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Posts by jon357  

Joined: 15 Mar 2012 / Male ♂
Last Post: 5 hrs ago
Threads: Total: 76 / Live: 25 / Archived: 51
Posts: Total: 25282 / Live: 15237 / Archived: 10045
From: Somewhere around Barstow
Speaks Polish?: Not with my mouth full

Displayed posts: 15262 / page 480 of 509
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jon357   
29 Jun 2014
Life / Help me find this Polish band and song.... [117]

It's an extremely dirty song that might not have been written down very often. There may be something on the internet but nothing shows at a quick look. Maybe your best bet would be to ask someone elderly round Zakopane. There are plenty of such songs in Polish, some better known than others ("Ej po Orawie..." for example). It reminds me if one my granny used to sing (in a different language) which also never made it to the internet age.
jon357   
26 Jun 2014
Love / My Polish wife's family hate me. Maybe it is because I'm black. Advice needed. [87]

play the race card

I think that's a phrase best avoided. If there wasn't smoke, there wouldn't be fire. Best to avoid both.

Absolutely! We don't really know much about the family at all but from his posts we can figure out that Imano is probably thoroughly decent. A good friend here in PL whose daughter is married to a guy from far, far away was appalled when she saw her grand kids sitting down and eating rice with their hands. But once she got over the superficials, she stopped bothering. And anyway, people love their kids and grandkids unconditionally.
jon357   
26 Jun 2014
Love / My Polish wife's family hate me. Maybe it is because I'm black. Advice needed. [87]

There is plenty of evidence Jon if you read the Polish newspapers o you are in contact with certain communities in Poland.

Tripe. Do you still think that communities in Pl are "playing the race card".

Respect still has to go both ways, and in this case the parents haven't even met him...
jon357   
26 Jun 2014
Love / My Polish wife's family hate me. Maybe it is because I'm black. Advice needed. [87]

too many minorities in Poland try to play the race/equality card to their advantage.

Do you have any evidence of that or it it just your own idea.

it is paramount you respect their traditions and values otherwise it will be continual conflict.

Respect needs to go both ways. If a family are unpleasant in some way, or obsessed with tradition, nothing he does will be acceptable to them.
jon357   
23 Jun 2014
Food / Poland's best cheap beers? [72]

Yes. It's a bit cheaper usually than Żywiec etc. I often buy it since I like it, but when I do, people think it's a strange choice. Basically, if any of the main brands of beer here have a flavour other than chemical fizz, they're seen as worse quality.
jon357   
19 Jun 2014
Work / Language Teachers - do you feel respected in Poland? [86]

"Otherwise it sounds as if you're saying a professional English teacher is of higher status etc"
A professional teacher has much higher professional (and probably social) status than, as Roger describes them, a backpacking drunk or someone spooling out Headway in the crapper type of private language school or doing so-called conversation classes without any pedagogical basis. And if taking people's money for that procession, then they should certainly adhere to the highest standards. That includes not only making sure they learn but also not leaving them standing outside the building while the teacher takes a shower.
jon357   
19 Jun 2014
Work / Language Teachers - do you feel respected in Poland? [86]

stop with this stupid entitlement like if you are member of royal family or someone of higher status just because you are English teacher. I think you are the one who is being disrespectful here

If you're a professional (and I'm not convinced the OP is) then yes, you should regard yourself as such. Nevertheless, I can't imagine any doctor or lawyer keeping someone outside the door while they take a shower and not even buzzing them in.
jon357   
18 Jun 2014
Work / Language Teachers - do you feel respected in Poland? [86]

it's not a job I could do week in week out

With fickle clients and a lot of competition. As well as having a professional relationship you have to get on with them as well, and the key is to be very well prepared.
jon357   
10 Jun 2014
Law / Can somebody explain ZUS to me? [40]

Reforming it into something more viable would be such a massive task that no government wants to face it.
jon357   
9 Jun 2014
Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4500]

It's usually spelt Kopeć here, with a ć. The word means thick smoke or fumes (it's sometimes used as slang for a cigarette!) so perhaps someone whose job was melting tar, firing bricks or making charcoal. There's also a place called Kopcia if I remember correctly so it could also come from there.
jon357   
7 Jun 2014
Law / Weapons laws in Poland. Carrying a concealed handgun? [918]

If Poland had been an armed country, invaders would think twice before crossing the border

They wouldn't have thought twice and in any case there was no shortage of guns in PL back in those days.

They aren't neutral because they say they are.

Actually, they are. Topography has a lot to do with it too.

American fought hard against an oppressive British rule

Actually the Founding Fathers were British themselves, radical and progressive Liberals who didn't like a Conservative form of government.

so that the people can defend themselves from a tyrannical government

Good luck with that.
jon357   
5 Jun 2014
Life / I woke up in Poland's Hilton of Drunks after the Juvenalia party. Must I pay the 300zl fine? [49]

am i required to actually pay the 300zl fine

Yes. You have to pay. They can chase you for the money and can make life difficult. You have to decide whether saving 300zl is worth more than a lot of hassle. You might get lucky and get away with not paying, however it really isn't worth the risk for such a small amount. I can't remember the legal status of what you have to pay - if it's criminal they can have you arrested for not paying, if it's civil they can get bailiffs to collect which may damage your credit rating.

A lady did get €10000 compensation from the European Court some time back for being taken there because she had alcohol in her blood but was behaving ok. But she a. was middle-aged and respectable, b. had very solid witnesses and most importantly, c. didn't just wake up there wondering where she was.
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.