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Posts by Koala  

Joined: 4 May 2011 / Male ♂ 		Last Post: 12 Jan 2012
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Posts: 332

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Koala   
14 May 2011
News / Achievements of the Tusk's Polish government [532]

Really? I found it after first search on google, the very first link.

First official decision, then comments

Let's wait for the official decision of the United States and the reasons for it - said after the meeting with the American delegation Chief of Foreign Affairs Ministry. Radoslaw Sikorski appealed to the journalists to abstention from comment on the shield, because the American decision may be different than most of is expecting.

In the afternoon, Radoslaw Sikorski contacted by telephone with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Moments later, Prime Minister Donald Tusk had talks with US President Barack Obama.

rmf24.pl/fakty/swiat/news-najpierw-oficjalna-decyzja-potem-komentarze,nId,123569
Koala   
14 May 2011
News / Achievements of the Tusk's Polish government [532]

For example, I don't think that Tusk has explained putting the missile shield on the back burner well enough at all. It was a done deal but somehow it is insignificant now.

It's Americans who withdrew from the deal. All for the better though. We don't want American troops on our soil, Russia could easily overwhelm that shield, the threat of attack from Middle East is far fetched and nonexistent, the only thing that shield did was introducing tensions between Russia and Poland.
Koala   
14 May 2011
News / EU tribunal overrules Polish name contest in Lithuania [150]

The agreement was that Wilno would temporarily be under Lithuanian administration. Well, temporarily. :)
In all seriousness, the truce was signed to catch Lithuanians off guard. A machiavellian scheme, that's all there is to it. However, it's the Lithuanians that allied themselves with Bolsheviks, there'd be no incident over Wilno had they not done that.
Koala   
14 May 2011
News / EU tribunal overrules Polish name contest in Lithuania [150]

Well, for starters, Poland wasn't an independent state after 1945. The fact that you see Solidarność as an act against Soviet empire shows that best.

Second, since Lithuanians captured Polish territory and became allies with Soviets, they effectively put themselves at war with Poland. Poland only reclaimed their territory in October 1920, the local population rejoiced, the matter was over.
Koala   
14 May 2011
News / EU tribunal overrules Polish name contest in Lithuania [150]

It had already been invaded and occupied for two decades by Polish troops, they were in no position to defend it when the Polish troops ran to Romania, sorry, I mean, retreaded to the Romanian bridgehead.
Exactly how many days in September 1939 did you defend it? More or fewer than seven?

Dude, why are you changing subject to 1939. I was clearly talking about the 1920 war.
Let me remind you about the events of the 1918-1920 events.
November 1918 - Germany signs capitulation to the Entente. Nations of Germany- and Austria- occupied territories are given green light to create their own state entities. Wilno is occupied by a newly formed Belarus (not Lithuania!). Let's assume at this point it should be Lithuanian - why didn't Lithuanians fight for it?

December 1918 - Soviets launch offensive on Belarus and capture Wilno. Lithuanian population of Wilno and surroundings is evacuated to Lithuania, Lithuania did not bother trying to fend off Soviets from that territory

January 1919 - Poles in Wilno revolt against Soviets, after 4 days the rebellion is defeated
April 1919 - Poland launches an offensive against Soviets, captures Wilno. What did Lithuania do to regain "their" Wilno from Polish hands? Nothing.
June 1920 - Soviets launch an offensive against Poland, Polish troops retreat en masse.
August 1920 - Soviet troops are annihilated in Battle of Warsaw. Retreating from Wilno, they hand it over to Lithuania, which now happily captures the territory as it's basically a free item for them at that point.

September 1920 - Polish government tries to convince Lithuanian government hand Wilno over to our hands or let Wilno's population decide which country they want to belong to. Lithuania disagrees to both propositions

October 1920 - Polish troops enter Wilno

I don't know how one can possible paint the Polish government as villains at that time. If Wilno was rightfully Lithuanian (let's ignore the fact that there we were little to none Lithuanians there), why didn't Lithuania try to capture and defend it, not even once? If Poland lost with Soviets, how long would it take for Lithuania to fall prey to Soviets, too? 1 week? Poland effectively defended Lithuania and in return Lithuania occupied Polish Wilno.
Koala   
13 May 2011
Language / What I learned so far about the Polish language. [30]

beats a post on polishforums

indeed, all words have to be used with care, but the position on the list doesn't mean the word's usage is an exception to a rule

Keep in mind I didn't check SJP until after I connected your word "official" with SJP. I was in fact very surprised that my two definitions almost exactly match those in SJP. Either way, it's still important not to confuse Polish "studiować" with English "to study".
Koala   
13 May 2011
News / EU tribunal overrules Polish name contest in Lithuania [150]

I don't think Lithuania had agreed on Warszawa or Kraków belonging to Poland, yet there they were. If Lithuania considered Wileńszczyzna their territory, then surely they would have defended it against Soviet invaders?

Fact of the matter is, Lithuania was effectively defended by Poland against Soviets and grabbed Polish territory in the process. Lithuanians weren't willing to give it back, so Poland used a trick to recapture their territory and minimize losses. Deal with it, calling it an "inconvenient bit of history" shows your strong antipathies, not your "objectivity".
Koala   
13 May 2011
Language / What I learned so far about the Polish language. [30]

Koala, sorry, I do not agree:

Starannie przestudiował papiery.
He perused documents.

I'm not really sure why you put equality sign between studiować and przestudiować. I mean, you might say "Studiuję papiery" or "Studiowałem papiery" and be understood, but it sounds really off, at least to me. I never hear it used in such way.

edit:

It is one of the official definitions of the word studiować, not flagged as an exception.

While "Słownik języka polskiego" from PWN is generally well esteemed, it's not official and definitions there are arbitrary. In any case, Antek's definition really is the third definition given there, but I think it should beapplied carefully.

lyzko - Poles are not proud enough orFrench are too proud? :P
Koala   
13 May 2011
Language / What I learned so far about the Polish language. [30]

A minor point, but whereas English makes a distinction between "to study something" (studiować) vs. "to learn [how to do..]" (uczyć się), one can study a language on one's own.

I think you misunderstand the Polish meanings of these words. :) "Studiować" means "to be a university student" or (less often) do a research in one specific area. The equivalent of English "to study" is uczyć się (to spend time trying to obtain new knowledge/skills etc.), while "to learn" is nauczyć się (to acquire knowledge or a skill by studying).

Die deutsche Grammatik ist ja zaehneknirrschend praezise, das stimmt. Doch die polnische auch, oder?

It's sometimes ambiguous, eg. yes/no questions have the same structure as normal statements, so if someone puts stress incorrectly, you are not sure if he's asking or stating something. :) And Polish grammar is very flexible.

The Poles seem though to exhibit more pride in their language than many Germans.

Not as much as French though :)
Koala   
13 May 2011
News / Achievements of the Tusk's Polish government [532]

I think the whole idea is that while running up debts now (still pretty low by European standards), Poland will be able to pay those debts back while things pick up. It's a risky strategy, but I suspect the Estonian Alternative (slashing public jobs, salaries and welfare) would have been seen as a complete no-no.

Tusk will be judged not by this government, but by his actions in the 2011-2015 period.

Assuming PO wins the election again. I didn't vote for PO in 2007 (I did in 2005 though), but I was glad they won with such a huge margin as I thought it meant more legislative changes. But no, they did much less than they should have.

National debt is relatively small, but we set the 60% limit for a reason, we don't want to wind up like Greece or Japan.
Koala   
13 May 2011
News / Achievements of the Tusk's Polish government [532]

crisis quite unharmed under Tusk`s leadership. The economic growth never went below the line, while other countries dropped significantly. We already talked about the GNP prognosis for this year, Poland is catching up with others systematically, e.g., Hungary, which has always been ahead of us.

The public debt in Poland has skyrocketed in recent years, which means that we'll hit the 60% limit soon and will have to have surplus to regulate that debt, which will slow down Polish economy significantly in a couple of years. I don't know which is worse - to have the economy stagnate now or in future, maybe if the worldwide crisis will endup soon we won't need state's money all that much.

More of what ? papers, reforms and plans ? it all will be ! Or not !
What are Tusks achievements - means something done which is working as we speak! Not future or future generation or bright and optimistic future.

Very few reforms have immediate effect. In case of reforming higher education system and supporting science, it certainly is necessary, we have to make our country more innovative, otherwise we'll have very little to offer in future when salaries will go up and cheap work force won't Poland's biggest advantage.
Koala   
13 May 2011
News / EU tribunal overrules Polish name contest in Lithuania [150]

Whatever buddy. The fact is, Lithuania occupied Polish territory (as they received it from Soviets who were at war with Poland and only captured Wilno temporarily) didn't want to leave the area, didn't agree to make the poll, the only way wasto capture it the same way Lithuanians de facto did - by force.

only officially Koala - let's not promote myths

I'm only doing the same thing Harry is.
Koala   
13 May 2011
News / EU tribunal overrules Polish name contest in Lithuania [150]

Also worth pointing out that it was a Lithuanian city after WW1, only for Poland to seize it by force.

LOL, no it wasn't. Directly after WWI Vilnus belonged to Poland. Soviets temporarily captured it, when forced to retreat they transferred the territory to Lithuanian government, deliberately to stir up a conflict between Poland and Lithuania (and they succeeded).
Koala   
13 May 2011
News / EU tribunal overrules Polish name contest in Lithuania [150]

Didn't the 2 countries join together their armies to stop invaders? And in turn beat off the Germans?

Poland and Lithuania were in union since late XIVth until late XVIIIth century, since late XVIth century they were basically one country. Poland being the stronger part of that union - demographically, economically etc. led to gradual polonization of Lithuanian nobility and elites, in the capital of Lithuania and its surroundings there were more Poles, Jews and Belarusans than Lithuanians (Lithuanians comprised only 7% of population of that region prior to WWII).

So Poles didn't appear in those territories out of nowhere.
Koala   
13 May 2011
News / EU tribunal overrules Polish name contest in Lithuania [150]

They have lived there for hundreds of years. Current capital of Lithuania, Wilno/Vilnus, was ethnically Polish prior to World War 2 and it only changed after commies took over, so relatively recently.
Koala   
13 May 2011
News / Official language of EU (is not Polish) [119]

There is a big fat "90" in the old borders....re-unification and accession overlapped abit.

Yes, but it's a new territory of BRD, not a new member country.
Koala   
13 May 2011
News / Official language of EU (is not Polish) [119]

And these are the working languages of the EU

This map still has DDR as a separate country LOL (even if you could make a case it's logical to put it that way)

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Deutsch-Fran%C3%A7ais.png
Koala   
13 May 2011
Language / What I learned so far about the Polish language. [30]

ciągle - still
coraz + przymiotnik/przysłówek w stopniu wyższym, na przykład coraz lepiej = better and better, coraz więcej - more and more, itp.

tłumaczyć - to translate
wytłumaczyć - to explain
_________________________

Keep on the good work! - Tak dalej!
Koala   
13 May 2011
News / EU tribunal overrules Polish name contest in Lithuania [150]

I think Lithuanians made such restrictions for Polish population only recently because it isn't isolated from the mother country anymore. They can easily travel to and fro Poland, read Polish press, listen to Polish radio etc. - basically all hope was lost for Lithuanians that Poles would assimilate eventually.