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


Yes. This.


Exactly! Finland has a very different cultural profile and there's no reason to expect that random bits taken from a very different culture will work when applied to Polish realities.

From my point of view the Polish system is too teacher-centered and too product-oriented (meaning things like performance on exams are given too much importance).

But you can't just wave a wand and change that. Some reasonable limits on homework and dialing down the importance of exams (which do not necessarily measure actual mastery of material in many/most subjects) are nice starting points.

Start with ending the practice of getting separate grades on coursework and exams* and incorporate exam grades into the overall grade.

*as happens at universities, not sure if that's the case in high schools

News / Not political prisoners but PiS criminal politicians, in fact [45]


traitor? how so? Do you have a specific charge or just generalized dislike?


PiS began that game.... if they don't like where it's leading then they can go suck a go@t....

News / Not political prisoners but PiS criminal politicians, in fact [45]


It doesn't stop a trial apparently (did Kaczyński think it would?)

And a pardon doesn't change the verdict, it just says they won't be punished with jail.

It doesn't change the fact that pardon or not they are no longer MPs

PiS should keep up their rabid level of support for these criminals.... it alienates everyone but their low information and welfare dependent base....

Life / Jerzy Kosinski: Are his works popular in Poland? [48]


Yes, and had he mentioned the inspiration people would have no problem with it. But the lying elsewhere caught up with him.....


Or "Polish woman" "Polish women" its hard for me to think of any nationality where -ess is used for women (-ess is usually used for professions). The closest I can think is Jewess (which is very archaic and barely used now AFAIK).

Life / Satanic and Heretical Manifestations in Poland [123]


What a poster hath created... let gnome man tear asunder!

Law / Are non-Polish senior citizens entitled to use free public transportation ? [20]


Where I am over 65's (with local tax returns so.... not for tourists) can get a year long pass for less than 100 zl.

Language / Is it possible to master the Polish language fluently for a non-Polish speaker? [120]


yes... I read somewhere his published work (as brilliant as it often is) was very heavily edited from the original manuscript, first by his wife (who had no special education but in that context that could be an advantage).

News / How will Poland be affected by WW3 which has now started [559]


Well the world is in the midst of a profound change of socio-political orders and those traditionally have been accompanied by major wars... (WW's I and II par exemple) there's some author (name Babbit IIRC) who suggested that the US was trying to prevent the kind of major, wasteful conflagation that usually accompanies such changes by keeping a bunch of smaller regional conflicts going (Syria, Congo, Yemen among others) to distract the energies of major players.

russia's eternal wounded narcissism could easily turn it into a conflagration....

Life / Satanic and Heretical Manifestations in Poland [123]


These things do take time, after all...... (drumroll) Gnome wasn't built in a day.

Life / Satanic and Heretical Manifestations in Poland [123]


You know what they say about Wrocław..... all roads lead to Gnome.....

Life / Satanic and Heretical Manifestations in Poland [123]


In other words, I should visit.... Wrocław?

The other name for the city is....

The Holy Gnoman Empire!!!!

Life / Satanic and Heretical Manifestations in Poland [123]


All hail Our Holy Gnomes!

Our Gnome, who art in Wrocław,
Adorable be thy name!

Life / Jerzy Kosinski: Are his works popular in Poland? [48]


When he was working no one in the west knew anything about Polish literature beyond Quo Vadis.... had he acknowledged (in a foreword, for example) that 'Being There' was 'inspired' by 'Kariera Nikodema Dyzmy' then no one would have cared


exactly

Language / Is it possible to master the Polish language fluently for a non-Polish speaker? [120]


And often sounds very rude, which is understandable since politeness expressions, like expletives, tend to not have much force for the second language learner.

It serves a purpose I guess but I prefer to use it as little as possible....

Language / Is it possible to master the Polish language fluently for a non-Polish speaker? [120]


"International English" is the most boring form of human communication yet devised.... dreadful to listen to....

History / What should Russia and Poland do to become if not friends, then at least not enemies? [945]

russia: Duma deputy demands that about 20 emoji be blocked in Russia because they "propagandize non-traditional values".

twitter.com/nexta_tv/status/1749461669917696147

also russia: film of (male) soldiers (trying to?) rape another (male) soldier.... (I couldn't find the one that's blurred until you click on it so.... click at your own risk....)

twitter.com/khorne9999/status/1749087166636925109

no wonder russians don't care if they end up deaded in Ukraine....

Language / I love the word Kurwa [26]


z jakiegoś burdelu? Wyjaśniłoby niesmak wobec matki....

Language / I love the word Kurwa [26]

Too close to home?

History / What should Russia and Poland do to become if not friends, then at least not enemies? [945]


I remember seeing some episodes decades ago... I thought it was British at first since I couldn't tell the difference in accents at that time... Women in prison shows are always more entertaining than men in prison....

Language / Is it possible to master the Polish language fluently for a non-Polish speaker? [120]


I saw the results of a survey in Norway about what language they wanted their children educated in.The choices were

riksmaal (closest to Danish)
bokmaal (like Danish but with more specifically Norwegian elements)
nynorsk (written prescriptive standard meant to evoke country dialects)

Riksmaal was the clear winner. It's also used in private publishing (where, for example, things like 'piken' for 'the girl' are more common than 'jenten/jenta')

On the other hand, last year's nobel winner for literature writes in Nynorsk...

History / What should Russia and Poland do to become if not friends, then at least not enemies? [945]


I've always gotten along with them pretty well (mine is a very small sample enitrely made up of people not actually living there and often having..... not very positive attitudes about those back home).

I can imagine they might not be so okay at home..... (like Scandinavians -- I've always gotten along with them very well but I'm told they're not so fun in their own countries....).

What was the clue? I'm not crazy about the accent but not much actively bothers me (beyond the use of 'confronting' instead of 'emotional' or 'dramatic' and the use of 'own' instead of have "He owns 50,000 pounds in the bank" and 'squizz' sounds like it should have a very dirty meaning).

In media I've enjoyed Fisk and Bay of Fires (though the two best characters on the latter were played by New Zealanders).

Please like me was.... okay but it was hard to warm to the main character.

News / How will Poland be affected by WW3 which has now started [559]


it's navy has be neutered, driven from Crimea and russia is no longer a black sea power.... quite a feat for a country without a navy....

History / What should Russia and Poland do to become if not friends, then at least not enemies? [945]


there are individual and collective traits.

I'm sure that there are many nice, decent russian individuals, but at the collective trait they suffer from a narcisistic wound (the world has rejected them and their way of life) which explains a lot of russian state tv rhetoric.


Canada? Those sobs get on my very last nerve with their "Did you know (random famous person) is Canadian?"....

Just keeding..... probably the US (Americans also tend toward narcissism at the collective level though a very different kind).

History / What should Russia and Poland do to become if not friends, then at least not enemies? [945]


It's called narcissism.... other people don't exist beyond being background characters in the endlessly fascinating saga of me me me!!!!!

But that's a facade. Inside, narcissists are hollow and require 'supply' from other people to either openly admire them or at the least attack them. Both give them the input from outsiders that they crave.

He's far from the only narcissist here.

Language / Is it possible to master the Polish language fluently for a non-Polish speaker? [120]


In writing, not speech..... even in writing it takes me an average of about three seconds to tell if a text is norwegian or danish (enough of the most common words are distinct that it's pretty easy)

News / Time to clean the swamp - dePiSification of Poland [324]


How so? He's trying to return to the rule of law and away from the PRL style of PiS and rule of party leader.

and it's not nonsense, it's clear lying by the leader of the opposition to try to pretend a major scandal didn't happen.

News / Time to clean the swamp - dePiSification of Poland [324]

Latest PiS hilarity..... JK denies knowing or ever speaking to Piotr Wawrzyk one of the figures in visagate....

And then this happened....

youtube.com/shorts/-JFu8O6lg14

When they're not in power, the sheer mendacity of PiSowcy is kind of funny.... when they're in power it's a tragedy for the country.

History / What should Russia and Poland do to become if not friends, then at least not enemies? [945]


soviet soldiers.... overall russians were underrepresented in the soviet army in wwii and Ukrainian and Belarussian soldiers overrepresented.

Probably no part of the former USSR suffered more in WWII than Belarus... horrific stuff.

Genealogy / Polish looks? - part 2 [81]


Not true... how many people loved the demented old circus monkey Arthur Spooner?

etsy.com/listing/1275753665/demented-old-circus-monkey-arthur

pawian may also be a demented old circus monkey..... but he's _our_ demented old circus monkey!

History / Why Poland achieved nothing at all? [69]


Yeah.... none of the people you mentioned were involved in setting state policy..... no one denies there have been brilliant russian individuals. That just makes the overall failure of russian society all the more frustrating... huge potential they waste on imperial idiocy....