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? [211]

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) [83]


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) [83]


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) [83]


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) [83]


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) [83]


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) [83]


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) [83]


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) [83]


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) [83]

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

Life / Polish water safe to drink? [50]


if she used to live in London drank water froms Thames water and was alright she can probably be perfectly fine on Gdańsk water ;)


you did :P go figure ;)

and seriously - the quote utility sometimes wrongly attributes user name's - it used to very common before

Real Estate / Moving to the Katowice area soon! Safe neighborhood for an Irish man? [38]

buy an old cheap used car in Poland instead - you can pay not much really but don't expect it to last - and you won't have and old avarage car vandalised unless in some really bad neighbourhoods (but I'm not really familiar with Katowice or Śląsk in general)

Life / Polish water safe to drink? [50]

in some cities yes - but not all cities - some cities have excellent tap water (Częstochowa, Opole, Olsztyn, Bielsko-Biała) - the worst thing is when a city draws it's watter supply from a major river by filtering through the valley sediments


exactly

Life / Polish water safe to drink? [50]

tap water is not good in every average city in Poland - I wouldn't drink tap water in those areas of Gdańsk that draw water out of shallow Wisła valley wells (you of course guess that the water in fact comes from Wisła and is only filtrated naturally through the ground which doesn;t eliminate chemical contamination mostly) - and I think it is most of Gdańsk that has water from Wisła - I know Wrocław invested heavily in carbon filters and extensive installation to ozonate water and in the result tap water in Wrocław at least tastes good (but I still wouldn't drink the water on regular base - I have reasons enough to believe it is not even enough to clean water of most chemicals for it to be really good for your health) - however AFAIK Wrocław is the only city in Poland to have serious carbon filtering installation

your manager already advised you tap water in the dormitory is not good drinking water - and occasional brown coloration is not your most concern (though it is of health concern as the porous and geleaous iron hydroxides that form this coloration are like a sponge and harbour a lot of chemical impurities the water carries) - if I were you I would definitely go for buying my drinking water in 5 litre bottles in supermarkets (it's plain water not carbonated) - the bottled water comes from areas where there are no major pollution sources that are outside of major river valleys - in fact most of that plain table water sold in supermarkets comes from deep wells - and the price of that water is not a real burden too - a 5 litre bottle costs around 3 PLN and for a single person it's enough for some 3-4 days (even more if you drink less) - if you want to stay on even healthier side buy a small (max. 1l) bottle of mineral water every day - there is a good variety of mineral water in Poland - you can have only mildly mineralised waters or water really loaded with minerals of various composition - suit your tastes

History / Polish conscripts to German army [132]

it seems your father's path to Anders's army (Polish Army in Italy) was a complicated one - he must have been conscripted into Wehrmacht early (in 1941 most probably or even earlier) - then captured on the eastern front by the Russians in time to be allowed to join the Polish Anders troops in Russia (i can't remember that that well but it was formed sometime in 1942) - then he must have left the Soviet Union with Anders army in 1942 - the Polish troops were in such a bad shape that it took good couple of months before they became combat ready - they were transfered from the Middle East to Italy and fought in the ranks of the British VIII Army

I was convinced that your dad got captured by the Allied forces in Italy as were thousands of Silesian conscripts from Wehrmacht of whom many were offered to join the Polish army in Italy and many chose to.

History / Polish conscripts to German army [132]

one point is worth mentioning jochemczyk - the Silesian conscripts in Wehrmacht were all spread out in German units (maybe a couple of guys per company/battalion) - there were hardly any (if any at all) Silesian units in Wehrmacht - the German military believed they would defect en messe if whole units were formed of them - and they were right

btw Silesian Wehrmacht POW's in Russian hands became the major part of the 'Polish People's Army' that was formed in Russia in 1943 - again most had no qualms to fight Germans for a change

Life / Do Polish people have a good ear for music? [90]

youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Hd_DuEU6Mvg

I wouldn't call that supermarket music - when was it last when you listened to 'Shepherdmoons' and 'Watermark'?

History / Polish conscripts to German army [132]


well they had a choice - they could have stayed in allied POW camps if they felt strong allegation to Germany or for whatever reason - Polish army only recruited those who wanted to join (we are still talking about Slavic Silesians)

Life / Do Polish people have a good ear for music? [90]


yes, I do believe in that - in a way it was pretty easy for me to believe in that as I experienced related things and the teaching I introduced you to is just a small part of large body of teaching I find reliable based on my personal experiences - but one thing should be said - believing in things is not enough - I can believe rock music is harmful to my soul but can still listen to it occasionally - simply believing is not heeding - they say even satan believes in God (and they also say even satan can be saved - it's a matter of revising some choices)