Off-Topic / The "Anglicization" of Europe [132]

Mutating is right!
Seems to my ears that even during the late '70's when I graduated high school, my contemporaries, normal, average teenagers, spoke way better and expressed themselves especially in writing on a much higher level than many folks in their forties up through sixty nowadays.

I'm constantly irritated by how older teens and twenty-somethings talk on the phone, practically from the time they pick up the receiver until the final farewell:

Company XYZ: Hi, this is Sharon.
Caller: Good morning, is this XYZ Corp?
Company: Yeah.
Caller: Is Karen Ward at her desk?
Company: Uh, like, I dunno. Lemme check.....

If this passes for current "English", I want out.

Off-Topic / The "Anglicization" of Europe [132]

Europe does indeed have a lingua franca; as with the rest of the world, it's Globish.

Language / How to overcome the difficulties on learning Polish consonants ? [5]

On the whole, Polish is actually a far more phonetic language than English ever was!

Consonant clusters were never a problem for me; one sound per cluster and the rest is gravy. For example, "SZ-CZ-E-S-L-I-W-Y" looks like a mouthful, but when broken down, it becomes almost bite size and even digestible.

The chief difficulties which continue to dog me are certain counting quirks, aspectual subtleties, and, of course, the conjugation patterns. The declensions seem somewhat more regular, at least for the feminine.

Language / Polish grammar made easy [23]

Oh, please! Don't spare wolacz purely on my account:-)

Language / Can you use lubisz and lubicie interchangeably? [9]

I was thinking the same thing, but not being a native speaker, I wasn't sure.

Language / Can you use lubisz and lubicie interchangeably? [9]

Thanks, Maf. Yeah, that makes sense.

Language / Can you use lubisz and lubicie interchangeably? [9]

I heard from a Pole who grew up during the height of the Communist Era that people used to habitually always employ the plural familiar form even when addressing one person with whom they were on a "Ty" basis, e.g. "Czesc, Jasio! Jak sie macie?"

Was this true and is this still used possibly in smaller, rural areas?

Life / Is Polish church involved in politics too much? [137]

'Scuse, folks! When I talk about the overweening influence of the Church, I of course include synagogues, mosques, and any number of other religious institutions.

The Catholic Church surely has no monopoly on corruption. It's merely more visible.

Life / Is Polish church involved in politics too much? [137]

I can only speak for the US, but in the States, essentially church politics
IS American politics!!!

Am currently watching one of the finest Hollywood films, "The Last Hurrah" (1958) w/Spencer Tracey, and it illustrates as only a few such movies could, just how incestuously intertwined church and state really are. It's still all about backroom deals, the monsignor winks at the governor and vice versa, everybody trading favors with everybody else....then as now:-)

News / "POLISH death camps" term used by "Parade Magazine" Anti-Polish Bigots [249]

Can't you see though that people the likes of Miloslav or Cojestdocholery are merely teasing, trying to egg others on with whom they allegedly disagree?

They're just being bullies and so ignore them.

History / Sensational : the biblical Philistines - were they Slavic people? [8]

Intriguing to say the least. However, as a linguist, one would naturally require far greater research, evidence of actual relatedness apart from mere appearance, often times shown to be little more than coincidence!

Not to be a killjoy here, but need I remind you all that a chap named Budenz, way back in the 1880's, put forth the thesis that Hungarian, Finnish, and even Turkish were each in fact "related" languages, which turned out NOT to be the case, tempting though as it was:-)

Then there was the late, lamented "Nostratic Languages" theory. At one time in a different vein, a linguist came up with the enticing notion that somehow, if Lithuanian peasants spoke ever so slowly, more or less at a veritable snail's pace, miraculously Sanskrit speakers in far off India, could actually comprehend what the former were saying.

Turned out also to be hoax, albeit a quite convincing one at that.

Motto here as well; BE WARY.

History / The Two Saddest Nations on Earth... Poles and Jews [243]

Give me examples of said racism.

Indeed, Milo. Your silence is deafening....and most telling.

History / Pokłosie (film on Jedwabne) [36]

Most likely.

News / "POLISH death camps" term used by "Parade Magazine" Anti-Polish Bigots [249]

The term is erroneous (pomylka) as I've stated and re-stated several times.

Po polsku / Wolności słowa w Polsce nie ma?? [93]

Co?? Co za bzdura powiesz?

Po polsku / Wolności słowa w Polsce nie ma?? [93]

@Cojestdocholery,
Tu jest gleboka roznica miedzy wolnoscia slowa i klamstwiami:-)
Holocaust jest faktem. Mowic ze Holocaustu nie mial, juz NIE jest wolnoscia slowa, lecz po prostu klamtstwiem!

News / Lech Walesa urged to "reduce Russia" to 50 million people [366]

I wholeheartedly concur, Maf! How different from Russian leaders of the "detente era".

History / Pokłosie (film on Jedwabne) [36]

I'd like to see "Poklosie". Can I simply rent it without foreign subtitles?

Work / Is teaching English the only way for a foreigner to work in Poland? [30]

Not sure specifically about Poland, but I know that up until the mid-'90's, many countries were looking desperately for educated English native-speaker teachers as instructors. The reasons of course were that all pupils were typically subjected to years of mind-numbing classroom rote rot from non-native teachers and rarely if ever heard native US-English as taught by anyone other than Europeans who'd studied in the UK, yet often had such second-language interference, it was a surprise that the children learned correct, idiomatically natural English at all!

With the advent of the digital age over the past decade or so, English has become almost as though it were the first "second" language of the entire European continent, Poland being no exception.

When I taught English briefly in Germany, I was usually the first native English speaker most had ever encountered. As a result, many had to unlearn the mistakes handed down to them by their native German-born and educated English teachers:-)

Genealogy / IS SWAROVSKI POLISH? [19]

Svarowski was an Austrian-born citizen of ethnic CZECH, not Jewish, extraction.

History / The Two Saddest Nations on Earth... Poles and Jews [243]

Nitpicking again, RIchy!

News / "POLISH death camps" term used by "Parade Magazine" Anti-Polish Bigots [249]

Not even going to dignify your scurrilous remarks with an answer, Cojestdocholery!

News / Lech Walesa urged to "reduce Russia" to 50 million people [366]

Pan Lech often had a reputation for speaking without weighing his words, right? Well then, this should come as no surprise!

History / The reasons of Polish pride? [112]

Oh, right! Morawiecki is OUR Veep, Duda is our President, correct?

History / The Two Saddest Nations on Earth... Poles and Jews [243]

Perhaps re-translation would help:-)

News / "POLISH death camps" term used by "Parade Magazine" Anti-Polish Bigots [249]

Kielce was a misunderstanding, or its motivation?
Not sure what you mean here exactly.

History / The Two Saddest Nations on Earth... Poles and Jews [243]

But there IS insanity, Rich, and you're talking about as mad as a March hare.

News / "POLISH death camps" term used by "Parade Magazine" Anti-Polish Bigots [249]

Jedwabne was according to Gross along with other historians orchestrated
by local Poles in an effort to somehow curry favor with the Germans.
In point of fact, it was sadly the Poles who set fire to the barn which took the lives
of numerous Jews.

Kielce is yet another wrinkle. The latter took place after the War was over, '47 if I don't miss my
guess. and was a massacre of Jewish civilians WITHOUT any orders from the now defeated
Nazis.

Tough to explain, I'd say.

History / The reasons of Polish pride? [112]

These questions are up to Prime Minister Duda, not us.

History / The reasons of Polish pride? [112]

Poles helping fellow Slavs fight against Putin the common enemy sounds darned admirable to me. I probably would have followed suit were I Polish and fit for service.