History / Polish historical myths - to break or not to break them? [257]

kismeta.com/diGrasse/HowHussarFought.htm

this is a very interesting read about husaria

History / Polish historical myths - to break or not to break them? [257]


'1612' is hardly historic in showing what husaria was and how it was used

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

hi, I think they are hardly worth anything

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


familia is more like a family name in Russian than the family itself and Russian also have a different word for family 'sjemja' ('syem'ya') which I guess is Slavic (maybe it comes from 'seed' - compare archaic Polish 'siemię' = 'seed')


Russian grammar is a bit simpler than the Polish one but it still has good couple of noun cases and comparable difficulty of verb aspects (perfective/imperfective)

Russian phonetics is a bit simpler than Polish - but hardly any Westerner masters their 'soft consonants' and most pronounce these as their plain variants (it hardly sounds Russian anymore then)

the different alphabet is not a big problem - you can read it pretty fast after some practice (I learned it almost instantly as a kid in school) - the only problem is some sounds behind the alphabet

Travel / Poland wildlife and similar wild life where you live. [246]


I know the question is age old - but not it's not a newt it's just a common type of lizard 'jaszczurka' (there are three native species of lizards in Poland but one is not at all common (jaszczurka zielona = european green lizard)

Travel / What is the weather like in Poland where you are now? [211]

a pretty accurate rainfall and sky condition prediction - USAAF European meteorological service:

you need other sources to see what is the prediction of temperature

there is also this site [eurometeo.com/english/meteosat/jump_EUMET:MPE-1] - this is close to real time satellite imaging focused on precipitation - let's you know if a storm or a storm front is developing and aiming for where you're at

sometimes pogodynka.pl has its meteorological radar images updated close to real time (when big rainfall is predicted - normally they have over 3-hour delay) - nowa.pogodynka.pl/radary

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

Rain33


Kashubians speak perfect Polish - they are sort of bilingual


po ruski - ja toże nie goworiu choroszo chotja ja ucziłsia jego w szkolie - Polish has it's own specific transliteration of Russian which is not completely phonetic but reflects the Russian written forms

Life / Why is circumcision not practiced in Poland? [701]


because you would have to pay for it - secondly many people would think you are a Jew and Jews don't have good opinnion in Poland generally - thirdly as PennBoy said why fix something that is not broken - maybe circumicision makes sense in hotter climates but little in Poland

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


yes it does - just think of 'do prdele' hehhe :)

Travel / Why do you visit Poland? [223]


It must have taken you a good couple of weeks to walk all the way to Warsaw and back to Germany ;) - this is what the sentence roughly means in Polish

Don't translate word for word using dictionaries - it actually seldom works

OK - after reading your Polish sentences I notice this szedłem is the only mistakenly used vocabulary so don't despair - you're doing pretty fine.

Kiedy studiowałem w Niemczech, pojechałem do Polski na wakacje.

Life / What Are Top Television Shows to Watch in Poland? [20]

hardly, son, hardly

the only soap that I like is the 'Na dobre i na złe' - it's about doctors in a hospital

oh sorry I also enjoyed 'Ranczo'

I have no idea if you can watch these from TV Polonia satelite channel or from some sime on the internet though

News / Polish-German Close Cooperation Plan [31]


sure Germans should praise Tusk - they can't imagine a better partner in Poland

the word PR (public relations) in Poland has gained much popularity and hmm PO government and Tusk himself stand mostly for PR for many Poles(and not much else more) - there is a growing risk crucial developements will be missing before the EURO 2012 (like motorways) - btw Tusk is also a simple (edit: I meant plain) and blatant liar

News / Polish-German Close Cooperation Plan [31]


you must be living on some different planet - or maybe it's just the language barrier

Language / Polish verbs are confusing/I get many results when I look them up in an online dictionary [54]

if Polish language is so poor why it is so difficult to translate such things as 'Pan Tadeusz' into English mate

History / Tuchola in Poland - roots of Katyn? [220]


I haven't quoted on my dislike towards Georgians - I have a pretty neutral stance towards them - it's been Georgia that has been bullied not Russia

History / Tuchola in Poland - roots of Katyn? [220]


I don't know any people who hate Russians (it does not mean nobody Polish hates Russians - my grandpa who was a POW in Russia (was allowed to return home in the winter of 1940( as he lived in the Russian occupation those who lived in the German occupational zone were not ) - he never hated Russians - nor did he hate Germans

I do not love Georgians - I don't even know much about them - I just know if a bully comes to your neighbour we better help him out somehow or the bully comes again next time perhaps to us - united we stand, divided we fall

Genealogy / Polish DNA? Poles have the most genes in a group includes Balts, Macedonians and Greeks. [264]


Slavs came to the Balkans only in 6th or 7th centuries AD - see Avaric wars in wiki - Alexander lived a bit earlier - so do your math

Genealogy / Polish DNA? Poles have the most genes in a group includes Balts, Macedonians and Greeks. [264]

Proto-Slavs in the times of Alexander the great (or the short ;) lived happily in the marshes of Pinsk on the Belarus Ukraine border ;) or sorry they were not that happy after all - the humidity must have been an issue ;)

History / Whom do the people in Poland hate more: Germans or Russians? [869]


it's good that you don't represent the country anywhere :) Lwów over Wrocław - OMG

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

I don't know to many languages not even heard that many - but most of the languages I know have something special about them that makes them nice - you may be surprised but I really do like the sound of German and Russian or Ukrainian - I can only think of one single manner of speech that I dislike - and that is the new British English - that one that omitts all final and intervocal t's, all initial h's, even some final k's (loo' versus loo??) -

OK - I actually find one language that I have heard funny - and that is Arabic ;) with all this guttural h's and l's (well maybe it was just a variety of Arabic that I heard that was so funny to me:)

and man I love Swiss German ;) or listen to Garmarna - Herr Holkin on youtube - a Swedish sort of folk group - a beautiful language indeed

btw how is the English word 'hot' pronounced in the new 'modern' British English ? :P

News / Achievements of the Tusk's Polish government [538]


until it succumbs to their own misdeeds and inaction after the next 4 years (and their policies will finally yield some clearly visible fruit that no 'charming' on the side of the media can obscure) - at that moment PO can vanish altogether (like once Unia Wolności did) as no values or ideals keep it together (but only the drive for power and money)

News / Achievements of the Tusk's Polish government [538]

yeah, I noticed he's really into impressing people visually ;) - while I appreciate it when the pictures are taken by himself this thread makes him a bloody propagandist

News / Achievements of the Tusk's Polish government [538]


and the inflation is what - this year it will probably be higher than 4 per cent - then again they have been cutting the number of teachers in many schools so they haven't actually increased spendings on education

education needs a long-term strategy and a lot of rethinking - the percentages of young unemployed people give a hint that our education system prepares people badly to the challenges of modern economy including such things as setting up own business (over 50 per cent of all unemployed are people below 35)

sending six year old children to school won't help - if you think it can please explain your point of view

News / Achievements of the Tusk's Polish government [538]

you forgot about one very important point - corruption- and it's cost on the tax payer - I wouldn't be surprised it is as much a burden to the system as those who just don't want to work and live off the tax payer

yes. Mr Tusk pledged we won't be fighting the wars of the others that's why we withdrew from Iraq - but tell me why Polish troops are in Afghanistan (where losses are already much bigger than these from Iraq)

News / Achievements of the Tusk's Polish government [538]


yeah, we should only give and never demand anything in return from the government - this way we should be top notch liberals (with up to 80 per cent taxation)

News / Achievements of the Tusk's Polish government [538]

he does not have any views - he's only got political ambitions - (after gaining a great measure of immunity - he knows too much of Tusk's an PO's dirty things - but they know of his )

News / Achievements of the Tusk's Polish government [538]


ehehehhe - Palikot stands for some ideals - the guy - supposedly broke - financed his parliamentary campaign using 'pillars' (don't know a proper term in English) - students and retired people sponsored Palikots campaing presumably - with quite generous donations - naturally Polish "politically independant" prosecutors never found anything suspicious - as far as I know he transfered his capitals to somewhere in the Carribean and now lives off generous grants from some mysterious Luxembourgian financial institution - he doesn' have money simply ;) heh - and well he was not very willing to share his money (before it evaporated to the tropics) with his ex wife (to whose family he actually owes very much - he would never start a business without the money of his father-in-law

News / Achievements of the Tusk's Polish government [538]

One of the biggest achievements of Tusk govenrment is that it eventually scoffed and shredden Mr Tusk's plan to join the Eurozone as fast as possible as declared by Mr Tusk on September 8th of 2008 at Krynica Econimic Forum - (the plan was one bold PR stunt and garnered critisim from broad spectrum of people)

News / Achievements of the Tusk's Polish government [538]

Most of the population won't even react to our country being attacked in the first 2-3 days - on the first two days they will be in doubt if we have really been attacked


hahah - so we will be fighting russian tank columns with hacking attacks (hope the Russian tank servers are linux then :P)

News / Achievements of the Tusk's Polish government [538]

if you want to have the data in my previous post confirmed -

The job market situation in Poland is not cheerful. The unemployment rate in March was 13.1 percent . The largest group of unemployed are young people aged 25-34 - GUS.

In March of unemployed was 133.9 thousand 2 million . people. While this is less than a month earlier , but more than a year ago.

Very bad situation of young people. 29.6 per cent . total number of registered unemployed are persons aged 25-34 years , 22 per cent . - Persons under the age of 24 years . The largest group of unemployed persons ( 28.4 percent . ) Demonstrated a vocational education . Every tenth Pole without a job had completed college.

The right to unemployment benefit was in March, just 16.5 percent . unemployed. According to economists , PKO BP Sędzimir Carolina unemployment rate is now declining throughout the spring and summer until October , when it reaches about 10.5 percent .