News / THE ARMY OF POLAND - THE REALITY [493]


then why aren't they protesting? can you imagine the government of Poland doing something a large majority of people opposed and people just sitting at home?

they're either moral cowards or approve....

News / THE ARMY OF POLAND - THE REALITY [493]


they're the ones that did the pushing... it wasn't putain forcing war on peaceful russians it was bloodthirsty russians who long to inflict suffering and humiliation on others... you haven't figured that out yet?

History / Pol-Shorpy Photo Thread [950]


Though not a fascinating author.... out of boredom and a lack of other options I once read one of her books (guest starring Sissi who was visiting England at the time).

Kind of a dry slog.... and nothing remotely romantic... the last ten pages the two leads basically engage in a debate about whether they love each other....

never..... again.....

History / Pol-Shorpy Photo Thread [950]


The only author to write more books than she'd read?

History / Pol-Shorpy Photo Thread [950]


Dame Barbara Cartland.... they really thought it was her year.

Travel / Poles as tourists in foreign countries [93]


when someone tells you who they are.... believe them

News / Will PiS be happy if AfD wins elections in Germany? [1440]


Zeihan had a video pointing out the non-starter nature of any other choice as RC... basically no other takers or viable options.

youtube.com/watch?v=LiR54FPQiCs

It's like the US's role of maintaining the maritime order... if that's gone you're giving pirates or other malcontents (see houthis) free reign to disrupt global supply trans....

No other country can do what the US does in guaranteeing order (no matter how badly it does it at any given moment) and if the US doesn't even try... it's mass poverty and lawlessness.

of course russia wants that but no sane people do.

Food / Polish mustards [134]


I always hated horsereadish before moving to Poland where I gradually came to like it (first step was mixing the yolk in soft-boiled eggs with a bit of horseradish and mayo). Now I even like the sauce made with very large amounts of it.

In Germany I tried some at a breakfast buffet and.... nein! Not the same...

For some reason, while I love Polish horseradish I still don't like any other type.

News / Will PiS be happy if AfD wins elections in Germany? [1440]


I doubt it. His centerpiece campaign promise of 2016 was that he would build a wall on the border with Mexico.... he built no wall.

He says anything he thinks audiences want to hear and there's no connection between what he says and what he does.

Food / Polish mustards [134]


What? Brits make their own... mustard? Do they buy the seeds and grind them? Do they grow their own plants to harvest the seeds?

Food / Polish mustards [134]

I've never been a mustared connoissieur... Polish mustard is.... okay.... though I prefer sweeter rather than hotter mustards.

My favorite is Dijon (a type not a brand but...) and second favorite is called 'francuska' in Poland (with all the seeds).

American mustard is bright yellow and good for devilled eggs... and not much else.

Language / Game - guess Polish idioms/sayings in direct English translation [1756]

Someone who doesn't want something but doesn't want anyone else to have it either (or only pretends to want it to try to prevent someone else from having it).

The dog in the manger is probably the closest English equivalent.

News / Presidential elections 2025 - the race has commenced!!! [665]


Cause no one (except paranoid hysterics) is talking about actually limiting people to a small area..... down boy.

Off-Topic / Random movies (not Polish) proposed by forum users [95]


Gross...... I can't imagine what the people who approved this were thinking.... concentration camp romance? no.... (especially with the posters with their faces in a heart shape...

News / Presidential elections 2025 - the race has commenced!!! [665]


Large parts of big Polish cities are already that..... it's only suburb-crazed Americans that freak out at that idea.... (yeah, I know there's another agenda behind it but the basic idea of having many/most necessary services close by is fine.

News / Will PiS be happy if AfD wins elections in Germany? [1440]

There are a couple dozen or so words of Yiddish that have entered daily US English.... meshugganah (crazy person) schlemiel (loser) are among them (though spelling is not that fixed).

News / Will PiS be happy if AfD wins elections in Germany? [1440]


Was there a yiddish speaking population ever in a primarily German speaking place?

I honestly don't know...

One thing I find weird is that many (not all but probably most) non-super religious Jews didn't have more.... affection for Yiddish and attempts to keep it alive in places like the cccp mostly failed.

IINM it's mostly now spoken in the greater New York area in order to maintain group cohesion and prevent integration among orthodox Jews and maybe some in Israel by very conservative jews who consider(ed?) Hebrew too sacred for daily conversation (though Israeli Hebrew is very different from the sacred language).

It's too bad more people don't know about Ladino (related to Spanish the way Yiddish is related to German).

News / Years of Poland in the EU - assessment of pros and cons [1199]


Not that I've ever heard of... yeah sherrif's, judges and maybe a handful of managerial positions (like 'supervisor of elections' in some states) but not rank and file.

Language / Why is the Polish language so difficult? [353]


Just what I wrote... if you go on vacation to the Tatras do you want to hear mountain people talking funny or hear them speaking standard Polish? What fun is that?

It's local color. Maybe not the main reason but.... a contributing factor.

Language / Why is the Polish language so difficult? [353]


How much of that is tourism driven? Funny mountain talk is part of the local tourist experience and no one wants to go there and hear them talking like anyone else (though many of them can when they want to).

To me the paralingujistic features (intonantion esp) sound very much like Slovak though I'm told the vocabulary isn't really close...

History / Why Was D-Day So Significant for Poland ? [266]


Mr. Pot, have you had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Kettle yet?

Study / Various education and school issues in Poland. Opinions, stories, controversies. [1006]


Now I see that 'maj' in Ukrainian is 'traveń' which I love.... grass month! So cool!

I'm reminded of an herbal alcohol in Croatia called 'travarica'

History / Russian Greatness - and its Polish Contributors [77]


Then why pick such a spelling in Polish even much less russian? I've read older descriptions that imply an r sound used to be there (which one would expect).

History / Russian Greatness - and its Polish Contributors [77]



Aha! Now I get it! The russian rendering came a long time ago when the pronunciation of Polish rz was more or less like Czech Ř / ř (sort or r and ż at the same time)

Checking wikipedia..... the Czech composer Dvorak (Dvořák) is Дворжак in russian.

Now it makes sense.....

History / Russian Greatness - and its Polish Contributors [77]


There's no r sound in Krzy- rz is the old soft r (pь) it's no longer soft and pronounced either zh or sh depending on what consonants are around it... after k it's always sh

syllabified

Krzy - żan -ow - ski

КPЬЫ ( or KPИ but pronounced KШЫ ) ЖAH - OB (pronounced OФ) CKИ

Language / Why is the Polish language so difficult? [353]


There was an album by Piersi called "My już są Amerykany" I've also heard 'my byli' sometimes while I've never heard 'wy byli' that I remember.... I've read that might happen because -śmy contains 'my'

Language / Why is the Polish language so difficult? [353]

Along with German sind and Spanish son, Portuguese sao and probably others.

fun fact: the very weird present tense of być in Polish (with the combinations of jest and personal endings which are reduced forms of an older version of the verb być) was unsettled and forms like sąśmy used to occur. Personally I rather like sąśmy and sąście and wish they had taken hold....

Travel / Poland in photo riddles - part 3 [818]


dirt bath

History / Why Was D-Day So Significant for Poland ? [266]


Let's pretend we're Jehovah's Witnesses and shun him! Don't respond to any of his desperate attempts at getting attention.

News / PiS candidates are losing positions in EU Parliament. Will they keep power in Poland? [358]


PiS has an established history of trying to take over coalition partners so.... no point in getting in bed with a vampire.....