News / Achievements of the Tusk's Polish government [532]


No, this from a traditional sea-shanty song called "Congo River" ;-) The original song is a witty description of an American slave-trade ship.

youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Ggg_uGoMuzM

Polish speakers: Jedna z naszych polskich wersji ma takie słowa: "Skąd wiesz, że statek to jankeski? Zbroczone krwią pokładu deski" ;-)

Polish version:

News / Achievements of the Tusk's Polish government [532]

Answering THE HITMAN and unanimously with pawian:

Oh was you ever on the Vistula River?
Blow boys blow!
Black priests make the W.A.S.P. men shiver
Blow me bullyboys blow!

A Yankee ship came down the river
Her masts and yards they shone like silver
What do think she had for cargo
American views that had run the embargo
Blow me bullyboys blow!

So blow me boys and blow forever
Blow boys blow!
Why blow me down the Vistula River
Blow me bullyboys blow!

;-)

Law / Weapons laws in Poland. Carrying a concealed handgun? [918]

There were times when Poland (especially big cities) was less safe. In my opinion, the level of safety has improved enormously. Back in 1990, most of cars were protected against theft by a lock on the steering wheel, a lock on gearbox lever, immobilizer, alarm, etc. You see no locks on the steering wheel or gearbox lever anymore. I own an old car. Very often I do not lock the door while parking in daytime in cities. Nobody is interested to steal the car or rob items (since I leave nothing worthy inside).

Back in 1990, my unfinished house was robbed and all new radiators (heating elements) were stolen. Nowadays not only the Police and City Watch patrol the neighborhood regularly; they also come and ask if there is any problem in case they see something strange. I feel pretty safe nowadays.

Law / Weapons laws in Poland. Carrying a concealed handgun? [918]


Very true.

Only yesterday, I was passing Motel George that is around 22 km SW from the centre of Warsaw. In 1990, there was some shooting between two competing gangs there. Many people still remember this fact as something very unusual. If I drove by George together with some American and would like to tell him the story about a shooting that happened 21 years ago, I bet the comment would be "Why are you trying to tell me about something such banal? What was so special with that very shooting?"

A friend of mine and his girlfriend are working in the police. By regulations (I'm not sure what unit they work for), they need to carry concealed firearms while wearing plain clothes. Once, both of them were strapping their guns on in my presence before they went to their university for Sunday lectures. I was quite shocked seeing that, so unusual it was.

Food / What do non-Poles think about eating the following Polish foods? [1400]


Them Japanese call it "Western wasabi" since wasabi is in fact Japanese horseradish.

Love / How do Polish men feel about gender equality? [780]

You lost me here. What don't you understand? A disabled daughter that wants and will like staying at home. Our choice was to take care about our kid. She used to attend kindergarten and schools. But we are leaving outside big cities and our daugther could not stand living in a dormitory. So our choice was: I earn money, my wife takes care of our daughter and of home. Do you find a loving family strange? I'm shocked.

Love / How do Polish men feel about gender equality? [780]

To be back on the right track:

Natasa has put a proposition that the liberal socialism of former Yugoslavia gave Yugoslav women equal position with Yugoslav men, (saving them from the fatal miasma of feminism). I have countered that proposition explaining the real motives of communists behind the equal treatment of both sexes. First Natasa praised the communism, then went on the safer track of "liberal socialism".

My further comment I'm making now is the liberal socialism really exists but not in Yugoslavia but in Sweden. Strange but it works. Paternity leave, very high percentage of qualified women employed. It's hard to assign any communist thinking to Sweden, while it is very easy to do it talking about former Yugoslavia.


I have to make a comment here, regardless of the cost. In the first place, Serbia attacked Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina and Kosovo. The Serbs collected the crop in 1999.


Can you think of a family with heavily disabled child, where the man is qualified to earn money, and the wife has no profession? That's my case. You better be careful of drawing conclusions so easily.

No more comments. It is pointless to participate in a discussion with Mods taking active part in the discussion with their Move/Delete buttons. This is simply unfair.

Love / How do Polish men feel about gender equality? [780]


Not?! You mean, 10 years of wars not the result of communism? Does the name of Slobodan Milosevic reminds you of something?

Yugoslavia was more than just Serbia. Croat people have good trading skills. Do you bear in mind the large Yugoslav diaspora, bringing a lot of money home? Yugoslavia was not in the Warsaw pact; this is why the living there was somewhat easier.

If you however deny the role of communism, ask yourself the question what is wrong with Southern Slavs then.

please, don't let the topic got off the right track and your posts went straight to the bin. thanks

Love / How do Polish men feel about gender equality? [780]


Natasa, I do not know how old you are. It's enough to say you should go back to the year 2000 (I've been to Pancevo and Belgrade at that time) and think about "merry life, full of perspectives" of that time in Serbia. For me, it looked like pre-1989 Poland. I wouldn't like to live in a country like that. I do not know what has changed in your country since. The only fact that matters for me we cannot sell software licenses in your country because you people steal whatever you can. Sorry for my harsh words, but we have licenses in Croatia, Slovenia, Romania, Bulgaria and of course in Hungary. Not in Serbia, except two licenses granted to Universities.

Since 1989 I has been able to keep my whole family as the only person working, been to great part of the world, own everything I need, am FREE and HAPPY.


It has given to your country numerous wars in the first place and made your country really backwards. Again, I can't help being frank.

I do not criticize the Chinese system. I just describe it. Men and woman made equal. No woman I spoke about it in Poland appreciated the Chinese equality. Perhaps Polish ladies are "spoilt" to some extent by our chivalry. However, a Polish man who couldn't pay a date would lose his face.

Love / How do Polish men feel about gender equality? [780]


Spit those words out, please. My first 29 years of life could be described as "missed opportunities".

You want equity? Go to China. China has enforced true equal rights for both sexes. Meaning:
1. If you are younger than I am, you are carrying my baggage after me
2. If your position is lower than mine, you open the door for me
3. If you were a Chinese woman and I were a Westerner, and our positions and age were equal, you should pay respect to me.
4. We are travelling in coed sleeping train car, so you need sleep in your T-shirt and shorts, and do not complain I'm watching you

In other words: Women and men in China have been made EQUAL. In every way. I doubt European women would like it very much.
---
The commies wanted both sex made equal for one reason: While men were expected going to war, somebody had to be able to operate a tractor in farming...

Love / How do Polish men feel about gender equality? [780]

Guesswho: I refuse answering off-topic/flaming questions. Are you getting most of the talk here is off-topic and is a flame?

Eurola: Let me give you a very generic answer. Over 123 years of Polish partition and all those national uprisings (and also during WWII and whenever Poles had to conspire or act as partisans), the Polish women were giving total support to their men and Polish education to their children, preserving the nation. There is a notion of "Matka Polka" (Mother Pole) telling Polish men give all due respect to Polish women. Not without reason, Polish Catholic are devoted to Virgin Mary, a woman. Before the partitions, Poland was a republic. The Polish gentry style was to respect women very much, and chivalry was highly valued. This approach can be found in all novels of Henryk Sienkiewicz's Trilogy, and it even rings in the Quo Vadis. All those notions are still deeply embedded in the Polish mentality. The dying out habit of kissing female hands dates from the times I mention.

And yes, you'll find many low-life creatures in every country, not only in Poland.

Love / How do Polish men feel about gender equality? [780]

I simply laughed at ItsAllAboutME fuming at the Polish men, wishing Poland were invaded again and that all men were sent to Siberia.
I shouldn't even laugh. My two uncles had been sent to Siberia and died there in uranium mine, and an aunt returned to Poland mad to die shortly afterwards.

Not only that.

If you read this thread carefully, you'll see yourself the OP (a Norwegian female construction boss) had asked for the reasons a Polish working team did not want to obey her orders. I have given the Norwegian full although concise analysis why I believe that was happening AND I said it had nothing to do with the sex of the boss.

Most of this thread should go to the bin as an off-topic. The Mod chose to remove one of my posts however.

Not only that.

I believe many of the posters simply do not get what traditional chivalry of Polish men towards women means. Instead, off-topic poster offending Polish men is protected by Mods.

So, may I know the reasons?

Love / How do Polish men feel about gender equality? [780]

You either love them or live without them. ;-)

Love / How do Polish men feel about gender equality? [780]


Yes it has.

Love / How do Polish men feel about gender equality? [780]

I have given a second thought to Enga's questions.

Enga, it's not the matter of you being female boss at all. The matter is the cultural clash.

The Polish are adaptive, flexible, ingenious. They also hate all bans and prohibition as well as unnecessary injunction. This is the nation saying "Nie na nas Polaków zakazy!" meaning "Nothing is forbidden to us, Poles".

You tell your team use appropriate tools. I can easily imagine what they are saying behind your back:
-- The boss told us to use such-and-such tool...
-- Give it a f*ng sh*t, does she want us finish before the Winter or what?

As long as they are a qualified team, they perfectly know their tools are right for the work to be done and changing the tools would only mean hassle to them. They know nobody would come and ask questions on the tools used, and if such inspector would even come, the boss is responsible to cover the workers.

This is how we do it in Poland.

A word on flexibility, adaptiveness, ingenuity:
I often fly to Norway on business by Norwegian.no. On one of the flights, I bought me a sandwich and asked the Norwegian flight attendant if she could pass me some salt. She said: "No salt, sorry".

Next time it was the Polish crew. When I asked for salt, the stewardess frowned for a fraction of a second and then... she passed a Bloody Mary set to me! So simple it was, goddam...

Love / How do Polish men feel about gender equality? [780]

Add to it the respect of Polish men towards women, probably based on the cult of Mother Pole and I'm not joking now.

Language / Polish was chosen the HARDEST LANGUAGE in the world to learn... :D [1558]


Good!

I'm sure you know this one already?
youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=dABo_DCIdpM

Language / Polish was chosen the HARDEST LANGUAGE in the world to learn... :D [1558]

Koala


I completely agree with you. I took a drinking walk to several pubs in Cambridge and was fraternizing with the locals, most of them being English teachers. Once I wanted to be witty and addressed one of the ladies with "Oi!" This was really a blunder...

Language / Polish was chosen the HARDEST LANGUAGE in the world to learn... :D [1558]


I cannot hide my smirk listening the Dutch "v" pronounced as "f" when English is spoken. Oh, a "fessel" sounds so funny! ;)

Language / Polish was chosen the HARDEST LANGUAGE in the world to learn... :D [1558]


The problem is: If one wants to learn English from a native speaker, ask yourself a question from what country/region ;-) I once was trained by a Scouser who admitted himself English was his second language. I was getting maximum 40% of what he was saying ;-)

My spoken English quality varies with the weather and depends what country/region was the person with whom I spoke lately. My curse is adaptiveness... At the top form my English is totally accent-less. If this happens, I'm so glad...


Strè prst skrz krk, I like the language very much, too.

Language / Polish versions for English words? ! [34]


Yep.

Language / Polish versions for English words? ! [34]

Aaaarrrrgh! ;-))
Look up the edited post above.

Language / Polish versions for English words? ! [34]

I need go back to the blackboard ;-)))))))))))))

"Past za vlast"... sure!
--
The post exchange between me and Magdalena could help the original poster understand how difficult a language with no borrowed words is. Just to extinguish the Czech debate, I'd like to ask Magdalena if a native Warsawer could master Czech.

What you think about the language here? What proficiency can you hear?

nk.art.pl/makenzen/makenzen_zatimco.mp3

Language / Polish versions for English words? ! [34]

Tough language! My feeling is using words borrowed from Latin/Greek makes life somewhat easier, still I understand the idea behind the formal Czech.

Mluvnice - Mównica/rostrum? Rzeczniczka/speaker?
Zákon - prawo/law
Přírodopis - biology! Now I get it!
Vlastenec - I saw this word somewhere in Svejk... Vlast would be the power, government. No idea, I would guess from context.

Language / Polish versions for English words? ! [34]

I will try and swear I do not look to any dictionary or any translator now:
Pravopis - prawodawca
Krasopis - not sure
Životopis - autor biografii
Zeměpis - autor książek o różnych krajach? Not sure here
Divadlo - teatr
Spisovatel - pisarz
Těsnopis - no idea
Kolo - rower. The Czech word is very logical. I don't know why Polish kolarz rides a rower ;-)

What I would like to get the most would be "cena divaku" and the introduction to a seminar "Vazeny Damy a Panove" is just fantastic!

You must know this, I experienced this myself:

A Polish leads the Czech to sklep but the Czech thinks it would be a pivnice. No, but wine is stored in a Polish piwnica, and the Czech buys at sklad. We Polish store coal at skład. The shop sells "smiseny zbozi" in the Czech Republic, same shop offers "ruzny tovar" in Slovakia, and the Polish goes to "sklep spożywczo-przemysłowy. A Pole parks his car at a parking, the Czech uses parkoviste and teh Slovak parkovisko. If I wanted to say do widzenia to you Magdalena, I'd start with dovid... then bite my tongue and say nashledanou! ;-)

It's at least good I can buy struny both in your country and in Poland, although I'd better know they could be motane or hladke ;)))

Nice thing you told me about the difference between the informal and folk Czech. I was not aware of that.

Ahoj!

Language / Polish versions for English words? ! [34]

My personal (not scientific) opinion is the invented words are really needed for nations afraid of dissolving their identity. Old, mature languages are developing by merging foreign words. Just consider:

1. Metal (it should be kowo)
2. Stal (it should be ocel)
3. Butelka (it should be łagiew)
4. Dach (it should be strzecha)
5. Pech (it should be nieszczęście (?))
6. Giermek (actually it is a child in Hungarian)
...

If by chance Magdalena is reading this thread, I'd like to know her opinion on how it is in the formal and the folk Czech. It could be interesting. I was very happy to buy "camelky" (Camel cigarettes), listening to "cedecky" (CDs) and paying with "kreditka" (credit card) on my stays in the Czech Republic.

Language / Polish versions for English words? ! [34]

FInol


Some of us say "esesman" ;-)

I don't think anglicisms are wrong. English itself is based on so many languages, why Polish should be different?

There are at least four nations attempting to make their own words for everything. This is why the French say "ordinateur", the Swedes say "dator", the Czech say "pocitac", and the Hungarian say "szamitosgep", while the words "komputer" or "pecet" are so simple...

I like Hungarian words very much. It is so simple to guess that "szamitosgepgazda" means the PC administrator. Szamitos is a digit, gep is a device, the gazda is the Tatra landlord ;-)

History / Where did the power of Poland vanish to, since... let`s say, some 300 years ago? [180]

Why not Austria?

History / Where did the power of Poland vanish to, since... let`s say, some 300 years ago? [180]


I mean, things started degrading after the Sobieski's reign. The Constitution of 3rd May was made far too late.

History / Where did the power of Poland vanish to, since... let`s say, some 300 years ago? [180]

Sokrates


Nothing is granted forever. Czasy saskie są faktem. The Saxon era cannot be denied.