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Posts by JonnyM  

Joined: 9 Mar 2011 / Male ♂
Last Post: 15 Mar 2012
Threads: Total: 11 / Live: 2 / Archived: 9
Posts: Total: 2607 / Live: 553 / Archived: 2054
From: Warszawa!
Speaks Polish?: tak

Displayed posts: 555 / page 8 of 19
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JonnyM   
3 Jan 2012
News / Polish People STILL denied US Entry [96]

I'm not sure you can blame The President for immigration policy. After all, the Republicans (who are anti-immigration) have a majority.
JonnyM   
3 Jan 2012
Life / Babcia or Busha - any social class difference? [359]

Go to the OP and read carefully the first 10 lines.

Better still go to the OP and read it all. Carefully or otherwise. Those were direct quotes. Stop lying. And stop trying to frantically backpedal now you've been caught out. And stop wasting your time trying to 'prove' something that isn't there.
JonnyM   
3 Jan 2012
Life / Babcia or Busha - any social class difference? [359]

I did not say "busia", I said "babusia". So no Harry, you are twisting my words on purpose.

Really?

I don't remember anyone saying on PF that "babusia" is not used in Polish. But "busia" really is not. Also, the Kashubian info is very interesting, but has no direct bearing on the discussion, as Kashubian is not a dialect of Polish, but a separate language.

Very true. I've never heard the word. Only read it on here, written by people from a different continent.
JonnyM   
3 Jan 2012
Life / Price of cigarettes in Poland? [192]

I remember going back to the UK in 2001. R (you know who I mean) and I sat down in my local, a dog rough pub in Leeds, put a load of L&M (Ukrainian ones from Stadion) on the table and announced that they were £3 a packet. It paid for our holiday.
JonnyM   
3 Jan 2012
Life / Price of cigarettes in Poland? [192]

It's not what we think, but what Irish customs think.

If they're anything like the UK, they won't stop you if you look respectable.

One thing that surprised me is that when people from Britain go on baccy runs to Poland they buy rubbish like Lambert and Butler or Mayfair. Some local Polish brands are much better quality. Cheaper too.
JonnyM   
3 Jan 2012
UK, Ireland / Polish immigrants in the UK - victims or criminals?! [286]

I suspect they are quite young. If they are as bad as you say, there's a problem. In Poland if somebody had neighbours like that they would not hesitate to do everything they could to have them evicted. In fact it is normal in PL to call the police if there is noise after 10 pm, and to complain to the Spoldzienia (Housing co-operative).

You should do the same - it is quite easy to complain about loud music and the Noise Abatement Society would help you. Social Services are a possibility if they are drunk while the child is around.
JonnyM   
26 Dec 2011
Life / Fat People in Poland? [161]

Another good reason for obesity in America is the fact that both the husband and wife both work. At the end of the day no one feels like cooking so the eat out. Most of the food is fried with grease dripping all over the place.

It's easy to do if you're tired after a long day - and then you get into the bad habit of liking greasy food.
JonnyM   
26 Dec 2011
Life / Fat People in Poland? [161]

It depends on your concept of beauty - who would want to have teeth like Tom Cruise? In Europe, certainly in the UK and Poland fat isn't usually considered attractive either. Except by Chubby Chasers.
JonnyM   
24 Dec 2011
Work / The level of English of Polish teachers of English. What do you think of it? [101]

When "backing" groups are mentioned, students prefer support. Or backup

A support group is a whole different kettle of fish and backup is what police call for. And a band who are supporting another band come on stage before them and don't usually do the backing!

PS. Contemporary youth hate singing.

A shame, since it opens the neural doors to so many other skills. Useful for language acquisition too!
JonnyM   
24 Dec 2011
Work / The level of English of Polish teachers of English. What do you think of it? [101]

Really? I thought they have quite unambiguous meaning. Backing is wsparcie, issue is kwestia

Backing can also mean any material that is used to cover the back of something, e.g. a framed picture, an upholstered item etc. It can also refer to musical accompaniment as in 'backing singers'. I think there are one or two other meanings - one to do with theatrical scenery and the other an engineering term. 'Issue' can mean (as well as kwestia or sprawa) an issue of a magazine or newspaper a financial instrument or a banknote, stamp or coin. It can mean someone's children as well as geographical, legal and medical meanings.

One of the key skills of teaching higher level students is getting them to feel how a word can have differing meanings in different contexts - a lot depends on how they've acquired the language from day one.

That test is a scary one - looks like something from Nelson Proficiency (an old book, but still the best)
JonnyM   
20 Dec 2011
Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4500]

It is a Lancashire name as this map shows.
surname.sofeminine.co.uk/w/surnames/surname-baines.html

This interesting name has three possible origins. The first from the Gaelic "ban" meaning "fari" or "white" as in Ewin Bayne alias Quhyte recorded in Perth, Scotland in 1623. Secondly from the Olde English "ban" meaning "bone", which later became "bon" and survives as a nickname "Bones" in the Midlands and Southern England and thirdly from the Olde French "bain", bath, which possibly denotes occupation as an attendant at the public baths. It is also possibly a locational name from France a village near Bayeux in Normandy.Read more

or

Anglicized version of Welsh "ab Einws" (son of the anvil) ; or English name associated with Bainton in Yorkshire ; or Scottish variant of Bain (white , fair) ; or from Scottish "Beathan" (life)

Unless of course it was changed from something else, like Banaszek or Banaƛ, in order to anglicise it.
JonnyM   
17 Dec 2011
Real Estate / Residential real estate values go down in Poland [455]

Look, you may want to believe that's an objective source whose writers come to their numbers without bias or of opinion but that doesn't change the fact you've used a rubbish source. This is why realtors are often compared with to car salespeople.

I rather agree with Pip. In a buyers' market everything helps and if people see some of the photos in online sales ads with full clothes airers, kids toys cluttering the floor, garish paint colours that make a home lok worse, too much of an 'individual stamp' ruining somewhere they just click the mouse and go to the next ad unless they have a very good reason to do otherwise. A flat might be in the right area, the right price etc but there's no point making someone's heart sink when they think about all the fixng up they'll have to do.
JonnyM   
17 Dec 2011
Real Estate / Moving to the Katowice area soon! Safe neighborhood for an Irish man? [38]

When was the last time you were in Sheffield?

October.

Obviously a long time ago if you think the two compare.

Stroll down the Wicker and wander in Brightside and you could be in Gorny Slask.

To the OP, both are reasonably safe places. Industrial regions that have long passed their heyday.

Then again, if you removed all the posh 1930s architecture from that area behind Katowice station, you'd have Mexborough. And the bits of Sheffield round Gleadless etc could pass for the arse end of Gdansk, round Przymorze or the wrong part of Wrzeszcz.
JonnyM   
16 Dec 2011
Real Estate / Residential real estate values go down in Poland [455]

you mean a economic black cloud

I mean exactly that - but something a bit longer lasting than a black cloud. We have boom and bust, but after this bust will the boom be in this part of the world...
JonnyM   
15 Dec 2011
Real Estate / Residential real estate values go down in Poland [455]

You're probably right. There are some interesting economic phenomena around the corner and we could all be surprised. I've a feeling the price of smallholdings will keep rising whereas suburbs will not keep pace.
JonnyM   
15 Dec 2011
Real Estate / Residential real estate values go down in Poland [455]

Shame you don't provide any of your own credentials for commenting on the housing market. Speaking as someone who isn't an English teacher I would still agree with CMS. 20% is a credible figure.
JonnyM   
15 Dec 2011
Food / Polish kishka [76]

but can you not just use sz in there?

It is indeed 'kiszka'. If it was spelt 'kishka' it would be pronounced 'keyzzhha'.
JonnyM   
13 Dec 2011
History / What proportion of the Polish population collaborated with the Nazis? [125]

He's also avoiding the issue of Jews being excluded from many (most) public sector posts and the mass expulsion of Jewish children from elementary schools by local authorities early in 1939.

You guys not only can live with the quota system in the present-day U.S. You guys actively support it!

You assume too much. Despite the 'quota system' in the US being designed to help a downtrodden minority.
JonnyM   
13 Dec 2011
History / What proportion of the Polish population collaborated with the Nazis? [125]

The myth i

It isn't a myth and my example was about the behaviour of the bar association.

historical facts

Historical facts are that certain professions were restricted - Jews were effectively excluded from sections of society.

hate Poles

You seem to confuse hating certain behaviours with hating Poles. Either you aren't very good at logic or you're being disingenuous.

You probably wonder what may be responsible for the phenomenon of "anti-semitism without Jews"?

An easy question. Deep-seated-prejudice.

This concludes my participation in this thread.

Not very well, it seems.