UK, Ireland / How do the Polish and People with Polish Ancestry feel about British Royality [61]

Rich, stop splitting hairs for heaven's sake and take a look at the facts!
Did you read #56 before you posted me?

UK, Ireland / How do the Polish and People with Polish Ancestry feel about British Royality [61]

It all goes back to Eddie & Wally, both royal disgraces to Crown and Country,
MY country as well, since Wallis Simpson was an American.

Edward VIII was a bonified Nazi sympathizer, along with Moseley, the Mitfords and Lord Hawhaw etc.

Elizabeth thankfully took after her father, George I, not the other side of the family:-)

Love / What happens when you marry into a Polish family... [19]

True, yet a summer DOES consist of certain elements which remain nonetheless constant from year to year:-)

When I was teaching a group of Polish students in my ESL course a number of years back, I noticed that solely the Polish students reacted by fighting back such tears, that I had to actually stop the class for a five minute pause in order for everyone to compose themselves!

The NYT had printed numerous articles maligning the Poles regarding Poland's alleged complicity in WWII and the presence of "Polish Concentration Camps" which of course turned out to be a gross inaccuracy.

Other nationalities might have reacted to such slights with humor or uncomfortable laughter, angry lashing out or simply rationalizations.

The Poles' reaction however was singular in my experience.

Love / What happens when you marry into a Polish family... [19]

The great silent screen actress Pola Negri aka Apolonia Chalupiec wrote in her autobiography that even after over fifty some years of living in Hollywood, she still admitted she would become weepy and self-pitying at the drop of a hat, derided as she was by her Anglo-American counterparts.

Her thoughts, not mine.

Love / What happens when you marry into a Polish family... [19]

I grew up next door to a Polish family, actually in the apt.building diagonal to ours, and what I remember after all these years is the rock solid solidarity which Poles show for other Polish family members!

Poles are similar to the Southern Italians in this way, I think. Even if a Polish family has some mega-successful, wealthy relatives, if certain others are merely common average Joes, EVERYBODY, at least in my observation, gets treated at the same dining room table as equals, not as second-rate interlopers as can often occur among W.A.S.P families.

Emotions though can run high. Frequently, the tendency of many Poles (men and women) to wear their heart on their sleaves, cry openly, and emote uncontrollably, will be tough to take if someone is not familiar with it and more used to an Anglo-Saxon Protestant culture of restraint and repression.

Genealogy / Easy way to find out which Polish coat of arm/Clan you belong to. [105]

Don't forget about Chelm, jon.
:-)

History / Not proud of my Polish heritage [110]

Many people make a conscious decision not to return to their native country out of protest!
After WWII, scores of Germans left Germany for distant shores, (mostly for the US, Jewish refugees, often choosing Israel), in a majority of cases never to return, even in extreme instances, to visit ill or impovrished relatives back home.

The parents of some friends of ours only agreed to see their parents on neutral territory but wouldn't set foot on German soil.

Life / Stubborn Polaks, anyone knows? [77]

And Americans AREN'T judgmental too??
Often submental is more like it LOL

Life / Stubborn Polaks, anyone knows? [77]

Lot of stereotypes to me!
Let's get off it already and by the way, as concerns the Poles vs. the Irish, the former have a good deal of Celtic background, you know.

Work / Moving to Poland, Working for a UK Company [34]

Get a handle on some of the language though FIRST, prior to moving over!
Best of luck to you.

History / History of two Neighbors: Poland - Germany Interrelations [283]

@GefreiterKania,
Like it or not, Brussels is for all intents and purposes the capital of Europe, being the primary impetus of the Euro, after all.

History / History of two Neighbors: Poland - Germany Interrelations [283]

Correct, jon!
Continental law is Napoleonic and the American concept of "interpretive" amendments to the national Constitution is essentially foreign to non-Common Law thinking.

History / History of two Neighbors: Poland - Germany Interrelations [283]

@Joker,
The present Scholz administration may well be long on talk, as you suggest, but don't let's for one moment think that hesitance in moving forward necessarily means unwillingness to act!

Scholz is a Merkelian at heart and often mistakes long gestation periods of considering for "pragmatism".

Germans in mainstream politics often seem skittish and deathly afraid of jumping the gun.

Language / Having a really hard time with Polish cases [59]

Probably a decent source, RobertP12.
Not to knock the other fellow's merchandise, there are so many sources both online as well as in paper form from which to choose, surely there can be no definitive site!

But again, wrapping oneself up in case endings right at the start without learning to simply communicate in the basic spoken language, is a mistake in my opinion.

I've taught German for nearly thirty-odd years and I try to spare my beginners the pain of too much immersion in the grammar right at the outset.

Learning in context is to my mind the ideal way of learning any language after the age of childhood.

Powodzenia,

Language / Polish Language Exchange Thread [144]

If you are looking for a tandem partner, I'd be happy to volunteer my services.
I have an intermediate to advanced intermediate working knowledge of Polish while English is my "first" language although technically German is my mother tongue:-)

Looking forward to hearing back from you under tarsape@gmail.com or here in PF, whichever you'd prefer.

Czy pan szuka tandem partnera, ciesze sie bardzo na wspolprace.
Mam znajomosci polskiego na dobrym poziomie, choc angielski jest moim "pierwszym" jezykiem a niemiecki jest moim jezykiem ojczystym:-)

Moja e-mail: tarsape@gmail.com. Ale czy pan chcialby skontaktowac do mnie w PF, pan ma optcje.

UK, Ireland / Why are Polish people, especially women, so disrespectful toward the English? [442]

If that's the case, the Poles surely don't own a monopoly on dissing the English language!
:-)

History / What do Poles owe to Hungarians? [275]

Apropos switching loyalties, there's a saying as old as the hills, "The enemy of my enemy is my friend"
True then, equally true now. Bear in mind, folks, human nature in essence never changes!

Polonia / Tak Tak - Polish Deli (in Berlin) [34]

In all likelihood.
However the chlodnik as well as the placki ziemniaczne tasted pretty authentic to me.
Then again, I wasn't raised in a Polish household:-)

Polonia / Tak Tak - Polish Deli (in Berlin) [34]

There's a restaurant here in Manhattan, "Little Poland" and it's rather like a Greenpoint greasy spoon with lots of crowded tables next to one another, orders called called out in both Polish and English, fast service and overworked Polish waitresses, somewhat rough around the edges, dishing out generous dollops of pure Polish comfort food cooked to perfection!

Anyone ever eaten there?

Work / Work as English proofreader in Poland [19]

Oddly enough, those two terms "scallywag" and "termagant" remind me of the Captain Haddock character in the Methuen Ltd. edition of Herge's Adventures of Tintin, whereby often the good captain would give some bloke a piece of his mind, using similarly antiquated, comical English words nearly no one's ever heard of, perhaps even of his own invention ("gibbering rigipod" etc.).

If truth be told, yes, I once translated a page-length handwritten letter from English into Swedish as a personal favor for an office mate. Luckily, the office manager of the translation bureau where I was working was herself a Swedish native speaker and so feverishly went over my translation with the finest of fine toothed combs:-) She admittedly found little to edit, if I do say so myself, yet to be frank, enough to discredit it as a professional translation sans a once over from an educated native speaker!

Actually got full pay for it too.

Work / Work as English proofreader in Poland [19]

Jon, as usual, you took the words (right) out of my mouth, 'scuse the hackneyed expression:-)

Although I too know a number of languages with relative fluency, I'd NEVER dare to translate a text, even a relatively "simple" text, from English into Polish for pay. Into English from Polish etc. is of course another story entirely.

The only languages which are native to me are German and English and can translate handily into both.

Work / Work as English proofreader in Poland [19]

In my experience as well the latter is certainly better paying on the whole.

Classifieds / I am single and I hope to find true love and honesty. [18]

And you aren't? There's no "last word" on logic:-)

Classifieds / I am single and I hope to find true love and honesty. [18]

Not everyone follows the same "logic", Rich!

Classifieds / I am single and I hope to find true love and honesty. [18]

How do you know?

Classifieds / I am single and I hope to find true love and honesty. [18]

No, it's anything but "spot on", Rich! It's way off.
There actually are women out there who are still looking for true love, not based either solely on the size of his shlong or his wallet.

Po polsku / Podwyżka czynszu [3]

Muszisz byc tylko ostrozne!

History / What do Poles owe to Hungarians? [275]

MY weird ideas???
Are you a nutter? You even wondered at "those" people who thought such things!

Hungarians are a Uralic or Ugritic people.

History / What do Poles owe to Hungarians? [275]

Many Westerners persist in the belief that Hungarians are Slavs!
It was once thought that the former in fact were related to the Turks, but this too turned out to be incorrect:-)