History / Why will Poland always be the puppet of America? [159]

For Poles bases have nothing to do with the Iran. The missile shield would not actually defend us (Polish territory) against any ICBM from Iran. Poland would want the missile launch facility to have the presence of the American troops on Polish soil which should be to prevent the Russians from invading without anything happening. The talk about shift in power balance by the Russians is bullcrap - the missile launch base would have only a couple of missiles so it cannot be any serious threat to a launched wave of Russian nukes flying west. (there would be houndreds if actually launched). Btw in face of the financial crisis that has struck Russia quite bad noone knows what happens in a couple of years there.

PS I personally don't think Iran would be any nuclear threat to the world in the next couple of years. And the main issue between Iran and the States at the moment is the States fully backing Israel (lots of money involved as far as I know).

and last thing - yes American policies towards Poland has been cynical for quite time. I just hope for a change - no, not during Obama presidency.

History / Why will Poland always be the puppet of America? [159]

I would add Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan - Turkmenistan is somewhat less of a Russian puppet though, Nadnyestrye thing

History / Why will Poland always be the puppet of America? [159]

How is Israel an American puppet if you have little influence on their policies. Is it in the interest of America(ns) that Israel invades Liban and pushes vast swaths of the country back into stone age???? Arabs have an issue with the US for quite long (long before Desert storm) exactly for the US support of the Israel in many various ways. (in the early nineties the direct funding of the Isreal by the US was around 10 billion dollars yearly) America has nothing to gain by supporting Israel, it just antagonizes Arabs furthermore (if it is still possible). I guess you don't hope for American Empire (over Middle East anyone???) Americans have enough energy, bright minds and heart etc to remain well-off without an Empire.

History / Why will Poland always be the puppet of America? [159]

Yes, you have... too much influence over America :) ...
.. Mr Rahm Emanuel :P

History / Why will Poland always be the puppet of America? [159]

not so anymore Bunch - now that Germany, France and even Italy seem to pamper Russia
Hungary and Slovakia licking their ass

that is why Poland would want American troops on our soil in the first place

but I would not count on present cynical American administrations too much

Language / Your perception of the Polish accent [145]

yes there is little difference
the more people are educated the smaller difference there is

Language / Polite forms in Polish vs English [49]

Didn't I say Polish is more direct :)

Language / Your perception of the Polish accent [145]

I can recognise people from Trójmiasto and vicinity (they have their ways of saying things not that much the sound of the language ) they say jo instead of tak most of the time for example (but I guess it is more widespread in Pomorze area (not only Tricity)

History / Why will Poland always be the puppet of America? [159]

Seanus I would point out that president Kaczynski was not so keen on acknowlegding Kosove's sovereignity in contrast to Mr Tusk. It definitely backfired soon on Americans anyway when the Osetian/ Abkhazian thing sprang up. There were some serious ethinc purges by Albanians in Kosovo to my knowlegde. Thousands of Serbs have been displaced. I have once talked with a guy who worked as a policeman in Kosovo. The whole intervention in Kosovo (including bombing infrastructure in Serbia itself - destroyed power stations and bridges) was a bold disrespect of international law and a **************. Btw most if not allegations of war crimes by Serbian army (in Kosovo) have never been confirmed. (to my knowlegde)

Language / Polite forms in Polish vs English [49]

in colloquial Polish a way to order someone to do something a bit more indirectly is to say:

weź otwórz to okno - literally take open this window (word for word)

I guess 'take to opening this window' does not give the same notions in English

weź się odpiernicz :) - hey, beat it

weź przestań - stop that

Weźmy się i zróbcie ;) - sort of 'let's get to it and YOU do it' ;) - this is humorous

there is also - no weź - stop it (sort of)

Life / Polish Nursery Rhymes [243]


This is a short lullaby (well a short version of a longer one)

Aaa, kotki dwa,
szarobure obydwa,
poleciały do lasu,
narobiły hałasu.

Aaa, kittens two,
both are greybrown,
they ran to the woods,
and made a lot of noise.

Food / Polish Milk Soup [72]


I think you should look for zacierka recipe

Life / Parking Fines in Poland [26]


I don't believe so. I would ignore in your place but that's me. Also depends on how much is the fine.

Language / Polite forms in Polish vs English [49]

things are simpler the Polish way; sensitivity as for politness is not allways followed by sensitivity to people's life or problems.

if we don't say much please in Polish, and as a rule are more direct with orders it is unnatural for us to start this way in English, if someone gets offended - well not really meant to offend anyone.

Language / Polish slang phrases - most popular. [606]

pijany - drunken

that's my guess

pijana lady - drunken lady

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

you don't get it Bratwurst - in polish one can most often tell a gender of a noun when seeing it's basic form (nominative) in German you cannot get the idea of which article you should put before many many words (der oder das Artikel - you can't figure it out very often - you have to memorize it)

but in general Polish is much more complicated than German (although those sentences where two parts of a verb are at opposite sites of a sentence can really make you suffer ;P)

Language / Polish Swear Words [1242]

it is spelled like this - cholera jasna

cholera is a serious contagious disease (bacterial if I remember correctl7y)
jasna is bright

it does not make much sense together

but is used quite often nethertheless

jasna/y is used in many Polish swear phrases as sort of augmentative

jasny gwint - bright screw thread
do jasnej Anielki - bright Angela :)
a niech cię jasny szlag/piorun trafi - let a bright hit/thunder hit you - this one make most sense as a phrase

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

so Poles should abandon Polish and learn German instead then it would be easier for the English to communicate with us (not meantionig the Germans )

wait - why shouldn't then Poles abandon Polish for English instead of German? and should Germans stick to German?

:P

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

is it not correct to say - whom did you see on the ball/game?

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

osiol well I can't actually imagine dropping it in Polish; gender thing is simply overgrowing the language, running through it in every direction (isn't it called enmeshed?? :)). This is quite different to German where you could simply use more general Artikel (gosh forgotten the English name for a/the) - could perhaps be der instead of any other. and that's almost it.

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

osiol - no vocative is not slipping away - maybe it is more rarely used than in the centuries gone by but it is well alive (well I actually do not follow the language of those fresh generations too closely - but I know they make quite a lot of grammatical mistakes (it spreads TV-wise) and what is more they are not familiar with a whole of Polish words which look strange and exotic to them (this is simply limited vocabulary) well actually they speak slang don't they

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

Marku is your surname Loeffel??? ;)

you have too many passwords to too many places in the internet I guess Marku ;) go for something strange for example a corruption of memorable name (mine is such) it's corruption of Ariadna (but you will never guess) :P :)

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

I heard a story.
Some Albanians stole a truck in Greece and they were heading towards Albania. Police pursuit followed. The thieves approached the border. But there was no road there to cross the border. They went into a field but stopped there, got off and ran away to Albania. After some time when the Greek police were trying to get the truck out of the field a tank (Russian made thing obviously) appeared from Albania (don't know if it fired) but it crossed the border definitely making the Greek police take flight. The truck was hauled afterwards into Albanian territory.

I am not sure if this story is really true

but certain things I know make it quite believable - there was once chaos in Albania after some breakdown of financial pyramids - army depots were run over, lots of military equipment stolen (they say everyone now owns a gun in Albania (AK 47 for that maatter)

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

polska język trudna język :P

ona być najtrudniejsza - nie wiedzieć ;)

Genealogy / Last Name: DOWGIALLO from Poland [44]

Dowgiałło (Dowgiallo when anglicized) is a polonized Lithuanian name just like Jagiełło, Radziwił (originally also double łł), Rogałło (the guy called Rogallo in the States)

as for Jews bearing this name - many Jewish families accepted names of their noble 'patrons' - the noble families (mostly large land owners) they worked for as tenants of auberges, forests and other - so there are lots of Jews in Poland whose name is Potocki etc (I knew myself a Jew who's name was Potocki)

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 :)

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 / 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)

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.

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