Law / Gumtree.pl ad posting criteria? [9]

I'm not sure if anyone else has experienced this, but it's recently happened to me twice.

When placing an advertisement on Gumtree, you have to wait 24 hours for the advertisement to go live. However, when I placed an advertisement on there (in English) offering private services, for the last 2 times I've waited 24 hours only to receive an email saying something along the lines of "Sorry, but Gumtree.pl is a Polish site, therefore advertisements should be in Polish and thus we have removed your advertisement". That's ok, I can respect that they have their own rules. What's interesting though, is that browsing Gumtree, I see a billion (perhaps a mild overstatement) advertisements purely in English that seem to not only pass the selection process, but remain on there for a long time.

It's ok for me to provide translations in addition to the English text if required, alas the issue is that it's far more time consuming, my Polish is terrible and so it downgrades the advertisement, and finally: I keep getting contacted by people writing or speaking in Polish, despite writing to please contact me in English!

Has anyone else experienced this, or frustrated by it?

Travel / ISIC and travel in Poland [8]

Hi there

I have lived in Poznań since Oct 2010. I study with the O.U long-distance, so I have my student card which I could pay to upgrade to an ISIC (International student identity card) which I did and is valid until the end of this academic year when I have to refresh it.

In Poznań we have this '50%' off discount on MPK travel, making an unlimited travel on trams and buses within my zone only 40.50zł per month. Everytime we've been stopped by a ticket guy I've shown them my discounted card (I have a Komkarta) as well as my student ID and never a problem.. On another company bus (I don't remember which, but for those in Poznań it's the number 04/02/07 you can catch from Ogródy to Batorowo), I also showed my ticket and card, the inspector was curious because he'd never seen it before but allowed it.

Now the thing is, on Friday, my girlfriend (who is Polish and has a polish student card) and I took a train from Poznań to Wrocław to get us a new kitten (sierra-lion.blogspot.com/ if interested).. on the train, the ticket inspector came and she and my girlfriend (as I don't speak polish very much) had a 2-3 minute discussion.. afterwards, my ticket was stamped and my GF told me "we are lucky" and that my student ID isn't valid here because it needs to be a polish student card, or this card with a polish ID. So on the return trip, we took a different discount thing (not a student one) and we asked the ticket inspector on that train if it was accepted to which he replied also no (but it was a different company)

The question is, I was under the impression that the ISIC was designed to make travel and expenses abroad for students significantly easier, and was as effective as a student id card issued in the host nation... Were the inspectors wrong? Or is there any other kind of card as an O.U student living in Poland, I can get that will give me discounts on train journeys as it does on my tram journeys?

Kind Regards,
Jay

Classifieds / 'Silent Party' - Poznań [5]

Hi there (not sure if this is the right place to put this tbh)

I heard from one of my students of a really nice event called 'Silent Party' close to Stary Rynek in Poznań on the 14th I believe. (Or within the last week and a half). I completely missed it, but I heard it was the or one of the first of its kind in Poland, where DJ's are playing but only those with headsets can hear them. I also heard it must have been quite a spectacle for passers by seeing people rock out to some electro while the place is almost silent (well, with the exception of normal human-population sounds).

Did anybody see this / go there? If so how was it? And more importantly... how do people know about these things, perhaps there's some nice handy info site (in English) with upcoming public[free preferably:P] events and other doohickeys. As a photographer I'm particularly interested :)

Regards
Jay

Language / Dreamglade-lipro Polish language-learning blog [8]

Hello Everyone,

I've been living in Poznań, Poland since October 2010 and I've had the pleasure of meeting one or two people from PF.
I teach English in and around Poznań, privately and for a few schools. Although in this line of occupation there is almost no necessity to learn Polish other than perhaps a few survival phrases. But I've found myself in many uncomfortable situations where knowing Polish would either have been either extremely beneficial or just helpful in avoiding looking like a lemon. I've been 'off and on' learning throughout the past 6 months, looking at resources, doing a few chapters from some books, looking at survival phrase pages etc. But now, I'm really into pushing myself to learn the language. I'm in a perfect position to do so - I live with my Polish girlfriend (although I don't like practicing Polish with her, because I feel embarassed and her smiles/laughs discourage me).

Consequently I've made a blog that will follow my progress of learning the language from scratch, using some resources that are publically available for free (such as the University of Pittsburgh first-year polish course). Additionally, I will put some useful resources I create / use on the blog. I hope then, that this blog will serve as something that will be useful to both myself and anyone else who may be starting to learn the language :)

The link is: dreamglade-lipro.blogspot.com/

If anybody is in the same position and are interested in learning the language or practicing and wish to follow the blog or keep in contact with me. Don't hesitate ;)

P.S: If anyone has any tips or advice, I'd also appreciate it :)

Language / Polish Accusative / Genitive case [20]

So I think I finally understand the accusative case (please correct me if not). It refers to the direct object of a sentence, so I have a book, I watch television, I have a new car, I want coffee (The bolded are the direct objects, which must be in accusative along with their accompanying adjectives

* Masculine nouns (only those which refer to people and animals) add -a
* Their adjectives add -ego

* Masculine inanimate nouns (things) remain nominative

* Neuter nouns / adjs. remain nominative

* Feminine nouns (both animate and inanimate) change a to ę
* Adjectives change a to ą

Thus: Masculine accusative;
- Mam dobrego kota (Mam dobry kot in nominative) I have a good cat

Masculine accusative (inanimate)
- Mam dobry regał (Unchanged) I have a good bookcase

Feminine accusative:
- Mam dobrą książkę (Mam dobra ksziążka in nominative) I have a good book

Neuter accusative:
- Mam dobre łóżko (Unchanged) I have a good bed

~~~~

Now to the genitive case...

It's used in 5 different ways:

1.) Posessives.. equivalent to english 's, eg Marks brother (brata Marka) - the possessed object comes first
2.) Negated verb.. genitive replaces direct object, eg Mam siostrę.. Nie mam siostry (I have a sister / I don't have a sister)
3.) After some prepositions such as od / do.. (z Poznania do Warszawy)
4.) After quantities; Mam małó czasu
5.) After some verbs like szukać, słuchać, uczyć się, życzyć

* Masculine animate nouns (people, animals) have same ending as in accusative (-a)
* Masculine inanimate nouns (things) add -u
* Neuter nouns also take masculine acc form and add -a
* Genitive ending for masculine / neuter adjectives is -ego

* Feminine nouns take -i after k,g or soft consonants
* Other nouns take -y
* Feminine adjectives add -ej

Thus, Masculine genitive (Animate):
- Nie mam brata

Masculine genitive (Inanimate):
- Nie lubię brązowego regału

Neutral genitive:
- Muszę iść do miasta

Feminine Genitive:
- dom mojej siostry

So I think I kind of understand all of this, it makes sense as I wrote all of the things above .. but I'm having real difficulty trying to determine if something should be in genitive when speaking or writing. Will it always be so analytical or will it come eventually? Does anyone have any suggestions or links to some excercises (with simple vocabulary) on accusative and genetive? I thought I would learn about accusative / genetive / locative before I start learning all of the vocabulary, since these 3 (+nom) make up for the majority of stuff. I'm learning only from a book I have as I don't really have the money to afford private lessons here in Poznań :)

Appreciate any help, thanks

PS> I found this: polish-dictionary.com/polish-accusative-case

UK, Ireland / Cost of transferring items UK - Poland? [7]

Hi there. Apologies if this is in the wrong section, really couldn't figure out where to place it!

Anyway, I'm currently living in Brighton, UK but I am moving to Poznań on october 5th with my partner who owns a flat there. I will be looking for work immediately in the language / teaching sector, so until then money will be a little tight - but I am bringing some funds to tie things over for some months.

I'm curious to know what kind of price I'd be looking at to have a few items shipped over. I'm thinking of taking the graphics card, hard drives and motherboard from my PC with me (HD's in carry-on bag, and the rest packed securely in checked-in luggage). But when in Poznań I will need a monitor, a case and a power-supply. Do you think it would be cheaper to have my monitor and case shipped, or just buy new ones out there? Also, how much do you think the cost would be individually for a 19" flat screen monitor? Also I've a few uni books I wouldn't mind having sent over, but I guess that's not so important. ANd does anyone have any experience with some nice couriers?

Best regards