News / PO support drops by 4 pps after tape scandal according to WBJ [18]


that should be "Kaczynski's"

That's why his reactions have been (for him) relatively muted. He knows they've got **** on him too.

UK, Ireland / Would life in the UK be very hard for a 17 yr old Polish girl? Advice needed please [33]

I'm also going to suggest that you stay in Poland for the time being. Go to university and major in something that will give you some marketable skills (hint: not marketing). You'll probably get a better education in Poland than in the UK especially for the first three years.

Don't go to the UK on your own or with a 'job' arranged by people you don't know. If you have family or friends in the UK ask their advice. The UK is also a _lot_ more dangerous than Poland for a young woman in your position.

Life / Recommendations for MIDWIVES in Krakow? [2]

I'm pretty sure some level of midwifery care is free in Poland for those that request it (your family doctor should have details).

If you're looking for a midwife who knows English then you'll probably have to go private.

If you put "jak znaleźć połóżną" (how to find a midwife) into google you'll get a bunch of advice though it's all in Polish....

Life / Being a Jew in modern-day Poland; Israeli Jew who is of Polish descent [279]


It depends on how big a deal you make of it. Most Poles are not especially religious (doing only the minimum required to be considered catholic).

How religious are you? If keeping kosher and not using electricity on the sabbath are really important to you then you may find it hard to socialize. If you're more secular and/or flexible then no one is likely to care (beyond extreme nationalists of which there aren't that many).

You might consider a Polish first name as well (Polonizing your Israeli name it that's possible and just picking a Polish first name if it's not). The last name isn't as important.


The strength of religious feelings in Poland has always been exaggerated as far as I can tell, especially in cities.

Life / Being a Jew in modern-day Poland; Israeli Jew who is of Polish descent [279]


I didn't mean formally and legally, just finding a similar Polish name for informal everyday use, as in "call me Jerzy (instead of Giorgio or Jorge)" or "My name Blasfork but you can call me Bolek".

I pronounce my last name differently in Polish and English (though the written form is the same) just because it makes things easier.

Language / I am looking for help to identify a song track which I believe is Polish. [25]

It's called Nie płacz kiedy odjadę (dont' cry when I leave). You can find several different versions on youtube.

News / Should Poland exit the EU immediately? [377]


Since when did joining the EU mean obeying irrational random rules passed down by Angela "I think I'm a Kaiserin" Merkel and an unelected technocrat without any true legislative process?

Wildcat ad hoc proclamations were never supposed to be part of the EU deal.

News / Should Poland exit the EU immediately? [377]


I'm not a fan or a hater of Tusk and his appointment has nothing to do with the current mess. Merkel has been acting like a bipolar lunatic on methamphetamines and obeying her wild mood swings is nowhere in the EU charter.

If you want Poland to take hundreds of thousands of refugees who won't integrate (and/or will hop off to Germany as soon as they can) then just say so.

News / Should Poland exit the EU immediately? [377]

I don't think you understand Russia if you think that open relations with any country is on its agenda.....

News / Should Poland exit the EU immediately? [377]


I've seen it up close and it's not that pretty (academically speaking). The main goal seems to create class consciousnes among students so they think they have more in common with students in other countries than their countrymen who don't make it to the university.

News / Should Poland exit the EU immediately? [377]


Very true. But economic arguments are no the be and end all of EU membership. If enough Poles start to see EU membership as having what should be domestic policy decisions (like border controls) made in Germany by irrational leaders then the economic benefits might not be enough.

Part of what Merkel's Folly has wrought is to bring the negatives of EU membership front and center.

News / Should Poland exit the EU immediately? [377]


For the time being.


But Merkel's Folly has woken up a lot of people who don't like having such an erratic and irrational person in charge of Germany (and thinking that other countries should just blindly follow her emotional decisions). She was basically telling Hungary and Austria how to manage their borders (though the media seemed to .... not want to make that especially clear).

This time an unaccountable decision by a German leader probably won't affect Poland very much..... but more thinking people are now thinking 'what about next time?'

News / Should Poland exit the EU immediately? [377]


And this means that Poland is no obliged to take in and try to provide for a large population with a proven track record of failure?

If there's a muslim population in Western Eruope that produces more wealth than social service debt then I've yet to hear of it (and sure the statistics would be bandied about).

Again, the story of mass muslim immigration to western europe is one of some individual successes set against a larger backdrop of dysfunction and failure.

Muslim immigration is at it's most productive when it selects for highly educated and more secularly oriented people. Bringing in large numbers actually has the effect of harming the more educated and secular.


That's just plain wrong and displays vast ignorance of what was really going on in Poland. Yes, accession has helped Poland a lot. That doens't mean Poland is obliged to sublimate its survival instinct (as has happened in most of western europe).

Travel / I'm so bored in Poland! [129]

Where are you and what would you rather be doing?

Travel / I'm so bored in Poland! [129]

Wrocław is also a nice day trip from Opole, the old town area is nice and there's the Panorama, not the most exiting thing ever but worth a visit if you're in town. There's also

panoramaraclawicka.pl/?lang=en

I think maybe what's going on is that for your husband visits to Poland are mostly to chill and be with family and/or friends and he doesn't realize how uninteresting that can be someone who doesn't know those people as well as he does.

For Opole I found this in two seconds:

kulturalne.opole.pl/

No english version, though. But every Polish town has a page like this. If nothing else you can use it to plan things ahead of time.

Law / Asylum laws in Poland [41]


And yet migrants run away from it to get to the UK......

Law / Asylum laws in Poland [41]


I would not call most of what they talk "speaking English" in any real sense, they know how to string some English words together but that's about it.


What's the basis of asking for asylum? From Pakistan a Christian or Ahmadi might be able to claim oppression (since the Sunni majority is very hostile and actively oppresses minority religions) but that's about it.

Law / Asylum laws in Poland [41]


What about religion? If he's not Muslim (or is the wrong kind of muslim) life can get pretty bad there... they've hacked a few atheist writers to death there this year.

Language / Polish names without a nickname (or less frequently shortened) [61]


You're not going to change that. It's too deeply embedded in the language and culture. Even if you succeed then all you've done is make your child a social misfit. Better choose a name the shortened form of which you can stand. And even then your kid might prefer a different nickname (especially if you make it clear you don't like it).


Just be glad she didn't drop the -arr-.....

Language / Polish names without a nickname (or less frequently shortened) [61]


you mean Ewunia, there's also Ewusia but not as common.

Language / Polish names without a nickname (or less frequently shortened) [61]

My favorite name ever Świętopełk?

(the czech version is also pretty cool - Svatopluk

Language / Polish names without a nickname (or less frequently shortened) [61]


Not really. It's not a term that's really used in mainstream linguistics in English in my experience. The term 'diminutive' is about 368 times more common (approximately).

Language / Polish names without a nickname (or less frequently shortened) [61]


No, but usually in linguistics we don't distinguish diminutives on the basis of whether they're names or not (most of the time, there will be exceptions of course).

The augmentative -sko is interesting because it changes the grammatical gender of the noun it's applied to (which most diminutives in Polish don't). Also, originally I think -ch- was an agumentative though it functions more like a diminutive in the modern language (though it suggests a rough and ready attitude rather than a tender one). Students used to be very fond of it and I was always hearing them say things like mięcho (mięso) kapucha (kapusta) pieniąche (pieniądze) and the like.

Language / Polish names without a nickname (or less frequently shortened) [61]


Possibly I was working from memory and pieniąche does get some google hits. I collected a bunch of forms I heard once but can't put my fingers on it right now.


I think of it as the 'bro' form (except that young women use it in a similar way) kind of youthful exhuberance and irreverent attitudes, it seems to add a breezy connotation more than disrespect or coarseness (among young Polish people).

Law / Polish work visa refused - what should i do next? [23]


Go back in time and try again? You can't "avoid" it because it already happened.


Or his own.....

News / Poland's post-election political scene [4080]


They've clearly not given up on the idea of dumping her. I give her two months at most before she's looking for a party. Note that Polonius can't actually defend what PiS is doing (though it's pretty stupid and will alienate the people that voted for them) so he keeps trying to change the subject.

And now add the mess with Duda showing he has no idea about how the EU is run (and or wants to stress to the EU that the bumbling amateurs with no idea of basic protocal are back!)

News / Poland's post-election political scene [4080]


No way she could be prime minister after that ordeal, at least there's an experienced alternate waiting in the wings (with a giant hook at the ready).

Not having anything to do with the actual, real country of Poland on a day to day level you have no idea what the blowback will be if Szydło's pushed aside. There's no way the government would last more than a year or two (the promise to voters that won them victory was a post-Kaczyński PiS - if they reneg on that then all bets are off).


He scheduled the opening day of the Sejm (when he and Kopacz are supposed to be present) on a day when there's an informal summit meeting of the EU, which requires that every country send the head of state or prime minister). The date of the meeting has been known since April.

now there's an undignified wrangle with PiS trying to figure out how dig itself out of this latest hole..... (and Poland's reputation as a serious country will take a hit).

News / Poland's post-election political scene [4080]


My impression was that Duda doesn't have the cojones to stand up to Kaczyński....

News / Poland's post-election political scene [4080]


You forgot the wreckers and running dog imperialists...

Tell us more about the glorious five year plan, comrade!

Food / Why Poles not like rice? [95]

Why are you trying to impose meanings from one language on another. In some languages, like Spanish, America (América) refers to all of both continents while in English it refers (by itself) to a particular country. There's nothing ignorant about words meaning different things in different languages.