Life / Poles - the Nation of Liars? [478]


Where have I ever justified them?


How extremely nice of you to be so insultingly patronising to me and my countrymen.


Well, what is your lordship doing "sitting" in Poland then? You have no arguments whatsoever, so it seems the time has come to trot out the "you're not even in Poland" attack? And, pray, where in this thread have I spoken of my love for Poland or of being nationalistic? I thought we might have a nice chat, but I am very disappointed. You are unable to defend your viewpoint and refuse to see what I'm saying loud and clear.

Life / Poles - the Nation of Liars? [478]


You're changing the topic here.

The topic, if you need reminding, is in the title of this thread. Is Poland a nation of liars? With many people saying "yes". I want proof. Hard facts. Instead, you are now drifting into different channels altogether. ;-p

Life / Poles - the Nation of Liars? [478]


This was not the subject of our conversation at all, now was it? Of course corruption is as naughty as cheating.
Nevertheless you have not answered my question and are merely waving a report in my face. How is corruption / lying / cheating Poland-specific? I asked for examples from your life, ones that would convince me that only Polish people would behave in this way.

Life / Poles - the Nation of Liars? [478]


I have never heard of a second hand car dealer you could trust. In any country. Yes, Poland included.


How is that specifically Polish? I know a lot of British people with a similar evasive and dishonest, non-assertive attitude. So what? Do I create threads on PF about how the British are a nation of liars?


Again, how is that Poland-specific?


Not true, pure and simple. I have had many wonderful experiences in this respect (by public workers, I understand you mean the civil service?) - even when having a complicated problem to solve via phone from abroad.

Just to remind you, my question was:

Life / Poles - the Nation of Liars? [478]


Kindly explain how 6 years constitute "decades". Not living in PL is not a problem, I keep in touch regularly, thank you very much. The internet is quite useful as well.


How is your reading comprehension these days? I never said these things never happen. I just keep saying that the Polish people are no better and no worse than most of the world in this respect, so if lying and bribery really make you so indignant, why aren't you up in arms against them globally? I daresay I have known more Poles in my life than you, and they are absolutely normal humans in this (and any other) respect. They are not superhuman paragons of virtue, but they are not a corrupt nation of lying cheats either.

Life / Poles - the Nation of Liars? [478]


Please, give me examples of this cheating and lying. I particularly want to see how you came to the conclusion that it's "deep-rooted" in the Polish community specifically, as opposed to other communities.


I really love me a sweeping generalisation.

Life / Poles - the Nation of Liars? [478]


I do not think Poles lie or bribe more than other nations. Of course, they do sometimes, depending on the circs this might be rare or frequent. But neither lying nor bribery are Polish inventions. What Boletus was trying to put across in his post was the fact that many non-Polish PF users do almost nothing but denigrate Poland for faults that are normal human traits the world over. The British government is, I am completely sure, just as corrupt as the Polish one.

In other words: I can have a discussion with you about corruption in Polish politics (which is a fact) - but I will never enter a discussion about lying and bribery somehow being typical of Poland and the Polish people (which is untrue and would be racist if the Polish were of a different skin colour than you are).

Life / Poles - the Nation of Liars? [478]


Very aptly put, if I may say so. I wholeheartedly agree. This is PF in a nutshell.

Life / Poles - the Nation of Liars? [478]

1. All Polish people lie, at all times and under any circumstances.
You can trust me on this.

2. I am Polish.

Off-Topic / What languages do you know? [51]


Sure there are... and a lot of "false friends" as well ;-)

Off-Topic / What languages do you know? [51]

Fluent: Polish, Czech, English
Used to know to about intermediate level, currently understand a few words here and there: German, Italian, Serbian
Used to know pretty well, not any more: Latin, Russian

Food / Polish name for cut of beef [29]

OMG. Check Wiki for "Beef" - there are images showing the different cuts. Then open the Polish version (Wołowina) and compare the images. All done. You can thank me later.

Life / Rate Poland (Life Quality / Culture and People / Food): 1-10! [232]


Why? I lived and worked in Mazury for over ten years. Lots of other people live and work there as well. What's not to like?

Life / Babcia or Busha - any social class difference? [359]


what on Earth is a "sledded Pole-axe" then?

Language / Why is the Polish language so difficult? [309]


Yeah, sure. Especially noun inflections. Piece of cake. I guess you didn't have a very demanding teacher. Russian is *difficult*, people.

Language / Why is the Polish language so difficult? [309]


Neither of them. Belarussian or Ukrainian would be better choices if you are interested in a language "close to Russian".

Language / Why is the Polish language so difficult? [309]


All grammar is ridiculous. Or none is.


???


WTF?

How can a living, thriving language be "outdated"?

Food / Polish bacon doesn't fry up? [70]

Bekon is for frying. Boczek can be "parzony" which literally means "scalded" = basically, boiled. This type won't fry very well unless you add oil. Funnily enough, English sliced bacon often doesn't fry very well either - some kind of white stuff comes out of it instead of the fat I would be expecting, and then it burns. So I guess I dunno.

Don't fry boczek unless it's sold RAW. If it's pieczony, parzony, wędzony you can eat it as is. :-)

Love / Polish girls and traditions (esp. between mother in laws and daughter in laws) [45]

Reading your post has made me very happy indeed. I wish there were more stories like yours taking place in the world. All the best to you and your family!

Language / Is Polish amongst the best-sounding languages in the world? [123]


My name is MAGDALENA. Thank you.
Polish? Sounds OK to me - but apart from being a language I grew up with, it does not move me one way or another. Not the sound of it, anyways ;-)


Nothing. Did I say there was?

Language / Is Polish amongst the best-sounding languages in the world? [123]

I personally like Russian, Czech, some dialects of English, esp. southern US and northern UK, Finnish I absolutely love to listen to, they might be reciting a telephone directory for all I care - just let them talk... :-)

Language / Is Polish amongst the best-sounding languages in the world? [123]

That's nothing. How about:

třiatřicet stříbrných stříkaèek stříkalo nad třiatřiceti stříbrnými střechami

:-)

Language / Is Polish amongst the best-sounding languages in the world? [123]


There's lots more words like that, actually :-)

My favourite Czech sentence: povznesli se se seseèené louky (the got up from the mowed meadow). It's doesn't look like much when written down, but try saying it quickly ;-)

Love / How do Polish men feel about gender equality? [780]


I think Natasa will agree that this is something the Southern Slavs themselves are trying to find out. Czechoslovakia fell apart just like Yugoslavia did, but without the war. Both were Iron Curtain countries. So what makes them different? If war was the legacy of communism, there should be war in Czechoslovakia, as well as civil war in Lithuania, Latvia, Belorussia, and all the other former Soviet states. But this is a completely different topic. Let's go back to feminism, shall we?


I can only say WOW. I do symphatise. :-( You should have come to Poland to study :-)

Love / How do Polish men feel about gender equality? [780]


Sorry to barge in on you like this, but you should have the decency to acknowledge that what you saw in 2000 was not a result of communism. In the eighties, I remember listening to Yugo rock, reading their books, and watching movies with the feeling that this was "the West of the East" so to speak, with a lot of freedom and interesting ideas. I am no communist lover myself, BTW.


I think Natasa addressed your points quite nicely.

Love / How do Polish men feel about gender equality? [780]


I would have thought this was not NORMAL behaviour for any human being.

Love / How do Polish men feel about gender equality? [780]


I have personally met quite a few, they usually seemed nice until I contradicted them for the first time or said something "wrong" from the feminist point of view. One actually (I am not making this up!) smacked my hand because she was angry at me. Wow. She had obviously never heard of intelligent discussion or realised not everyone read the same leaflets she did. I am speaking of an educated, 30+ years old American lady here (I was about 27 at the time).

Love / How do Polish men feel about gender equality? [780]


Frankly, no idea. I have a hunch this would have to be studied in a historical context though (at least the last 100 years). Social structure might be important as well - I'd guess it might have something to do with a middle class background. I'd risk saying that societies in which the aristocracy and the peasants were more numerous than the bourgeois, rules, including those pertaining to gender roles, would be overlooked more often (the aristocrat can afford to break any rules, and the peasant doesn't have the time to gender-categorise work or behaviour). Therefore, typically "bourgeois" societies (most of western Europe, I guess) created the most gender-related rules and roles, and women in these societies have been confused for a long time as a result (and still are). Why confused? Because on the one hand they are bred to obey the rules, on the other hand they see them as unfair, and to crown it all, they find some of those rules advantageous whilst simultaneously convincing themselves they want absolute equality. Just my two cents' worth.

Love / How do Polish men feel about gender equality? [780]

An interesting side note:

many if not most women in post-communist countries are brought up as individuals, not "females", are not subjected to feminist propaganda at school, and their mothers usually do not bother to teach them how "special" they are and what "rights" they should have, yet they grow up to be empowered in the sense of being secure in their feelings of equality to men (sometimes even superiority LOL),

whereas
many if not most "Western" women, who read, write, and talk about women's rights and empowerment and victimhood all day long, demanding this, that, and the other (which BTW they already have, but let's not spoil their fun), seem very insecure in their femininity, paranoid about their roles in society, and emotional wrecks generally ;-)

Love / How do Polish men feel about gender equality? [780]


Completely agree. :-)