Off-Topic / Polish supermodel Anja Rubik and her boyfriend Serbian model Sasha Knezevic in Warsaw [70]


I guessed that she is typical for Poland too. I like the idea that Slavic beauty will conquer the world.
Southern, I completely understand your devotion to everything Polish now.

This Serb is not representing anything special here, most of my bf's were better looking than this guy.
Those fruits grow here on every tree.

Off-Topic / Polish supermodel Anja Rubik and her boyfriend Serbian model Sasha Knezevic in Warsaw [70]


I like Balkanization :)), rougher and bloodier sport than Slavicization (respect for that too!).


How?

Crow, please stop posting this guy, when I see him I'm thinking about my neighbors with annoying dogs.

Off-Topic / Polish supermodel Anja Rubik and her boyfriend Serbian model Sasha Knezevic in Warsaw [70]



It's boiling here, of course :)))
During those periods when outside is 40 degrees C, they are usually collected :) in some air-conditioned areas, like bars or gyms ( I prefer that place, because ....).

What I want to say, Marynka I have an impression that you would know how to appreciate endogenous species here. Vice versa too. They are hardworking, hardheaded, hard........well you know the theme :)))

I'm willing to give you a tour ;)

I now know why is this guy looking so familiar, that family name rang some bells :))))

Love / Torments me my boyfriend had a relationship with a pole-how do I get over this [28]

:)))))
We share the same thoughts...southern sun, must be...

Love / Torments me my boyfriend had a relationship with a pole-how do I get over this [28]

Is there any other kind?
The others just abused the term and concept.

History / Why did communism in Poland fail? [180]

Personal interests are main human engines. Attempt to found the production processes (free from slavery and mastery)not taking seriously human nature had to fail. That is what the winners of the Cold war, the worshipers of Capital, Profit, Market say. I heard even some psychologists now claim that people are programed to be simple non thinking consumers. Science as usual a b1tch.

Communism failed mostly because of its numerous Own-goals. Again "irreparable" human nature is accused for the final result.
I think people are adaptable by nature. I believe....
:))

Life / Do you think that Polish people are rude? [951]


I think that is not only a Polish problem, but has to do something with all Slavic languages. I heard the similar complaint about Serbian imperative from foreigners, nobody is offended for its use here, and we have some temperament issues :))

There are different ways to differentiate when it is a command, and when it is a form of asking. Paralanguage.

So, to defend my Polish brothers I think that our use of imperative is implying more direct way of communication (preferred), most of the language means are not allowing evasiveness (words used to hide, not to say), like in English :p

Welcome back Seanus ;)

Travel / What about that Banja Luka Serbian restaurant in Warsaw; Is that realy that good? [29]

You didn't ask me, anyway I think I am competent enough to answer this one ;) Unlike most of the Serbs I had argues with about , I don't think it is something special.

People here like to eat a lot of meat (pork, beef, lamb), so biggest Serbian cuisine achievements are related to meat.
Worth a try IMO are Sarma (sour cabbage with minced meat). Kajmak (sort of cheese, foreigners don't understand it usually), ajvar (boiled paprika with spices).

Meat has excellent quality. Vegetables and fruits too (above EU standards).

Cakes are awful. I guess it has to do something with climate, too warm for more demanding sugar/fat combos.
Foreigners also are very pleasantly surprised with our pastry.
One American girl said " I'm going to miss the bakery (she was asked is she will miss anything)".

(there are many German, Italian , Greek and Turkish influences, each army brought its recipes (Greeks brought it with love);))

Life / Do you think that Polish people are rude? [951]


I was thinking about this characteristic of English language. Compared to German who's cousin it is, it is less clear. But for me with basic education in Russian (later Spanish a bit too), English sometimes seems like encrypted. After understanding the meaning of the sentence, I need to perform another procedure, what did the author really want to say :)) (verbal abilities are not my strong side)

So, this could be an interesting question, why did English develop in that direction ? That had to have some purpose, maybe early development of parliamentary life? ( guessing..)

Or people get more easily insulted, something to do with the mentality?
:)

Life / Do you think that Polish people are rude? [951]


Acknowledged :)

But it still doesn't explain the tendency for that excessive use if phrases, euphemisms from English native speakers....

Other languages also have lexical funds large enough to use synonyms, idioms and slightly alter the meanings, but still don't use that possibility that frequently.

Idea behind that manner of speech is different. Here it is disrespectful to talk like that to the interlocutor, it is usually interpreted as a way to mislead or deceive.

English, the idea is not to offend the person, as far as I understood the intention of that practice, right?

Life / Do you think that Polish people are rude? [951]


It couldn't have been said better or more accurate than this :)
(I knew about the hypocrisy,I tried to avoid that label, but as it is usually the case, my people flaws were blurred for me :)))

Suspicion it is. (but justified naturally) ;)


Learning German was an act of violence for typically chaotic Slavic mind. Horror. How can I wait for the damn verb that comes at the end of the sentence, not having a clue what the speaker wants to say until he finishes it? It forces one to really listen :))

Travel / What about that Banja Luka Serbian restaurant in Warsaw; Is that realy that good? [29]


Ours is always mixed meat and rice, hot. Naturally.


Dear Marynka, feeling of some shared values ;) is inviting me to give you an answer in Crow's absence :))

Croatia- Mostly Mediterranean (Italy) cuisine with Austrian influences. Lots of fish, pasta and better cakes than those we (don't) eat.

Slovenia - Austrian as far as I know, didn't eat much there.

Bosnia - melting pot, has its own dishes like " bosnian pot", mix of everything. Turkish heritage very pronounced, a lots of pies, no pork these days, interesting.

Macedonia - excellent vegetables and fruits, similar to Serbian

Montenegro - meat monsters, although they have a piece of coast, nice one, you can hardly find a good fish restaurant, mostly serving MEAT!!!! (I heard the locals complain how there is no fish there due to the configuration of the underwater terrain, while Croats few km away have plenty of fish)

Crow, correct me if I'm wrong

Life / Do you think that Polish people are rude? [951]


I've noticed those problems with grace in various domains. It's irrelevant for them. It doesn't have a function.

Please get back to the topic of this thread

History / Poland's 1945 - 1989 under communism or during socialism? [65]


I guess it is the same with all ex socialist countries. We were told that we live in socialism and that one day perhaps we will evolve as a society and reach communism like you described. So it was presented as a hardly achievable ideal.

The word communism got devilish connotation (in the West) and it evokes only associations of totalitarian, oppressive regimes and I think it is deliberately used for ex East block past to further devalue the systems that existed, negating few of their good sides.

The winner abused the power to define what that was and attach only negative meanings to it.

It wasn't communism for us. For the West it was.

Life / Why Poles have so pro-emigration attitude? [85]


El Croata,
Our glorious mother Socialist federal republic of Yugoslavia died, with it died also the socialism and its definitions and the power to define economical terms. Actually to define anything.

I studied law when SFRY was collapsing, and I had to learn two completely different political economies. One professor was progressive, the other was a bloody commie ;) So, I could compare the ideas.

You know who won that battle, the richer, not the poorer ;)

Life / Why Poles have so pro-emigration attitude? [85]


That is why I think it is a Hell.

Anyway, maybe I didn't understand croata but he tried to relativize the concepts of rich and poor, or not? That attempt is in accordance with our common socialist tradition.

News / "Poland is flourishing" [62]


Are you posting this for fun or you really treat Spiegel as a reliable source for anything besides ads for cars and insurance and super gunstig chances to get those?

Genealogy / Do you think all Slavs are white? [178]


Oh what a strange post. We are southern "Slavs".
I have brown hair, brown eyes, most members of my family have blue eyes and blond hair. They are then Slavs, and I'm not?

My ancestors are coming from Adriatic coast (most of darker versions are coming from there), where they mixed, not with Muslims surely.

So what? We have at least three subtypes : Typical Slavic (blond, blue eyes), Mediterranean (brown, brown) and Dinaric ( all varieties).
They are all beautiful. And all over their bodies and souls simply Slavs :))))

News / Poland A and Ukraine B. Compare how far Poland has advanced. [282]


Instantly a headache.

Didn't we reach the consensus about Austrian rule over Slavs on PF? (Torq, for you I will add one wink here, wink! ;))

Love / How do Polish men feel about gender equality? [780]


God blessed us with communism ;)
It insisted on equality (salaries, education and job opportunities). Women in those systems learned their lessons the hard way (expected successful professional life with the obligations in family inherited from the previous system) ;)

I didn't have any idea that is still an issue of some relevance (Ok, we have few feminist NGO's funded by the West to promote it), until I saw discussions here (so, I understand the male resistance to new practices in a way). I never felt like a member of Second Sex in a sense that I was objectified more than men (that happens, but it is not at all uncommon to see the objectification of men either), that i was conceptualized and determined primarily through my biology, that I have less opportunities , that I lack any freedom in comparison to men, or the ways to express myself.

Those are perhaps different ways, but they are available.

My experience, even in a society that is dominated by ostensibly ultra macho discourse, says that men perceive women as equal, but irresistibly different :)) with variations in expectations regarding some roles (usually open for negotiations ).

I want to say that I feel completely comfortable in my female shape, and if the thing works why should we repair it? :)

So, I also think Slavs solved the problem in, for both sides, satisfying manner.

Love / How do Polish men feel about gender equality? [780]


What exactly did you miss?

What opportunities do you have now?

I am not provoking, just trying to understand you :)

I can't spit those words out , it would be hypocritical because I enjoyed fruitful periods of it. That system labeled liberal socialism in Yugoslavia gave to me and others many opportunities people today simply don't have. To live, not survive for instance.


That seems more like a cultural norm regulating inter generation behavior than gender equity.


Again, I don't see here the link to gender equality problem.
There are other ways to demonstrate power over subordinates in the West too. More subtle ones, but they are existing. (giving the word, greeting the guests in the meetings)


You are criticizing Chinese system, not the gender equality.
That is something that says a lot about both sides in the tale (Western confidence in their dominance and Chinese awareness of their reality).


As I can recall, as a teenager I traveled once to Italy with two Belgian boys in the same train car, I was watching them sleeping, one was without a T shirt, couldn't help it ;)

What is wrong with the being seen in a T shirt, we are all almost naked on the beach....


;)


Zimmy, It seems to me that giving women right to vote and property rights have their roots in common sense and minimum belief in justice.

I understand your discontent with the problems you perceive in a society you live in. I am not fighting the differences.
I cannot negate the connection between communism and feminist philosophy in some periods, I greet the consequences of the practice in ex socialist countries, but disagreeing mostly with feminist theorizing like those of Beauvoir, Kristeva, Irigaray for creating the problem, planting it deeper.

Modern feminism is something I know nothing about, not being interested in it, so having no idea what was the development of the phenomenon in the US, I can't comment.

( as you might have noticed, I prefer the way men think than women... unless they have male cognitive abilities, few women here luckily do )

Thank you for the reference :)

Love / How do Polish men feel about gender equality? [780]


I agree completely. Nobody insists nor insisted that much on genders here. From generation of my parents to mine. I was raised to be Ok person and more or less choose the rest. It was a common practice in upbringing.

I think the right one.


Exactly the same thought was on my mind few days ago after reading on that topic :) The West- East difference is the crucial one.
Those 2 feminism are actually two different phenomena.

Love / How do Polish men feel about gender equality? [780]


I will confirm that satisfaction, or situation, experienced on the female side is intensive and frequent.
Brothers Slavs deserve nothing but admiration. Sometimes love too ;)

News / Dumbing-down in Polish schools and the Matura [185]


Behind those educational systems if i can recall correctly are two different old ideas.

Theory of formal discipline and transfer of knowledge is based on the idea that training in basic mental faculties like logic, memory, Latin language.. will result in spreading of capabilities and transfer of knowledge (that seems like continental European heritage)- from Theory to practice

On the other side are Associationist and Connectioists theories from behaviorists and Thorndike that insisted on learning specific skills firstly, made of basic skills, with the expectancy that vertical transfer from part to whole will occur. (that seems to me to be more present in US)- the opposite direction

I don't know anything about pedagogy, so those who teach here will correct me if I'm wrong. And I just have that vague impression that I am wrong :)

News / Visegrad Battle Group under the command of Poland [261]


Bratwurst are you a victim of some Slavicization performed by somebody else (not me! horror!) or you also suffer from something like those disturbing Germanization phases Crow displays from time to time?

History / Poland and Orientalism [115]


I read few years ago only the introduction of Orientalism, and as far as I understood he accused Conrad for imperialism beliefs as well (something like Conrad was simultaneously openly criticizing the imperialism, but also was somebody who implicitly supported the Atlantic Europe and US ideas about the Third world)

I really enjoyed those few lines from Conrad's Nostromo ( one of the characters to the other (American and a British, talking about their investments in Latin America)) :

"But there's no hurry. Time itself has got to wait on the greatest
country in the whole of God's Universe. We shall be giving the
word for everything: industry, trade, law, journalism, art,
politics, and religion, from Cape Horn clear over to Smith's
Sound, and beyond, too, if anything worth taking hold of turns up
at the North Pole. And then we shall have the leisure to take in
hand the outlying islands and continents of the earth. We shall
run the world's business whether the world likes it or not. The
world can't help it--and neither can we, I guess."

That is what caught my attention.
Yes, my impression ( I may be wrong) is that West still silently nurtures patronizing, derogating and disrespectful ideas about everything non western that can at best be portrayed as exotic ! (cultures outside of the privileged circle, of course if they are not assimilated or shaped by the image of the west).

The interesting point and the insight of the Said- one cannot separate the cultural heritage of the West from historical events West participated in through history. Philosophy, literature... was developing mostly in a way that justified the things done by known empires.

Anyway, we are familiar with the effects of that label from the title of Said's book here very well.

News / Visegrad Battle Group under the command of Poland [261]

I hate to be rude, but I have to ask where are the Slavic women in that story?

I mean.....what's in it for us? :)))

History / Poland and Orientalism [115]

The term Orientalism by Said was used to denote the idea of indisputable superiority and some kind of disdain of the West when it "thinks" about different cultures.

The way he used it includes Slavic world, so Poland too. (Said was very specific about what was the western circle - North America, atlantic Europe, mostly EMPIRES that had colonies, there is no Poland in that story)

Maybe it would be good to read the introduction of the Orientalism, and you'll understand what Said wanted to say.


I wrote many times about the same impression regarding whole Slavic world that Germans generously shared with me. I'm thankful for that.

Sexuality is one of their basic fears (f.i., sterilization of polish and other women in WWII).
It is rationalized through various modes of degradation of Slavic women (and men).

Poland cannot be squeezed out of orientalistic discourse.
Integration in EU is one thing, but how Poles and their cultural heritage is seen by the West is another.

History / Poland and Orientalism [115]


Of course. I knew the Germans didn't invent the phenomenon. They rarely do ;)
But they polished it to perfection.

Genealogy / Polish DNA? Poles have the most genes in a group includes Balts, Macedonians and Greeks. [263]


Nick the Greek you are making the established homesostasis unstable on this forum. We all respect that, otherwise we would have nuclear war.
Local disputes and family quarrels are not tolerable ;)