Language / Is it possible to master the Polish language fluently for a non-Polish speaker? [120]

@Rich,
you've reduced "American" (actually a European designation for our language, NOT an American one, in order for Continentals to distinguish it from British) to a raw, primitive tongue.

Neither Hemingway, Steinbeck nor John O'Hara would have been proud!

Law / Weapon Law in Poland: what kinds of knives are legal? [35]

A kitchen knife though is not intended as a weapon!

Language / Is it possible to master the Polish language fluently for a non-Polish speaker? [120]

Yes Simon, it certainly is.
The pitfalls are numerous and many fellow non-Poles I know, long since gave up on the idea even trying to pursue fluency, smartly employing an interpreter when either visiting Poland or working with Poles on a regular basis instead of relying on English!

On the other hand, I for one continued to persevere in my pursuit of Polish and didn't do half badly at it, if I must say....errors and all:-)

Law / Regarding Polish Identity Card [10]

Are you thinking of becoming a Polish citizen, bagaa?
Noticed in your profile that you don't know Polish.
Yet you still desire citizenship??

News / Polish Parliamentary Elections 2023 [933]

Thanks for the reply, Maf!

News / Polish Parliamentary Elections 2023 [933]

Apparently then, the PiS still managed to eek through a victory as soon as they've formed a coalition government. Somehow thought the Liberals were gaining ground.

Language / What are the best professional reasons for learning Polish? [16]

A US citizen aka national, of course.

Language / What are the best professional reasons for learning Polish? [16]

So you're technically still a Polish citizen, although you haven't
lived there, that is, in Poland, for over half a century, is that correct?

Language / What are the best professional reasons for learning Polish? [16]

Just to those with brains, Rich.
How about you?

News / Poland says no to flood of Immigrants [670]

Yes. Did you re-read it for sense?

News / Poland says no to flood of Immigrants [670]

Quit playing the Devil's Advocate. Rich!
Apparently, it is YOU who are on drugs, not I.

News / Poland says no to flood of Immigrants [670]

I do, RIch. Apparently you don't. Or are you simply pretending....as usual?
lol

Language / What are the best professional reasons for learning Polish? [16]

@Samideano,
The obvious professional reasons for learning a foreign language are in order to communicate successfully with those from another country, without having to rely either on comic pantomime or misunderstandings, all of which could be avoided by knowing the other person's native tongue!

Polish is a challenge, especially for the Romance, even the Germanic, tongue.
Best of luck to you and congratulations on taking the plunge:-)

News / Poland says no to flood of Immigrants [670]

The alternative though, we see today in Russia with Putin, and saw in Belarus with Lukaszenko!

Sweden merely represents the opposite extreme. Even if neither extreme is any good, most people would probably side with Sweden than with Russia.

News / Polish Parliamentary Elections 2023 [933]

Hmm.. the NYT mentioned it on the first page of the International Section.
I agree that there are far more important issues, I'm merely passing along what was in the Times.

News / Poland says no to flood of Immigrants [670]

It should be self evident.

Life / The Polish Wedding - What is it Like in Poland? [338]

Theirs is a proverbial intoxication and having visited Sweden,
I can indeed confirm same.

Life / The Polish Wedding - What is it Like in Poland? [338]

Both the Swedes and the Poles, along of course with the Finns,
are known to be great imbibers of alcohol LOL

News / Polish Parliamentary Elections 2023 [933]

According to the foreign press, Poland is making German compensation for WWII a major election point.

History / Cars made in Poland - during communist and post-communist times [23]

Thanks for the spelling correction, Alien.
Hmm, that's interesting.

History / Cars made in Poland - during communist and post-communist times [23]

To anyone who might know, was the Polonis ever a car label taken seriously outside Poland?
East Germany's oft kidded about Trabant aka "Trabi", never made the transition to a Western Market.

News / "To understand Poland you must understand Frederic Chopin" (Stratfor Friedman) [74]

Stratfor Friedman's quote is no more apparent than in the hauntingly, almost tear-jerkingly, beautiful strains of the renowned Etude in E-flat, otherwise known as "La Tristesse".

If that isn't the spirit and soul of Poland, Polska z krwi i kosci, I don't know what is!

News / Poland says no to flood of Immigrants [670]

@Rich, the '67 War, the so-called Yom Kippur War, ceded the Gaza Strip over to Israel, something which enraged the Palestinian Arabs no end.

Since that time, various leaders have made various allowances, so that now, more of Israel contains non-Jewish, Palestinian settlers than sabarim or Jewish-born Israelis.

News / Poland says no to flood of Immigrants [670]

Either side has been unwilling to make the concessions necessary for ensuring peace in the region. Israel demands a "peace with honor", that is, ZERO concessions to Israeli territory, harking back to the days of ancient Judaea as the "promised land" of the Jews. The Palestinians on the other hand maintain that the current state of Israel has no right to exist, a historical, geopolitical as well as intellectual absurdity.

The only solution to the present conflict is for both Israel and the Palestinians to split Gaza or simply concede to the fact that there will always be strife between the two groups.

News / Poland says no to flood of Immigrants [670]

@Cargo pants,
The crucial difference between the US and Germany is that here in the States, even if one's parents are/were from elsewhere in the world, one is nonetheless considered "American" so long as they were born on US soil!

In Germany, I've known many German-born persons, who spoke only German as well or as native as any "ethnic" German, felt themselves in spirit and nationality as German, yet who were not considered "German " because their parents were born in another country and perhaps never naturalized or became naturalized German citizens.

News / Poland says no to flood of Immigrants [670]

In fact, migrants too are human beings and entitled to certain protection as well as daily standards of living.
The problem remains as to why this necessarily must all be done on the backs of the native born US citizen.

News / Poland says no to flood of Immigrants [670]

I read the post and there is a degree of truth in it.
The US is by her nature ever so greedy and will indeed stop at nearly nothing in the pursuit of the Almighty Dollar!

If it means outsourcing good-paying US jobs to cheaper, Third World states, so be it, as long as the boss can syphon off more and more funds by depriving his or her employees of the benefits they rightfully deserve if only to support an inflated lifestyle.

In the States, one must almost prove hardship in order to derive even the meagerest pleasures from a hard-won salary. In other countries, especially those in Northern Europe, such pleasures are considered a given for the privilege of working for the respective company.

The latter though can foster laziness and smugness, I will admit. As with most things in life, it's a double-edged sword.

News / Poland says no to flood of Immigrants [670]

Apparently, Rich, neither you nor your partner in dis-and misinformation give a f@#$% about facts either, much less truth!

News / Poland says no to flood of Immigrants [670]

You're confusing apples and oranges, you two! If one looks up the term in a dictionary, one will immediately see both in print (not to mention in common parlance), the use of of a low-wage workforce abroad in less expensive societies in order to perform work normally performed by a native-born employee or employees, as well as the import of said low-wage work force in order to replace native-born workers who would be performing the same task, if solely to save the company money.

This is the up to date meaning of cheap labor.
Quit gaslighting, hair splitting, and continually playing the Devil's Advocate.

News / Poland says no to flood of Immigrants [670]

@Cargo pants,
Either you're just splitting hairs or you, like Rich aka Novichok, don't understand English one hundred percent.
I've already explained that the expression "cheap labor" refers to the direct economic effects of runaway outsourcing, not confined to the US, by the way.

What's so bleedin' hard to grasp here, guys?