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Posts by Varsovian  

Joined: 23 Nov 2006 / Male ♂ 		Last Post: 22 Feb 2016
Threads: Total: 91 / Live: 89 / Archived: 2
Posts: Total: 634 / Live: 547 / Archived: 87 		From: Warsaw

Displayed posts: 636 / page 21 of 22
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Varsovian   
27 Feb 2010
Life / Passing your Polish language and culture to your kids [74]

In England I read Brzechwa and Tuwim to our toddlers and we had Polish satellite TV.

Now, after 10 years in Poland and our efforts, our teenagers speak virtually faultless English and are up to date on UK news and current affairs. TV has been central to our cultural policy.

My wife and I mainly speak English at home (she's Polish), though we do lapse into Polish when talking about school - they go to the village school, not one of those overpriced international ones.

I give one English lesson a week - our two and a Polish-American boy making up the class. We do linguistic things in addition to a wide variety of other topics. Occasionally, we do Shakespeare - to date: Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet. SparkNotes are invaluable supports to me for that.

I don't want my kids to be viewed as half-educated weirdos when they go to England. And their English cousins were really surprised when they came over here and found that our two could speak normal English without a "funny" accent.

Sadly, not everyone does this. I know many Polish families in England where the kids don't really speak Polish, and some Anglo families in Poland where the youngest kids don't speak what I see is acceptable English.
Varsovian   
27 Feb 2010
History / Were these Polish people communists? [16]

Jędrzej Giertych wasn't a Communist himself, but he was an opportunist and wanted to get on in life. It's no surprise that one grandson became a fascist and was actually quite a good education minister (that shows just how bad the others have been!!) and another a partner in a leading foreign accountancy firm in Poland. A grand-daughter was lusted after by a friend of mine - but she became a mother superior!
Varsovian   
27 Feb 2010
Work / Job salary comparison in UK and Poland and other European countries [6]

Look, each individual needs to analyse his job opportunities first. Wherever they may be.

Money is a big consideration but not the only one.

What's the point earning more money if its purchasing power isn't all that much more and you're going to end up waking up one day and realising you're 35 years old, unmarried and going nowhere in life?
Varsovian   
27 Feb 2010
UK, Ireland / Marrying Polish Woman in UK/London [100]

Shahid Malik is the MP in my home town, Dewsbury.

He has led a golden existence thanks to the govt's policy of sucking up to muslims in order to divide the anti-British muslims from the very anti-British muslims.

He also managed to accumulate the greatest amount of expenses!

Dewsbury - 30 years ago, when I was a lad it was a declining northern, post-industrial town with a "manageable" Pakistani population. By manageable, I mean it wasn't in your face - they were there, but not in great numbers. That changed with the mass immigration of the 90s and after. My Dad was a local family doctor - he got loads of Christmas cards from the older muslims, including the mother-in-law of the leader of the 7/7 bombers.

Dewsbury has produced about 10 suicide bombers - one aged 16, most caught before they could put their dastardly plans into effect. This makes local news but is not reported nationally for reasons of multicultural peace and harmony.
Varsovian   
27 Feb 2010
UK, Ireland / Why are Polish people, especially women, so disrespectful toward the English? [437]

Weird thread.

I've not particularly noticed any disrespect towards the English. Actually, I feel I get higher status treatment in Poland precisely because I am English - in the workplace too.

Moreover, the English are generally a bunch of chumps when it comes to treating ANYBODY with respect. They treat each other with disrespect - taking the mickey is a national sport - especially so if you're a foreigner. My Polish wife got a very mixed reception in England, despite the fact she was a top student at a prestigious Polish university (Warsaw). Some respectful, too many not.
Varsovian   
26 Feb 2010
USA, Canada / US resident, have a baby with a Polish girl. Need help on Polish Passport. [30]

Jeez - I'm so glad not to be in your shoes.
She needs a divorce, you want true love ... recipe for disaster. Either you two sort yourselves out now or you'll split and you'll end up as a statistic - one of those fathers that has no contact with your kid after 5 years separation.

Stark, raw etc but that's the way you're heading unless you're substantially different to 95% of people in your situation.

Takl to her and find out whether she's serious about forming a stable home - if not, no info on passports, residency etc is going to help you stave off the inevitable.

Honesty is the best policy.
Varsovian   
26 Feb 2010
USA, Canada / US resident, have a baby with a Polish girl. Need help on Polish Passport. [30]

You live together and you live in a state of distrust!

What sort of person, let alone parent are you? Get real, get married and show some trust. The race of life is tough enough without starting it off by shooting yourself and your nearest-and-dearest in the foot.

Stop setting yourself up as a victim. Settle down PROPERLY and start having some real fun.
Varsovian   
26 Feb 2010
Love / English girl moving to Poland with my Polish boyfriend for the first time [69]

Living in Poland isn't a problem. Emigrating on the back of an insecure relationship is. Tell him you're 100% in favour of the idea as long as you have a ring on your finger.

I brought my Polish wife to England after we got married - and we weathered every storm thrown at us by my bigoted family and life in a hostile country (i.e. England). Now we live in Poland - and handle worse problems!
Varsovian   
4 Mar 2008
Life / nasza-klasa.pl - If you looking for your classmates or friends in Poland [95]

Ben - don't kick yourself for not setting up earlier. It might well have failed.

I, too, looked into the possibilities of setting up - 4 years ago. I contacted 2 IT people, talked over the idea but pulled out due to my fear of a new, big boy appearing on the scene.

I think these two went ahead with my idea and will now be in the process of being wiped out due to a lack of capital to push their baby.
Varsovian   
9 May 2007
Life / Are you too selfish to leave Poland? [22]

Slightly daft question in the first place - selfishness, emigration etc

You sell your skills for the highest price in terms of purchasing power. Some social elements come into it naturally. Capitalism is all about the pursuit of economic self-interest, and the individual fits in as well as s/he can.

I could choose to work all night as well as all day - that way I could earn more money. I don't because I choose to spend my time in other ways. I suppose you could call that selfish too.
Varsovian   
23 Mar 2007
Life / Hip Replacements in Poland [3]

You may check szymonmanduk.pl

Interestingly, hip problems are more common in countries where the intake of dairy products is higher.
Milk especially, is a major cause of osteoporosis.
Varsovian   
21 Mar 2007
Life / Do you think that Polish people are rude? [951]

I had problems understanding that until I realised "Purple" was a person!
I mean - how can you make a point purple except with felt tip pen?
Varsovian   
20 Mar 2007
Genealogy / Why are some Polish people dark complected, and others very light [511]

But don't forget that Y chromosome reflects historical times, whereas I referred to rather deeper things. /sigh/
I thought better of you than to merely cut and paste from the internet without showing too much understanding.
Mind you, Y chromosome studies do at least show that Poles have scarcely found a single German sexually attractive over the last 1500 years.
Which isn't surprising, really!
Varsovian   
20 Mar 2007
Genealogy / Why are some Polish people dark complected, and others very light [511]

The tortoise?
Hah ha ha!

She doesn't take any pills, my wife that is. Strictly Catholic.

(Soorrry, couldn't resist that one!)
Seriously, she just needs lots of sunshine early in the year and late in the year and she's OK.
Fears osteoporosis though - that's linked too. And, despite the propaganda, increased milk consumption clearly puts you at greater risk of osteoporosis.
Varsovian   
20 Mar 2007
Genealogy / Do Polish people have big noses? [451]

MtDNA haplotype EU18 places you Poles in kinship with all sorts of non-Europeans, including Georgians, Syrians and Udmurts (central Russia). You're also distantly related to Native American populations (they mixed with ancestors of Poles 30,000 years and headed east as fast as they could, perhaps Grandpappy Lech was on their tail!!).

Racial purity ain't nothing but a sick joke, my friend.
Varsovian   
20 Mar 2007
Genealogy / Why are some Polish people dark complected, and others very light [511]

It often results in liver and pancreas problems, apparently.
It's all to do with the darker skin being less able to produce vitamin D3 from exposure to sunlight.
D3 is 2000 times more bio-active than dietary vitamin D so you have to get a source of UVB light from somewhere. Solaria usually tan you with 95% UVA, which is pretty much useless for D3 production and exposes you to an increased risk of skin cancer. However, it is theoretically possible to get them to regulate their sunbeds to give you greater UVB. Unfortunately, UVB burns quite quickly so they can't get the same amount of money from you that way - hence they will probably turn your request down!

Oh, by the way, my pet tortoise basks under a UVB light bulb ... but I haven't the heart to deprive my little dinosaur of his sunshine!
Varsovian   
20 Mar 2007
Genealogy / Why are some Polish people dark complected, and others very light [511]

My Polish wife is pretty, and pretty dark too.
Jet black hair, dark skin, suffers in the Polish winter from a lack of sunshine (a vitamin D thing).
Based on mtDNA testing of the EU 18 haplotype, Poles are generally fairly similar gentically to Albanians, Croatians, Georgians, Syrians and Udmurts (whoever they are - sorry any Udmurts who might be reading!)

I thought I'd blind you with a smidgin of science :)
Varsovian   
16 Mar 2007
Life / Why Do You Love Poland? [907]

Northern England, but quite happy to leave - people where I lived were very anti-education (typical for the English working class) so I always felt an outsider anyway.

I ended up being a French teacher in a fantastic private school just outside London before moving to Poland.
Varsovian   
16 Mar 2007
Genealogy / Are all Poles blue eyed and blonde? [451]

There's a strong element of east Asians in the "typical" Pole - invasions in history and pre-history. Science tends to debunk racial myths.
Varsovian   
16 Mar 2007
Life / Why Do You Love Poland? [907]

I don't love Poland, but I live here because I can earn a good living and have a good lifestyle. That's better than all these emotional protestations.
Varsovian   
20 Feb 2007
Work / TEFL Teacher training from Poland? [18]

TEFL courses aren't expensive if you do them at a local college. For employment purposes I don't think it's too important which one you do, as long as you have done something that has an official certificate.

A degree isn't required, but an education is. If you haven't managed to attain a decent level of education yourself, I think you will underachieve as a teacher. The indefinable extras count. You yourself will have to define what 'decent' means here.

I didn't do a TEFL course, as I did a postgraduate certificate of education - standard schoolteacher stuff - and worked as a French teacher in England before emigrating.
Varsovian   
19 Feb 2007
News / Polish Immigrants Leave America for Europe [210]

They don't have DNA results like that - it's a wind-up!
What v. which - the old correctness v. common usage problem again.
Here, I would tend to say that "which" would be generally seen as an affectation, as it would denote the choice of one of a generally known number of DNA tests, whereas I understood it more along the lines of "what sort of, and please give me the name while you're at it?"

And as for what you must be thinking at the moment - you're right! It's a slow day at the office!!
[I must get out more.]
Varsovian   
11 Jan 2007
Genealogy / Are all Poles blue eyed and blonde? [451]

In the same way that Origen of Alexandria made a disastrous interpretation of the gospels.
Some people take things too seriously - I mean killing yourself out of some weirdo racist beliefs that make no sense in the modern world.

And NO - I'm not going to tell you who Origen of Alexandria was ... but believe me, he was very silly.