News / Poland's PiS party members and crime [346]


The legal system in Poland is compromised anyway, with 'experts' being employed and paid by the courts with only a veneer of neutrality. I doubt PiS would want to change that for a minute.

News / Poland's PiS party members and crime [346]


Looks that way. I wonder how many other morally questionable pardons will appear.

Language / "Poles" or "Polish people" - which is better to use? [200]


Very true and neither Ryszard Kapuściński nor Joseph Conrad had any issue with the word.

Language / "Poles" or "Polish people" - which is better to use? [200]


'Verbally abbreviated'? Don't talk rubbish, it's a very old word, centuries' old and it is a matter for English speakers. If anyone's offended by it, then they are just being laughably feeble.


'Brit' seems to be a recent thing, via the media. Unlike 'Pole', a long established word.

Language / "Poles" or "Polish people" - which is better to use? [200]


I've never heard anyone say that, and frankly it says more about you than the word. Does a Finn, a Turk, a Kurd, a Jew, a Breton or a Basque say the English language word for them is offensive?

Life / Famous Polish people (that we have actually heard of) [231]


Janusz Korczak is certainly known outside Poland, and General Tokarzewski-Karasiewicz is known in some circles. Miron Bialoszewski deserves to be better known.

Life / Famous Polish people (that we have actually heard of) [231]

Why would their religious background be relevant? And Gombrowicz was respectable enough.

Life / Famous Polish people (that we have actually heard of) [231]


Warsaw born and bred, as well as Poland's greatest twentieth century-born novelist. Closely followed of course by Gombrowicz and possibly Lem.

Language / Ethnic backround of suffixes of Polish surnames [54]


Armenian, though that's the root rather than the suffix

Life / Famous Polish people (that we have actually heard of) [231]

And of course Singer, one of the twentieth century's finest writers. Warsaw born and bred.

Language / IS "MURZYN" word RACIST? [686]


Yes, it is a word used among the recent Polish migration to the UK, especially London. Your 'ciapki' analysis is interesting. I've heard 'ciapaki', a conflation of 'chapatti' (Indian restaurant bread) and 'paki'.

News / Anti-Defamation League want Macierewicz (Poland defense minister) appointment withdrawn - GW [42]


A tawdry comment which says far more about you than any group who have a perfect right to criticise a seedy politician.

You really do come across as a foul individual with no redeeming features whatsoever. I sincerely hope all that vileness is just for show. Nevertheless, it begs the question why...

Love / Looking for a Polish love song [78]

That's a nice one. Also 'Zawsze Tam Gdzie Ty' by Lady Pank. Not too hard to understand for people learning Polish. A classic too.

Work / A predictable "Is my salary high enough post" - Krakow 13,500PLN GROSS Month [30]


That's not bad at all. It depends a lot on how old you are and what your expectations are.

You should be fine on that salary. Many professionals in Poland don't end up making that, even towards the end of their careers.

History / POLAND: EASTERN or CENTRAL European country? [1090]

Astro-Hungary went right from modern-dat Ukraine, down to the bottom of the Balkans. There's the concept of Mitteleuropa, which you can feel in Wroclaw/Breslau, Lviv/Lemberg and Kraków/Krakau. And even more in Prague, Vienna and Györ.

When there was a bigger German-speaking population in Krakau and Lemberg and that language was used sometimes even by the non-German intelligentsia it must have been even more Mitteleuropa.

The Russian parts of Poland of course we're more firmly Eastern Europe.

Law / Old Polish money banknotes - what's their value today? [415]

FFS, look at some of the posts above. Or just search on Wikipedia where there are pictures. With denominations like that, they are old inflationary banknotes and not worth much.

News / Poland hates Poland [24]

It's a tough one (I just had a discussion in Polish (a philosophical/conceptual rather than a language learning thing since most there were Poles) about all the different words and concepts around 'pokora'.

Rebellious is a good translation - and you chose well (though that implies buntowny, if that's a word) however this is a tricky one conceptually. Defiant is a good way of saying niepokorni here, Recalcitrant is even better.

History / POLAND: EASTERN or CENTRAL European country? [1090]


That's very accurate, although I'd add that the partitions of the Nineteenth and early Twentieth Centuries still have some bearing. Kraków has a distinct Mitteleuropa feel whereas Warsaw is solidly Eastern Europe.

Classifieds / Random Classifieds Ads Poland [261]

Look on Gumtree Polska, check the box that says 'owner only' and make sure to google the phone number in the ad to make sure it isn't an agent pretending not to be.

News / Poland's post-election political scene [4080]


Basically yes. And neither remotely credible.

Relics of a time of transition and neither wanting the skeletons in the cupboard to rattle too loudly.

News / Poland's post-election political scene [4080]


One danger that the media have mentioned is that he, the equally toxic Macierewicz and assorted Smolenskists are waiting in the wings. They won't let go easily, and as they get older, they seem to get worse.

History / What are Poland's pagan roots? [62]


A lovely post Borsukrates. I'd add that the type of palm branches used in Poland are very similar to the traditional Corn Collies used in parts of England even now. There they always make two, destroy one and retain the other until the next year's harvest.

Poland also has Światowid, something very old indeed.

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

Unless the law has changed, the laws relating to taser ownership are fairly liberal. You can probably buy them online and should check with the vendor who should be able to supply you with a reference to the elegant passage in the legal code.

But...

Who would you use it against?

And why?

History / POLAND: EASTERN or CENTRAL European country? [1090]


Absolutely. It's cultural too. Central Europe is Mitteleuropa. Poland, though Kraków, Wroclaw and parts of Silesia have a Central European feel is largely Eastern European. The cuisine, with its barszcz, cabbage soup, kasha, vodka, pierogi, golabki is firmly Eastern European with influences, like schabowy - basically a schnitzel - from Central Europe.

I remember one of the posters here (not Wulkan as I remember) getting all worked up about how Poland was definitely not under any circumstances ever in any shape or form Eastern European. While I was reading it, I was consuming barszcz and gherkins and looking out of the window at single story wooden houses, a vodka shop and an onion domed church.

Love / Online matrimonial - a good way to find a true Polish man/woman on the net? [51]

Are you:

a) Planning to meet him in real life any time soon?
b) Unsure about how easy it is to lose some weight if you want to?
c) Unaware that he might be fine about your appearance as it is?
d) Sure his pics are genuine?

And

e) Aware that there are easy apps for phone/tablet that can slim down photos of people? Karen Danczuk, the awful 'selfie queen' uses them. In real life she's a lot fatter than she looks in the pics.

Genealogy / Want to find a person [777]

Try the contact page of that website - it could be a good bet.

Genealogy / Want to find a person [777]

According to most of the things that come up on Google, she's in Sopot, near Gdańsk, but Twitter (assuming it's the same person) suggests she might now be in London.

Genealogy / Want to find a person [777]

She's on Twitter and also contactable probably through the contact page on this site:
bu.edu/agni/authors/J/Jennifer-Carter-Zielinska.html

Language / Polish names without a nickname (or less frequently shortened) [61]


Indeed, though that one nowadays just produces mirth.

Language / Polish names without a nickname (or less frequently shortened) [61]


These I know. I'm more interested in one syllable names.


He'd go beserk if I called him that. Glad I'm not called Gniewomir....