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

sure, it's totally common, which is why it cracks me up when Poles or anyone else talk smack about American English and how "Americans don't speak correctly".

"OH, did you hear that?! He didn't use an adverb!".........na przyklad.

every country has people at different levels of speaking proficiency/literacy.

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

Delphiandomine wrote:


give me a specific example.

Work / Average monthly salary in Poland is around 1000 PLN (few hundred bucks). [387]

Delphiandomine wrote:


swwwwwwwiiiiiiing and a miss!

if anything, you just proved to the forum how essential a native can be, especially regarding articles.

there is absolutely nothing wrong with an article in that instance. it can be said both ways, each having a slightly different meaning.

leave articles to the native speakers, pappy.

you love to boast how I lack credentials, well, people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. you clearly lack the credentials to comment on article usage in English.

Delphiandomine wrote:


can't speak for anyone else, but I've been making money hand over fist. in fact, i'll be in your neck of the woods next month, 2 days of teaching, 1300PLN, hotel, transportation and meals paid.

it's like shooting fish in a barrel with you, pappy.

A 25 year old kid with less than 18 months experience living in Poland, doesn't speak Polish and is not a native speaker of English.......oh......and who doesn't even pay his own rent.....

somehow i think you lack the credentials, me boy.

oh, and don't forget to visit lindenia ;)

Life / BEFORE Poland.. what did you do then and what are your plans now? [29]

the third photo of the people........they're in the sand lot in the back of my apartment RIGHT NOW.....

Work / Average monthly salary in Poland is around 1000 PLN (few hundred bucks). [387]

Harry wrote:


you must be kidding me.

i don't know who looks sillier now, you or Delph.

Work / Average monthly salary in Poland is around 1000 PLN (few hundred bucks). [387]

A 25 year old kid with less than 18 months experience living in Poland, doesn't speak Polish and is not a native speaker of English.......oh......and who doesn't even pay his own rent.....

somehow i think you lack the credentials, me boy.

oh, and don't forget to visit lindenia ;)

1,943 posts so far kid.

in your own words, "Anyone can be a hero on the internet, can't they? :)"

Work / Average monthly salary in Poland is around 1000 PLN (few hundred bucks). [387]

I'm sure a 25 year old kid who's been in Poland all of 17 months, doesn't speak Polish nor native English and doesn't pay his own rent will have a wealth of knowledge to share with me about life in Poland over a few beers.

Can't wait.

Work / Average monthly salary in Poland is around 1000 PLN (few hundred bucks). [387]

you've gotta be kidding me Harry. i don't even use capital letters half the time let alone pay attention to punctuation like that.

Work / Average monthly salary in Poland is around 1000 PLN (few hundred bucks). [387]

steveramsfan wrote:


haha, one would think right? you'd be surprised how accurate those statements are. ok, the asian comment was stretchin' it a bit ;)

steveramsfan wrote:


you arrogant bastard! ;)

maybe I'll take you up on that night out Delph, I could tell you how you can start earning real cash here in Poland.

Life / BEFORE Poland.. what did you do then and what are your plans now? [29]

i guess i should include some info about myself:

Bachelor's degree in Biology, concentration in evolutionary theory.

jobs.....whooo....well, deli clerk for years growing up as a teenager, then bartended for 3 years full time while i was in college. lumberjack full time for 1 year after I graduated (that job was INSANE but a total blast), then it was off to corporate life working in a lab, you know, a "real job" as they call it.

live? tri-state area.

why Poland? it was the only choice. i have plenty of polish blood and plenty of extended family scattered throughout Poland so when the idea of living in Europe came up, Poland was pretty automatic. i had plenty of "old Polish" influence growing up from some immediate family and although times have changed, Polish people are still quite similar to what i remember growing up with the old timers. the major adjustment was learning to speak to them in Polish instead of English.

stay forever? no. i've seen enough to know in my 3+ years here that Poland is not the place I want to be when i grow old.

Life / BEFORE Poland.. what did you do then and what are your plans now? [29]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tri-State_Region

History / How was Poland compensated after World War 2 [47]

i'm just curious czarnkow, who do you feel was responsible for this "compensation" you speak of?

Life / Giving tips in Poland [235]

Delph wrote:


wrong.

beelzebub wrote:


of course it's not accurate. before one can form opinions, they have to at the very least have some knowledge of the given topic. Delph has never so much as stepped foot on American soil.

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

what about the town I mentioned a while back, "Szewce".

I'm going to Szewce = ?

I'm in Szewce = ?

My best guess would have to be "Jade do Szewcow" and "Jestem w Szewcach", but I've gotten different responses from native Poles, or no response at all, just "I gotta think about it...."

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

Paulinka_87 wrote:


that was one of the guesses. "Szewce" is a plural noun (i believe), hence, my guess was "Szewcow".

USA, Canada / Where can I buy Polish Beer in SC? [26]

polishsoccer wrote:


uuuuhhh.....either you're being clever, or you're mistaken. that's a Heineken commercial.

and yeah, Polish beer is awful. i always drink imports here.

Work / Average monthly salary in Poland is around 1000 PLN (few hundred bucks). [387]

Steveramsfan wrote:


you mean an Englishman made a mistake with past participles? present perfect....incorrectly used.....by an Englishman! NO WAY! only Americans do that, no?!!!

for what it's worth ramsfan, i don't give a toss how you use present perfect, just making a point.

Scottie1113 wrote:


because there is nothing wrong with it.

a non native speaker critiquing a native speaker's article usage. a guy who has never been to America, but remains her biggest critic, and a guy who has his own website offering consultation services for foreigners new to Poland, yet has lived here less than 18 months (14 months when he first advertised his website on this forum), doesn't speak Polish, or even pay his own rent.

i think dagenhamdave put it best last November on this forum, and summarizes my general feelings about Delphiandomine, his "website", or anything else he types for that matter:

"We can see that you are a lazy student who can't be bothered getting dressed for bed, and says that "Aberdeen can f**k off". You're a kid. Go away, get some experience, and come back when you've got something genuine to offer. The fact is, you're trying to escape from English teaching, but you don't have any proper experience or knowledge of anything else to do so."

Travel / Best places to visit in Poland [87]

Wieliczka is a must if you end up in Krakow.

USA, Canada / Where can I buy Polish Beer in SC? [26]

Delphiandomine wrote:


it's difficult to get a lot of things in Poland that were genuinely imported.

i still can't get over how awful Coke and Pepsi products taste in Poland.

USA, Canada / Where can I buy Polish Beer in SC? [26]

yeah, the sugar is different, the water obviously....it's a completely different product....and it's waaaay better. certainly not more healthy by any means I would guess, but waaay better tasting.

Law / The 'Secret' of Poland's Economic Success [83]

what do you guys think about their lack of work experience at a young age? how many poles finish college, get to the ripe old age of say 24-25, and they're applying for their FIRST JOB???

i'm not looking to discuss the reasons for why they don't work, totally different discussion, but the effects of it. we're discussing differences in the educational systems....and from my personal experience, that being starting to work when i was a young teenager, I gained a heck of a lot of "education" that cannot be taught in schools or read in a book.

sure, different strokes for differnet folks, but it has it's effects.

Law / The 'Secret' of Poland's Economic Success [83]

aphrodisiac wrote:


the list could go on forever, but I guess i'll give you one example, since you asked.

let's say when you're 16, you start working for a retail store, dealing constantly with customers. you're working for a business, doing business, for money, not grades, which is an entirely different playing field and an entirely different mentality. year after year, you continue dealing with people, selling them things, managing your work time with friends/family/school/other responsibilities, and when you get a little older and more experienced, you start to maybe be in charge of a few younger people working at the retail store. you put together their work schedules, deal with their requests/problems, manage vacation time with business time, etc. etc, all while going to college and getting your degree. By the time you're in your early twenties, you have years of experience dealing with being in a business environment where money is on the line along with having responsibilities to other people.

now, when you're 25, you apply for a sales job at Company X. your first "Real Job". the person who already has years of experience dealing with people in a work environment will transition very smoothly into a job like that, whereas a complete newbie to the world of work will be at a disadvantage. They've never held a job, never had to report to and answer to a boss, maintain a work schedule, or even pay for anything with their own money.

these are two very, very different people.

Life / Giving tips in Poland [235]

Olaf wrote:


at the bar, generally nothing. Poland is not a tipping culture, certainly at the bar, and the only thing I ever order at the bar is beer, so for a quick pour....I usually leave nothing.

at a restaurant, i generally don't tip much because i'm generally unhappy with the service, but as an American, if I get say "decent" service in Poland, i still can't help but leave at least 10%.

in America, at the bar, the rule of thumb is you tip a dollar per drink, and the house buys your 4th drink, which you also should tip for. in restaurants, 15% is the minimum tip if you sit down and have a full meal. any less and the waiter/waitress will be wondering what they did wrong.

Life / Giving tips in Poland [235]

beelzebub wrote:


it depends.

beelzebub wrote:


this was common practice in the tri-state area, you just have to know how to tip. it's a simple "reka reke myje" system. I did it as a bartender as well. in fact, if I was being tipped more than the standard $1 per drink, the third drink would be on me often times.

beelzebub wrote:


again, that's bar-dependent. also, most people drink beer at your run-of-the-mill bar in town, so yes, you are getting a free beer.

beelzebub:


absolutely. it used to completely blow me away when I would order alcohol and restock inventory at the bar and I would see the prices the bar paid vs. what they charged. a bottle of well vodka would cost the bar about $7 per liter. 50ml per cocktail at $4 a pop means $80 per bottle, minus cost of fillers like juice, soda, tonic, fruit, etc., which is also bought in bulk and costs very little.

Life / COMBATING "POLACK" JOKES [460]

beelzebub wrote:


gotta agree with you there. it's even stronger with the Italian community. never been to Italy, don't speak a word of Italian, neither do their parents and maybe not even their grandparents, yet they have Italian flag stickers on their cars and proclaim, "I'm Italian!!".

it stems from people being raised in a country that essentially does not have it's own "culture". I've often said that America doesn't really have a true "culture", but a conglomerate of all cultures. As an American, if you have Polish blood, German blood, Greek blood, you're still raised speaking English, an American doesn't even have the language connection to their ancestry, so what happens is people reach for it in other ways. It's an identity thing. People constantly search for their identity, not just through ancestry and in America because of the dichotomy of the country, this behavior is very prevalent.

americans often times talk about their ancestry as if they know something about it, but to me, it's the same as Europeans talking about America as if they know the place, yet they've never spent a significant amount of time living there, or they have never been there at all.

Language / is it stll jeden [33]

i'm quite sure I know what the OP is getting at.

basically, if you mean what I think you mean, it doesn't really exist in Polish. i remember dealing with this situation in class a while back.

for example:

Person 1 says, "I have a car."

Person 2 says, "I have one, too."

In Polish, it would simply be, "Ja tez mam", or, "Ja tez mam samochod."

In Polish, they wouldn't say, "Ja tez mam jeden" to mean, "I also have one", like in English.

English commonly uses "one" in this respect, such as, "That's a good one!", or, "I have one of those at home somewhere..." and things like that. Polish doesn't use "one" like that.

Language / Czego, Czemu, Co, Kto, Jak, Dlaczego? [64]

there's an easy answer to this one.

you use czego when that particular case is required, and co in the same respect. there is a limitless number of situations where you use each of them.

you need to study Polish cases and declensions. if you're asking a question like that, you obviously have just begun studying Polish which means your next thread will be "when do I use kogo and when do I use komu?" and then "When do I use kto and when do I use kogo?"

cases, cases, cases. study them. how they work, when they happen, which verbs collocate with which case, etc. etc. And then after you get sick and tired of it and give up, it will save some people some precious typing time not having to try and explain it anymore.

ok, the last part was a little bitter, but if I had to place some bets here.....

there is no 2 cent explination for this like in English for something like, "when do I use which and when do I use who?"

Language / Is rosetta stone any good for learning Polish? [51]

Rosetta Stone can be helpful for people that do not live in-country. Mainly because the voices you hear on the CD are native which helps develop your accent. What you need to watch for though is the lack of "real Polish" that they use along with some words that can get fossilized in your head yet when you come to Poland, basically everyone uses a different word to mean the same thing. I used Rosetta Stone 3.5 years ago, and I still have encounters where a word comes out that I got stuck in my head from using RS, yet it's not the colloquial version and it takes me a half second to think of the correct word while in conversation.

nothing beats lessons with a native speaker, preferably under the age of 50, especially if you're not living in, in your case, Poland. you get really modern language, modern accent/intonation, "bookish" words are filtered out, etc.

Life / Giving tips in Poland [235]

olaf wrote:


yes, it looks better. I like the general bar/pub layout in Poland better for the most part compared to American pubs, but the culture....america hands down. there essentially is no pub culture in Poland. it's all dependent on the character of the customers here because the bartenders here are just people that pour drinks and take your money, working like machines. in America, the bartenders are greatly responsible for creating a fun and exciting environment. fun = more customers = $

in America, if you're not an interesting person, good story teller or a shoulder to cry on, or at the very least extremely attractive, you are at a disadvantage regarding the hiring process. Bartending in America is 40% work efficiency, 60% personality. It's what keeps customers coming back. People in America often times go to bars because they like the bartender, not because of the bar itself. America has a true, and very unique bar culture.

Regarding "watered down" drinks Olaf, i think you are misinterpreting this. he's not saying that bartenders are making drinks and topping them with water or pouring water into liquor bottles. He probably means making say a gin and tonic with a little gin, lots of tonic and filled to the brim with ice. within 15 minutes, your ice is half melted and the drink tastes, "watered down". don't forget, one of the biggest complaints americans have when ordering cocktails in Poland is that there isn't enough ice in the drink, sometimes no ice at all. i couldn't believe the first few months I spent in Poland going to parties and seeing people making for example Pepsi and vodka cocktails....with absolutely no ice. it grossed me out. in the states, if you don't have enough ice to make the cocktail, you either simply don't make it at all, or stick the bottle in the fridge and do shots later on. cocktails in the states are always made with the glass filled to the top with ice. there are several reasons for this, but that's a bit off topic.

Language / Czego, Czemu, Co, Kto, Jak, Dlaczego? [64]

it was uncalled for. to be honest, when i went back and reread your question, I realized I basically misread it. i shot from the hip and I had just drunk a Burn Energy Drink.

my apologies.