The BEST Guide to POLAND
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Posts by jon357  

Joined: 15 Mar 2012 / Male ♂
Last Post: 9 hrs ago
Threads: Total: 73 / Live: 22 / Archived: 51
Posts: Total: 24453 / Live: 14408 / Archived: 10045
From: In the Heart of Darkness
Speaks Polish?: Tak

Displayed posts: 14430 / page 453 of 481
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jon357   
31 May 2014
Genealogy / Surname Cybert. Is it Welsh or Polish? [11]

Bert is a German ending for a surname

Not only. There are French and British names that end in ..bert, and probably others too. Seibert however is a German name.

Not that everyone with a German name is German.

So it still should count as German.

That doesn't make much sense.

You don't say what country you're in. If however some of your family were immigrants to wherever, you should be able to find some record of the move. Also, the death certificate of the family member you're interested in should say where they were born.
jon357   
30 May 2014
News / World's oldest man is Polish! [9]

My grandfather died on his hundredth birthday. The saddest thing was that we were only half way through giving him the bumps.
jon357   
26 May 2014
News / Bitcoin Embassy Launches In Poland's Capital Warsaw [37]

But as of December 2013

This is the key. Technology changes very fast and what we call the internet did not exist a blink of an eye ago, just as it's naïve to think it'll be around in the same form in a generation's time. So-called 'bitcoins' have no intrinsic value.
jon357   
21 May 2014
Genealogy / I have Jewish DNA, but only know of Polish ancestry . [120]

Worth mentioning some of the more exotic, not to say capricious surnames given by ETA Hoffman when he was doing that in Warsaw. One of the stories about him was that he had a particularly nice lunch of fish and assigned people the names of fish as their surname for the rest of the afternoon.
jon357   
21 May 2014
Genealogy / I have Jewish DNA, but only know of Polish ancestry . [120]

I'm glad you agree with me. There's nothing to suggest that the lady is Jewish and indeed she was surprised to find websites (almost certainly American ones) suggesting that some people with her surname are.

no Jewish ancestry, which is what I would have expected

jon357   
21 May 2014
Genealogy / I have Jewish DNA, but only know of Polish ancestry . [120]

Do you know how surnames work in Europe? I suspect not. Most people with her surname aren't Jewish. Some are, however you'd need more than your own preoccupation to reliably suggest that the lady who posted is anything other than just Polish.
jon357   
20 May 2014
Genealogy / I have Jewish DNA, but only know of Polish ancestry . [120]

her last name, Majewski, is a name that was used by Jewsh families who'd converted to Catholicism.

Some people called that are descended from converts, but by no means all. There are quite a few villages in PL called Majewo and perhaps some of your grandmother's ancestors came from one of these.
jon357   
19 May 2014
History / Polish conscripts to German army [132]

but to demand that Germany makes an exception because of what happened in WW2 is just plain BS.

Exactly.

In any case, so many records were destroyed during those terrible times.
jon357   
21 Apr 2014
History / Polish Easter Tradition is also pagan! [47]

That's all falling away rather. I don't see any great movement towards the things you seem to want though. More a case of increasing educational levels leading to more rationalism and less religion. Also for the less well educated, more television leading to other things in their lives than yesterday's superstitions.
jon357   
20 Apr 2014
Language / Polish language would look better written in Cyrillic Script? [212]

It is just that Western Slavic's phonology developed independently from Eastern Slavic when the Slavic languages began to diverge originally.

Indeed. The current alphabet suits fairly well - certainly more than Cyrillic or any revived and obscure alphabets like the Southern Slavonic Glagolitic alphabet

Polish in Cyrillic script looks so cool and earthly. I like it!

There's way too much political and historical baggage due to Russian imperialism for that ever to happen. The Russians did try it without success - people in Poland prefer their modified version of the Latin alphabet.
jon357   
17 Apr 2014
Love / My Polish wife's family hate me. Maybe it is because I'm black. Advice needed. [87]

I need advice on how to deal with this problem.

Stay true to your heart. You're living your life - your parents have theirs.

I don't know how you came from your parents not liking your fiancee to many racists in Poland?! You should be ashamed of yourself for making such inappropriate and wrong conclusions.

Evidently not so wrong, though neither of these posters are in Poland and one has never been here:

if your marriage even lasts that long.

Maybe your parents would like to see their grandchildren to be a little bit similar to them?

jon357   
15 Apr 2014
Life / What are the best cars to buy in Poland? [64]

After seeing how the Poles treat their cars, I've been scared off purchasing a used auto

Poles have said exactly that to me quite a few times and it's no coincidence that it's popular to go across the border to buy a used car. Also garages and dealers aren't much trusted here.
jon357   
6 Apr 2014
Language / IS "MURZYN" word RACIST? [686]

What makes you think the 'origins' of a word define its use?
jon357   
6 Apr 2014
Language / Extremely Hard - Polish the hardest language to learn [226]

I always thought it sounded very nice. Before I came to PL I'd heard plenty - I grew up hearing it spoken daily for various reasons and liked it. Those were mostly older people from the East of the country and sounded different. When I first arrived there, I was surprised how different it sounded, but it still doesn't sound bad.

With the possible exception of the PoznaƄ accent.