The BEST Guide to POLAND
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Posts by gumishu  

Joined: 6 Apr 2009 / Male ♂
Warnings: 1 - A
Last Post: 7 hrs ago
Threads: Total: 15 / Live: 11 / Archived: 4
Posts: Total: 6352 / Live: 2736 / Archived: 3616
From: Poland, Opole vicinity
Speaks Polish?: yes

Displayed posts: 2747 / page 76 of 92
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gumishu   
22 Jan 2012
Law / Weapons laws in Poland. Carrying a concealed handgun? [918]

There's nothing even remotely related to gangs and street crime, say in Washington DC, New York or Los Angeles for example, in Poland.

crime is much less straight-in-your-face in Poland (like gun-armed street gangs) and there are circles which if you mess with them or just simply happen to be in their way (like in their way to take over your business) will not restrain from using kidnapping or murder as a means to their goal - some very influential people in Poland died strange death like Ireneusz Sekuła (former head of Duties Office) who shot himself in his belly 3 times.
gumishu   
22 Jan 2012
Language / 'Lubię ten kobieta...' - Is this in proper grammar? [9]

hi

kobieta is female and as such it is never ten but ta - this woman - ta kobieta - now ta kobieta is the nominative case and objects are never in nominative - the case form is governed by a preposition that precedes the noun or if no preposition is present by the verb itself (the verb demands the object in a specific case) - 'lubieć' verb is a regular one in that that it demands the object in the accusative (direct objects are typically in accusative - but many important verbs require the object in different cases) - eventually "I like this woman" is "Lubię tę kobietę". (notice that in Polish the personal pronoun ("I" in this case) typically gets omitted - it's because the form of verb most often clearly shows if the doer is first, second or third person either in plural or singular)

The second part of the sentence is perfectly ok. - but you should take a note here that while "I like this woman" is "Lubię tę(tą in spoken languge mostly)", "I don't like this woman" is "Nie lubię tej kobiety" - the difference is the negation of verbs that require accusative case for the object always requires the genetive case.

now Ona mnie lubi. Ona mnie nie lubi. - the pronoun looks the same because 'mnie' is the form of both the accusative and genetive case. (it often happens that two or more case forms of various speech parts are the same - it sure adds to the confusion in Polish grammar for a foreigner)
gumishu   
22 Jan 2012
Language / Determining the gender of some nouns in Polish. [6]

yes - poetess (or female poet) is poetka in Polish, (astronauta, geodeta, atleta are on the similar pattern with female counterparts being astronautka, geodetka, atletka)
gumishu   
22 Jan 2012
Language / Determining the gender of some nouns in Polish. [6]

Does the poeta noun come from poet which is a biologically masculin noun such as tata

yes -there is a female counterpart of poeta and its poetka

all adjective derived nouns created with -ość suffix are feminine, there are only a couple of nouns that end in -ość and are masculine (gość, jegomość)
gumishu   
20 Jan 2012
History / Battle of Warsaw/Miracle at the Vistula in Poland [21]

However, Bloodlands is very much on the list of things to read.

does not 'Bloodlands' cover the later times like 1937-1953 - it's what professional reviews state on the internet
gumishu   
20 Jan 2012
Genealogy / Are all Poles blue eyed and blonde? [450]

Do you have any idea how widespread Armenian ancestry is in today's Poland gumishu?

I have no idea - just happen to know a girl who knows for sure of her Armenian ancestry and she also has dark brown eyes, dark hair and pretty dark complexion and tanns very dark (for Polish standards) - I also have a cousin and she looks very Caucasian though both her parents have blue eyes (you know those dominant and recessive genes) - I not really knowledgable in the subject but as far as I know there was a sizeable Armenian diaspora in the Kresy cities and towns (including Lwów) who polonized in time
gumishu   
20 Jan 2012
Real Estate / Residential real estate values go down in Poland [455]

we all know that burning fossil fuels is bad also

hmm - as far I know the climate change hasn't been beyond doubt proven to be caused by man-made emissions of greenhouse gases - there are other competing theories
gumishu   
20 Jan 2012
Genealogy / Are all Poles blue eyed and blonde? [450]

Dark eyes and brown hair. If I would tell you that I'm Romanian or Turkish, you would probably believe it with no hesitation. My brother's children have blue eyes and are blond though.

I can easily go as an Afghani muslim when I grow my beard and get tanned - brown eyes and dark hair - must be some Armenian blood in my family
gumishu   
20 Jan 2012
Language / Polish language would look better written in Cyrillic Script? [212]

American English easier for Russians to mimic than for Poles or Czechs.

- I haven't so far heard any Anglophone who mastered the soft sounds of Russian - bieriecz' turns into berech (dosn't sound Russian at all)
gumishu   
20 Jan 2012
Language / Polish language would look better written in Cyrillic Script? [212]

PLUS the tendency to use an 'h-sound' for Polish and Russian 'g' obstruents, making Ukrainian somewhat closer phonologically to Czech:

no problem with h sound - there are two ways of writing 'h' sound in Polish 'h' and 'ch' which is a reminiscence of the presence of the voiced 'h' in former time in Polish - though the 'h' sound was only in borrowed words ( of which many were Ukrainian and Czech) - so no problem with writing Ukrainian 'h' with Polish ortography

Czech: hlovny

it's hlavni - Czech reflects the older pronounciation (Common Slavic) - many of 'a' turned into 'o's in Polish - the process went further in some Polish dialects in southern Poland (like Silesian) - the original ProtoSlavic word for head was 'galva' (very similar to Lithuanian IIRC)
gumishu   
20 Jan 2012
Language / Polish language would look better written in Cyrillic Script? [212]

Interesting that Russian fits Polish ortography so well though - I wouldn't have thought so, but that's with me not knowing any Russian at all.

it's not saying that it would be read in a Polish manner - you've got a lot of shwa sounds in Russian that are unaccented vowels - but that is not shown even in Russian ortography - - and as I mentioned Russian has a whole series of palatalized consonants that are not present in Polish - but this is quite easily solved by adding appostrophes to respective consonants (this is an age old solution and widely accepted actually)
gumishu   
20 Jan 2012
Language / Polish language would look better written in Cyrillic Script? [212]

A bit off topic, but is it the same for Ukrainian?

I am not sure delphi - I am not familiar enough with Ukrainian - my guess is it's very similar situation as with Russian (maybe save for some minor discrepancies)
gumishu   
20 Jan 2012
Language / Polish language would look better written in Cyrillic Script? [212]

so using ть and дь is tecnically more accurate.

- it is not more technically accurate because the ć and t' sounds are very different - even the Belarusian c' which is still different from Polish (and is sort of intermediate sound between t' and Polish ć) is different enough for them not to be written as t' (it is simply soft 'c' not soft 't')

btw the Russian language can almost perfectly be rendered with Polish ortography (with the adoption of a couple of apostrophed signs for soft consonants) - so why don't Russians adopt writing their language with Polish ortography

Czech and slovak used the proper forms of these two in the forms of Ď and «.

because they have appriopriate sounds of soft d and soft t which are not present in Polish - conversly Czechs don't have dz, dź, and ć
gumishu   
20 Jan 2012
Language / Polish language would look better written in Cyrillic Script? [212]

. Since polish still does, we would have to bring them back from the dead. :D ... the use of ą and ę in cyrillic just doesn't look right.

maybe it doesn't look right to you but it looks perfectly right for me - and those yuses are hardly inteligible (almost like chinese ideograms - would need half a year of constant exposure to memorise which is which and there are four of them) - so for me the ogoneks attached to Russian letters make much more sense (and are almost instantly intelligible)
gumishu   
19 Jan 2012
Language / Polish language would look better written in Cyrillic Script? [212]

the one that Nikolay I has devised was better system than the one you use - if you being Polish know cyryllic alphabet then you catch the Nikolay's Polish cyrillics pretty instantly - and all those tvyordyy znak's at the end of words look cute
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