Language / Polish vs English tongue twisters [45]


It depends on the person and the language in question.

Written french has lots of structural cues that spoken French doesn't. I can often get the gist of things in written French whereas spoken French might as well be Swahili.

On the other hand, someone who learns spoken Egyptian (or whatever) Arabic won't have much luck with written Arabic which is based on Classical Arabic which no one speaks.
Victor Mair (eminent American sinologist) said that spoken Mandarin is the easiest language he's ever learned and written Chinese the hardest.....

Off-Topic / Random Chat Thread [1078]

[login to read]

USA, Canada / What kind of American food do Poles like most? [110]


I was born and raised in the US and have spent plenty of time in a number of states far away from tourist-infect tracts.


What's with the curiously aggrieved tone?

USA, Canada / What kind of American food do Poles like most? [110]


The only time I ate at McDonalds in the US was while travelling. You might not like it but you know what you're gonna get while trying something local might be great or horrible. But I left the US before chains took up everything... do small local places even still exist?

Language / Polish vs English tongue twisters [45]


I have problems understanding a lot of UK speech and I have more knowledge of it than over 90% of US people (probably higher).

That's mostly due to the difference between textbooks and real life. Textbooks (which most Polish learners don't really go beyond) tend to have an artificial and old-fashioned language variety. That's not a dig, it's just the way it is (and probably has to be). But no one goes straight from textbooks to smooth communication with natives in any language.

Language / Polish vs English tongue twisters [45]


That's his rules-and-tests based orientation. Lots of people in Poland (and other places) might do well in English classes in high school or university or might pass some standardized tests... but end up having no practical reason to use it in their daily lives and it atrophies.

I once had (sbuject based) classes where most of the students were English teachers and they freaked out in the beginning because their active knowledge had contracted to what they taught in school... it got a lot better after a couple of meetings as the knowledge wasn't gone, just dormant and needed to be wakened.

Years ago I had a German colleague and although I used to know a good bit of German (can still read a lot) and he'd had the usual many years of English classes, neither of us had used those languages much in recent years and we ended up just using Polish to communicate.

Language / Game - guess Polish idioms/sayings in direct English translation - part 2 [562]


nagrabić sobie - to **** people off (through one's behavior) to grate on people

USA, Canada / What kind of American food do Poles like most? [110]


I've done that, that is cook the chicken first (I steam rather than boil) then batter and fry for flavor much faster and cheaper than deep frying.

News / Presidential elections 2025 - the race has commenced!!! [305]


No one in Poland cares about Serbs... get over it and move on with your life.

Travel / Poland in photo riddles - part 3 [675]


Sorry peering at a picture of your table scraps and trying to discern meaning from it is not how I want to spend my time.

News / Polish final report on Smoleńsk aircrash [870]


They will massage this into Tusk and Komorowski shooting the plane down while poor helpless putin tried to stop them....

Mark my words...

Language / Game - guess Polish idioms/sayings in direct English translation - part 2 [562]


They were up to no good with their ski suits.

They were cheating with their ski suits.

The verb kombinować is _very_ expressive and has no good equivalent in English*. It implies a mix of guile, improvization and get things done in a not entirely legal or ethical way. The character Rysiek in Miś is a worldclass kombinator and in a sense the whole movie is about the weird extremes people had to go through to get things done that shouldn't be that hard.

It was a necessary skill in the PRL and a family without a kombinator who knew how to get things done and/or find hard to find goods had to made do without.

*at least in the US, maybe the UK has something... I've sometimes heard 'tricky' applied to people but I don't know if it's the same thing

News / Presidential elections 2025 - the race has commenced!!! [305]


Nawrocki has clearly been getting training in public appearances but it's not natural yet. He's still in the "fake it till you make it" stage.

If PiS were better organized they would have chosen him almost a year earlier so that by now he'd be a bit more natural.

News / Mister President Andrzej Duda - Best Poland could get. [96]


Not bad. But still rough. Here's mine (preliminary version, not happy with a lot of it and would have to do a bit of research on terminology).

The biggest problem is that hazard refers to gambling, and the name of the German philosopher is Georg Simmel.

Dont' be discouraged at mistakes, a person only becomes a good translator by stumbling through lots of not so great translations (if I look at some of my early efforts.... yikes!). All translators make mistakes, bad translators claim not to.

Your bilingual status gives you real potential as a translator but you need some discipline and training (esp in terms of recognizing jargon and learning how to deal with it).

My preliminary version:
I this article gambling is presented as a fact and social phenomenon in reference to Emil Durkheim's concept of social fact. Selected definitions of gambling are described as are some varieties, such as recreational, risky (hazardous), problematic and pathological gambling while indicating differences between game and gambling. On the basis of available research a type of lifestyle and typical behavior of those addicted to gambling as well as codependents are described. The titular question is put forth in the context of the philosophy of Georg Simmel, who maintained that money had become one of the most serious causes of individual alienation in modern societies.

News / Mister President Andrzej Duda - Best Poland could get. [96]


Have you ever actually translated anything for money? It take time and patience to build a client base.

Have a go at this in real English and not phone-text garbage.

Life / Climate change payments for replacement of coal boilers [26]


How long do solar panels last? What happens to them then?


This idiot, the one behind 'extinction rebellion' and young adult attention vvhores who throw soup at paintings and glue their hands to roads.... currently in prison where he belongs.

x.com/RogerHallamCS21

Life / Climate change payments for replacement of coal boilers [26]


What should I use given the apocalyptic rhetoric of Hallam and his ilk?

Is there any argument based on data presented in the thread? They 'recorded' data from stations that didn't exist or used to be elsewhere and pushed info bits in a selective and provocative way (measuing 'record' temperatures at an airfield with jets landing'.

So... color me skeptical.

I think that if (big if) climate change is as real as some say then there's nothing that individuals (singularly or collectively) do to change or even mitigate it. The only solutions lie in technology and further research.

Starting to live like medieval peasants won't reverse a global trend like that.

Life / Climate change payments for replacement of coal boilers [26]


More people than believe the climate doomsday cult, for sure.

Life / Climate change payments for replacement of coal boilers [26]

Doomsday climate number fvkkcery in the UK:

x.com/StarkNakedBrief/status/1896967041384595563

How can anyone take them seriously after this? (and after other examples of number fkvkery in the past)?

It's a religion, not science.

News / Poles say a big YES to our European Union [996]


Apparently you have no idea how the russian army operates and how miserably it treats soldiers

x.com/ChrisO_wiki/status/1895026595242365376

x.com/ChrisO_wiki/status/1891592181510475890

This is what Srbija (most depraved country in Europe) approves of and wants for itself and other countries.... humans treated as disposable meat bags...

News / Poland, Western Europe and the USA - What if Ukraine disappears from the map? [144]


Polish has ŻUBR (European bison)... so there!

News / Poland, Western Europe and the USA - What if Ukraine disappears from the map? [144]


I prefer Slovenian...


Anyone know cognates in other slavic languages? A quick wikipedia check shows all the others I checked beginning with 'r' while only Czech agrees with Polish ż (žebro).

I wonder how that happened.... I was wondering if at one point it had been written rzebro and then mistaken was assigned to ż.... but the Czech suggests a different scenario (I just don't know what....)

News / Poland, Western Europe and the USA - What if Ukraine disappears from the map? [144]


So there's a possibility..... that the oldest people in Europe...... _aren't_ Serbian..... noted.

News / Poland, Western Europe and the USA - What if Ukraine disappears from the map? [144]


Now do Basque!

News / Poland, Western Europe and the USA - What if Ukraine disappears from the map? [144]


Astounding! And Hungarian how was it created from Serbian?

News / Poland, Western Europe and the USA - What if Ukraine disappears from the map? [144]


An example of the lovely Ukrainian language. How does the language exist without a people?

News / Poland, Western Europe and the USA - What if Ukraine disappears from the map? [144]


a nazi.... try again after listening to this...

youtube.com/watch?v=xDeQVaoTvJM

News / Poland, Western Europe and the USA - What if Ukraine disappears from the map? [144]


For Crow...

youtube.com/watch?v=ILGDHqOAw3w&list=PL5CcGrfayYyxrwFnCu7hGwUoPezE8zaEO

News / Poland, Western Europe and the USA - What if Ukraine disappears from the map? [144]


For you...

News / Poland, Western Europe and the USA - What if Ukraine disappears from the map? [144]


Millions of people call themselves Ukrainian. Why don't you go there and tell them they don't exist?