News / Polish parliament refuses to consider shack-up draft between both traditional and same-sex couples [96]

Why not? In so much of the world marriage isn't limited to couples, inter species relations are far from new (and not unknown in Poland) soif that's how people want to live, whoever shouldn't they.

Language / Why is the Polish language so difficult? [316]

Nope, nothing to do with "the technical field" at all.


You perhaps missed the bit in the post you were replying to that covered that. Those examples are just variants of the same word - if you know even one, you know the rest from the context.

English has a far larger and richer vocabulary than Polish - makes learning Polish easier and English spoken internationally a limited register of the language.

Language / Why is the Polish language so difficult? [316]

And many words from Ancient Greek before that. Plenty of such words in Polish, however vocabulary similarity isn't the biggest factor about whether a language is difficult or not.

Fortunately for those who have learnt the language, Polish has very few words compared to English - if you factor out changes in word endings, gender influence, etc it has far fewer so much less to remember.

News / Polish parliament refuses to consider shack-up draft between both traditional and same-sex couples [96]

Youth (meaning anyone under 60) will eventually mobilise as you mention - if there's the threat of PiS having a crack at real power it will bring people out to vote as happened last time.

Equal marriage will happen anyway, probably sooner than anyone expects.

Language / Why is the Polish language so difficult? [316]

And vice versa

History / Good enough for British - Joseph Conrad? Poland-born novelist. [30]

Textual analysts disagree. Good that you feel Conrad is worthy of analysis. Those writers who influenced his style are well enough known, however his own texts are of a quality to look at - particularly to identify the role of his wife.

History / Good enough for British - Joseph Conrad? Poland-born novelist. [30]

It works well for textual analysis and Conrad's works are worthy of this. The only issue is the cost.

History / Good enough for British - Joseph Conrad? Poland-born novelist. [30]

Not sure how that's relevant, R.u.r.; the various influences that one writer receives from another are well enough discussed and nothing new - in Conrad's case both the influences he has on others (I'm glad you mentioned TSE) and the influences on him from others. One worthwhile project (can't be far away since it's so simple) is to run his oevre through textual analysis software to identify which passages are in his wife's voice.

Language / Is the term 'Polak' derogatory?? [254]

Nothing to theorise about, O God of Fire. Those jokes are all universal, old, and told about the nearest group at hand. They exist in Poland too about a particular group.

"Escaped Nazis" indeed! Did they goose-step while they were telling them?

Language / Is the term 'Polak' derogatory?? [254]

That's beyond clutching at straws, isn't it, to pretend that Polish jokes originated with Nazis "who escaped to USA". You say that's "one theory" but frankly a laughable one. I wonder if they wore their armbands when they were selling the joke books.

At least we know what happened to Martin Bormann now...

Language / Is the term 'Polak' derogatory?? [254]

That post doesn't say what you're thinking at all. The first comment makes no sense whatsoever - why would any wartime anti-Polish propaganda from Germany be in English? Britain declared war as soon as Poland was invaded and although it took the U.S. much longer they wanted nothing to do with Poland - certainly no reason for the Germans to make Polish jokes as propaganda in English-speaking countries.

You seem to be clutching at straws - that or you just don't know what you mean.

Language / Is the term 'Polak' derogatory?? [254]

Why not? Do you know many jokes in English made by Germans?

As for theories, I know abstract thinking doesn't come easily to you, however I wonder if you've ever noticed that those jokes tend to be universal ones; for many years and in many places about many groups.

Language / Is the term 'Polak' derogatory?? [254]

Any Polish jokes made up by the group you mention would doubtless not be in English. Also, I've never heard a Pole say 'Polock' (though I rarely hear them speak English these days) - I suspect you've never heard the word in Poland either.

Are you confusing it with Polak? Though remember, that's a Polish rather than an English word.

Language / Is the term 'Polak' derogatory?? [254]

@Sledź
Why would you think "the Germans" made up U.S. Polish jokes (in English!) and why?

Btw, the idea that the word 'Polak' is derogatory is very much an American thing - in Europe we don't use the word (except of course when speaking Polish). So yes, blame it on the Americans if you want to.

Law / In Poland on National Visa, want to visit London - how can i apply for travel visa to UK [22]

That depends on where you're from. Citizens of some countries need them and citizens of others don't.

Polish residence doesn't make any difference - the UK isn't in Schengen.

News / Polish final report on Smoleńsk aircrash [870]

I wouldn't put it past Macierewicz, certain publications - in fact some of the scarier cranks in PL - to suggest the Russians were 'cloud seeding' or some such.

Study / Rumor about racism - will I be fine in Poland as a black International student from Africa? [245]

It's changed incredibly fast, even over the past couple of years.

Study / Rumor about racism - will I be fine in Poland as a black International student from Africa? [245]

It used to be like that in Warsaw, but not now. Plenty of service industry jobs - not well paid but ok for students and nowadays colour-blind.

Remember Warsaw tends to move faster than the rest of the country and the scale of the change has been dramatic.

Study / Rumor about racism - will I be fine in Poland as a black International student from Africa? [245]

With Lodz, I like everywhere except the three places you've mentioned :-). but yes, it's got a feel of its own. Some people say they don't like Warsaw, but again, it's a multi-layered city, and for students, the infrastructure is great. A foreign student too, might find it easier to buy foods they like, meet people from their own region, get invites to their embassy etc. plus, it's the most multicultural place in the county so they'd stand out less.

Bits of work too (not usually steady or lucrative) and some foreign students go for casting for adverts, extra work, but parts simply because they look different. Plenty of service industry work for students only - generally round Nowy Swiat and the Old Town, and no problems if the person's black.

Study / Rumor about racism - will I be fine in Poland as a black International student from Africa? [245]

There are a lot of poor and lonely foreign students in Poznan. Maybe I'm too pro-Warsaw but after all, it's the capital. Kraków I wouldn't recommend, Gdansk probably no. In Warsaw there are more chances.

Poland is relatively cheap, but a miserable place to be if you have no money. In Warsw at least, there's a chance of work.

Study / Rumor about racism - will I be fine in Poland as a black International student from Africa? [245]


As Dominic says, the universities aren't the best. What he doesn't say is that choosing s university isn't just about chasing rankings, it's about studying somewhere pleasant, and Polish cities are up a nice place to be.

It's relatively easy to get a place there and you shouldn't worry about safety etc - there are people from all over the world studying there. A word of advice - choose a big city, perhaps Warsaw. Smaller places are less interesting.

News / Polish final report on Smoleńsk aircrash [870]

It was a government plane, a qualified pilot and it was the nearest airport - and after all, the pilot advised otherwise. Such a shame that the PiSuarzy always try to apportion blame elsewhere.

News / Polish final report on Smoleńsk aircrash [870]

Then, as everywhere, he should have followed the direction of the Premier, rather than misbehave as usual. If he or his aides hadn't caused an accident which killed him as well as innocent passengers doubtless he'd have made a fool of himself in some way over the ceremony.

News / Polish final report on Smoleńsk aircrash [870]

That's actually as comical as something the clown Jaro Kaczynski would have squeezed out - 'should never have been put on' doesn't apply for the head of state, nor is the visa thing more of a distraction. Sad that you call the country's Premier "scum" though, and try to shift the blame for the accident on him, when it lies squarely with the person or persons who were in the cockpit interfering with the flight. Remember any incidents with a certain Kaczynski interfering with pilots before, by any chance?

No reason for him even to be there, given that the Premier was there too.

News / Polish final report on Smoleńsk aircrash [870]

That's just paranoia. And at least we now know there was interference in the cockpit.

News / Polish final report on Smoleńsk aircrash [870]


Certainly never in front in front of TV cameras while Mayor of the city. Nor did he, since he hadn't 'lost his temper' - his spite was fully controlled and aimed at a vulnerable person. By the way, A politician being dead does not mean that you only have to mention their good points - which in his case were few. Otherwise there would never be any appraisal of historical figures.

Interesting what the rest of the transcript said. It certainly demolishes all those paranoid conspiracy theories. Those public figured who've levelled wild accusations against members of the government should apologise. Hopefully it will shut Macierewicz up.

News / Polish final report on Smoleńsk aircrash [870]

Hard to tell from the voices they could recover from the tape, but interestingly not all has been released. The PiSuarzy would hate yet more footage (remember "spieprzaj dziadu") that paints him in a bad light.

Law / Working in Poland while being self employed in the UK and paying tax and in there [24]

Sort of. If he was in Poland, he probably wouldn't spend 90 days (the threshold in the UK) back in England and wouldn't be liable for tax in either place. However - and it's a big however, if he's actually working in Poland, the activities he undertook would generate a tax liability from day one.

Plenty of people working in Poland keep up their National Insurance payments in the UK though. He'd still need to pay Polish ZUS however by paying NI he'd retain pension rights etc at home.

As for being self-employed in the UK, there are Poles who do that too - he'd still need to register a 'representative' with the KRS in Poland, so on the whole not that much point in it - though of course that depends what exactly he wants to do.

Work / Are Indian dental qualifications recognised in Poland? [22]

Remember that to work in healthcare in Poland, perfect or at least very good Polish is needed - there's also too many people chasing too few jobs, and many people going abroad for work.

News / Abortion still under control in Poland [2986]

They don't much, unless they're teenagers or there's some other reason - the stats are about Poland not the UK.