Travel / Poland wildlife and similar wild life where you live. [240]

never heard of it

I haven't pursued the guy (or lass) that I have seen - s/he has noticed me and shyed away into ferns - so I presume they are not an aggressive lot ;)

Travel / Poland wildlife and similar wild life where you live. [240]

And I have seen a badger today :) (borsuk in Polish)

znaczy się widziałem borsuka - for those who want to practice their Polish ;)

Study / Rumor about racism - will I be fine in Poland as a black International student from Africa? [241]

I never met anybody of whom I knew he specifically was Nigerian - but years ago I (we) played football against black people who were living where I was (they were surely students as I was - the place was not a regular university dormitory it was a place on the outskirts of Wroclaw (Psie Pole) there was a youth hostel there and porbably still is)

the black guys played barefoot on tarmac :) but they were fast man ;)

appart from that I haven't really had much contact with these black guys, but there was no animosity there as far as I can tell and eventually I have no idea what part of Africa they came from

I know it is slightly off-topic ;)

Language / Terms of endearment in Polish [216]


must be something dialectical - I am not that strong in Polish dialects being a Pole myself

in standard Polish a doll is lalka

News / What's the stupidest question asked about Poland? [414]

Anserine from anser latin for goose

Study / Gdansk / Tricity; university - information [30]

all right - anything around 1000 zl is fairly easily available (but looking further can get you a bit cheaper accomodation)

this can turn quite problematic for you - working in the afternoons - most universities don't bother to arrange things in this way so that students can work in the afternoons

but you may be lucky to find your schedules to fit your needs

so you have to wait and see 'til you're already there - schedules aren't usually prepared much in advance in Polish higher education institutions - but inform yourself at the source - I can be for a surprise here

Study / Gdansk / Tricity; university - information [30]

if you state that you are going to work on weekends then there should be no obstacles cause there are no lectures and no excersises on weekends (well this is valid for home students - but I guess its the same for foreign students)

one room appartment in Gdańsk will cost you at least 600zl a month (usually it gets more expensive) depending on many factors - well this may change in a couple of months due to the closure of some big businesses in the Tricity

Life / Cannabis / Weed in Poland... How much does marijuana cost per gram and how easy is to get it? [355]

there is plenty of unclaimed or uncultivated land in Poland (quite ubiquitously)
(e.g. many abandoned gardening alotments in cities)

go find such a plot and grow your own weed (not a plantation) say one plant per plot

Life / 3 reasons why you hate Poland. [1049]

the topic is a pleaure to stray away from ;)

Life / 3 reasons why you hate Poland. [1049]

they scratch much more than proper wooden floor - the thing is laminate is much cheaper (also easier to make)

btw you can have wooden floors in many variants - in our home we have an old style wooden floor (boards on beams(?) it is covered with large old style panels for convenience

(it is called płyta wiórowa don't know the English name) - you can have modern style panels on top of such board floor

there's also parquet floor - the one made with plenty of tiny but soundly thick wooden parts (always real wood) - this one is glued to a solid floor preferably concrete.

Food / Name of this particular Polish sausage [18]

Bratwuerste I know are quite pale (they are not smoked) and the only Polish kielbasa I know to look similar is 'biala kielbasa' "white sausage" - but as far as I can tell they don't add garlic to white sausage (at least where I live)

what you got here on picture is to my guess a batch of fried smoked sausage - there are numerous types - but most do contain and taste strongly of garlic

Po polsku / Nazywam się Jade i mieszkam w Anglii. [37]


Jade is jadeit in Polish but it does not have any nice connotations in our language.
You can go as Jadźka though ;) (Jadźka is short for (and sort of diminutive but not really affectionate) Jadwiga. An affectionate form is Jadzia (Jadziunia even more affectionate)

if you look for a nickname not a name in Polish you can go for Klejnot/Klejnocik which is a gem or Kryształ(ek) which is cristall.

Language / Use of A/An/The ...... Articles [186]


Bulgarian does have sort of articles similar to the Danish language case

it is guessed that it is due to Turkic influence (Turkic not Turkish - Bulgars where nomad Turkic tribe who came from Black Sea Steppes to present day Romania and Bulgaria around 7th century (anybody correct me if I am wrong) they became slavicized quite soon)

Travel / Mushroom picking in spring in Poland? [35]

there are spring mushrooms - bum most are hmm unusual

Language / Polish or any Slavic language key to any other Slavic languages? [126]

I met a Russian guy couple of years ago in London - we had a talk - I used to learn Russian at school and thought I was not bad at it - then while talking to the guy the words that were coming to my mind were Czech not Russian ;) I haven't been using Russian for years though and I watch Czech TV quite often

to complete the picture
I once met Czech people in southern Italy - they were for work there as I was - I tried to talk to one of them in Czech and hmm thought I was doing well and then he said - why don't you speak Polish - we will understand. :P) (passive knowlegde of any given language is very different from active usage of it)

prijatno? oczień prijatno :) ;)

as for scandinavian languages - well in many cases they follow the pattern of English (wasn't English once heavily influenced by Nordic people? so maybe it's English following Nordic patterns) jeg vil gaa i maandag - I will go on Monday.

hehe I'm not sure what I've written in hmm Danish is correct :P

btw there's a whole bunch of slavic words that have been borrowed from Nordic languages (Gothic for that matter)

Genealogy / Polish looks? [1462]

my guess is you have some Greek blood :)

Food / Looking for a Pickle Soup Recipe - Polish ogórkowa [28]

she must be looking for cucumber pickle soup - it is very popular in Poland just as cucumber pickles are (the fermented sort - no there is no alcohol in that - it's milk kind of fermentation)

yes the best thing is to google the recipee - i have seen tons in English

Travel / Poland wildlife and similar wild life where you live. [240]


what you saw was gil (in Polish) Pyrrhula pyrrhula (bullfinch)
the ones met in Poland are mostly migrating here for winter from Scandinavia or northern Russia, they migrate back north in quite big swarms (this year this was a sign of the spring approaching some time in the middle of March) - the ones brightly coloured are males

the interesting thing about bullfinches is they can often be watched from quite near in winter (1 meter) - this is what i read but also have seen this winter (i was not as close as 1m probably 2m but most birds would fly away if I were several meters further already)

as for other birds that come here mainly for winter rooks are a good example - some of them nest while in winter in Poland - some do remain in Poland for summer but not that many

Study / Is ERASMUS students in Poland allowed to go to another student´s dormitories? [13]

no there is no exchange of students between various universities' dormitories
I would not rely on that at least
btw where is this Kozminski University?

Language / Clever and Innovative Polish Keyboard Layout. must see! [14]

brilliant idea Pierros :)

Language / Polish was chosen the HARDEST LANGUAGE in the world to learn... :D [1558]

and I can understand a lot of Slovak partly because I understand quite a lot of Czech as I have the benefit of Czech TV availability. And very often Slovak sounds as Czech with Polish accents/pronounciation (to Polish ears)

Language / Polish was chosen the HARDEST LANGUAGE in the world to learn... :D [1558]

maybe a blessing in disguise ;)

Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4501]

is this your theory or is it based on some studies Polonius - i guess it did happen from time to time but I don't think it was any significant thing - but still I have never studied the issue

so you may actually be right
yes there can be a lot of confusion - many Jews adopted the surnames of nobility they worked for (as tenants etc) - this is just one example - I'm sure it was quite complex

Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4501]

Polonius maybe I am mistaken but I think only nobility or perhaps city dwellers were called any surnames before say 18th century and only zaścianek szlachta - nobility who had no serfs and worked their own fields would be called a surname after their zaścianek name not being 'lords of the place' just inhabitants (in my family there where Wszeborowscy from Wszebory north of £omża) - these people couldn't be told appart from peasantry already in the second part of 19th century (after the January uprising when the peasants became free and acquired land they were working on for themselves - the big land owners (mostly rich nobles) kept their land until 1921 or even 1944/45)

there were areas in Poland where zaścianki (villages of nobles) were numerous sometimes even occupied most of the land

Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4501]

Latuszewski (btw it would often be pronounced as Latuszeski in colloquial speech - i don't know what this phonetic phenomenon is called but it does have some seriously looking scientific name to it ) :)

Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4501]

nobility were not as a rule wealthy people - they were just free contrary to peasantry who were in fact half-slaves (serf class) - even had to stay where their masters/lords wanted them,

but as a rule you can say nobility were land owners even if petty.

there is good possibility that some of your ancestors where from nobility but it's not for sure
for the reasons I mentioned in previous post

Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4501]

Polonius you are mistaken as for one thing - the rule was such: toponymic names like that were born by noble people - not any inhabitants of the place. Latuszewski or any other ski or cki can be a regular adjective in Polish. The origin of noble class names of that type is from notion of pan latuszewski (Lord of Latuszew) - e.g. Hieronim pan na Latuszewie/pan latuszewski - noble class constituted a large part of Polish society in the end of 18th century (10 per cent) - most of them were not rich, they lived liked peasants but were free. Noble-like names were taken later (made up) by some other people for snobism, and other reasons.

Life / Winter in Poland? [161]

sure

snow - there can be plenty of it - sometimes seriously impeding transportation (this year there was almost 40 cm 16 inches of snow at times where I live - there is always lot more snow in the mountains)

temperatures down to minus 25 degrees at dawn - many cars won't start in the morning

it is all quite fine when there's snow and a couple degrees below zero

the worst thing is when recurring conditions of snowmelt and snowfall become longer -
then it's cold, wet and unpleasant - water on the streets and on the sidewalks - it's much easier to catch a cold in such conditions than when it's 20 degrees below zero

when it is really cold (like these minus 20 degrees) you have to be careful not to get freezing burns

cold weather (freezing temperatures or snowfall) can start as early as the begining of November and may last until begining of April (though last couple of years winters ended sooner than this and the winter of 2006 only started on Christmas - first days of freezing conditions - but this situation was quite anomalous)

Life / What is the reason for POLISH jokes ? [486]


they are have bad hardly comprehensible English

and talk rubbish perhaps

maybe they inform better before spanking the Polish monkey

Life / What is the reason for POLISH jokes ? [486]


the ones I know would definitely offend anyone Jewish - well they did most of the time


a good one osiol, inventive :)