The BEST Guide to POLAND
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Posts by natasia  

Joined: 21 Jun 2008 / Female ♀ 		Last Post: 29 Jan 2013
Threads: Total: 3 / Live: 2 / Archived: 1
Posts: Total: 368 / Live: 316 / Archived: 52 		From: oxford
Speaks Polish?: yes
Interests: yes

Displayed posts: 318 / page 6 of 11
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natasia   
21 Jul 2012
Love / 'Seks po polsku' - the sex lives of Poles: [45]

You would have to ask them. And, of course, they would lie. Even if they have less sex than their wives ...

What is all this nonsense about Polish guys being coy little virgins? Have never heard such b**locks in all my life! They are so very up-front, and up for it. They really are. The difference is: they get girlfriends at 14 as well, but are much more careful. Then they get married at 20, and they have lots of kids. And lots of sex.

So instead of, like the Brits, stumbling around drunk and stupid and getting into all sorts of trouble, they are at home, saving money, feeling secure because they have nice kids sleeping in their cots, and they (the parents ...) having frequent sex in the bathroom. That is how it works.

When I first went to Poland, I sat in a street cafe and gawped at the sheer volume of sexy guys walking down the street. Then someone pointed out that there was only one problem with them: they were all married. True. And having sex.

My verdict: Polish guys are highly-sexed. They are usually pretty fit, in all respects. They generally have more sex that their British counterparts. More sex ... but with one person. Which is actually the better kind of sex. And, because they are sexually confident, they are sexier men to be around. Even if married.
natasia   
28 Jun 2012
Life / Izabela? - Advice with Polish name for a girl [36]

The issue with Wiktoria is to me mostly that when your daughter is learning to spell, the 'W' in particular will conflict with English for her. IF she were being brought up in a bi-lingual household, this wouldn't be a problem. But she isn't.

It's only one letter, though. She'll just have to get used to it.

And I think 'Milena' (lovely name) is a different kettle of fish - because it isn't a Polish spelling of a name which is also English. Really, the only thing you are doing with 'Wiktoria' is spelling it differently.

Our daughter is called 'Mia' and we also get a lot of mispronunciation ... that isn't a big deal, though. Personally I think confusing your daughter with Polish spelling is more of a thing. I guess she'll work it out in the end, though. But people will call her 'Wicky' ...
natasia   
27 Jun 2012
Life / Why is circumcision not practiced in Poland? [701]

Time to get rid of this ritual mutilation. All the claimed medical benefits can be just as well obtained through elementary hygiene.

You are totally 110% correct.
natasia   
26 Jun 2012
Life / Freelance English teacher - Are Polish people unreliable? They continually cancel lessons... [22]

Not practised in Poland.

I always practised that ... and it worked ... but then again, I was adored by all my students (especially the teenage boys ; ) ....

MY THOUGHTS:

Poles aren't exactly unreliable, but what they are is pretty ruthless, and they will usually do what is right for them, without any scruples.

You might get the odd lesson missed, but usually only due to genuine reasons, and usually made up and accompanied by a lot of apology.

If you are getting a lot of cancellation/not paying, I'm afraid to say that is because they probably aren't happy with the lessons. They won't be English and say 'sorry, this just isn't working out' - they will just vote with their feet.

Sorry to say that, but my advice is: think about how you are as a teacher, and how good your lessons are, and how satisfied your clients are. Students who enjoy the lessons and feel they are worth it will not cancel, and will pay.
natasia   
9 Jun 2012
Language / Polish was chosen the HARDEST LANGUAGE in the world to learn... :D [1558]

If you're a foreigner and you managed to achieve even a basic fluency in Polish
then you must be some kind of a linguistic genius

oh come on ... big, big statement ... surely not true? if so, i am like Einstein on coke ... which of course I am not ... is Polish SO hard? So what, it has cases? So what, the verb endings change? I did Latin ... now that WAS bloody hard ... like Lego, all the time ... any living language is a gift, because you can listen to it ... Polish isn't so bad. And the pronunciation is WAY easier than French, for an English tongue. Like a million times easier.

.Eisenbahnknotenpunkthinundherschieber

oh yes, I did German as well - and you are right - Polish again way easier. German was all bits stuck together (again, very Lego-like) (or much like the new Polo ...). And Polish easier to pronounce than German. For goodness' sake - a few consonant clusters, a couple of 'sh' sounds and everyone is having kittens ... what is this?? Polish is a perfectly reasonable language.
natasia   
5 Jun 2012
Love / It is more fun to have sex in Polish than in English. Discuss. [27]

.Why would I want someone wittering on in a lauguage I didnt understand whilst

well no, I meant in a foreign language which you also understand and speak. I was talking more about you expressing yourself in that language.

And as for France, I was joking.
natasia   
2 Jun 2012
Love / It is more fun to have sex in Polish than in English. Discuss. [27]

Well, always remember not to talk with your mouth full!

no, you're right - very rude to do that, and i am English, so try to be polite at all times ...

with such generalisations

actually it was a small, particular detail from a French exchange when I was 15 ... the French girl's father smelt of garlic and took me on the TGV from Paris to Evian, and gave me only a ham sandwich WITH NO BUTTER IN IT to eat ... I was so distressed at the barbarity of a ham sandwich without beurre that I thought I would go and cry in the very fast wc, which, to my utter horror, was just a hole in the ground (and the ground was going by at 500 km/h visible through that hole ... or so it seemed to my disorientated self).

oh, i tried to like it in France. I sort of did. But it was all a bit more earthy than I had expected. I like Poles. They are very clean. All over.

And I find Polish a very sexy language. As it is an acquired language for me, it is something in which I can lose myself, without shame ...

As for whether one or another accent/language is more or less conducive in the bedroom ... I think it's just the speaking a language not your own that is good. Although I have to say I'm also not sure about Liverpudlian ; )
natasia   
1 Jun 2012
Love / It is more fun to have sex in Polish than in English. Discuss. [27]

There's definitely a whimsical, lyrical nature to Polish, which is very grounded and airy at the same time. It's like a sturdier French, whose lyrical sensibilities are much too twee for me.

I could have said that myself. You are extremely very totally right (as Lola would say, if you know Charlie and Lola ...).

French is all twirls and slightly too-thin men, with garlic under their manicured finger nails. Polish has that amazing faux-Russian Dr Zhivago-but-not-quite-so-far Tolstoy-but-a-bit-nearer-and-they-don't-execute-royal-familes sort of thing going on ... and, shifting decades, Polish has a 1970s Slavic chic that just kills me.

There is something raw and noble about Polish, and the juxtaposition of that and startlingly humble surroundings is just delightful. Or perhaps I read 'Lady Chatterley' at an impressionable age and am now just transferring ...
natasia   
31 May 2012
Love / It is more fun to have sex in Polish than in English. Discuss. [27]

Now obviously I had a problem here when categorizing this post - 'Relationships, Marriage' ? Or perhaps 'Sports, Recreation' ? But then I plumped for 'General Language', as this really is primarily a linguistic issue, although it will involve exploration of some other areas, shall we say.

I say that because I have a theory (and I'm sure I am not the only one to have stumbled upon this truth) that when speaking an adopted language, rather than one's mother tongue, one has the opportunity to re-invent oneself, and may find new resonances with this new language and one's personality/desires/world view/etc. ... which one has found hard to express in the mother tongue, which was inherited, rather than chosen. Language seems to me to be an expression of culture in the deepest, most intriguingly complex way. And so: I am a different person in Polish. And, interestingly, but perhaps rather worryingly, prolonged exposure (or prolonged periods of being a different person) have changed the way I am even in English ... I am more assertive, less patient, bolder, more self-aware, less of a ditherer ... and, whereas I think I would now feel rather self-conscious and affected having sex in English, I find it strangely, or otherwise, far more natural in Polish.

Am I alone in this?
(well, obviously not ; ) ... but in this slipping into another language and finding that less exposed, somehow, than sex in one's own language?

Ok. Answer that one.
natasia   
31 May 2012
Life / You've been in Poland a while if .... [49]

you pepper your English with Polish words because the Polish words fit better what you're trying to say

oh yes, jimmy, you are right there ... so right. and when you start saying things like 'they' when referring to the door or your hair ...
natasia   
30 May 2012
Love / Polish men calling polish girl for dating englishman [80]

well that sounds like a compliment indeed and as i am pretty fxxxxg miserable tonight, thank you ... it has now made me cry because it is something nice as opposed to all the horrible things i have been hearing today ... (long story) ...

which will no doubt be swiftly deleted as not on topic so let's make it so, shall we? With another on-topic generalization such as:

-

I mean, c'mon, you live in Oxford. If you were to bend over you'd spill the tea and knock over the little triangular sandwiches!!!
And I know, ladies don't bend over, they bend their knees and lower themselves gracefully, don't they???

Polish guys don't like Polish women to be with Englishmen because they suspect he will put a teapot, some teacups (and saucers), and a sugar bowl with a fluted silver spoon, on the floor, and ask her to pour the tea without bending her knees ... and then the swine will force her to drink it WITH MILK. Criminal.
natasia   
29 May 2012
Love / Polish men calling polish girl for dating englishman [80]

only yesterday I read a post from you advertising for a Polish husband!!!

oh no that old rubbish ... that was a joke post and dated some years ago ... it gives the wrong impression ... haven't worked out how to delete it ... it seems indelible ...

not that there is anything wrong with a high sex drive, i guess. but combined with abrasive requests for tea on't table and that women should be seen and not heard ... no thanks. too much like bondage for me. ties that tight would hurt, and I really don't like emotional pain.

I wonder how the Polish ladies feel about that, though? I don't think it hurts them. I think they just switch off. One of the phrases I have heard commonly repeated is 'Men are not People'. I always find it a rather sinister reflection on how the female-male thing works in Poland ...
natasia   
29 May 2012
News / Don't go to Poland ... because you could end up coming back in a coffin [313]

Having lived in Poznan for eight years, I always felt like I could have been beat up in plain site on the street at any time, especially if people found out that I was a foreigner. However, in America in Seattle or Minneapolis where I lived for ten years, I always felt that I could have been shot.

Whereas in Oxford, you could just walk down the street without the slightest fear, as we all do here. The worst we anticipate is perhaps tripping on a bit of uneven pavement.

Stop this silly UK Poland comparisons.

... they started because some idiot said it would be more dangerous for a non-white person to go to the Olympic Games in London than to a town somewhere with a strong Hitler Youth following ... we have to admit that the UK is way more friendly to all people, because we are made up of so many different people now ... whether that is a good or bad thing is another matter, but Poland was closed for so long, no wonder they all look sideways at anyone different. It all just takes time. I hope nobody comes back from Euro 2012 in a coffin. I doubt they will.
natasia   
29 May 2012
News / Don't go to Poland ... because you could end up coming back in a coffin [313]

racial abuse

To be fair, you really wouldn't get UK fans shouting racial abuse from the stands in a football match, at, for example, black players, or attacking a group of Asian students who are supporting the same side. Or any side. There is such a mix of people here, that kind of blatant racism doesn't happen. Football matches are for families with kids ... So you really won't get racial abuse at the Olympics from Brits - we are an amazingly tolerant and accepting society here (which has its downsides, but in general is a positive thing).

Come on. We spend all the time on here saying how Brits are x, y and z - let me stand up for us for once. It is bollocks to say there is as much or more chance of racism at the Olympics as in Poland and Ukraine for the football. Poland is like Britain 50 years or more ago re: non-white races. Or almost worse. The comments I have heard from Poles about, for example, anyone black are just unrepeatable. And I genuinely would never ever hear anything at all like that from a self-respecting Brit.

OK. All get het up about that now ... ; )
natasia   
28 May 2012
Love / Polish men calling polish girl for dating englishman [80]

Funny that, I've experienced it first hand by several half witted, uneducated Polish males

can quite believe it. here in Oxford the view tends to be that she has somehow struck gold if with an English guy, not least in that he will do the washing-up and cook supper and be generally nice, as opposed to, er, 'where's me tea?' and 'bend over ...' (what she might expect in Polish ...)
natasia   
27 May 2012
Life / Why is cheating at schools in Poland accepted?! [155]

It's a natural defence but in Poland it reaches levels above and beyond our comphrension here.

Absolutely. Lying in court is the first thing Poles would expect to do - almost like a kind of obligation ... 'I swear to tell lies, complete lies, and nothing but outrageous lies, so help me God ...' ; )

Seriously. It is breathtaking to us sobbingly-truthful Brits. Almost awesome the way Poles lie.
natasia   
27 May 2012
Love / What strange/unnerving/funny things do your Polish wives do? [153]

You are unsatiable. :):):):)

Well, thank you for the compliment, but actually I was just listing times in order of preference ... not meaning to say those times were my cumulative preference ; )

But yes, reading between the lines, or rather intercepting all the Polish glances around me, I too get the impression that most Polish wives have as strict rules concerning conjugal relations as they do with wearing slippers, etc. - oh, and sex is definitely one of their tools for controlling their guy, so if he puts a foot wrong, that is the first 'privilege' to be withdrawn.

Jeez. I just can't act like that. I mean, are all Polish men puppy dogs, and all the women Barbara Woodhouse? (look it up - an old grandma famous for her dog-training methods ... ; )
natasia   
27 May 2012
Love / Polish men calling polish girl for dating englishman [80]

well i say again i am English

Yes, so you say, but you are being coy here ... there is something you are not telling us. Because English isn't your mother tongue - of course it isn't. Am not meaning to offend you in any way, but it is quite clear from your language that English isn't your first language (well, I hope not ; ). So where are you from? Because what people are trying to say is that if you are of any immigrant English/British origin, the 'objection' of those Poles at work will pretty much be without doubt to your original ethnicity.

I haven't ever seen Polish guys disapproving of a Polish woman with 'Anglo Saxon' male, but I have seen the whole community commenting with horror at Polish women with guys of other ethnicity (even if they have British passports). That's how it goes.

So just the passport isn't enough, I'm afraid. Or should I say: it isn't the passport they are objecting to.

But, as you know, the only important thing is that the two of you are happy, and if you are, then stuff the guys at her work. Sue them for racism. Find a different job for her. Do something so neither of you have to come into contact with this, because it doesn't sound great.

Polish men (some of them) see Polish women with men of exotic ethnicity as a kind of prostitution, I think. They can't believe a woman would want to be with anyone else just because she likes the guy ... they think there must be more to the deal than that.
natasia   
26 May 2012
Life / 3 reasons why you hate Poland. [1049]

Poles distrustful nature

Now THAT is an interesting one. It has taken me a long time to realise that, in my trusting way, I was dealing with people who didn't trust. (Which means, of course, that if you're nice, they just think you must be after something - they can't believe that such innocent niceness actually exists in a person older than the age of 6 months ...). Really. It is saddening more than anything. Doesn't make me 'hate' anyone - far from it - but it is something that is a massive difference between say Poland and the UK, I think.
natasia   
23 May 2012
Love / What strange/unnerving/funny things do your Polish wives do? [153]

Which time is more preferrable: morning or evening. Or night?

Morning.
Middle of the night (ie when asleep already then waking up 3/4am or so).
Lunchtime.
Afternoon.
Early evening.
Bedtime is almost the worst, for someone who is a morning person like me.

This question, though, can't surely be pretending to be about Polishness? ; ) Or ... do Polish wives have special designated times, and other times that are not acceptable? Possibly, very possibly.
natasia   
18 May 2012
Life / Polish Film World and Poland Movie Reviews [30]

Merged: A Short Film About Love says everything ... ?

Does this film, one of Kieslowski's best, surely not encapsulate everything it is that we non-Poles love about the Polish?

Way before I ever went to Poland, I watched this film one night, just out of my teenage years, on a battered sofa in an old Victorian shared house, about as English as you could get, and I was totally blown away. And I thought: Is there really a place on Earth where these things are brought into such exquisite focus, and are given such importance, as in this film? That film made me cry. It really did. And I cried because I thought: I have come home.

Then I found that place ... and two kids later ...

But seriously. I am interested. Is it just my lyrical, fanciful self enjoying a bit of sexy Euro-Kino, or is there not something in this? The question:

What is it (apart from lovely faces in the women / nice biceps in the men) that we non-Poles find so delectable about Polish people?
natasia   
13 May 2012
Life / You've been in Poland a while if .... [49]

I don`t need any doctors because I know myself the best

Are you a doctor, then? Or just very sure of yourself / good on google? ; )
natasia   
13 May 2012
Life / Why is cheating at schools in Poland accepted?! [155]

March 2012

Statistics about who cheats are easy to find - yes, no doubt cheating is now rife in the UK as well, and yes, of course, naturally, coursework was an open invitation to parents and others to get A*s for the kids ... so that the exam results would look better (that's another story) ... but this question is about cheating being ACCEPTED. There is a fundamental difference between Poland and the UK in this. In the UK it is a shameful thing to do, however many do it. In Poland, how well you cheat is a badge of honour. So we should be discussing what it is in the Polish (and of course other European, but this is a Polish forum) mentality and national identity that makes cheating a sensible, clever, necessary skill. That is the interesting thing. And for that, I think, as I said before, we have to go back and look at what it was in the Polish environment that made this skill essential ...
natasia   
13 May 2012
Life / Why is cheating at schools in Poland accepted?! [155]

The strongest deterrent in the UK is the strict indoctrination throughout childhood that:

- If you tell the truth, everything will be ok
- (and you must tell the truth)
- If you cheat in an exam, it is pretty much the worst and most shameful thing you could ever ever do ... you should do well on your own merits.

Believe it or not, that is why cheating was unheard of at my school. Apart from one American girl who wrote something on her hand, and none of us spoke to her much after that. She was tainted.

In Poland it is totally different, because of their geographical position. In Poland being able to cheat/to judge when it was ok to tell the truth or be honest without blindly trusting was ... a matter of life or death. We weren't invaded by Germans or Russians. The Poles were. They had to become who they are in order to survive. The cheating in schools is just one example of the heritage of an occupied-country mentality ... and people still live as if in times of war, in my opinion.

So, as a teacher in Poland, at first nearly having fainted when I had a classroom of English teachers doing FCE and all of them cheated (all), I have now learnt to understand, accept, and forgive ...
natasia   
12 May 2012
Love / Can Polish men date with Chinese women? [23]

yeah, and I've only had two Polish husbands because i speak and look Polish (really, not joking) (about why, and about the speaking and looking) ... and now that i have nailed the cooking/making the house look spotless while at the same time fixing stuff up so his earning potential is growing ... i am a CATCH. ; ) So, from the sun, maybe think of bumping up your household and business skills to compensate for not being Polish? ; )
natasia   
11 May 2012
Genealogy / I love Asiatic influences in Polish peoples' faces [59]

Unfortunatelly for you

not really as i don't care ... but it is a fact that there are very dark Polish people who look almost Far-Eastern. The one I know is mistaken for being Chinese.

ok, have looked it up now. There was a region known as TARTARIA, and the people from there are known as TATARS (pronounced in English 'Tartar').