Life / Do you think a smoking ban would be a good thing in Polish restaurants and Bars? [217]


Of course, I agree, but we all have such laws now, a lot of them. This one would be actually the best of the bad laws:)

- Running a bar is a special kind of business as you open your premises for the public and therefore make the place public in this sense (maybe not in legal sense, let some lawyer here explain?). So bar owners actually can and should and are subject to some general "public" laws, such as health and safety (Polish SANEPID), fire safety regulations, and lots of others. Just ask a bar owner what permissions s/he had to obtain prior to opening the bar.

I think maybe it could be stated that a proprietor of a bar has to establish either smoking or non-smoking bar (and presumably pay some higher health tax!) and there actually should be special BARS FOR SMOKERS not other way round. That is a soluion: I just turned the anti-ban ramblers' argument into my own:).

Why then such a law was imposed in some other countries in Europe. Do you think Sweden and many other countries made mistake or protected their citizens etc?

News / Crucifixes to stay in Polish schools [364]

An open mind you have. That goes a long way. I admire that.

News / Crucifixes to stay in Polish schools [364]


What about the suposed 10% then? It is much less than 90% of real believers as the oficial doctrine of the Church allows no exceptions or open-mindness and not many people manage to act according to it; fake followers as said above, but not many people do something with that as the procedure of "signing-out from the club" is deliberately complicated and priests most often refuse to give the confirmation documents after aposthasia. Hence the big error in statistics. The other reason is the pressure of Polish almost-homogeneous society.

You would see better how many real believers roman catholic church has in Poland if tax was imposed on them. You declare your creed - you pay "subscription fee" in tax. So far EVERYONE has to pay for the roman catholic church even if they are e.g. muslim or atheist in Poland.

Cannot it be separated? Let's use some commercial terms: You pay for the service you use, and you should choose which one you want from the providers on the market. Or not choose any. In this case it is the service of connecting you with your god. Other christian creeds for example do not require brokers [meaning the Church or priests]for connecting. It is like forcing somebody to go only to Biedronka stores even though you had indigestion and diarhea after eating crapy food you had to buy there. And you can't stop leaving your money there. What if you want to shop at Tesco or Bomi? Or even... make your own food, huh?

(I hope some of you will grab at least a thread of humor in this if not, sorry)

• 
  
  
• 
  
  
• 
  
  

Life / Do you think a smoking ban would be a good thing in Polish restaurants and Bars? [217]

Where's the smoke there's fire, they say (slighlty twisted Polish saying Nie ma dymu bez ognia), hehe.

But more seriously:
The reason why there should be a law banning smoking in cafes and restaurants etc. is that laws are (ideally) to protect people and to impose order. We all find some laws we don't like (for some it's: speed limits on highways, legalization of some narcotics but not other, bureaucracy etc.), but so far we haven't figured out a better way to introduce order. And sadly I have to say it is very common for smokers not to respect the non-smokers rights, while rambling on their right to smoke. Smokers can smoke. Is their weak will and proneness to addiction so bad that they need this right to smoke everywhere? That's simply not respecting any rights but their own, let alone the health argument. I'd call that narrow-minded and very biased.

Food / Prices of decent Polish Vodka in Poland? [15]


I see Harry knows what's best. I was testing vodka actually.
There are other great brands, but this one is really good.

Here I found some random wholesale prices:

Wyborowa, 0.5 litre - around 17 zł, but why not buy bigger bottles.

Also safe choice: Luksusowa, Żołądkowa Gorzka.

And do not buy some bad brand, the quests (and you) may have a nasty hangover or at least bad memories from the reception after not genuine brands like Absolwent [suprisingly popular, but suspiciously similar looks to Smirnoff, wonder why? ;))], Lodowa, Sieradzka...

cheers

Life / Giving tips in Poland [235]


Ok, but why should the customer pay more than the receipt? Why doesn't the proprietor of a cafe or restaurant pay a decent wages and the staf have to rely on tips? It's like spinning a vicious circle some would say.

To be perfectly clear I myself do tip for service, always for good service and I'm actually not very demanding of what a good service is. This discussion about tipping customs arose among my friends and actually both sides had really good arguments...

beelzebub


Exactly, why then not have it on a receipt? - Because you want to tip the person that served your table not necessarily the owner of the place.


Sales people usually work on a commission or basic salary + commission. A tip is not commission.
It is different also because the tip is not included in the receipt and commission is. And whn you use to e.g. real estate agency, the agent is working on a commission that's included in the total amount you pay to the agency, right?


It's a norm in the USofA. We probably shouldn't follow every pattern as this one is especialy ridiculous. 20% is a lot, ther has to be some limit. Spinning the vicious circle again;)


- You said it: GRATUITY. Not remmuneration. Why it became like that the owner of the place pays only half of the decent wages and the rest is pushed on the customer in the name of the TIP?

It's becoming to look like in some countries in the Middle East, tip for everything, a barber, a tour guide, everything. I'm wondering, is that a good direction?


- And I hope it will not reach the point of sillyness


- Exactly, a tip by definition is rather a kind of reward or gratuity for nice service - not a part of salary!


I wouldn't put it better:). But still we're left with the social pressure to give tips not to be jerks, we want to give them actually, and at the same time we happen to be forced sometimes to pay when it was not earned, right?

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


Swedish? If not then Norwegian or Danish, but I'm betting on Svenska. And what the heck it means? Does this make any sense? I recognize a caouple of words in it but still can't figure out the whole.

Life / Giving tips in Poland [235]

I think the reason why tipping is so popular is that it actually has quite a low-motive basis. You give it to make you feel better. Generous, following the code. On the other side you have a satisfied bartender/waiter.

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

Wish I didn't stop learning it. No way, for me it was quite simple as long as (as in every language learning) you practise writing kanji and learn the rules. I sometimes felt it like "it's so simple that it's hard", as we have developed grammar rules and e.g mandarin has it different, simply said designed by a different architect.

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


- true, and that's exactly what I was saynig before. Anyway the article (link in the beginning of this thread) was really silly, serious mistakes in it ("7 genders, 7 tenses"... etc.)


- I surmise that from his accent and the way he talks:)).

Food / can I find curd and sour cream in Poland? [24]

Well, don't know Bialystok, but you should be able to buy it in ANY "spozywczy" shop. Thats FMCG and nothing rare. Sour cream is usually packed like yoghurts, sweet cream like milk, in small carton boxes.

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

There. I had had something to say but I'm speechless now:))))))))

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


what's that? calling names helps in discussion or it's your style?


-or you are working on a reputation? :)

Delphiandomine proved some points, and expanded some ideas, I haven't noticed sarcasm in his posts.

Will that reconcile you if I write that there are silly rules in Polish and in English, and both languages happen sometimes to be inefficient, and sometimes you can say sthg better in English and some other time it's more efficient in Polish?

Elaborate language forms are complicated obviously, but I wouldn't agree that Poles have more problems with answering language questions than e.g. Englishmen...

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

Ok, right,
but English doesn't have so many tenses does it.
For Poles the only hard thing in English tenses are perfect tenses as there's no equivalent to that in Polish. The rest is almost like simplification - not much of conjugation, genders, aspects are treated completly different, but understandable.


- I wrote about this before, when I asked English speakers :). It's the same!
- it's just a matter of level of command of language [or a really hard question:) ], and also when you ask any native speaker (so English speakers too, like I'd witten) some complicated linguistic question they often cannot explain fully as they aquired language and foreigners learn it, so they rely only on studied grammar rules etc. and native speakers often rather "sense" which forms to use than apply learnt language rules and then it is harder to explain why.

I'm not sure if I wrote it clear, sorry.

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

Hi,

Out of curiosity - could you give us this question, what was it?

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


That's very true, and that is what I meant.

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


I wrote that.


- you must've been talking to people not well educated probably or you've been talking to average people. I can ask any average Englishman about some language aspect like you and I'd get a similar answer: "It's just like that" or "That's how you say it".

I don't see a question in this topic I could not answer at least with some basic explanation. I am not saying I know everything about Polish but I feel educated enough in my mother tongue to answer your questions. And to speak correctly. And every emmigrant's first language deteriorates after 20 yrs of not using it, don't you think? But it also depends what age they left their countries.


Well, it is richer than English for example. I know this is a controversial statement, but rich means also more difficult to learn, as e.g. word formation and grammar are not so simple as in English.


What's absurd? That you found a tough language question? Yes every language has them.

Travel / Mosques in Krakow? [131]


That could fit in Krakow architecture like nothing:)
______________

And maybe: no churches, no mosques, no houses of worship - NO PROBLEMS

So much hatred and damage to other people because of creeds and it is still 90 % bigotry.

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


I wouldn't say that the difficulty is measured like this mainly because languages become popular because of economy, politics and social reasons rather than just being easier to learn (if so why English is far more popular than easier languages?). It is true that languages from the same language group are easier to master because of their common features and native speakers of languages that don't have that much in common have it harder to learn.

I'd say that difficulty of language can rather be measured by its complexity, forms, exceotions, conjugation, number of tenses, genders, inflexion and generally grammar and lexis richness/complexity.

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


I think there's at least 14-16 million Hungarian speakers. I don't think Hungarians would say it is hard for them to speak their mother tongue. Is it hard for you to speak your language? It's fairly similar with other languages if you are brought up in this language.

@delphiandomine: Ok, thanks. I think it's exactly as you wrote. And who's the spammer?

Life / Do you think a smoking ban would be a good thing in Polish restaurants and Bars? [217]

Last time I checked, hell was free of charge. It came as an added value for one's deeds if one subscribed to any hell theory supporting religion:)))

Life / Do you think a smoking ban would be a good thing in Polish restaurants and Bars? [217]


Hell? I am not paying for that! Hell no! :)))

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


I would say no. It doesn't matter which language you speak - mother tongue is mastered by two processes: learning (e.g. at school, from grammar books, like foreign languages) but also acquired (from the very begining babies listen to the language and acquire it later by being exposed to it and are naturally immensed in language). You rather don't have to think which case or gender or tense to use, you do it naturally.

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

Very accurate insight, Delphiandomine. What schools did you mean? A linguistic approach or just schools where children learn?

News / Crucifixes to stay in Polish schools [364]

@Arien:

That is bold to write. But it is also very true and accurate.

Travel / Live Music in Krakow or Warsaw [15]

When in In Kraków check Harris Piano Jazz Bar, they have live music everyday, pick a day and check on their website who's playing and what.

Also Coltrane Restaurant have very nice atmosphere, little soul or rather jazz music there.

cheers

News / Crucifixes to stay in Polish schools [364]

If they want to stick to religion in Polish suposedly secular country there should also be other symbols, but let the crucifix be e.g. 5 cm bigger than other emblems, as Christianity has been imposed in Poland for 1044 years now (so that's 0.05 mm for every year). I propose Flying Spaghetti Monster and Cthulhu along with it. Bocononism also goes a long way!

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

I agree with the above - this "disease" is somewhat make-believe or rather overused. You have problems with orthography or with putting neat letters in your handwriting (disgraphia) or with numbers (discalculia)? - Then you must study more! That is how it used to be back in the days and now every child can go with their parents to get such a 'cerificate'. It is too common! Sure, there are such people who have this impairment, but these terms are abused.

Life / Do you think a smoking ban would be a good thing in Polish restaurants and Bars? [217]


Yes, I had to buy some green sticker for 15 euro (or sthg like that) to place on the windshield if I wnated to drive inside Berlin. But I have an ordinary car, not so environmentally friendly. Most cases this is a one time fee, depending on the type of car etc. (diesel)

Or maybe you are talking about sthg different?


How do you know? If you go to hospital in a week or so... Anyway I don't wish you that of course. But someone may be paying for you in the future, you increase this chance greatly.