Travel / Hard Candy - Krakow, Poland - reviews? [131]

The girls are probably in the pay of the bar. The cocktails are probably coloured water. Even a whisky and coke won't have any whisky in if the girls are drinking it.

Had this scam in Turkey and Paris.

Food / Healthy polish food? [134]


FEW VEGETABLES?????

Come on, I mean you can't order a glass of water without it being accompanied by chopped salad.

Life / Polish (in comparison to English and Indian) have amazing culture [71]


aren't they known as scousers?

Life / Giving tips in Poland [235]


No, in English.

he didn't really mean anything by it, it was a mixture of him not being able to understand I found his over-friendliness annoying and bad paralinguistics/intonation etc.

Life / Giving tips in Poland [235]


yeah, I know what you mean.

I had a waiter in one bar who came up and asked for the order. I asked him in Polish which beers he had. He straight away started speaking in English, although I was speaking Polish. OK, I thought, he's trying to be helpful. He then started describing each beer. I told him I'd lived in Poland a few years. He said, "Oh, so you're the expert then!"

I wanted to punch his lights out. OK, he was only trying to be helpful but he presumably had no idea how insulting and patronising he sounded (that's why I didn't do anything).

Funny thing was that when I mentioned it to Poles, they didn't find anything wrong with it. Brits asked me if I'd hit him.

Life / Polish (in comparison to English and Indian) have amazing culture [71]


And does she know you're telling the world about it?


Maybe find out about his culture. What's all this about Allah and camels? The guy is Hindu... totally different thing. All it does is show you and the others up as ignorant. Maybe that's why the Polish girls prefer him to you.

Life / Polish (in comparison to English and Indian) have amazing culture [71]


Have you considered that Polish girls might find you 'exotic', whereas Indian and british girls might be more used to an Indian guy? Damn, how I envy you!

Another point, how is it that the mods on these forums are quite ready to jump on some other threads for, allegedly, going off topic BUT they are more than prepared to let all the racist drivel on this thread stay?

Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4500]

Thanks. I think my friend had ideas about France, but Scotland sounds very possible.

Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4500]

Any ideas on the name Michej?

Genealogy / Polish surname Gil. My ancestors were from the town of Widelka. [74]

My wife has been watching a Russian singer called Edward Hill (Eduard Khil) on Youtube. Apparently he thinks his name is derived from the Spanish name Gil

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eduard_Khil

History / Poland is great Mother of all Slavs from Baltic to Balkan [177]

Yeah, It's OK to sing supposedly protestant/republican songs, get drunk and swear (not behaviour you'd usually see in church) and claim you are defending your religion.

I always found these guys comically sad.

I believe the wheelbarrow was invented to help them learn to walk upright.

I once was sitting near a guy in aGlasgow pub. He was watching Croatia on the TV sport channel. A Croat player tripped and crossed himself, "Aye, that's whit it's aa aboot! Yugoslavia, nice country, communist, but nice.... it wiz the church o' rome which broke it up!"

I was itching to ask him if he actually knew what the orthodox church was.

History / Is There A Polish Foreign Legion? [35]

English version

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariusz_Zaruski

Work / Learning Polish in Olsztyn... crazy prices for private lessons. [27]


What? When i think of US democracy I think it takes a lot of money to be a major part of it... so maybe a bit like ELT!

Work / Learning Polish in Olsztyn... crazy prices for private lessons. [27]


But is this really the case?

Part of the problem is that some people think it is necessary to learn all the grammar first and then use it. I've taught japanese kids who have great grammar skills and can do exercises but almost never spoke because of the way they'd been taught at home.

Likewise, I attended a Polish course in Scotland which was run by Polish NS and English teachers. It was geared rather like an English course and it worked very well at getting people speaking and using the grammar. We had to write essays, translate poetry and watch films in Polish (short ones for study purposes). It worked very well.

The thing is that that course was taught in an English speaking country. In Poland the main focus should be on using the language because that is what you'll be doing as soon as you walk out the door.

Work / Learning Polish in Olsztyn... crazy prices for private lessons. [27]


My wife thinks that's how I speak.

My Polish colleague notes when all the Brits/Americans in the school try to mówić po polsku, our voices go up an octave.

Work / Learning Polish in Olsztyn... crazy prices for private lessons. [27]

Exactly.

I think there's also a problem with NS's of other languages in that they assume a student has a knowledge of their own system from a grammatical perspective.

I remember having a German class at uni where the teacher was a german NS. She declared we'd be stidying the accusative that day. I reckoned that if I, as one of the oldest in the class, didn't know what it was then a lot of the younger studes wouldn't either,

"What's the accusative?"

"This is the accusative"

"But when would i use 'the accusative'?"

(sigh) "When would you normally use the accusative?"

unable to realise that it was the concept of 'accusative' which i was unaware of.

Work / Learning Polish in Olsztyn... crazy prices for private lessons. [27]


I think this is reflective of the way languages have traditionally been taught here. I sometimes have older students and they can't get used to all the communicative stuff in ELT, they think if I make them sleep with a years supply of Murphy's under their bed then they'll learn by osmosis.

They can't accept that being able to communicate with mistakes is better than knowing the mechanics but not being able to drive.

Work / Learning Polish in Olsztyn... crazy prices for private lessons. [27]


Ask up at the university. They have a department for teaching Polish to foreigners.

UNIVERSITY OF WARMIA AND MAZURY IN OLSZTYN.
CENTRE OF CULTURE AND POLISH LANGUAGE FOR FOREIGNERS
KURTA OBITZA STREET 1,
10- 725 OLSZTYN, POLAND
TEL./FAX +48 89 524 65 64

PM me a phone number and I'll ask a few folk if they know anyone.

TREV:-)

History / Poland is great Mother of all Slavs from Baltic to Balkan [177]


Yeah, I mean, they're just like us Scots in that respect, aren't they?
...

History / Poland is great Mother of all Slavs from Baltic to Balkan [177]


Oh, I just recall protestors in Skopje declaring the NATO attack on Serbia was really a front for a Jewish/Catholic plot against the Orthodox Church (and that the Bosnians were traitors because they'd embraced Islam... a similar argument to the Croats')

History / Is There A Polish Foreign Legion? [35]


OOps, sorry!

Yeah, forget what I said. The Poles actually fooled the Swedes into going home by putting signs up telling them there was football match on TV (then the Poles went to drink some more warka).

History / Is There A Polish Foreign Legion? [35]


Except invade Poland.

Genealogy / Seeking Czarniecki family members and ancestors from Lublin, also Margiewicz, Danilowicz and Andrulewicz [77]

Allegedly, when one scholar tried to write indepth about this she was blocked by a certain sector of the Polish academia. I have references somewhere, I'll see if I can dig them out.

History / Poland is great Mother of all Slavs from Baltic to Balkan [177]


and your Croatian brothers?

Life / IS CHEATING ON EXAMS OK? (younger Poles don't think so) [30]


A Polish colleague of mine who is an examiner for the Cambridge exams told me that Cambridge had had to revise its practice for listening exams (different days in different countries, only one paper) because students were photographing and recording the tests and then selling them on the internet.

The 2 main culprits; Greece (well, I suppose they need the money these days) and... can you guess?

History / Poland is great Mother of all Slavs from Baltic to Balkan [177]


indeed. ;-)

History / Poland is great Mother of all Slavs from Baltic to Balkan [177]


According to wiki (so it must be true):

The Masurians or Mazurs or Masurs (Polish: Mazurzy, German: Masuren) are a Lechitic sub-ethnic group in the Masovian and Warmian-Masurian Voivodeships in Poland. They are descended from Masovians (Polish: Mazowszanie; German: Masowier), Polish settlers from Masovia who moved to Prussia especially during and after the Protestant Reformation and were primarily Protestant. In the 1800s the Masuria region of East Prussia was named after the Masurians.

History / Poland is great Mother of all Slavs from Baltic to Balkan [177]


Aren't they called masurians because they originally came from the Masovian region?

History / Poland is great Mother of all Slavs from Baltic to Balkan [177]


Careful about grabbing a guy's helmet... especially if there's a spike on top of it.

History / Poland is great Mother of all Slavs from Baltic to Balkan [177]


Here's some info. Mind you, it seems the Poles and Lithuanians kicked Mongol ass, whereas the Serbian king rolled over for them...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mongol_invasion_of_Europe

Oh, did you know that Scottish knights were guests of the Teutonic Order during the Northern Crusades into Prussia and Lithuania?