Life / Passing your Polish language and culture to your kids [74]


Thus probably making it genetically impossible for her to pronounce the TH sound ; )

Life / Polish are some of the best educated in the world [35]

From what I can see Poles are well educated.

But best in the world? That's stretching a bit to say the least.

By what criteria or standards? Can't imagine a communist education was very balanced for a start.

Then you get on to 3rd level. Many here mightn't like this but from what I've been told (by Poles I hasten to add) cheating was and is widespread in Polish universities. By cheating I mean being advised the content of papers in advance, being more less told answers - that kind of thing.

Life / Polish are some of the best educated in the world [35]


LOL - are you serious?

Please tell me this is a joke.

OK then, Since all my family members and most of my friends have degrees and my mother has a doctrate, ergo, the Irish are the best educated in the world.

That's how it works - yes?

UK, Ireland / Why Polish people decided to move to the UK, and their experiences. [46]

Edward I think you are searching too hard for reasons and grasping at all sorts of tenuous possibilities. As others have said, money is and was by far the biggest motivation together with, as you say, the English language.

You mentioned the abortion issue? Ireland has very strict laws on this but it certainly hasn't stopped Poles coming here so I think you can discount that one.

Not sure about the minimum wage/farm & factory work thing - maybe it's the circles I move in but all the Poles I know are professionals: architects, engineers etc. Not sure how many migrants would actually fall into your category - not as many as might be assumed I'm guessing.

History / Should David Irving, Holocaust denier, be allowed to run tours to Poland? [246]


Well he did - he certainly got some.

UK, Ireland / The number of Anti-English Poles... [228]


Very succinctly put.

UK, Ireland / Why Polish people decided to move to the UK, and their experiences. [46]


This is a somewhat overstated and distorted figure.

Even the term "average industrial wage" is close to meaningless.

There are 1000s upon 1000s of people who earn less than €37K.

Yes, wages are considerably higher than in Poland but I wouldn't take this 37K figure as an "average" by any means.

UK, Ireland / Why Polish people decided to move to the UK, and their experiences. [46]

So The Independant mentioning it means it accurate? It's not.


Have a look at jobs on offer in Ireland and check the salaries.

UK, Ireland / Why Polish people decided to move to the UK, and their experiences. [46]


Err...no.

But strange you said say that as the Independent practically is one.

Look, even a cursory look at the CSO site will quickly tell you that the 37K figure applies to "large enterprises" - how many of those are there in Ireland? Not that many. This figure immediately drops to around 30K for smaller ones.

The construction industry earnings skew results crazily too.

UK, Ireland / Do East-Central European migrants in the UK differ? [16]

OK, I'm from Ireland but I'd imagine this would apply in the UK too: here, the majority of Poles that have arrived appear to be professionals (architects, engineers etc) whereas the majority of Lithuanians, Latvians seem to be labourers, cleaners - not out of necessity it seems, that's what they were in their home country too. From what I can see Lithuanians & Latvians seem to have ended up more ghettoised too where the Poles have integrated much better.

Life / Polish "prog" music? I'd be interested to know about bands etc. [30]

Thanks for that Stormzealot


Maybe not so minor it would seem!

UK, Ireland / Poles and Irish, what do you think, are we friends or enemies? [62]


LOL - Yeah, we'll never forget that. Etched into the national psyche ; )

OP, I haven't heard many (if any?) Irish people complain about Polish people really if that's what you're saying.

I have some very good Polish friends here. I've heard a lot of positive comments about Poles generally. Frome my experience, the two cultures are similar in a few ways:similar oppressed history; similar sense of humour; similar attitude to what should be important in life.

Food / Why is it that some Polish people refuse to eat anything that is not Polish? [120]


Really? I thought they ate almost no dairy produce for a start.

Life / Why Polish people should be proud of being Polish? [370]

Are you assuming that Poles in general are proud of being Polish then?

Food / I have a Polish couple coming over for afew days and would like to cook for them. [93]

If it were me, I wouldn't do bigos.

It seems that Poles all have their own version, finely honed, and yours mightn't be great in comparison. I'd do something completely different. Maybe something Polish alright but just not bigos.

Food / I have a Polish couple coming over for afew days and would like to cook for them. [93]

I would cook Thai myself - it's easy and there is a good chance that they won't have had it before. Just don't make it too hot - IME Poles are not very accustomed to spicy food.

A Thai Green Curry is probably the new Chicken Tikka Masala anyway (which was in turn the new fish n' chips once upon a time)

Love / Polish girls fall for Indian guys ? [217]

Jesus Southern.

That's India sorted out then...

Life / 2 months to go - I will be a Polish citizen and try to find a better place to raise my kid. [67]


Charming. Well maybe it's payback for the brown fekers then.

Now you know what it feels like to have unwelcome hordes exploiting your country.

Life / Why Polish people should be proud of being Polish? [370]

It could have been a lot funnier and not at all offensive.

Food / I have a Polish couple coming over for afew days and would like to cook for them. [93]


It's from the leg. It would be unusual to stew it. Roasting is nice - just treat as you would a ham. Otherwise, as you say, treat as you would a steak.

Beware though - gammon quality is hugely variable in my experience - it can be nice, but it can be an awful piece of cheap, rubbery nastiness too if you're unlucky. Occasionally supermarket stuff can be OK - but usually not.

Food / I have a Polish couple coming over for afew days and would like to cook for them. [93]


Dunno. A bit risky.

I've tried it on Polish friends - none of whom had had lamb before. Extreme reactions all round: half of them loved it half of them hated it. It's easy to forget that lamb has quite a strong distinctive tase and if you've never had it can be a bit much.

Personally, don't know how any could dislike lamb though ;)

Oh yeah, this time of year it will no longer be lamb anyway - unless you get NZ or something.

Life / Why Polish people should be proud of being Polish? [370]


Oh dear. Oh no. Many admirable Polish achievements but chocolate is definitely not one of them. Aside from American & German, the worst I've tasted I'm sorry to say. Tastes like cooking chocolate.

Life / Why Polish people should be proud of being Polish? [370]

OK, so Wedel is the one then - can't honestly say if I've had it or not. Maybe I just had the sh1te stuff.


What do you mean - that you can get lots of different flavours of the above in Poland?
Nothing unusual in that.


Well, not really. There are limited edition variations (e.g. blackcurrant, lemon, strawberry) and if you exclude actual McVitie's Jaffa Cakes, other manufacturers do all sorts of flavours regularly: cherry, raspberry, lime etc etc.

Life / Why Polish people should be proud of being Polish? [370]

To sum up Poland very succinctly and to paint a picture that many others will understand and relate to it is necessary to resort to stereotypes - as BB has done.

I don't think it's very easy to do otherwise. Some of the stereotypes may have truth to them but they are ususally inaccurate on a few levels. To be pithy, you must overgeneralise - unless someone wants to submit a thesis entitled "The Magnificence of Poland" ??

But knowing this site, someone probably already has ; )

Life / Why Polish people should be proud of being Polish? [370]


You forgot coal.

The list is now complete ; )


Nor have I, fair enough.

But watermelon, cherry, chocolate, passion fruit etc gum - yep.

Teryaki, poppadom, garlic bread crisps etc etc Dozens of yoghurt flavours...

I'm not being deliberately argumentative by the way - just don't see much unusual in what you mention other than the hazlenut crisps.

News / POLAND IS 4TH BEST PLACE TO LIVE IN EUROPE [60]

This "article" has the strong whiff of BS about it to me.

uSwitch is hardly a reputable indicator is it?

Love / Polish girls fall for Indian guys ? [217]

Here we go. The smelly dirty foreigners: part 54,567

Food / I have a Polish couple coming over for afew days and would like to cook for them. [93]

Hey - a classic!

What about roast potatoes? I don't think that's a big thing in Poland (is it?)

Proper roast potatoes (carefully selected spuds, boiled correctly first, roasted at correct temperature etc and with goose fat, seasoning etc) are absolutely unbeatable.

With that in mind, maybe a full-on bog standard roast is on the cards - beef, roasties, yorkshire pud etc?

Sticky toffee pudding for dessert.

Love / Do Polish girls like playing with men's feelings on internet? [52]

LOL Sausage!

Post of the week surely?

: )))

Language / Does anybody know of a list of Polish-English False Friends and True Friends? [60]


Not sure of the spelling, but something that sounds like "noh" in English means the equivalent of "yeah" or even "aye" in English - as opposed to "yes"