News / Poland fines singer for bashing Bible [159]


Actually, it's called fascism. Communism is a different kettle of fish, although one can be fascist and communist - like Stalin.

Agree with you on the rest though, stupid law is stupid, and fascism is baaad m'kay.

Having said that, worryingly, most of the world is veering towards more fascistic tendencies of late - including the gun totin' U S of A.

As you were.

News / Is there anything Poland won't do for money? "Wolf's Lair" - up for rent" [59]


Have you ever been to the Eagle's nest?

News / Poland now soft-pedalling ACTA signing [107]

Oh dear. Good to see the reactionaries out in force, nothing perturbs me more than a complete logic bypass.

Copyright infringement and the entertainment industry = massive LOL!

How many of you have actually been introduced to a favourite author, for example, by going into the bookshop and buying a book on the off chance you might like it. Compare this to how many of you have actually been introduced to your favourite author by a friend who leant you a book, to which you then went on to buy other books by this author.

What next? Banning the sale of second hand video games and books? How about we ban libraries for sharing books, CDs and videos?

There is NO evidence that piracy and file sharing loses big entertainment companies money. There is however, growing evidence that file sharing ENCOURAGES new artists to be discovered, introduces music and films to people who otherwise would have no idea of certain films existing. If anything it is free advertising.

Anyone remember that time home taping killed music and television? - It was a sad day, the day the music and entertainment industry died... sob!

What next? Banning the sale of second hand video games and books? How about we ban libraries for sharing books, CDs and videos? It's all COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT and the EQUALS BAD, doesn't it?

If our politicians are are seriously considering closing down sites, and siding with the draconian US government of behalf of entertainment corporations that have failed to keep up with a modern, changing media, then it is nothing but a travesty. Bad businesses should fail. The entertainment industry needs to move with the times. They're still trying to catch Del Boy at the market with his knock-off VHS videos.

The fact that the entertainment companies have themselves been hosting files, and ENCOURGING the download of P2P type software for ILLEGAL uses, and then crying about it, is even more lolable. I know reading is boring for the reactionaries, but why not go and research CNET, check out who they are owned by, have a look at what them, AOL, and disney have been doing for 10 years, and then consider why the editor - who also sits on the board of a massive entertainment company gives software like BIT-torrent 4 stars! The whole thing stinks to high heaven!

Piracy has and always will exist. I'm sure there are plenty of you who used to tape music off the radio! PIRATES!

The problem with this kind of legislation is that the pirates will find a way round. I read a while ago that the bittorrent are working on a new sharing system that masks IP addresses etc. and forces encryption. That's going to be impossible for the authorities to shut down if it happens, and is a perfect example of why harsh laws are a bad idea. The pirates will find ways around any blocks, site shutdowns and turn to other methods that are harder to track and shut down. And of course, right behind them will be the major criminals and paedophiles also taking advantage of the methods to hide themselves.

That can't be good.

But whatever, our politicians are being bought by the entertainment industry, and bullied by one of the most hostile nations in the world, but who cares! As long as we can tub thump with faux outrage! Who needs to be informed?

Time for a lobotomy.

Who made America the Internet police anyway?

News / Poland now soft-pedalling ACTA signing [107]

I have no idea who Alki David is. :(

This is a great vid, if you can sit though 15 minutes of shouty man! It's a bit much but does make some good points.

youtube.com/watch?v=y7DkrsCCQ_A

News / Poland now soft-pedalling ACTA signing [107]


I counted three, not to be pedantic or anything. ;)

Study / Recommend Me some Reputable Language Schools in Krakow, Please! [6]

Callan?!?! LOL and No!
Reading from a book for hours is not my idea of good teaching practise. Drilling's cool and all, but not THAT cool.

Thanks for the rest of the info though! My boyfriend's mum's friend's husband works in the polytechnic; I'll ask him if he can help. I saw a guy putting up some posters with those tear-away slip things onto lamp posts. He was doing it so quickly and looked so shifty that I it was illegal, but if it's not I'll stick a few up locally. There's a secondary not too far from here.

I'll check out the Tutor Forum too. I have to admit that I'm rubbish at making websites! They always look so cheesy, but I'll give it a go anyway.

News / Poland now soft-pedalling ACTA signing [107]


That's really great news! The last thing you want Poland to do is be like the UK, which deports its own citizens to the US, when no crime has been committed. I hope that the Polish citizens fight against this.

Study / Recommend Me some Reputable Language Schools in Krakow, Please! [6]


Unfortunately it does. I've got a pretty sweet deal here so it's Krakow only, until we get a car.

Work / Teaching English in Krakow - where to start looking and the process? [21]

I was chatting to a Canadian guy last night, who's looking for work in Krakow. He's got some kind of TEFL, no teaching experience, but has had three interviews. I don't think he's been here very long. So there is work out there, but I wonder when or if he'll actually be taken on by a school.

From what I've read it seems to be a tough market here. There are loads of schools, so I do wonder how much quality is compromised with the vast quantity we have here.

If you can go somewhere else, do.

There have been some real horror stories about this place on the internet (whether it's true or now, who knows, we teachers LOVE to complain, but then - no smoke without fire), and I'm slightly worried about having to find work here. I'm going to start doing that this week and let you all know how I get on.

I'm sure the attitude here is pretty similar to that in London where CELTA qualified people are two a penny, and where most have teachers been doing it for years, so I'm kind of prepared for the massive let down.

I'm in the position that I have to teach in Krakow, but if I could have the same set up elsewhere I'd take it in an instance. There are too many teachers here but too few good ones. "Native" doesn't mean sh1te any more; you have to be good too.

News / Controlling the internet ACTA in Poland (Like SOPA) [34]

You have no idea how pleased I am to hear this. I was talking to my (only) student today. He (and his students) are under the impression that there will be no more downloading after today, and that YouTube will cease to exist. I'd heard about this ratification procedure - and he wasn't sure what it was.

Seems like everyone is in the dark over this.

There's a protest in the Stare Miasto in Krakow today. I'm sure they are taking place all over Poland.

News / Controlling the internet ACTA in Poland (Like SOPA) [34]



For our Polish speaking friends.

:)

We like to keep things in English on this part of the Forum.

UK, Ireland / Are Polish people importing a new wave of ancient racism into the UK? [402]


GWAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAH!

"They all looks the same!" Not a racist comment at all!

Yeah right.

The Spanish look *just* like Russians. The Norwegians look *just* like the Greeks too.

You probably think that Chinese, Japanese and Koreans all look the same too.

All this does is show a lack of integration on your part. No one else's.

I love the way you bleat about racism, but then simultaneously tar an entire nation as racist, based on a number of people you can count on your fingers and toes, and without ever having stepped foot into the country!

You sir, are having a giggle.

Racism exists no matter which country you go to. I went to Sri Lanka two years ago, got charged 10 times more than the locals, and was subjected to scam artists approaching me every hour.

I am not, however, going to tar all Sri-Lankans with the same bush. If anything, It made me wiser, and less gullible.

Oh! And I got stared at too! Doesn't mean they were racist. Just means they don't see many white people. Human instinct is to stare at something new. I think I'll forgive them for being human.

Oh, and Sri-Lankans don't look the same as Bangladeshis, just in case you were wondering!

LOL at you.

USA, Canada / Can you BE Polish without SPEAKING Polish in the US? [256]

I think it's pretty difficult to get into the "mindset" of a culture without speaking the language from which it was derived. The languages we speak alter our perception of the world to quite a heavy degree. The grammar structure can alter our perception of time, alter out logical thought patterns, and genders can alter how we see the objects around us.

There are two things that make a culture, the obvious "learned" culture of traditions, which are handed down from your mother, father or both. This however can become diluted, when new cultures and traditions are absorbed, especially when living in a foreign country.

There is also less obvious subconscious nuances of language, which allow greater insight into how a "nation" thinks, and changes your perception of the world without you ever know it has done so. This kind of thing can't be learnt or handed down in the same way that traditions are.

In my opinion it's pretty hard to be "Proper Polish" without speaking the language, in the same way you can't be "Proper English" without speaking the language. You could imitate the traditions, but it would never really give you a truthful insight into how a nation thinks.

Here's an article which may be of interest.

buber.net/Basque/?p=68

News / Poland now soft-pedalling ACTA signing [107]

It's a hammer to crack an egg (You can use that one too!)

News / Poland now soft-pedalling ACTA signing [107]


Could you explain the gist of this video? My Polish is rather poor.

News / Poland now soft-pedalling ACTA signing [107]

If you don't like ACTA, don't forget to sign the avaaz petition.

avaaz.org/en/eu_save_the_internet_spread/?fWbmLbb&pv=284

News / Poland now soft-pedalling ACTA signing [107]


It will be an absolute disgrace if Poland and/or Europe sells their citizens to the US by ratifying this agreement.

The reason why I decided to leave the UK in the first place was because of the governments obsessive pushing of the US agenda onto their citizens , and the continual decimation of privacy laws and big-brother type polices.

I would truly be proud of Poland and Europe if they reject this agreement, and would be proud to call myself Polish and European if I could. As politics stand, I am utterly ashamed to be associated with the UK government, and am ashamed to be a "representative" of them.

I truly hope that common sense wins trough, and the US "intent police" are given the boot. I do not wish to be "policed" by a nation which holds the world record for jailing its citizens.

News / Communist era 'newspeak' appeals the most to Poland PiS supporters (what a surprise) [89]


You say that, but I have a teacher friend who has a colleague (also a teacher) whom is a staunch PiS supporter.

My mate says this woman regularly flunks her kids if they say anything bad about PiS. A bit disgraceful really, but there you go!

Seems that scared, reactionary people exist in the educated elite as well.

News / Poland now soft-pedalling ACTA signing [107]


Lots of people say that torrenting "kills jobs"

I don't really think this is true. It's like when people said that taping songs off the radio, or coping something on to VHS would kill the industry1 MP3s were going to kill the music industry not long ago! I mean libraries were meant to kill authors FFS! It's a tired argument hashed out by companies that refuse to update their outdated business model. They are lies, and it's about time that people stopped listening to them.

Most artists tied in to big record companies don't really see a lot of profit from releasing albums any-more, most of their money comes from gigs, and merchandise. And the music companies make quite a lot of their money pedalling music videos to TV companies, and places like Youtube actively promote album sales. Either way, they are still making billions in profit.

It's the same with TV and films. DVD sales count for far less than they do for selling a series to the TV networks, and often torrentlng actually encourages the purchase of films and TV series, as does music.

How many people in the UK would have had access to something like "The Wire" without torrents? Not many, I can assure you. And how copies of The Wire were bought on DVD without it ever airing in the UK? Tens of thousands.

How many people are opened up to smaller independent films on sites like Youtube? With ACTA, I think the quality of films would drop, as we would only hear about the films with the biggest budgets (ie crap), and be done for copyright infringement for even uploading a small clip of a new, exciting indie film we just found.

Are TV companies really losing money if I watch re-runs of (for example) Masterchef Australia, considering you can't buy it anywhere, and the TV companies in Europe are not showing it?

I think torrentlng and file sharing is a very complex issue, which HAS NOT been looked into adequately by DEMOCRATICALLY ELECTED BODIES.

So why an undemocratically elected lobby is pushing this through, when the real issues haven't been discussed yet, I don't know.

What's more worrying is that ACTA will affect the real world. It will limit our access to generic medicines. It also treads into the dark waters of political suppression of information.

This thing could very realistically KILL people.

News / Poland now soft-pedalling ACTA signing [107]


And therein lies the problem. If you can't be bothered to learn about it, how can you form an opinion? A quick Google will show you how well media making profits are at the moment:

Walt Disney made a 40% profit on the year before in 2010. The Q4 profit of 2011 for NBC was 38% higher than the last year. Time Warner profits jumped 22% in 2010.

So please, do a little research before you start talking about how media companies "aren't making a good profit". I'll be very VERY interested to see the 2011 end of year figures.


I hope this is a rhetorical question. Obviously I am mighty peeved about the whole thing. It may well be the death knell for the European countries' national healthcare programmes.

USA, Canada / Can you BE Polish without SPEAKING Polish in the US? [256]


No, but id did provide us with an entire fleet of Pilots to the UK war effort in WW2. Many of them stayed in the UK but still have relatives in Poland. I think we at least owe these people a little something, don't you?

News / Poland now soft-pedalling ACTA signing [107]


This is Oxfam's view on what would happen with this agreement in place. An impact on developing countries with developing healthcare systems, denied cheap, generic drugs.


It would be devastating to everyone. It would mean that drugs new will be put on hold even before the mega-pharmaceuticals battle it out in the courts to deicide who's "idea" the drug was. In the mean time, it denies drugs to the (usually poorest) people who need it the most. Like I said, lives will be lost.


Not with ACTA in place you can't.

This is from infojustice.org/archives/5719


Great... let's lock up the doctors too!

There isn't a facepalm big enough in the world for this "treaty".

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


Guess again. I speak Hungarian fluently and Polish is a real minefield for me, even though I completely get what case endings are about most linguists agree on 14 cases in the Hungarian language (Polish has 7). At the moment I'm struggling with simple sentences, particularly with gender declination and animate vs. inanimate declinations. Hungarian has no gender - so that doesn't help me.

It's not always obvious which case follows which verbs either.

I think Hungarian probably is harder for most people to learn than Polish, but not by much - it's not a competition. The two languages aren't really that similar at all, although they do share some common lexis.

It really all depends on what your mother tongue is.

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


It's one of the ONLY redeeming features of learning the language. It has no genders, but try mastering the "vowel harmony" system.

I think you'll be begging for the return of genders.

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

kaposta, kulcs.

Makes polish a bit easer for me than my English speaking friends. Not much easier though!

Life / Question about hot water in Poland and the use of water heaters? [52]

I'm in Krakow and we get our hot water directly from the power plant. It's a new building.

Life / Is Poland a poor country? [578]

Poverty is subjective because people put too much emphasis on the numbers in money, and how much one earns.

There is no difference in earning $700 a month or $1400 a month if it buys you the same quality of life, the same house and the same food the same healthcare, and gives you the same holidays.

The question perhaps should be "Does living in Poland afford you a good "quality of life".

Well according to USwitch
uswitch.com/news/money/uk-worst-place-to-live-in-europe-uswitch-quality-of-life-index-890419
out of 10 countries surveyed including Poland, the UK offers nearly the worst quality of life while they are the top earners of the countries polled (£32,766 per year), and Poland comes in 5th out of 10 even they own the least (£7,986 per year - a quarter of what the UK average household income is).

This chart
www1.internationalliving.com/qofl2010/?field=final
uses a different method and puts Poland below the UK. (although not that far below) 21st I think out of approximately 50 countries in Europe. Which I wouldn't class as poor - but then it depends on what your definition of "poor" is and if it includes health, happiness and holidays- which to me it does.

Life / Is Poland a poor country? [578]

It depends if they are looking at the money cost, or the cost as a percentage of household income (which I think they might be). I'd like to know the figures that uswitch used so I could see myself how they calculated it. Personally I think that the international living table gives a more accurate representation. Really it depends on what is important in your life.

Life / Why are Polish so conservative and religious? [240]

I'm not so sure that the younger generation are so religious.

Most of my boyfriend's Polish cousins do not attend church, dislike the catholic church, and some are agnostic.

The reason Poland is so staunchly religious is compounded by two things:

1) The Catholic church was the only uncensored voice against communism for nearly 50 years.

2) The Pope during this time was Polish.

Without these factors Poland would not be as "religious" as it is now, and as these two factors are no longer at play I think we will see an increasing secularisation of Poland.

Many Polish youngsters,in my experience, seem to think that this overt show of religion is nothing more than pretence. I tend to agree, some of the most Catholic people I know are also the worst kind people when it comes to racism, homophobia, and tolerance. The actual teaching of Jesus seems to have bypassed a lot of Catholics, but I think the youth in Poland are waking up to this and are a lot more moderate, certainly when it comes to things like contraception and gay rights. Not a bad thing IMO.

Times are changing. It'll be interesting to see what happens.