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Posts by RoughFlavors  

Joined: 18 Jan 2012 / Female ♀ 		Last Post: 20 Apr 2012
Threads: 1
Posts: 100 		From: USA
Speaks Polish?: Tak

Displayed posts: 101 / page 3 of 4
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RoughFlavors   
26 Jan 2012
Life / Are Poles mentally more Eastern European or Western European? [171]

Aren't Poles more like Western European - quiet, shy, hard working?

ha...

given that we generally balk at being bunched together with either Russians/Ukrainians, or Germans, or Czechs for any reason whatsoever, we're definitely Central. Hell, most Poles don't like being bunched together with other Poles...
RoughFlavors   
27 Jan 2012
News / Poland now soft-pedalling ACTA signing [107]

The ISP's are not going to enforce a censored internet

they won't have a choice if the treaty is signed

intellectual property is important, but nothing should be above free speech, civil liberties, or the right to privacy. net neutrality is one of the fundamental principles of the modern world. P3 is just overdramatizing and fear-mongering, given that laws against terrorism and pedophilia already exist, and no government should have to spy on their citizens, no matter how pretty the pipe dream of stopping all the hackers and terrorists sounds. if people like P3 don't understand that, they deserve to live in a police state.
RoughFlavors   
27 Jan 2012
Study / Shocking! Test standards in Polish schools. [165]

kids from every walk of life attend the same schools

pretty much the case of every other country

the issue is not whether the kid uses proper grammar at 15, but that the low standards would give him high marks for bad grammar. a teacher's job is hard, so what? we all know that. no reason to lower the standards. it's been done in this country and for the sake of kids moving on to the next grade, parents not having to pay attention, and teachers not having to exert themselves, we give high school diplomas to kids who can barely read!

native speakers are important, but the queen of England couldn't teach a kid who is used to getting all As for properly saying Hello.
RoughFlavors   
27 Jan 2012
Study / Shocking! Test standards in Polish schools. [165]

you realize there is a lot of research around language aquisition, both in childhood and in adulthood, and the idea that it's easier to learn what is similar and more difficult to learn what is different was discredited sometime in the 70s...
RoughFlavors   
27 Jan 2012
News / Poland now soft-pedalling ACTA signing [107]

I would support legislation that would shut down all sites that condone racism (including this one).

I would rather people were able to choose freely which sites to go to, rather than the have governments telling people what's good for them.
RoughFlavors   
28 Jan 2012
News / Poland now soft-pedalling ACTA signing [107]

Well, good thing your view is not shared by everyone.

This view is shared by most of the world, except perhaps China and South Korea, and a few stupid people here and there who would rather let their government control their lives.
RoughFlavors   
28 Jan 2012
UK, Ireland / Cultural misunderstandings - Polish and English [26]

Expressing either anger or impoliteness or impatience just like politeness or patience is frequently a part of play.

Polish retail store and post office reps must be really good at that "play," surpassed only by township clerks and revenue service workers... What is generally considered normal or neutral behavior in Poland, would seem downright rude in many other countries. That includes giving a weird look to someone who greets you with a friendly Hello, even if you don't happen to know them.
RoughFlavors   
28 Jan 2012
News / Poland now soft-pedalling ACTA signing [107]

You're totally missing the point, D, and I can't believe you actually need the explanation of an obvious fact. Nobody is advocating in favor of piracy and stealing, got it? But neither governments nor corporations should be allowed to spy on EVERYONE just to catch a few bad guys. You wouldn't want the police to come to your house whenever their fancy strikes, without a warrant, would you? Just to look through your stuff to make sure everything is a-ok? You wouldn't want your phone company spying on your phone calls for no reason, or the post office opening your letters, would you? Well, this is what ACTA is mandating - that the ISPs monitor where you go on the net, and what you look at, and what you download.
RoughFlavors   
28 Jan 2012
UK, Ireland / Cultural misunderstandings - Polish and English [26]

Ok, D, how far "outside" the mountains did you actually travel?
People tend to return a smile and a hello "outside" the mountains, unless they're particularly uptight and pissy.
I grew up in Poland and I can guarantee that what is "normal behavior" there would be extremely abnormal anywhere else, when it comes to the standards of politeness and friendliness.
RoughFlavors   
28 Jan 2012
Love / Why do Polish girls and women look at me in a flirty way? [44]

They were brainwashed

oh, please. a girl can make her own mind about who to date. some choose black, some choose domestic, get used to it.

and whoever showed her boobs to mauritius was either stupid or thought he was stupid
RoughFlavors   
28 Jan 2012
News / Poland now soft-pedalling ACTA signing [107]

less generic ripoffs

D, you're being clueless again. Generics are not ripoffs, they're perfectly legal (for now) and safe. You can only patent an invention or a design for so long, afterwards it becomes available to everyone.

Theoretically, you couldn't even try to recreate at home a dish you had at a restaurant, because it would be the chef's intellectual property. Essentially, protection of intellectual property becomes supreme to every other right under ACTA, which is completely absurd.
RoughFlavors   
28 Jan 2012
UK, Ireland / Cultural misunderstandings - Polish and English [26]

Polish people can sometimes act like professional contrarians

I think there's a two-fold explanation for that. For one, Poles are a relatively homogeneous society and therefore tend to be dismissive of anyone who is different, particularly foreigners, but also anyone who stands out from the crowd. The other reason is that Poles are often argumentative (two Poles - four points of view, or whatever), and can argue about anything and nothing. We also complain notoriously and, at the same time, cherish our supposed exceptionalism. In other words, you can't win an argument with a Pole, at least in his or her mind.
RoughFlavors   
29 Jan 2012
News / Poland now soft-pedalling ACTA signing [107]

wtf, D? i mean, seriously, you can't pull one scrap of logic out of your a$s... what's all this India nonsense? I'm going to make it real simple for you - I, and many other intelligent people, do not want to be under surveillance by an ISP acting on behalf any government. It's a basic right of a citizen under any civilized legal system. And your counterargument is knockoff drugs, supposedly from India? For real?! There already are laws against counterfeit drugs, and they don't require monitoring the entire population, or people giving up their civil liberties.
RoughFlavors   
29 Jan 2012
Law / IT department (computer programming) - Opening up an Office/Business in Poland [53]

Anyone recommending Katowice for anything other than ritual suicide deserves scorn.

typical nonsense you'd expect from D

I would say the location is less of an issue, given that computer programming is something you can easily do telecommuting. This way you can concentrate on hiring people with the best qualifications, rather than worrying about where they live. You may not even need an office and just set up a virtual organization, with people collaborating online. It saves a lot of overhead, significantly expands your labor market, and may lower your compensation expenses. Poland is a small country, one time zone, you can drive from one end to the next within a day, why create artificial limitations? It's the 21st century after all.

to be perfectly honest, though, PF is a very poor choice for sourcing market research. you can't be serious about opening a business if that's where you're looking for information.
RoughFlavors   
29 Jan 2012
Life / Are Poles mentally more Eastern European or Western European? [171]

Let's face it, the main reason for everyone denying that Poland is part of Eastern Europe is because for decades Eastern Europe was synonymous with communism, bad government, corruption, and economic weakness. It's a matter of connotation, not denotation. The argument whether it's Eastern, or Central, or whatever else, revolves around that perception. For a very long time, Greece has been considered part of the "West" even though it's technically much farther east than Poland. Now that their economy is an epic clusterf*ck, not that many people would instinctively put it in the same category as Germany and France. Until Poland becomes "like" Germany and France in the common opinion, no amount of arguments to the contrary will free it from the stigma of Eastern Europe.
RoughFlavors   
29 Jan 2012
News / Poland now soft-pedalling ACTA signing [107]

You're the one that brought up health care, not me

as a matter of fact, i did not. I just responded to your nonsensical statement about generics.

you gave up your civil liberties the second you took up American residency.

you're boring as f*ck with your anti-Americanism.

the rest of it - tl;dr
RoughFlavors   
29 Jan 2012
Life / Are Poles mentally more Eastern European or Western European? [171]

rejecting the offer of the Marshall Plan

I don't think there was much of an option at the time. Perceptions are stubborn, though. It takes at least a generation to change them.

there is no eastern European mentality

yes, we consider ourselves special. now, if only the rest of the world were so easy to convince :)
RoughFlavors   
29 Jan 2012
News / Poland now soft-pedalling ACTA signing [107]

you'll never say a bad word about the country that let you escape from the village, eh?

even if you had the guts to tell people the truth about the sh*thut you left behind, you still wouldn't have the brains to understand a concept more complex than America=bad. "Village" is not an insult, D. I happen to be proud of where I came from, and proud of the country where I chose to live, even if I'm critical of both at times.

Now, why don't you put your wikipedia PhD to work and explain why ACTA is such a brilliant idea. Or is one semi-smart argument that does not involve bashing America too much to ask for?
RoughFlavors   
29 Jan 2012
News / Poland now soft-pedalling ACTA signing [107]

well, D, let me explain to you how far your head got up your a$s.

my father served for years in the Polish army, before went on to a career in chemical engineering. His father served in the Polish army, too, and then worked for decades in a coalmine, until his job cost him his life one day. His father, in turn, fought in the first two Silesian uprisings - he would have fought in the third one, probably, too, except he got killed. My mother's father and his brother fought all the way through Europe with General Anders, and were just two of those many silly "village" Polacks running up the hill of Monte Cassino. He survived, only missing an ear, and came back to Poland afterwards - his brother wasn't so lucky. My grandpa became quite known in our "village," too, for coming to all the nine high schools for years just to tell the students about the war. His father fought all three Silesian uprisings - and survived, only to be taken to Auschwitz for helping his Jewish friend and his pregnant wife, never to be seen or heard from again. The earlier generations died various deaths, from being shot for teaching Polish to dying in Prussian and Russian prisons for participating in the Greater Poland Uprising and the January Uprising.

so excuse me for not being duly insulted by some "urbane" f*cktard like you because I supposedly hail from some "village." There is very little you can tell me about being Polish, or about respecting my freedom.

and no, your Indian counterfeit drug BS does not convince me to let myself be monitored 24/7
RoughFlavors   
29 Jan 2012
Life / Are Poles mentally more Eastern European or Western European? [171]

There were lots of Polish communists although they deny it now.

Yes, I think a lot of people truly believed in the idea, at first. Heck, for a while, right after WWII, it looked as if the USSR was on its way to surpass the US economy, even from here. The fact still remains that Poland could not do much without Stalin's approval at the time, with the "liberating army" still hanging around.
RoughFlavors   
20 Apr 2012
Life / A recent visit to Poland. First time after 12 years. [19]

I just got back from visiting Poland for the first time after 12 years.

I have been regularly in touch with my family and friends throughout that time and, listening to them, I imagined some incredible changes must have taken place since. My excitement and anticipation to go see everything with my own eyes after over a decade was quickly met with disappointment, though. Here are a few observations:

1. While abroad, Poles still pretend not to be Polish. How sad.
2. Other than more signs advertising everything from "Instalacja Kotlow" to "Biuro Rachunkowe Estimate," a bunch of new banks and car dealerships, everything looks the same. In fact, the school I used to go to actually looked better back in 2000.

3. The use of English words is as ubiquitous as it is ridiculously out of place and incorrect (Biuro Rachunkowe Estimate - wtf?!)
4. People are just as rude and wary of strangers as before. One simply sticks out.
5. Nobody thinks twice about littering in the street, flower borders and containers are conspicuously devoid of vegetation but instead full of trash, There's spit on sidewalks. Nothing changed.

6. People complain about everything, as always. They were very proud to tell me about the new Galleria (a mall) but then proceeded to ***** about the prices there, in the very next sentence.

7. Roads are just as bumpy and narrow as before, sidewalks just as crooked.
8. Everyone wanted to know what kind of car I drove and how big my house was. As if they were keeping score.
9. When I was trying to tell them a little bit about the life in the US, it was either, "Oh, yes, we have that, too..." or "Stupid Americans." I gave up.

10. All the programs on TV were copied from western stations. Seems like there was no original programming, other than the news...
11. Clothes continue to be a status symbol. At the same time, everyone shops in consignment stores.
12. Travel agencies seem to focus mainly on third-world countries.
13. Finally, people look tired and pooped. My peers look way older and they seem disheartened. Nobody seems to truly enjoy their lives, everyone is worried and constantly fretting over everyday stuff.

I really don't care if anyone agrees with me or not, but the thought that I came back with was, if I escaped that and made it to where I'm now, I can do anything.
RoughFlavors   
20 Apr 2012
Life / A recent visit to Poland. First time after 12 years. [19]

Let me explain the piece about Poles pretending not to be Poles. When I was waiting for my connecting flight in Frankfurt, I noticed a Polish looking guy. Then he pulled out his cell phone and called his dad to tell him to pick him up when he arrived in Katowice. In Polish. Then he sat down next to me and pulled out a book. In Polish. But when I said Dzien dobry, he pretended not to understand, and replied in German. I laughed and I asked him why he was reading a book in Polish, he said, "Ja sie ucze polski." So I replied, Jak sie polski ucze to dzien dobry umie, nie? This had nothing to do with assimilation. It's just an inferiority complex.
RoughFlavors   
20 Apr 2012
Life / A recent visit to Poland. First time after 12 years. [19]

Interesting theory based on a single incident.

I told that story to my family and friends when I arrived and they gave me tons of similar examples of when they were vacationing abroad and met other Poles who didn't want to be Polish. Lol, my mom told me about another airport incident in Milan, where she hear a family speaking Polish and went to ask them a question about something, and the parents pretended not to understand what she was saying but the kid replied to her in Polish, which earned him a smack in the head from his dad....

Besides, I don't see how a simple Dzien dobry can be an annoyance. It's basic politeness, imo. If two Americans met in a distant country, or two Germans, or two whoever, they would exchange a Hello.

Poles pretending not to be Polish - sorry but what crap is that,

LOL, dude, you obviously personally associate with Poland yet you make a point to say you're not Polish.

same as in any other country

In most countries I've been, it would actually be considered somewhat rude, almost like asking about how much you make or how much money you have in the bank.
RoughFlavors   
20 Apr 2012
Life / Teenage Pregnancy in Poland [108]

I can't say much about what it looks like right now, but sex education is always a challenge in a country with huge Catholic influence. I remember in high school, "sex ed" was split between biology (and it was so obvious the teacher was painfully uncomfortable with the subject - she told one poor guy to stand in front of the class and read a chapter out of the textbook, aloud, while she was just sitting there, not contributing anything at all) and religion (and our "katecheta" telling us how he only had sex with his wife once a month, which was pretty gross...) So imagine how useful that was.

It is up to the individual to make such decisions, not society or government.

exactly
RoughFlavors   
20 Apr 2012
Life / Teenage Pregnancy in Poland [108]

JUST DON'T FORNICATE!

that's just as realistic as forbidding driving cars for fear of accidents

funny how usually people who are against abortion are also against sex education, easy access to cheap/free contraception, or social support for poor mothers/families, and they are the first to judge and ostracize pregnant women who are single. The term "unwed" itself is just so judgmental, as if it was a woman's duty to get married.
RoughFlavors   
20 Apr 2012
Life / Teenage Pregnancy in Poland [108]

I'm all for people who don't like kids but want to have sex getting their tubes tied or vasectomies.

and how does this apply to teenagers?
RoughFlavors   
20 Apr 2012
Life / Teenage Pregnancy in Poland [108]

You can't possibly be serious about any of that.

NO teenager wants to have kids while they're teenagers. NO teenager knows what they want to do when they grow up, let alone whether they will or won't want to have kids in the future. Who would decide which kid seems nurturing enough not to get sterilized? You? A school psychologist? A priest?

Would you sterilize poor people, too, who can't afford to have kids, so they don't become a burden to the society? How about people of less than perfect health, so they don't have unhealthy kids that may need social assistance in the future? How about people with "wrong" political or religious views, so that the social order is preserved for generations?

you must be joking, in which case it's not even funny