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

The nice-soundingness of languages is about the most subjective of areas, like tastes in food and drink, clothing, music and human beauty.
I personally like the sound of French, Russian, and yes -- even German (especially Romantic poetry), Italian and Spanish -- those tongues are widely acclaiemd as pleasnat sounding.

Languages which I find funny sounding include Czech, Dutch and Chinese. Portuguese and Hungarian sounds strange. But I also realise Polish soundns weird and 'shishy' to many outsiders.

Life / Professional feminists' of Poland meet-up [631]

In Murder City (my home town), women began walking down streets with a long (6-8 inch) hat pin dangling from her hand. When being mugged, forcefully running the pin through the mugger was said to be quite an effective defence. I haven't heard of that in years -- maybe it got outlawed or something.

Food / Hopless beer in Poland? [30]

Today just for the heck of it I took a closer look at beer labels. The cheaper ones said only słód jęczmienny (barley malt); the slightly pricier ones listed słód jęczmienny & jęczmień brwaorniczy (brewer's barley) and the slightly pricier ones but still mainline had: słód jęczmienny, jęczmień browarniczy & chmiel (hops). Interestingly, the Tyskie Gronie does not lsit hops but the Klasyczne does. It would appear then that hops is a pricy ingredient. Strangely enough my favourite budget brew Donner Premium (1,39 zł for 500 ml) does list chmiel.

Life / Professional feminists' of Poland meet-up [631]


Hey, why don't more women learn how to defend themselves against phsycial abuse? There are judo, karate and taekwondo courses they can sign up for.

Food / Hopless beer in Poland? [30]


You mean it goes down so easy that after the fourth one you're unablel to stand up striaght without swaying?!
How would you describe the taste of the red and wheat beers? Do you go for the kiddy beers mixed with fruit syrups, grapefruit, lemonade, Tequila-flavoured, etc.? I reckon I'm just a traditonal lager lout. I used to like warm, mulled beer in winter when you made it yourself flavouring it with spices and real fruit syrup*, honey or just sugar.

*The degree to which food has been chemicalised is staggering. I once bought a bottle of syrup prominently labelled MALINA (raspberry). The label showed it was flavoured with a but of chokeberry extract and only artificial raspberry aroma. The rest was sugar, artifical colouring, preservatives, stabilisers, acidity regulators, etc., etc. Unfortunately, that's the way it is with most processed food these days.

Life / Professional feminists' of Poland meet-up [631]


Very sad indeed!

Life / Professional feminists' of Poland meet-up [631]


How about your dad? Are you in regular contact with him?

Life / Professional feminists' of Poland meet-up [631]

The point is that there were and probaly still are the tough-guy feminists as described above. Maybe only a minority but there was enough of them or they were vociferous enough to create a stereotype which IMHO is not serving the cause of women's rights.

Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4500]

KWIATKOWSKI: root-word kwiatek (little flower, blossom, bloom); probably originated as a toponymic tag for someone from Kwiatków or Kwiatkowo (Florlaton, Flowerville).

Life / Professional feminists' of Poland meet-up [631]


Then is a wife who paints the house, mends the roof and repairs the family car a masculinist?

Life / New Royal Baby Boy - Recommended Polish Baby Names [21]


Great choice! It honours Poland's great senior statesman Kaczyński as well as its future PM Gowin. Of course, one could also go with Sobieski. Sobieski Windsor has an interesting ring to it, doesn't it?

Life / Professional feminists' of Poland meet-up [631]


Too much individualism leads to anarchy and chaos. Millions upon millions of people thinking up their private little usually self-serving moralities, obsessed with their own selfish pleasures, priorities and self-interest create a confused and convoluted society and world. Feminism often overlooks the obvious fact that, gender aside, we are all human beings first and foremost. To be able to interact peacefully and work together effectively a balanced consensus is needed. All too often unbridled individualiusm in the form of hurray-for-our-side me-firstism replaces any possible consensus. The results can be plainly seen all around.

Life / Professional feminists' of Poland meet-up [631]

Everyone should do what they're best at. If a woman cnanot boil water without burning it then maybe hubby should do the cooking. If the wife is mechanically inclined, she should mend the sewing machine and family car when needed. Usually men and women are predisposed to different things -- not too many men watch soap operas and knit sweaters at the same time while the Mrs is up on the roof replacing wind-damaged tiles -- but if that sutis a given married couple, so be it.

But regardless of who does what household chore or bears the brunt of providng for the family, not too many males would relish beign called feminists. In fact, quite a few woimen do not want to be associated with that term. The two-fisted, mannish but man-hating feminists have covered the justified quest for equal rights with a negative image and odium not everyone likes to equate with.

Language / Stenka and stęka - on alleged non-existence of nasal vowels in spoke Polish [17]

Stenka is pronounced with a full n sound, whilst Stęka would not be nasal but would sound as if spelt Steńka.

Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4500]

KRECZMAN: variant version of Kreczmer, Polish spelling of the Yiddish word for innkeeper. The Polish version is Karczmarz and its derivative Kaczmarek ranks amongst Poland's most popular surnames.

Life / Professional feminists' of Poland meet-up [631]

Femimists discrimnate agaisnt men

I sensibly look at the background of our partners in Europe , it is also often refers to my wife , who does not work , there is no time or party , or government - Prime Minister of Poland Donald Tusk explained . He stressed that the representation expenses for his wife were charged to the party contributions and donations , not from the budget allocations for the PO .

Premier commented thus reports the newspaper " Fakt" , who wrote that the funds collected by the PO sellers were " not only suits for Prime Minister Donald Tusk , ( ... ), but also elegant creations for his wife Margaret ."

According to women's activist Anna Holocher, feminists are guilty of discriminating males. That's why she calls herself an anti-feminist.

Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4500]

MATUSZEWSKI: Either patronymic nick (son of Matusz = Matty's kid) or toponymic tag for a native of Matuszewo (Mattyville).

SLABIŃSKI: nickname for a weakling or toponymically for an inhabitant of Słabęcin, Słaboje or similar (Weakton, Weakville).

Life / Professional feminists' of Poland meet-up [631]


Women tend to express their emotions more openly, whilst many men think spotaneous expression of emotion is unmanly and tend to suppress their feelings rather than talk about them. But when all is said and done, women tend to be the more responsible within the family context than their spouses.


When speaking of female behaviour one must take into account that the feminist movement have made major inroads into the traditonal female image, trying to make women more mannish, assertive and aggressive. To some extent they have succeeded. As a result, women have become less patient, more selfish and less determined to keep the family together than once was the case. However, male irresponsiblity -- drink, gambling, flings, laziness, failure to provide -- is often the cause of family break-up.

Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4500]

ZACHAREK: from the biblical name Zachariasz. Most likely this originated as a patronymic nick to indicate 'Zack's boy' (son of Zachary).

Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4500]

KRZYSIK: root-word Krzyś (pet form of Krzysztof); it probably originated as a patronymic nick to identify someone as 'the son of Chris'.

Life / Professional feminists' of Poland meet-up [631]


I agree. Men may be physically stronger, but women are mentally stronger on average. The woman plays a much larger role in keeping families together and is more patient with children and husbands who may drink too much and not help with the household chores. They are also more resistant to physical pain, possibly because of childbirth. Nurses tell me that some big macho-looking bruisers actually faint at the sight of a needle when having bloodwork done. That never happens wtih female patients.

And over the ages Polish woman many a time have had to run the household and family farm when men were off to war, launching insurrections or exiled to Siberia. When forced to by circumstances, they were able to do all the man's necessary back-breaking farmwork. That has made them more flexible and adaptable.

Life / Professional feminists' of Poland meet-up [631]


Full 50-50 parity, total equality with no preferential treatment in all fields is primitive in your books?

Life / Professional feminists' of Poland meet-up [631]

sobieski
A single case or notable exception can always be found to prove anything. The question was clear: what percentage of combat pilots are women? If it's 50-50 then all is well.

Women served mainly as liaison and nurses in the Uprising. Do you know what % of active AK combatants were females?

Life / Professional feminists' of Poland meet-up [631]


How many were there? What percentage? Any links or is this just another sweeping generality?

Life / Professional feminists' of Poland meet-up [631]


Never heard of hyperboles, metaphors, parables or examples, have you?

Life / Professional feminists' of Poland meet-up [631]


Originally I didn't catch on, but now I can see a common ruse of many PF-ers is to use the so-called 'call for proof' as a diversioanry tactic to block or sidetrack the discussion and avoid expressing an opinion. Clever but not clever enough!

Here is a case in point.
As a reuslt of this 'clever' repartee (link below), the poster wormed his way out of answering whether it was fair to force boy scouts to admit girls but allow girl guides not to admit boys. So we still don't know what he thinks about that. More likely than not he will find some cutesy way of explainign his failiure to respond. Let's sit back and see what he thinlks up htis time! The usual one is: LINK, LINK, GIVE US A LINKI, WE CANNOT LIVE WITHOUT LINKS!!!!!

Life / Professional feminists' of Poland meet-up [631]


What's the big deal with the link obsession? Michael believes that paedophiles should be castrated. Who cares if there's a link. Michael is the postman who isn't even online. Can't people voice an opinion without asking for links. That is the curve ball some posters constantly use when they lack a point fo view or are incapable of formulating one or, more likely than not, prefer being cute and clever (in their own mind alone) and call people names than disucss anything sincerely.

Life / Professional feminists' of Poland meet-up [631]


Again side tangent...everone knows you know how to be snide nad sarcastic and latch onto incidentals. For once why don't you give us your take on the question being raised?

Life / Professional feminists' of Poland meet-up [631]

What is your take on boy scouts being forced to admit girls, but girl guides not admitting boys because girls deserve to have a protected environment without boys around?

This was raised by someone way down the line and I don't have any link at hand, but the issue itself seems interesting.