Life / Doughnut [Pączki] Day... in Poland [70]


you will have to eventually learn how to make pączki yourself, ya know :) - she won't settle for some donuts for the rest of her life ;) (and don't expect her to learn how to make pączki herself - she's a modern woman after all ;)

Genealogy / Jewish Roots of Poland [638]

you may perhaps choose to read this book (but read the review first) - h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=8353

News / Police and priests save homeless in Poland [29]


drunk people cause trouble you know - would you as a non-alcohol-addicted homeless person enjoy the company stinking drunks? - I am not sure every shelter has facilities to wash and clothe these people - also it's not so easy task to do that (try washing and clothing a semi-unconscious person and then multiply the time by an order of hundred)

News / Police and priests save homeless in Poland [29]

I think it's quite likely that the matter is exaggerated and/or not so straightforward - like for example the definition of public places in question

Love / Valentines Day & Polish men [130]


Kochanie, chciałam ci podziękować za to, że bez względu na odległość zawsze sprawiasz, że uśmiech gości na mojej twarzy. Nie mogę się doczekać, kiedy znów będe z Tobą. Jestem tak wdzięczna za to, że Ciebie mam. Kocham Cię. Wszystkiego najlepszego na Świętego Walentego.

Language / Polish was chosen the HARDEST LANGUAGE in the world to learn... :D [1558]


the amount of time that is devoted to teaching of correct Polish spelling in school is the one single most important reason

the programmes were enough 20 or 30 years back with children not spending most of their time in front of TV or a computer - children are now bombarded with information and being so distracted at each and every corner and AFAIK the curriculums of Polish language teaching haven't been revised to address that

- Polish children are taught (were taught) a lot of theory of literature and loads of cultural (greek myths, symoblic figures etc etc) and patriotic notions (greek myths, symoblic figures - especially theory of literature is completely useless - I would even argue whether patriotic notions should be taught (they are taught based on literature - like Mickiewicz, Słowacki, Broniewski etc etc) - with so much time spent on useless things in later classes children who haven't managed to learn proper spelling and other basic stuff in the first couple of classes are left out in the cold in this field - this is why with a fairly simple ortography Polish language has we have so many kids (and subsequently adults) who never learn correct spellings (or make tons of mistakes) - fortunately Polish ortography is even simpler in that respect that you have no problems in reading out what is written - i.e. with significantly few exceptions you know how to read out/pronounce a word by the form it is written (in contrast for example to English ortography)

Language / Polish was chosen the HARDEST LANGUAGE in the world to learn... :D [1558]


w czasie suszy szosa sucha :)

Genealogy / Polish looks? [1410]

I would not have doubts that you have some Eastern European ancestry - you wouldn't stick out on a Polish street in the slightest (in the right clothes ;)

the history of Polish surnames is usually a pretty bland one - you got a core name 'drozd' which is thrush in English I believe - then either a place (village) was named after the bird itself or after a person who was named after the bird (a personal name Drozd you would think it a nick actually) - so you got a place name Drozdów (Drozdów meant originally belonging to or created by Drozd) (you can try to google the name there probably are a couple of such places in Poland all definitely small or otherwise I would have know them) - then comes the time where people start to be called with something more than just the first name this is the time also when nobility cristalizes in Poland (ok nobility formed earlier actually) - and the typical method of creating the surnames among the nobility is to take it from some of their villages towns - Drozdowski means simply 'of Drozdów' - and that's it

History / Do Polish people in general dislike Russia or Germany more? [369]


he most probably means things in the distant past - like 17th century (in case of Ukraine it would be 18th century) - in the early 17th century the protototype of Lisowczycy laid waste to big swaths of western Russia killing all that moved in their way

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


the same root is in the surname Kryszczyszyn which I think is also of Ukrainian origin - guess there was a short form Kriszczo of Kristofor

Kryszczyszyn means exactly son of Christopher

Genealogy / Is your line of the Polish family noble? [74]


if nobility were 10 per cent of the population in the mid of 18th century then as people started to mix more (with a kickstart in the middle of the 19th century and hardly any notion of nobility as a separate caste after the WW2) there is a great probability you have some ancestors from former nobility - simply remember that before 19th century the nobility mostly kept to themselves (if one was of nobility they had both parents of nobility 95 plus per cent of cases) - then mix the population thoroughly and in a couple of generations you can have 100 per cent of people who can claim their ancestors where of nobility - capisci??? - this is actually very similar to what actually happened

another issue is how come 10 per cent of the population were nobility - well nobility was not a case of owning a land only of owning a title - there were multitude of 'farmer-nobles' who worked their own land in certain areas of Poland or the Commonwealth (Podlasie, big swaths in Lithuania proper and Lithuania sensu lato (modern day Belarus) - there were also multitudes of non-haves szlachta who owned no land and lived off the service to the magnates ('golcy') - this was part of the reason why magnates were so influential - they had plenty of voting supporters and in need armed force in their noble clients)

in Podlasie many villages were in time ennobled en masse for their valour in service to the king - this is one of the reasons why there were so many 'farmer-nobles'

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


Sobolewski means precisely - 'of Sobolew' where Sobolew is a place name ( -ew suffix is the counterpart of -ów ending in some areas of Poland and vast areas of the east (the suffix originally was just the marking of genetive (possesion) like English 's suffix does) - Sobolew was most probably somewhere in the east either Ukraine or Belarus - as stated before -ski ending surnames where typically born by nobility (but some 'common' people also in time got to bear this type of surnames as an indication of their place of origin) -

however Jewish families can also bear -ski type of names: they often adopted the surnames of the noble holders of lands in which they used to set up inns or were administrators (there are plenty of Jewish families with surnames Potocki, Czartoryski (i.e. the surnames of grand magnate families) - I personally knew one such person) - one can actually say the bigger the name was in Kresy (eastern part of Rzeczpospolita especiallly Ukraine) the more Jewish families will be there with the surname - (I am not saying there were definitely some Jewish families who adopted the Sobolewski surname because I simply don't know it - with lesser nobility one can say there were no Jewish families to adopt their surname with a great degree of certainty)

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

yes it is possible (mixed marriages were pretty common) - this is exactly the case with me - my father's side family hails from the east (zza Buga), from somewhere around Lwów and one of my great grandfathers (the father of my paternal grandfather) from that branch had a Ukrainian wife - she came with him to western Poland sometime after 1945 (I don't know exactly) and she was still alive when I was like 6 or 7 and - I can even remember her speaking Ukrainian from time to time and she spoke Polish with distinct accent (and it was not just Polish 'kresowy' accent I can tell you)

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

Pawlak and Pawluk are two distinct surnames of rather different origin (territorially) - though they both mean 'a son of Paul' one is of Polish origin (Pawlak) the other of Ukrainian - Paul is Paweł in Polish and Pawło in Ukrainian - the -uk ending (suffix) is typical of Ukrainian surnames and was not present in Polish onomastics (those Poles who bear names ending in -uk are of eastern extraction (orthodox or Greek-catholic later, Ukrainian or "Ruthenian")

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


it can be equally of Polish or of Ukrainian origin (then somewhat Polonized as Ukrainian nobility/gentry mostly turned catholic at some point and assumed Polish identities)


it can perfectly be of toponimic type from a place Koziary - this type was typically born by members of nobility

Travel / What is the weather like in Poland where you are now? [202]


oh, my - wildrover I would gladly help you with wood in the forest but I'm too far - there is no other way I can help you

how do you manage to survive actually

Language / Polish was chosen the HARDEST LANGUAGE in the world to learn... :D [1558]


there are plenty of Slavic borrowings in Hungarian - zsir, padlo, molnar, konyv, puszta are the ones I remember now

Travel / What is the weather like in Poland where you are now? [202]


it prevents ice buildup on your windscreen and other window panes - to scratch your windscreen, rear view mirrors etc is not the nicest way to start a day when it's -20 at six o'clock

History / Polish inventors - what have they ever given to the world? [101]

so they invented helicopter but never actually flew it - cause if they tried they would learn about the autorotation effect

Travel / What is the weather like in Poland where you are now? [202]

the virus of cold gets killed in the freezing air - cold is much more ubiquitous in cold and damp periods

History / Polish inventors - what have they ever given to the world? [101]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karol_Olszewski

History / Polish inventors - what have they ever given to the world? [101]


hahahah that's a good one, Harry :)

Life / Are Poles mentally more Eastern European or Western European? [170]


formally there was no aristocracy in Poland for the whole duration of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (szlachcic na zagrodzie równy wojewodzie - the ideal of equality between the nobles)

Life / Are Poles mentally more Eastern European or Western European? [170]


he speaks of today's realities Bzi - don't be so defensive

Life / Are Poles mentally more Eastern European or Western European? [170]


but it didn't stop the magnates from subjugating lots of lesser szlachta (who became 'clients')

Travel / What is the weather like in Poland where you are now? [202]

I want more snow - come on, weekend, come on

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


Piotr is what the name sounds also in Russian (though it is transliterated differently into English (i think Pyotr) - the Ukrainian equivalent is Petro AFAIK

Use of ancient Greek philosophers' names as first names was not typical in Poland but happened among Russians (Sokrates Starynkiewicz en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sokrates_Starynkiewicz)

Travel / What is the weather like in Poland where you are now? [202]


don't know about the next week but it looks like it's gonna be snowing on the weekend - (if it's gonna be snowing it's not gonna be so cold)

Life / Price of cigarettes in Poland? [192]


there are Tabex tablets in Poland which contain citisine as an active ingredient - the stuff blocks nicontine receptors on the synapses for a long time nullifying the nicotine craving - but you can't take them forever it's three weeks up to a month IIRC then you have to rely on your strong will - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cytisine (you can repeat a cytisine (Tabex) cycle after some time from the end of the previous cycle (like a month)

champix contains varenicline which is a derivation of cytisine and it looks like it is better (you can take it for a longer periods which significantly helps quitting)

History / Polish inventors - what have they ever given to the world? [101]


isn't Arabs who invented distillation? like around 10th century? and used strong alcohol (al kohol is from Arabic) to extract natural oils for perfume industry?