Life / Poles speaking English - examples [263]


My favourite is Babington for Badminton.

Classifieds / Project Polska: Human powered aircraft. Looking for partners [20]

Why do they have to be Catholic??

Off-Topic / What's your connection with Poland? Penpals. [595]

Ironside makes many errors so there is no way he relies on Google Translate. They're not typical translation errors, more like typos and dyslexia. Nonetheless he is a good communicator and has his own distinctive style which is not easy to achieve in a foreign language. He is probably a good conversationalist in English in real life and that's really what counts.

UK, Ireland / Should I worry going to Ireland as a Pole? [37]


Thanks Maf - very funny!

Off-Topic / Pop A Cork - Wine [430]


Interesting. I love port. In the British Isles, it would usually be drunk at room temp. Or indeed warmed. A hot (warmed) port is sometimes recommended by older Irish people if you can't sleep :) Now I know what to get you for Christmas, a set of port glasses! You can use them for sherry too :)

Off-Topic / Things We Love [330]


Oh God! I remember them! I loved them. Also loved sponge and stewed apple with Birds custard. Never liked Toblerone. Wasn't allowed to have Fry's Cream bar when I was little as there was some bizarre idea from my mother and grandmother that I'd choke on them!

I'm the same as is my sister. I think it's partly genetic. As a child I was underweight for years despite eating like a horse. Were you the same? The danger of it is that you can end up eating a lot of unhealthy food because you can get away with it.

When I was teaching I used to have Weetabix, toast with butter and marmalade and tea before leaving the house. Then I'd buy a Danish pastry and a doughnut on the way to school and eat them before lessons started at nine! I remember one morning another teacher commenting, 'Look at her, stuffing her face on cakes as usual and she's tiny, tiny, tiny!' She made a motion with her hands that was supposed to indicate my small size but actually it looked like she was picturing throttling me!

But I think even eating cakes, pastries, chocolate etc. in the UK or Ireland is not too bad because the quality of our food is so much higher than the US where a lot of the stuff you buy in the supermarket is just chemicals and ingredients that are banned in Europe. American chocolate is vile. Cheap, sugary shite.

Plus of course we tend to be much more physically active. We walk much more and don't drive everywhere. I walked a few miles every day just getting to and from my teaching job.

Off-Topic / A VERY CHRISTMASSY FORUM - IDEAS FOR CHRISTMAS THREADS [156]

RIP Christmas thread - thanks gentlemen.

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Law / How do I verify a Polish company's existence? [249]

You check that they are in the KRS (national court register). I checked for you. They are there. Their KRS number is 0000587423. Here is the entry for them.

wyszukiwarka-krs.ms.gov.pl/dane-szczegolowe-podmiotu;numerKRS=pCEiFNrU2%2BWYcEudxSud2Q%3D%3D;typ=P

You can subscribe to a website where you can view their financial history. They have a free trial which is probably enough for your purposes.

rejestr.io/krs/587423/spoldzielnia-megaplon/sprawozdania/s/3090878

Language / Game - guess Polish idioms/sayings in direct English translation - part 2 [758]



Wow! I'm genuinely surprised. You're both so literate. I can't believe you've never come across that term before. It's not one I'd use. I don't think I ever have but I've definitely seen and heard it often enough. Do either of you remember Call My Bluff on BBC back in the day? Wonderfully entertaining. Loads of episodes here:

youtube.com/@dreamer459/videos

History / Life in communist Poland - personal relations [503]

What a lovely Christmas treat for the lucky students - most of whom probably can't find Russia on a world map thanks to the woeful American education system. Maybe a lesson in world geography first before you deal with history. But best of luck. Hope it goes well.

Classifieds / Lovely friend has leukaemia - please help! [6]

You're very welcome Hazmat. You probably know about Anthony Nolan but just in case you don't, they also have patient appeals. They're affiliated to DKMS but getting yourself on to as many individual websites and locations as possible would be good. ❤️

Classifieds / Lovely friend has leukaemia - please help! [6]

Hi Hazmat, I am adding an additional link that gives more information on the process. It might be a bit confusing for people because they may not realise that they don't actually need to be living in the UK, where Theo seems to be receiving his treatment. I am linking to Swab The World, their Ireland page, UK, Poland and USA pages as many users of this forum are Polish American. I would suggest that if you haven't already done so, you should also contact the Irish Blood Transfusion Service who have a register of donors. Best of luck to Theo.

swabtheworld.com/en/country/ireland

swabtheworld.com/en/country/united-kingdom

swabtheworld.com/en/country/poland

swabtheworld.com/en/country/united-states

Food / Kolaczki cookies [2]

You could type your g-grandma's recipe into Google Translate:

translate.google.com/?sl=en&tl=pl&op=translate

I'm not Polish but I checked the history of the recipe and it seems that centuries ago they were made without cheese. So it's possible that your family recipe is a very old one.

"Originally, Kolaczki were made with a yeasted dough filled with sweet ingredients such as dried fruits, nuts, or honey. Over time, the recipe evolved, and the yeasted dough was replaced with a more tender and delicate pastry dough, similar to a shortbread or cream cheese dough"

The Czech 'kolache' dough is made with yeast and without the cheese.

3 and ½ cups all-purpose flour
▢1 cup milk
▢2 and ½ teaspoons active dry yeast
▢⅔ stick unsalted butter
▢⅓ cup granulated sugar
▢1 egg
▢½ teaspoon salt
▢1 teaspoon vanilla paste optional

Travel / Best way transport Belgium - poland [5]

There is no easy way to do that journey unfortunately but the flight from Eindhoven option would probably be the quickest, about twelve hours. You could always spend a night in Krakow to break the journey :

rome2rio.com/map/Maastricht/Zakopane#trips/transport/Maastricht/Zakopane/r/Train-to-Eindhoven-fly-to-Krakow-train

Life / Paintings of artists from Poland? [192]

She's talking about the pic of the house in the snow :)

Off-Topic / THE POLISH FORUMS CHRISTMAS TREE! [26]


They're not hidden though. It's quite obvious that they're under the tree.

Presents left on the table in Germany are also wrapped.

In Ireland the pressies go under the tree on Christmas Eve, in the evening. In our house we always used to wrap our presents in the afternoon or early evening and gradually add them. It was lovely to see the spectacle appear over the course of the day. When they were all there, my mother always used to shake her head and say 'God Almighty, aren't we very greedy! All those presents, it's a disgrace!' :)) But a lot of them were just small things, not expensive. We liked to buy each other a lot of little things, rather than one or two big presents.

Off-Topic / THE POLISH FORUMS CHRISTMAS TREE! [26]


The German tradition of putting the crib under the tree and the presents on the Weinachtstisch nearby is nice.

Very frosty, snowy looking - a Snow Queen vibe :)

Travel / Transport adventures in Poland [99]

When I saw the opening lines of your post on the front page, I thought you were going to tell us you had an accident! Glad you didn't. Nice pics :)) Btw, we don't say 'today afternoon' in English. We say 'this afternoon'. Remember that when you're with your students ;)

Off-Topic / Arts and crafts [147]


Perfect image for a Christmas card :) Not that kitsch really. Quite beautifully rendered.

The Halifax one is really striking and evocative.

Off-Topic / THE POLISH FORUMS CHRISTMAS TREE! [26]


Yes, that's not something I would choose myself. I've never seen that before. But I like the overall appearance of the tree. I like the old-fashioned, retro style with the tinsel and lametta, and I like that kind of shape of tree.

That's very eastern. They certainly sell lovely ones in Poland. I go for a star myself. In Ireland angels are popular too.

Thank you for your tree Lenka :) very feminine.

Off-Topic / A VERY CHRISTMASSY FORUM - IDEAS FOR CHRISTMAS THREADS [156]


British English would favour that usage. Happy Holidays is an Americanism.

Off-Topic / THE POLISH FORUMS CHRISTMAS TREE! [26]

Oh yes, I agree. You can get really nice ones nowadays and of course we have a basement! This is a Polish forum. Piwnica musi być!

Law / Polish Citzenship application - Hexon Poland - any experience with this company? [11]

They've been around years so I don't think they're scammers. But yes, Polish customer service is generally not great and mostly they're not good at communicating via email. If you email Polish companies it's not unusual to be ignored. Why don't you give them a call?

Polonia / Polish bus crash in Croatia. Is there a fate? [229]


In Ireland, the law allows for a lifetime ban but that would be at the discretion of the court. It has been imposed a few times but twenty years is more usual and the lifetime ban can be reduced on appeal - and has been, but only many years after the issuing of the ban.

Ireland and England have a very different legal system to Poland so there's a lot more flexibility in how the law is applied. Ireland has a mixture of case law, common law, constitutional and statutory law.

Life / Mishmash facts about Poland and Poles [187]


It was :) the children kept it that way themselves. If you have a designated place for everything, you just train them to return it there after use.

My desk was a mess! But I had a big basket on it for the children to put their 'offerings' :) every day they'd give me drawings, little messages, 'teacher this is for you, I love you' :))

How did you know! and bags of jellies and Haribo sweeties to share with the children on Fridays.

Yes, I played the piano when I was a kid. I was never very good because although my mother was a qualified piano teacher, she refused to teach me as I was uncooperative in the extreme! Therefore I was taught by an ancient and very disagreeable nun, rejoicing in the name of Sister Baptist. The main feature of her lessons was a long wooden ruler with which she rapped you over the knuckles when you made a mistake. I gave up quite quickly and just tootled around on the keys at home. I taught the children in my class how to play basic scales and little arpeggios. It was an inner city school with a lot of disadvantaged kids from tiny little council flats so it was probably the only chance any of them would have to try a musical instrument.

Off-Topic / A VERY CHRISTMASSY FORUM - IDEAS FOR CHRISTMAS THREADS [156]


The nearest thing would be the Wren Boys who come out on St Stephen's Day. It's all but died out in most of Ireland but they still have Wren Day in a few places around the country, particularly in Kerry.

It's really an old pagan custom with a rather dark side.


fingal.ie/christmas-traditions-fingal

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Law / Polish Permanent Residence (want to start a life in Poland) [13]


If you're living in Poland there is no need to give them power of attorney. Just use their services in the normal way.

A lot of the questions you have can be answered just by looking at the official information portals which are available in English.

mos.cudzoziemcy.gov.pl/en/potrzebuje-informacji/na-temat

Off-Topic / A VERY CHRISTMASSY FORUM - IDEAS FOR CHRISTMAS THREADS [156]


In small towns and villages people often visited each other in the week before Christmas dropping off a Christmas card and a tin of sweeties or biscuits :) There was usually also a small gift tag which would read 'for all the family' or something like that. These would often be elderly or retired people, many with little money to spare for such gifts.

These were impromptu visits, people just dropping in randomly. Out would come the teapot and the sherry bottle, regardless of what you might have been busy with and all would gather around the kitchen table for an hour or so. It was a lovely, cosy time.

I still have some of the little gift tags and take them out each year and put them near the crib, nice memories of good people who are long gone.

Off-Topic / A VERY CHRISTMASSY FORUM - IDEAS FOR CHRISTMAS THREADS [156]


Prisoner Cell Block H!! Never liked it. The women were way too rough! I enjoyed Tenko though.


I found a really interesting article about Polish Christmas cards here:

tygodnik.interia.pl/news-historia-zapisana-na-swiatecznych-kartkach,nId,5723898