) and their various odd behaviors.

Feedback / Is it Polish forum or foreign forum? [159]


No such thing has happened. One person has claimed (either out of the blue or according to Australian usage not shared by other English speaking countries) that the word Pole is offensive and a bunch of people including Polish people have said that it is not. Poles or "the Poles" are far more used by Polish people when speaking English than is "Polish people". Examples of the Polish government and other Polish institutions using the word has not changed that person's mind. Whatevers....

Now, had you brought up the idea that the word Pole offensive in Australia that would be interesting and people might want to figure out how that happened and could have started an interesting discussion but instead you very aggressively start attacking longtime posters (including Polish people) in good standing. You're obviously intensely angry about something but posting here is not going to solve that.

Feedback / Is it Polish forum or foreign forum? [159]


Next thing he'll claim that the letter ł is offensive in Australia, or, like Polonius he could claim that the universal modern pronunciation of ł (like English w) is a sign of modern degradation and the kresy pronunciation is more correct....

Feedback / Is it Polish forum or foreign forum? [159]


In other words, your country is Australia and not Poland (where Pole and Poles are the most common translations of words like Polak, Polka, Polacy and Polki). The semantics and connotations of many words in English differ (often very strongly) by country. w#nk#r, for example, is kind of a joke word in the US but a very strong insult (fighting word) in the UK.

The question is when and how the negative connotations of Pole began in Australia, it's certainly not negative in the US (though Pollock is negative and I'd never used beyond meta discussions of usage).

Feedback / Is it Polish forum or foreign forum? [159]


Dumb suggestion. Most Poles (in Poland) are probably not very interested in the forum, the few that are interested are certainly welcome.


Nobody was stopping anyone in Poland creating a similar forum (no one is stopping you).


I never said any such thing. I merely said that the great majority of Polish people in Poland are not interested in participating in an English only environment about Poland.


Why don't you go on a Polish language forum and ask them?


The Polish government disagrees

msw.gov.pl/en/news/886,Captain-Marcin-Lisowski-on-Lone-Target.html?search=39350

PAP disagrees

pap.pl/en/news/news,435153,roman-catholic-bishops-changed-europes-history---duda-gauck.html

Radio Poland disagrees

thenews.pl/1/10/Artykul/230073,Ethnic-Poles-evacuated-from-eastern-Ukraine

Feedback / Is it Polish forum or foreign forum? [159]

Considering that everything's supposed to in English here, I'd say the primary focus is on English speaking people and their experiences with and/or perceptions of Poland. There's no need whatsoever for a forum in English for Polish people in Poland (seriously that would be very, very weird) beyond language practice. If you're looking for a forum in Polish then the comment threads on Polish media outlets show a wide range of opinion on ongoing issues (whether the sleepwalking performance of the former president or the antics of the current minister of culture).

Getting back here, part of the socialization process for anyone living in a new country is griping about stuff (I did my fair share but I realized I was just venting and as I became more acclimated it tapered off).

And seriously, if you want to see full on hatred of a host society find some forums in English on Switzerland, the Netherlands or the Scandinavian countries. The reader feedback on a Danish paper in English was so negative they stopped most comments. It made the comments on this forum seem dainty and ladylike in comparison.

News / Poland's post-election political scene [4080]

Poland is different when it comes to phones. This is partly a result of the communist system in which phone lines were hard to get, one more little method of social control.

I remember in the early to mid 1990s most of the people I knew didn't have phones at home and you had to go there in person to talk about anything). The phone company lagged on correcting this for way too long and by the time cell phones became more available people who weren't used to landline phones never bothered with them at all.

News / Poland's post-election political scene [4080]

Who has landline phones anymore? I haven't for over ten years. Isn't that distorting the results a lot?

News / Poland's post-election political scene [4080]


Him and Jarek, it's him and Jarek against the dirty rotten traitorous homo loving world!

Food / Why Poles not like rice? [98]


OR course not, no seas tonta.

When I speak Spanish I follow Spanish usage and use América to mean the continents, when I speak English I follow (American) English usage and use America to refer to a specific country. In theory Polish follows Spanish usage but most people follow English usage more closely (I've heard both). In Polish I call America (Stany) which seems to the most common way of referring to the country:

Polish person noticing my accent: where are you from?
Me: Ze stanów.

News / Poland's post-election political scene [4080]


That's one scenario, another scenario is the youth flank uniting and getting rid of the toxic elders and turn PiS into a normal Christian Democrat party and not a personal tool of deal making and petty vengeance.

But PiS as is has essentially no real chance since it's too concentrated in one person and that person is not interested in building a healthy society.

Food / Why Poles not like rice? [98]

Why are you trying to impose meanings from one language on another. In some languages, like Spanish, America (América) refers to all of both continents while in English it refers (by itself) to a particular country. There's nothing ignorant about words meaning different things in different languages.

News / Poland's post-election political scene [4080]


You forgot the wreckers and running dog imperialists...

Tell us more about the glorious five year plan, comrade!

News / Poland's post-election political scene [4080]


My impression was that Duda doesn't have the cojones to stand up to Kaczyński....

News / Poland's post-election political scene [4080]


No way she could be prime minister after that ordeal, at least there's an experienced alternate waiting in the wings (with a giant hook at the ready).

Not having anything to do with the actual, real country of Poland on a day to day level you have no idea what the blowback will be if Szydło's pushed aside. There's no way the government would last more than a year or two (the promise to voters that won them victory was a post-Kaczyński PiS - if they reneg on that then all bets are off).


He scheduled the opening day of the Sejm (when he and Kopacz are supposed to be present) on a day when there's an informal summit meeting of the EU, which requires that every country send the head of state or prime minister). The date of the meeting has been known since April.

now there's an undignified wrangle with PiS trying to figure out how dig itself out of this latest hole..... (and Poland's reputation as a serious country will take a hit).

News / Poland's post-election political scene [4080]


They've clearly not given up on the idea of dumping her. I give her two months at most before she's looking for a party. Note that Polonius can't actually defend what PiS is doing (though it's pretty stupid and will alienate the people that voted for them) so he keeps trying to change the subject.

And now add the mess with Duda showing he has no idea about how the EU is run (and or wants to stress to the EU that the bumbling amateurs with no idea of basic protocal are back!)

Law / Polish work visa refused - what should i do next? [23]


Go back in time and try again? You can't "avoid" it because it already happened.


Or his own.....

Language / Polish names without a nickname (or less frequently shortened) [61]


Possibly I was working from memory and pieniąche does get some google hits. I collected a bunch of forms I heard once but can't put my fingers on it right now.


I think of it as the 'bro' form (except that young women use it in a similar way) kind of youthful exhuberance and irreverent attitudes, it seems to add a breezy connotation more than disrespect or coarseness (among young Polish people).

Language / Polish names without a nickname (or less frequently shortened) [61]


No, but usually in linguistics we don't distinguish diminutives on the basis of whether they're names or not (most of the time, there will be exceptions of course).

The augmentative -sko is interesting because it changes the grammatical gender of the noun it's applied to (which most diminutives in Polish don't). Also, originally I think -ch- was an agumentative though it functions more like a diminutive in the modern language (though it suggests a rough and ready attitude rather than a tender one). Students used to be very fond of it and I was always hearing them say things like mięcho (mięso) kapucha (kapusta) pieniąche (pieniądze) and the like.