History / Time for Slavic Commonwealth around Poland as center [223]


Almost the entire reason for AfD's popularity is that it's the _only_ party talking about how screwed up German migration policy is.... at present something like over 45% of welfare goes to non-German born people.

How is that sustainable?

Why won't any other party talk about it?

Mainstream parties in Denmark ended the 'far right' by incorporating majority views on migration into their platforms yet Germany stumbles on hoping no one will notice what a mess it's migration policy has become.

News / Referendum to decide about exotic immigrants in Poland [559]

The late 1990s early 2000s old commie built blocks close to Pałac Kultury had a _lot_ of Vietnamese residents. I was by the door of one waiting for someone once and there were 6 or 7 Veitnamese for each Polish person. Ul Grzybowska was the heaviest concentration... A Vietnamese friend said the border guard at the airport commented on her address "Grzybowska again!"

These apartments in the buildings were pretty small and very unpopular with Polish people which facilitated Vietnamese renting/buying them. I have no idea what the area looks like now...

And while the PRL had only the barest minimum of economic segregation it has drastically increased over the last 20 years or so not to the extent of western Europe but a lot more than there was so the professor might be engaging in wishful thinking...

For the record I think the lack of economic segregation was one of the few good things about the PRL... when the very poor or very rich only have each other around.... it's not good for them.

Language / Game - guess Polish idioms/sayings in direct English translation - part 2 [816]

As I wrote in comment #12, it might well be a polonization of the German word Puppe (doll). could also mean 'little butt'... only the person who said it knows what the intention was....

History / Why American military aid to Europe and Poland is important to America itself? [227]


Third option.... malignant narcissist who says anything to get attention from others and monopolize their time.... not worth noticing or engaging with

History / Use of the word "lord" in Polish. [11]

I've heard Madam used that way but never Sir. On the other hand I've heard 'The gentleman' or 'The lady' used in a similar fashion.

"If the lady would come this way..."

"Would this cut suit the gentleman?"

So "Does the gentleman speak Polish?" would be comprehensible in context (though very affected).

Though in direct address 'sir' and 'ma'am' would be used (I think Americans avoid using the word 'Madam(e)' because of... you know.... the other meaning.

Travel / Where to park my motor in safe place for one month near or in Chelm or Lublin? [6]

'motor'


Weird... never heard it and wouldn't work in American usage at all.... motorcycle would also be a bike though (or for some..... crotch rocket.... let's just forget that).

History / 20 years of Poland in the EU. [317]


That only works if there are rigorous secular ethical systems that are available to the population.... muslim majority societies typically don't have any of those.... and there's the well-known phenomenon of migrants becoming more religiously active in their new country than they were in the old. I had a Polish friend who maybe went to church on big holidays in Poland but went every week when they immigrated to the US.
It's been often said that it's easier for muslims to live as atheists in their home countries (for example) than in Western Europe.

But the neoliberal mindset cannot comprehend attachment to other belief systems and insists on treating humans as interchangeable widgets who are infinitely pliable....

Almost no western European politicians are free of the neoliberal mindset....

History / 20 years of Poland in the EU. [317]

But do they prevent their kids from assimilating? AFAICT russians are more relaxed about that while Turks (muslims in general) do what they can to prevent their kids from fitting in....

Polonia / Should I visit Portugal? [35]

Not quite.... I was still too young while it was going on and general use of ATMs just anywhere wasn't a thing until much later..... I also remember banks with drive up stations with vacuum tubes for withdrawals or deposits (though mostly everyone did everything in state with checks).
Checks were never really a think in Poland which went from cash to debit cards with hardly anything in between.

History / 20 years of Poland in the EU. [317]


Parental attitudes toward schools (in general and in the new country) do play a very important role in how well children adapt to new countries.

Not all cultures value education equally well and some parents want their children to maintain their traditions to the exclusion of local traditions.

In short.. adults who migrate almost never really assimilate, that's the job of the children born in the new country and parents can either help or be neutral about or hinder that process.

History / 20 years of Poland in the EU. [317]

It depends on a lot of factors - home country, employer, length of stay (especially projected length of stay) and whether there are local family connections among others.

Polonia / Should I visit Portugal? [35]


Oh... and I forgot! This was before ATMs were everywhere (or could be used outside of a single state)... and it was also without a credit card so having to deal with things like cashier's checks

History / Use of the word "lord" in Polish. [11]


It's still used in religious contexts as 'Lord'

m.katolik.pl/panie--nie-jestem-godzien---,22804,416,cz.html

youtube.com/watch?v=igto7Nivkvo

It took me years to not hear Pan Bóg as "Mister God".....

History / 20 years of Poland in the EU. [317]

emigrants= leaving

immigrants = arriving

the people you're talking about are not immigrants, they are ex-pats (who live in another place for professional or personal reasons but have no desire to integrate beyond the most superficial level).

Polonia / Should I visit Portugal? [35]


That's on your own schedule and very different from needing to get from A to B in X amount of time.... I've had jobs where I had to do a lot of that (a few days in one town then anywhere from 50 to 300 miles to the next)..... traveling on that kind of schedule gets old fast.

Polonia / Should I visit Portugal? [35]

I've done that or close to it (South Florida to NE Colorado) a number of times.... at least three full days of driving... morning to evening.... not recommended. Once was in a very bad heat wave in a car with no air-conditioning that had a habit of not starting reliably (ah... jumper cables and the kindness of strangers.....)

Done with that.

Polonia / Should I visit Portugal? [35]

I've been to Portugal once (Algarve) for a week vacation (side trip to Lisbon).

Very definitely worth visiting. Weirdly flights are not only long but for some reason significantly more expensive than to Spain (even than to Canaries which are much further away).

Food is interesting (much more interestingly flavored than in most of Spain) and wine is wonderful of course. Lots of interesting sweets (where egg yolk is a basic ingredient). I liked the tiles people put on their houses.

Coastal scenery is very nice though inland (at least between Algarve and Lisbon) is pretty unremarkable... The Atlantic is cool water and the beaches in Algarve were very nice.

The spoken language is a bit... uncompromising (Spanish with a thick tongue and almost no vowels) but if you know a romance language you can figure out signs. People are... friendlier than Spain as is service.

Life / Polish church music versus African-American gospel [29]


grammar question....

Is there a difference (grammar? semantics? style?) between

'is mise' and 'táim / tá mé'? Could you say "Táim an Tiarna"?

Fun song that sounds like it was a lot of fun to sing.

It reminds me of this forgotten feel food gem, self-recorded by an all nun pop group (Nun-Plus). The name of the album is Ljubimo (Croatian for Kocha(j)my) as one of the members was from there IIRC

Study / "Dirty Polish" - I want to buy this book [22]


odpierdol się is indeed vulgar but I wouldn't call it slang (which refers to a subset of constantly changing items). Once it's stable it's no longer slang, no matter how vulgar.

slang is more things like 'odlotowy' 'wypasione' 'do zobaczyska' which enjoy brief spurts of popularity and then fade into irrelevance....

Work / What is the job situation like in Poland? I am thinking of moving to find work [18]


Poland successfully exported a large amount of unemployment to other EU countries (esp UK, Germany, Ireland)... that's not how it's usually expressed but.... that's what happened.

Study / "Dirty Polish" - I want to buy this book [22]


Again, I'd never use such a book to know what to say but it can be helpful in helping newcomers figure out what is said.

No Polish textbook that I know of lists even the most common obscene expressions but being able to recognize them (or filter them out when used as filler words) is a good idea.

Traditional language teaching (for all languages) tends to exclude lots of really important stuff for understanding language in the real world.

Embolalia (esp filler words like.... like, that is, no, wiesz, ten etc)

Informal quotatitves "He's all 'No way!'" "On na to 'Mowy nie ma!'"

shadow expletives (sound a little like expletives but aren't obscene) "Fudge!" "Kurde!"

Work / What is the job situation like in Poland? I am thinking of moving to find work [18]


Just before the pandemic there were around two million (conservative estimate) Ukrainians working in Poland where they were an important part of the economy.

That's one reason the country was willing to take in so many after russian invaded Ukraine.

As early as 2017 or so there was very little real unemployment (that is if you wanted a job you could find one and the long-term unemployed were mostly the type that would find a reason they couldn't take any job). The problem was that many/most jobs didn't pay enough to make ends meet (hence Ukrainians taking up some of that slack).

People forget these things so quickly.... it's like living among goldfish sometimes.....

Study / "Dirty Polish" - I want to buy this book [22]


Why not? I haven't looked at it but as long as it's used to help understand (rather than to speak) there's nothing wrong with it.

I remember buying a book of Polish (mostly criminal) slang it was very helpful not just with the specific entries (some of which were probably invented for the book) but it gave good insigths on how obscenities were put together and absolutely helped with early comprehension....

It's less necessary now with urban dictionary and similar resources but at least a passive understanding of obscene language is necessary for real fluency.

News / Scandals, conflicts, tensions, arguments - real life examples from Poland [543]


Why?

Personally I hate and detest the song Imagine which is in no way 'inspirational'.... it's only redeeming feature is that, I read once, it was originally a parody of a rich guy's idea of spirituality....

I especially hated it when they dug it out for Eurovision last year.... 'imagine there's no countries' or 'nothing to live or die for' are not appropriate things to sing to people in an existential war of survival.

And what it describes is.... communism.

I'm barely aware of of Babiarz is though I seem to recall seeing him on tv years ago....

What he said wasn't wrong and removing him was wrong.

Life / Trendsetter from Poland. [113]


I had to go to the local foreigners office because my residence card needs to be exchanged. It was the first time I'd been in 10 years.... and the change....

I remember when the foreigners' affairs section was two windows usually without much in the way of a line. Ten years ago it was a single room (maybe 40ish square meters).

Now it's three times the size and chock full of people. Mostly the usual suspects (lots of russian/Ukrainian sounds) but also a lot from South and/or East Asia and some Africans as well.

And you can't walk around the downtown area for three minutes before seeing visually distinct people and/or hearing Ukraine accented russian or Polish (irony of russian's invasion is that by destroying Eastern Ukraine russia has done the work of Ukrainian nationalists by convincing russian speaking Ukrainians to go elsewhere).

Poland's saving grace (so far) is that these are almost all people with jobs (or studying or a combination of both). The Polish welfare state is not nearly well-developed enough to be tempting to resource seekers who want to be supported while not working (most of the suckers on the Belarusan border and most of the boat people in the Mediterranean).

History / Pol-Shorpy Photo Thread [950]

Don't judge them! It gets very lonely in the forest!

Language / Game - guess Polish idioms/sayings in direct English translation - part 2 [816]


I read that actually it's that the original meaning of szmat was a large area:

sjp.pwn.pl/poradnia/haslo/Szmata-a-szmat;16810.html

Language / Game - guess Polish idioms/sayings in direct English translation - part 2 [816]


I know it but I'll let someone else have a go....

Language / Game - guess Polish idioms/sayings in direct English translation - part 2 [816]


As in my comment #9