The BEST Guide to POLAND
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Posts by gumishu  

Joined: 6 Apr 2009 / Male ♂
Warnings: 1 - A
Last Post: 18 hrs ago
Threads: Total: 15 / Live: 11 / Archived: 4
Posts: Total: 6182 / Live: 2566 / Archived: 3616
From: Poland, Opole vicinity
Speaks Polish?: yes

Displayed posts: 2577 / page 71 of 86
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gumishu   
18 Jan 2012
Life / A Polish comedy programme (swiat wedlug kiepskich?) [16]

think thats it. now i will have to speak to mariusz and find out which channel its on. is it an old series or no? do you like it or have i got a strange sense of humour?

hi Pam,

Świat według Kiepskich is still produced but what they mostly show is older episodes - there are a couple of simply brilliant episodes but these are the very old ones mostly (it is produced since the middle of the 90's - it's a Polsat series - to be honest in my opinion the newer the episode the more it sucks
gumishu   
18 Jan 2012
Real Estate / Residential real estate values go down in Poland [455]

delphiandomine:
No - I want muncipal housing to be allocated on the basis of need (and merit) rather than on the basis of "first come, first served" - especially because the municipal housing was often fraudulently allocated in the first place.

let's face it, should your wish be granted, housing will be fraudulently allocated yet again. The less a corrupt system gets involved, the better.

very good point - merit my ass when a clerk decides who has got need or merit

Social housing should be for those in need (and who are deserving, no drunks/wasters) - if someone needs a municipal flat, then they should live in a flat suitable for their needs. Don't you see the insanity of poor families living in tiny flats while Babcia lives alone in a huge flat? Both are owned by the State - and they should switch. Again - you can't allow sentimentality to override logic.

while there is some sense in what you are suggesting there no simple solution and I believe there is no viable solution to the issue with the current attitudes in Poland (not that Poland is somehow extraordinarily exceptional here) - be a human also and consider that babcias do not respond to being shuffled around that well

gumishu:
it;s by no means a direct money transfer - it's the use of the premises that's inherited and not any kind of ownership

But it is where the property is/was purchased - that's more or less a direct transfer.

as far as I know since at least 2000 councils don't sell the flats just like that - I don't know if it because of some regulation or it is because they would like to see some proper prices which people are not very ready to pay (it's not really a good investment to buy flats in old kamienicas in my opinion if the price is not significantly lower the the newer-built things)
gumishu   
18 Jan 2012
Language / Stenka and stęka - on alleged non-existence of nasal vowels in spoke Polish [17]

hey'll tell you that it's actually /e/ followed by something like a nasal glide. A glide is something like the /j/ sound as in the name Maya.

the 'w' ('ł', short u)) is the glide in this case that is made nasal not the 'y' ('j') - but overall your knowlegde is impressive (definitely way more structured than mine - you must be seriously studying Polish, aren't you?)

Let's say it's a nasal that's in the process of losing its nasality :)

Polish people can perfectly pronounce nasal vowels - the thing is it slows down the speech (it's also called hypercorrect pronounciation because noone speaks that way normally) - and in our normal ways of speech the articulation becomes 'asynchronous' (more or less) where you can more or less distinguish a clear vowel and a nasal glide - as for losing nasality - it's been losing nasality for ages so I don't expect it to lose nasality altogether (not in the age when language patterns are reinforced by the TV)

First of all - same/different and nasal/not nasal are two distinct questions. Obviously it could be pronounced differently whether or not it is nasal.

this is also true - you recognize the issue very well

anyway in Stenka the 'e' vowel is not discerneably nasal coloured - what is more the 'n' when pronounced in Polish is quite unlike the 'n' that English people use in 'nk' groups (as in 'bank') (I don't know how to go about entering the IPA signs - but I'm sure you know what I mean)
gumishu   
17 Jan 2012
Real Estate / Residential real estate values go down in Poland [455]

Sentimentality shouldn't apply to economics and social welfare - it's usually what causes much of the mess to begin with.

most of the mess is created in the economy is created by governments and their wasteful or misguided policies (not to mention the corruption) - a lot is also created by some central banks - like Fed

why should the public transfer money to a private pocket?

it;s by no means a direct money transfer - it's the use of the premises that's inherited and not any kind of ownership
gumishu   
17 Jan 2012
News / Poland fines singer for bashing Bible [159]

You have freedom of speech most of the time, as long as you don't insult A, B, C, and D." ???

try insulting Mr Komorowski :) I'm pretty sure you would regret it dearly
gumishu   
17 Jan 2012
Language / Polish language would look better written in Cyrillic Script? [212]

I think the biggest problem to accept would be that it's time-consuming. Szcz=щ. Szczecin=Щецин.

Shchyuka is no less time consuming than szcziuka, and actually obtaining those carronned letters (those that look Czech) from a keyboard can actually be more difficult for either English or Polish speaking computer user (this is for example why Polish programmers keyboard layout is much more popular than the 'national' layout with signs with diacrytics assigned to 'spare' keys - in the programmers keyboard you use Alt+key to receive an accented variant of a Polish letter)

UPD: Just listened to Polish pronunciation on wiki. If transcribe with Cyrillic it will be more like Шчечин.

writing Polish in cyrillic (in the convention presented on the website the OP provided the link to) does not change the pronounciation in the slightest - what you received is just typically Russian pronounciation of Polish words that are written with cyrillic script (in a convention for writing Polish and not Russian) - writing Polish language in cyrillic script, which proves to be not only feasible but also not overly difficult for someone who knows the 'bukwy', does not in the slightest change the pronounciation
gumishu   
17 Jan 2012
News / Poland fines singer for bashing Bible [159]

"A Warsaw court ordered her Monday to pay a fine of 5000 zlotys (NZ$1827) for offending religious feelings

that is the law in Poland - if you feel obliged to change it start campaining - be a New Male Suffragist
gumishu   
17 Jan 2012
Real Estate / Residential real estate values go down in Poland [455]

It's not only the massive social transfers in the early 90's which the youth paid for then, but also the current day social transfers. No-one seriously believes that ZUS is using yesterday's money to pay for today's pensions, right?

so what is the solution - euthanasia? - don't we just have to live with it?

(and I think the lack of social housing in Poland while Babcia sits in a massive flat is also an utter disgrace)

you must really have mean neighbours delphi :P

or you are quite quick to judge people
gumishu   
17 Jan 2012
Real Estate / Residential real estate values go down in Poland [455]

Which also includes many of those PiS loving Babcia's sitting in massive flats in city centre locations, paid for by the efforts of today's youth.

in what manner - does the city hall pay for any serious upkeep? you seen it? - renovations? by the council? outside the representative areas? - so in what manner do the youth pay for the babcias lodgings? - and what is the solution to that? where are you going to evict these people to? and why when they are able to pay their monthly rents? raise the rents? sure - then where do you move the people? physically. (is there enough places to move them into? - there's gonna thousands upon thousands) - would you like to do that personally? a little bit of babcia evicting is what you dream about at night?
gumishu   
17 Jan 2012
Language / Polish language would look better written in Cyrillic Script? [212]

judging by myself I would say aquiring an alphabet different from your native one is not an overwhelming task when you are a kid and I actually am very grateful that I could learn Russian at school - but I guess it can be different in your later years - so if Polish was written in 'cyrilica' and you would not learn Latin script as a kid you would be at some disadvantage when trying to learn foreign languages in your later years
gumishu   
17 Jan 2012
Real Estate / Residential real estate values go down in Poland [455]

Given that vast amounts of people around the world commute for 1.5 hours (look at London - 2 hour commutes are normal) - what's the issue?

the issue is reliability of PKP Przewozy Regionalne in terms of punctuality and in terms of being able to board a train at all(some trains in some areas of Poland are full up for most of the route they travel)
gumishu   
17 Jan 2012
Genealogy / Want to find a person [762]

consult a Polish detective - they can easily find people (they probably have access to the copies of national PESEL database although it is illegal I think) - most Polish people don't have any records on their names in the internet
gumishu   
17 Jan 2012
Language / Polish language would look better written in Cyrillic Script? [212]

I don't think Latin script can easily prevail against cyrillic script in Russia (cyrillic script has its real merits) - imagine all those apostrophed consonants necessary to be used - pretty clumsy methinks - also then if Russians actually face a choice of what Latin transliteration to use this can prove to be difficult - English transcryption is not without its problems (sometimes it's not very precise and can lead to ambiguities) - Polish transcryption is a pretty good one but I guess it would be difficult for Russians to accept Polish digraphs (sz,cz) or anything to write their language that resembles Polish - not to make their writing look Polish Russians will have to choose between Czech-like appearance of the language or something similar to English transcryption - I think Russians would strive to make it as compatible with the English transcryption as possible but it has it pitfalls (letter 'y' to stand for 'y' and 'j' at the same time?)
gumishu   
16 Jan 2012
Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4500]

JARMUŻEK: diminutive of jarmuż (kale, a leafy vegetable)

Jarmużek can be a corruption of Jamrożek (metathesis could have happened because it is easier to pronounce Jarmużek than Jamrużek) - Jamrożek is a folk evolution of a first name Ambroży (Ambrose)
gumishu   
16 Jan 2012
Language / Polish language would look better written in Cyrillic Script? [212]

Read here for more details, do you agree?

the version someone came up in 19th century (the one from the first version of "Powrót Taty" on the website) is way better than the one the author of the page came up (much more intuitive)
gumishu   
15 Jan 2012
Food / What exactly is Polish Bread? [90]

ergot requires a intermediary plant before it can infest rye and now the plant is mostly missing from the Polish landscape (it's called berberys in Polish IIRC)

OK - I was wrong - ergot has nothing to do with 'berberys' (barberry) - it's completely different fungus that does (stem rust)
gumishu   
15 Jan 2012
Genealogy / Jewish Roots of Poland [638]

there has been a big influx of Central European genes into the Jewish population - just search what young unmarried Jewish girls often did in garrison towns of Austria-Hungary
gumishu   
15 Jan 2012
Food / What exactly is Polish Bread? [90]

It is probably sacrilegious but Polish bread makes good toast.

no it isn't sacrilegious - one of my favourite dishes is a simple bread topped with hard cheese (though rather mild hard cheese, way milder than cheddar) fried on butter or margarine - add tomato concentrate on top - delicious - you may add tomato slices, onion slices or paprika slices under the cheese - fry covered (otherwise it will burn)

also Polish bread is very good for croutons that you add to soups (one soup that is particularly good with croutons is the pea soup (zupa grochowa)) - I make my croutons on a good cooking oil (in Poland there is something like 'virgin rapeseed oil' (however hillarious or disturbing it may sound) - 'olej rzepakowy z pierwszego tłoczenia' - apparently it has the best combination of unsaturated fatty acids you can find in nature - and a bit surprisingly it actually tastes really good - regular rapeseed oil doesn't taste as good - virgin rapeseed oil is also very good for salads - (while olive oil is good generally (I feel like having a sip or two from time to time) it does not combine well with Polish food or the recipes that I use (it has too strong flavour in my oppinion) and virgin rapeseed oil (like 'Olej Kujawski') wins all the way)
gumishu   
13 Jan 2012
Food / Bratwurst in Kraków? [15]

bratwurst is the equavalent of white sausage, no?

it teoretically is but bratwuerste are much better than Polish white sausage - on the list of foods to import from Germany to Poland bratwuerste are the absolute top
gumishu   
12 Jan 2012
Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4500]

the name is indeed of Polish origin but your great grandfather may not have actually considered himself Polish - Wasserfurt is a German place name - I look up if it perhaps is a German name to a place in Poland (Germany occupied large chunk of Poland before the WWI)
gumishu   
12 Jan 2012
Genealogy / Mothers maiden name - Gladys [17]

Gładyś (or Gładysz - they are too distinct surnames but of the same origin) is a name of Slavic origin (gładysz was a handsome guy in Old Polish perhaps a woman too but don't know it for sure) - it's not possible to say if the name was not adopted by some Jewish people in Poland
gumishu   
12 Jan 2012
UK, Ireland / Warning to British people visiting Poland!! Don't get drunk and smash the place up! [447]

stupid expanding Europe when half the newcomers are frankly backwards tin pot nations with totally perverse ideas.

if you don't get wasted and then go shouting and verbally abusing people around you you won't be taken into a drunktank - in many cities in Poland drunktanks are gone now (I think Opole has no longer one - they were pretty ubiquitous before) but most bigger cities still have them - I would think especially Kraków needs one as it needs to maintain some order so as normal tourists keep comeng and not only people who want to get drunk on cheap bear and vodka

inyourpocket.com/poland/warsaw/bars-pubs-clubs/drunk-tank

a good link and a must-read for those coming to Poland to feast over the cheap booze
gumishu   
12 Jan 2012
UK, Ireland / Warning to British people visiting Poland!! Don't get drunk and smash the place up! [447]

stripped to his boxers and tied to a table for many hours , i am disgusted that they are a member of the e

this is what a 'sobering house' is like in Poland - you will not be treated good or with respect (taking personal chlothes is the norm before it was just a hospital gown those people who ended up in a 'izba wytrzeźwień' received being stripped naked otherwise) - those who cause trouble will be tied up or given cold shower from a hose - and then you have to pay for your 'stay' (and pay a lot - more than for a night in a good hotel) - btw the police are only responsible for the transport to such institutions - 'sobering house' is not part of the police
gumishu   
12 Jan 2012
Travel / Your best memory after visiting Poland [41]

Forty-five minutes later we arrived at our destination

I guess it would take a lot longer to get to Tyniec by rowing boat
gumishu   
10 Jan 2012
News / Polish prosecutor 'shoots self after news conference' [93]

there is a statement from Przybył further on in the article too - he says his dog has been killed, and the screws in the wheels have been deliberately loosened, he even says there was a reward on his head for 1 million zloty
gumishu   
10 Jan 2012
News / Polish prosecutor 'shoots self after news conference' [93]

this one is a bit vague but read it through anyway

Harry, just admit it, you are not very proficient in Polish :) it's not a sin you know

The immediate cause of the initiation of the investigation was the fact that the after Sl. 54/10 concerning the Smolensk disaster conducted by the Military District Prosecutor's Office in Warsaw has witnessed continuous leak of information and data as implicit appeared in the press or web portals.

this is the whole text of the Col. Przybył statement that was made during the famous press conference - in the final part it states about no less than a mafia draining money from the Polish army budget
gumishu   
10 Jan 2012
News / Polish prosecutor 'shoots self after news conference' [93]

gumishu:there seems to be, sadly - from the words of Przybył himself - it looks like there is as good as some mafia which deals with Polish army property and Przybył could have done things against it interests

this one is a bit vague but read it through anyway:

Colonel came a day after a suicide attempt revealed that previously were attempts to assassinate him. The prosecutor's office says they have not received reports associated with life threatening Nicholas arrived . Conducted two investigations related to the Colonel . Come .

One concerned the theft of his bike , second concerned unscrew caps from the wheels of his car - said spokeswoman District Prosecutor's Office in Poznan Magdalena Mazur- Prus .

gumishu   
10 Jan 2012
News / Polish prosecutor 'shoots self after news conference' [93]

You don't really think that there is any conspiracy at work in the Przybyl case, do you?

there seems to be, sadly - from the words of Przybył himself - it looks like there is as good as some mafia which deals with Polish army property and Przybył could have done things against it interests