Life / Automobiles vs. Pedestrians in Poland [77]


btw - you begin to love the Netherlands the next moment you have managed to get your bottom onto a bike saddle - cycle paths everywhere (OK almost everywhere) - and all tarmac

Life / Automobiles vs. Pedestrians in Poland [77]


you know some of these places don't have other 'cycleable' roads - they are just a one-street village and that street happens to be the main intercity road (and many lack sidewalk) - what do you do if you need to go to the neighbouring village on the same road - go through the mud of the field roads? and how many kilometeres of cycle paths beside such roads have you seen in Poland if any? - don't you think people would be using cycle paths if they were present

next consideration is (it is just me though) - I often went on cycle tours - after some 15 km in your legs when you go through a village you don't bother to ride on the pavement/sidewalk because of couple of things: one thing - there is often broken glass on Polish sidewalks, the next thing they are not an easy ride - (sometimes even hardly suitable for cycling) - electricity posts in the middle, road signs in the middle, ups and downs and sometimes high margins, people walking - not fun at all - also the paved surface is much harder to cycle on then the tarmac - if the road isn't as narrow as to make two lorries hardly pass by on the oposite lanes then I just stick to the road

History / Mother tongue in Poland - acccording to 1931 census. [174]


the very complicated Polish grammar and language developed into what it is now mostly before Poland was subjected to any foreign rule (foreign rule only started in the 18th century and the language was mostly already formed) - Russian grammar is not a lot simpler than Polish (a bit simpler yes - phonetics is a bit different story) - it's still complicated enough for English native speakers and this is neither because Russia was once under the Mongol boot nor because it was an imperialistic state later on

if you think of complexity of the Slavic grammar (it's most probably true that Polish is the most complicated one - but you haven't seen Lithuanian with it's 16 different participles compared to present day 4 Polish participles and 2 participles of English) it's just a different approach to express different relations between objects and doers in this world and it is in big part an inherited system (if you just read some linguistic stuff about the origins of both Polish and English languages) -

History / Mother tongue in Poland - acccording to 1931 census. [174]

hmm - there was no state education in the Polish state until the 19th century - and in the 19th century anything that was under influence of any Polish statehood was Księstwo Warszawskie and Królestwo Kongresowe - none of which had any powers over present day Belarus and Ukraine - so what policy of polonisation was there ? there was hardly any central administration in the Polish Lithuanian-Commonwealth - when the personal union united Poland and Lithuania the Polish language was for a long time not present in public affairs in Lithuania - Ruthenian was the language of law at least up until the creation of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1569 (Union of Lublin) and I guess even long after eventually giving way to Polish because the elites of the Lithuanian Grand Duchy went to embrace Polish language - W roku 1697 na Litwie, na wniosek miejscowej szlachty (tzw. zrównanie praw) wprowadzono język polski jako urzędowy, w miejsce dotychczas obowiązującego języka starobiałoruskiego. : Polish language as a legal medium was only introduced in Grand Duchy of Lithuania in 1967

the actions of catholic church were quite independant of these of the Polish state

Study / How do Polish students support themselves? Government suport for students in Poland? [12]


Polish students can receive 'stypendium' from the state-owned high schools - there is the 'stypendium' for low income family students (but the threshold is really low and most Polish students can't receive that type of the 'stypendium' - even if it is not restricted to Polish nationals you won't be coming below the income threshold (if you have a family who support you who live in Germany)

there is also another type of 'stypendium' which is an incentive for students to receive good grades - this is the 'stypendium za wyniki w nauce' - the threshold here is quite high (the scale of grades in Polish high schools is 2-5 and the usual threshold for receiving any money in the form of that stypendium is usually the average 4.5 (in some schools or faculties even higher) - the better the average of your grades the more money you can get but it is still not much (I'm not familiar with the present situation but you could get around 200 PLN for the best grades back in the end of the 90's )

History / Mother tongue in Poland - acccording to 1931 census. [174]


you confuse the policies of the Catholic church in the ages past with those of the Polish state - there was no serious polonisation effort nor any catholicisation effort on the part of the Polish (Polish-Lithuanian state) for the most time Polish state occupied these territories

Life / Price of cigarettes in Poland? [192]


my brother and his girlfriend only smoke their roll-your-owns - and there is already a black market in tobacco cut for that purpose with ridiculously low prices (compared to cigs but also to the usuall roll-your-own tobacco brands)

History / Mother tongue in Poland - acccording to 1931 census. [174]


first of all - no mother tongue was forbidden to use in public - though I am pretty sure that only Polish was allowed in formal contacts with the administration - I don't really know about the school status of these

Life / Polish home remedies for cold, stomach ache, migraine? [49]

Prostasan Fix from Herbapol (Herbapol Lublin I presume) is not the same thing as a saw palmetto Prostasan marketed in the English speaking world - that maybe the reason why you have seen so divergent prices (but maybe the importers into Britain charge that much I don't know)

History / Mother tongue in Poland - acccording to 1931 census. [174]

use your imagination a little bit Harry - and some knowledge - in western Ukraine nationalist movement was anti-polish (and could have then allied themselves with the Germans) - there was also possible infiltration by communists - if the free Ukrainian state was somehow hijacked by one of these forces Poland would become very vulnerable - so yes, Poland could well have given a lot of autonomy to Ukrainians and not pursued the policy of trying to polonize (such policies were neither constant nor consistent) them but granting them independence would have been a folly by the Poles back then - and you cannot compare the situation with the Baltic States or even Lithuania - there was real anti-russian (and so anti-soviet) sentiment in Lithuania after over 100 year of Russian rule - there was also big wariness of the Germans in Lithuania (yes Lithuanians did collaborate with the Soviets in 1919 but I think they quickly realised what a threat the Soviets pose)

History / Mother tongue in Poland - acccording to 1931 census. [174]

I agree on all points actually here - just a note: free Ukraine was not viable in 1921 and throughout the interbellum

History / Mother tongue in Poland - acccording to 1931 census. [174]


Harry please do post your other VIABLE options/solutions in 1921 and throughout the interbellum

History / Mother tongue in Poland - acccording to 1931 census. [174]

there was no serfdom anymore so those Polish colonists worked they land themselves or hired local people to do it - it is not to say I know how the relations actually were just a hint at what was at the base of these relations

Language / How should "Polish" be written? Maybe Polski? [27]

I'm not sure what you mean by passages here (I am not that proficient in English to be honest) - if the title is (as I guess) meant to attract general English public (including many Poles) then it is a good idea to mix both languages in the title like you did - and Polskie Passages is actually very good even better than Polski Passages - a title in Polish only won't attract many English people as they would think this is purely Polish and for Poles (I believe Polskie Passages has some obvious meaning to English people which I don't know simply for sure) - the other solution is to have parallel titles in English and in Polish (but I cannot suggest a good titles now - need to look up what passages can mean (appart from the meanings I am familiar with)

I don't believe you wanted the title in Polish only btw

History / Mother tongue in Poland - acccording to 1931 census. [174]


the others were mostly considering themselves 'locals' as over 60 per cent of the inhabitants of Polesie Voievodship did - they did not associate neither with Belarussian or Ukrainian nationality - there is much less others in other areas of the country - in Białystok and Wilno voivodeships the others could have been Tatars and Karaims who kept their national identity

Real Estate / Property taxation in Poland and inheritance (obligated by law to pay)? [32]

your assumption that property prices will go up is quite baseless - actually property prices are falling at the moment and the simple reason is the lower number of buyers (lower demand) - if you thought that there was no property bubble in Poland think again - the prices of property have doubled or tripled since 2000 - if you don't call it a bubble I don't know what to call it - it was not devastating as in the US for one simple reason: the availability of credit (no case of granting mortgages for jobless people like in the US) and generally low availability (because of the price) of mortgages before 2000 - because credit in PLN was expensive there was a run for mortgages in CHF and EURO (even JPY)

as for renting out while not in the country - you would have to use Polish solicitor which can prove to be relatively expensive (Poland has one of the lowest affordability of legal services in Europe) - anyway if you consider renting out aim for corporate entities

as for exchange rates - zloty (PLN) is pretty much sure to lose a lot and the 5 PLN per EURO is not an unrealistic scenario untill the end of the next year

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

some people here called for some reliable weather forecast site - this one is pretty good - explore around it also shows predicted temperatures (but I find the precipitation forecast more important):

niederschlagsradar.de/forecastloop.aspx?type=1

if precipitation is depicted in orange then it's gonna snow

btw it looks like we are bound for a some wintery spell after the 18th - but it is still impossible to tell how long it's gonna be (I don't think we have reached the actual winter yet)

Language / Use of swoj [23]


nemo iudex in causa sua not nemo iudex in causa eius - Polish is similar to Latin in that respect -rl]

Language / "Hilarious" Mistakes? (Esp. Across Polish and other Slavic Languages) [74]


I didn't make myself clear - where I live the word 'torebka' can well be used in place of 'reklamówka' - rekalamówka can actually be a not so big plastc bag with no graphics on it

Language / "Hilarious" Mistakes? (Esp. Across Polish and other Slavic Languages) [74]


no, it isn't


torebka can well be used instead of reklamówka - it's not that torebka is only purse and that's it - a small paper bag is also torebka

Language / "Hilarious" Mistakes? (Esp. Across Polish and other Slavic Languages) [74]


actually it's the best place to travel on a spider :) I bet you wouldn't want to tranvel IN a spider, would you?? :)

look how beautifully green eyes it has - I know they are a couple too many ;) (click on the image to enlarge it)

History / What proportion of the Polish population collaborated with the Nazis? [125]

it is mostly in the interest of those who run the US that the Eurozone falls - for the same reasons the US invaded Iraq - which is it will secure the US dollar will remain the most important international currency being used for oil trade

Language / "Hilarious" Mistakes? (Esp. Across Polish and other Slavic Languages) [74]


politeness or rather respect, well-meaning, gratitude can all be expressed in other ways than polite language forms

Language / "Hilarious" Mistakes? (Esp. Across Polish and other Slavic Languages) [74]


while this is the case among the native speakers of Polish (a lot of distance when people are not familiar with each other) foreigners are in practice generally excused for not conforming unless they turn to really elderly people who are not really accustomed to being addressed in the second person and are much less tolerant often (or they happen upon a really haughty person which is quite rare) - I think my mum's generation (60 year olds) is already quite tollerant to being addressed in the second person save for certain environs (ticket offices, some public officers)

Life / Polish water safe to drink? [50]

it's not really an option in a dormitory, you see

Language / "Hilarious" Mistakes? (Esp. Across Polish and other Slavic Languages) [74]


the thing Sidliste you are not living here and can perhaps miss out on certain 'feelings' -

the reasons why I discourage people from starting with pan/panis from the very beginning are - a) it is counterintuitive for a speaker of English which is just another way of saying that the natural form for an English speaking person is to address people in the 2nd person b) it alters a lot in a sentence - you need to used different forms of verbs - pff confusing c) people like Pam who learned Polish from speaking with their Polish friends are familiar with the regular 2nd person address ('możesz mi pomóc') and are not familiar with the formal mode of address d) other more or less significant reasons e) you have to be consistent when you start out with the formal register - shifting between the registers during a conversation can be cofusing and unpleasant for a Polish interlocutor f) in most cases if you engage a person face to face (this is not really the case with most ticket offices in Poland mind you) the person will not get offended seeing that you are a foreigner

so eventually untill you are actually well versed in Pan/Pani mode and feel natural with it I'd say don't even start out with it, just speak the way it comes natural to you (for speakers of some languages other than English (continental Spanish? Japanese?) the pan/pani address can be more natural from the beginning)

Language / "Hilarious" Mistakes? (Esp. Across Polish and other Slavic Languages) [74]


was 'suka' supposed to mean 'słuchawki'? :P

Law / Old Polish money banknotes - what's their value today? [415]

they are worthless piece of papers

Language / "Hilarious" Mistakes? (Esp. Across Polish and other Slavic Languages) [74]


na pociągu as when travelling is incorrect it should be w pociągu

but pam correctly has put iść na pociąg - to go to catch a train - 'na' in this situation is used like in 'iść na koncert' - to go for a concert

ah - another remark - pam - don't worry about pan/pani - unless you are talking to an older person (like 60) or happen upon a haughty exemplar people will not be generally offended if you don't address them pan/pani - the thing is if you start with pan/pani you have be consistent with it - so don't start with it

Language / "Hilarious" Mistakes? (Esp. Across Polish and other Slavic Languages) [74]

I remember a time when milk in Poland was ubiquitously sold in quite soft hermetic plastic bags - you couldn't postawić/wstawić it do lodówki as the thing could not stand unless put into some container before (like a 1-litre broad jar the type that's use for Polish style dill pickles) - so you could only połozyć it or włożyć do lodówki

so in general you can położyć/włożyć do lodówki things that can't stand - objects which stand stoją in Polish are those that are quite high - bottles, jars - they can however also lay leżeć when they are overturned but I guess it is pretty much the same in English