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


One person can't speak for 40 million individuals. Unless he's met them all and canvassed their opinions.

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


"We" is a very broad statement. Most people in Poland have probably met few if any Poles.

History / What do Poles think about Turks? [761]


Thanks!

History / What do Poles think about Turks? [761]

polonezkoy.com/index_eng.asp

The website has everything except how to get there by public transport. If I make it there I'll post some photos.

History / What do Poles think about Turks? [761]

Has anyone here visited Polonezkoy (Adampol) near Istanbul - I'll be there tomorrow for a month (Istanbul, that is) and would like to see Polonezkoy - it it worth a visit?

Life / Class system in Poland - does it exist? [90]


I know it well - the good parts and the bad.


But does this affect ones perceptions about ones social class? I suspect barely so! Does it affect the perceptions of others? That's the key.

Life / Class system in Poland - does it exist? [90]


Everyone can be, but most of us don't - that's what class is about, isn't it.


I can assure you it wasn't him.


This is simply not true.


They each have rather different purchasing power!


Her parents are both charming people - very friendly, and don't take the trappings of prestige for granted.

Life / Class system in Poland - does it exist? [90]


This is close to my experience, though education (and consequent attitudes) play a huge part.


Fortunately sociologists often do.

Life / Class system in Poland - does it exist? [90]

On the scale of feckwittedness here, you don't even figure - you're one of the nicer posters - offence barely intended.

My point is that the class structure in Poland derives from education and the professions it often leads to - and the perceived behaviour of groups. An example. When I was back in Warsaw a week ago, I was invited to dinner twice. The first time was with a teacher, a nurse and a tax collector. The other time was with a vice-minister, a senior lawyer and an eminent doctor. Those two groups would not normally spend time together comfortably. I also had drinks with a supermarket worker whose partner is a pizza chef - they would have little to say to the first group and wouldn't normally meet them socially. That is life, and that is the Polish class system.

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


Fortunately nobody else does.

Life / Class system in Poland - does it exist? [90]

I don't spend my whole life at a computer arguing with feckwits.

Life / Class system in Poland - does it exist? [90]


Most still up and running - for better or worse.


This we know.


Rather proves my point - and this was normal across eastern Europe.


I can assure you they do not.

Life / Class system in Poland - does it exist? [90]


Semi-literates devising a new taxation system and legal code or operating on hospital patients? Come off it! What do you imagine the PRL was, a third world country.


In which case they are presumably intelligent. Remember that throughout the PRL certain documents required people to state the social background of their parents - I had to, the first time I had a visa. Intelligentsia was one of the categories.


Nonsense. In the coal mining village I grew up in, attitudes to class differed somewhat to those in the Home Counties. There wasn't much variety there and nobody who would describe themselves as anything other thn working class - if pushed to do so.


Sociologists do just that.


More nonsense, and trolling too. The categories: intelligentsia, worker, peasant were used throughout the PRL and hve their origins long, long before. Why do you think it's somehow an invention?


It means just that. Do cardio-thoracic surgeons or high court judges invite many dustmen to dinner?

Life / Class system in Poland - does it exist? [90]


Are you confusing intelligentsia with inteligencja? And if not, what were they? Who filled administrative roles? Peasants?


Ah, a student - so you must have all the answers. In which case you'll know the numbers and percentages of people receiving higher and further education during the 50s, 60s and 70s.

Life / Class system in Poland - does it exist? [90]


Young educated intelligentsia rebuilt the post war state, and throughout the post-war years there were plenty of universities.

Life / Class system in Poland - does it exist? [90]

In Poland, the intelligentsia are a specific social class, and often look down on others, specifically workers, who in turn sometimes look down on villagers. I'm also surprised how many people make the point that they have noble origins, as if this in some way matters.

People don't always define this in terms of social class, preferring to talk about types of people or level of intelligence. Correcting other Poles' use of language seems part of this.

I've been asked a few times (always by late middle-aged wealthy professional people) if I have a title. :-)

USA, Canada / Your favorite USA kiełbasa? [37]

This is true. Which is one of the reasons that old ladies in shops often ask the butcher which factory they came from. The £uków brand is very respected round Warsaw, Kindziuk too, although they're more expensive.

The best kielbasa I've evever eaten come from a farmer in Podlasie who only makes for his family and friends using his own pigs. Probably illegally made, but delicious!

News / Polish Lithuanian Diplomatic War? At last. [533]

Yes, and modelled on the hated Portugese law. Probably against human rights legislation, and only enforced because Polish registrars derive a proportion of their income from bribes.

News / Polish Lithuanian Diplomatic War? At last. [533]

No it doesn't, and is probably due to the stupidity of the registrar (probably a PiShead). If one parent is foreign, you can choose whatever name you like. If both parents are Polish, it takes a bit of palm-greasing to register a name not on the list.

Food / Taste of food in Poland vs other countries [186]


Half the world.


??

Work / Black English Teacher going to Wroclaw [247]


Or just personal taste. Not that there's many black guys (or any foreigners) to go round in PL.

Some people like the exotic, and unfortunately for Jarnowa, Belgians aren't very exotic here in Northern Europe.

For myself, sometimes I want the boy next door (or his better looking cousin) other times it's the drums beating from deep in the jungle :-)

Work / Black English Teacher going to Wroclaw [247]

Be tolerant and give a chance to the louse who says:

Life / My experience in Poland 15 years ago as an American trying to live and work there. [167]


"might"?


Don't tell Jarnowa - you're on his "hunting ground" :-)

Life / Price of cigarettes in Poland? [192]


You can in Warsaw, at the central station. Might be the same in Krakow.

USA, Canada / Polack/American Polonia/Plastic Pole "culture" [568]


And end up exiled on St Helena, reviled throughout Europe and a prisoner of the British.


Get a map. And look at it. You'll find that Scots are Brits too.

Work / Black English Teacher going to Wroclaw [247]


Evidently not desired by all the women who flee from him into the arms of the nearest African guy.


Are you mad?

Work / Black English Teacher going to Wroclaw [247]


No. You are both immigrants.


On the hunt? Do you seriously believe that? You seem to have a low opinion of women, as well as thinking that someone's colour is relevant to who they may or may not date. :-)))


I don't. The colour of someone's skin does not determine where they should or should not be or with whom they associate.

News / Polish Lithuanian Diplomatic War? At last. [533]


By the way, talking about Polish/European relations, have you given back 'your' share of EU subsidies, as you planned to?

Work / Black English Teacher going to Wroclaw [247]

Of the few black people I know of in Poland, I can only think of:
A lady who was the widow of a Polish man living in Africa
A therapist from Cuba, who has lived here for many years
A student from the USA who is fixing residence and owns a home here
A dancer who is from the USA who has been here for a long time
A lady from South Africa who is half Polish
A scientist from West Africa, who came here with his work at a multinational
A student who is from the USA and is half Polish
A professional from the UK working in education and here for a long time
A teacher (EFL) from South Africa who came here to be with his wife
A doctor who is from Palestine and has been here for a long time

Of that list, all but three are or were married (only three of them to local wives), most have kids, and the unmarried three are gay.

None of them coming to "steal" Jarnowa's women.

Work / Black English Teacher going to Wroclaw [247]


That's sentimental?


And? We're one world. You came to Poland as a foreigner yourself.

You keep saying "sentimental" which is either missing the point or is perhaps something deeper, more evil, as if we should ignore sentiment. There are plenty of "jobseekers" from Belarus in Poland - always have been, and Slovakians have an absolute right to settle there.


Yes.

You are so, so, so transparent. Remind us, why did you come to Wroclaw, Poland from your home country, are you at least "90% male" and what are your "ties to Poland"?