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

Do you think that God really gives a stuff if you rock up to Church every Sunday? Is he going to exclude you from his thoughts just because you've not spent an hour in his house? Of course not.

Poland is a conservative and religious country, that's why I like it so much.

Every time I read about a nation being "progressively liberal" I read "neo-fascist", because essentially that is what you end up with.

Language / GCSE Polish experience. [51]

Hey Otomcio, the following textbooks are all recommended learning material from AQA.

· Ewa Lipińska, Z polskim na ty, Universitas, Kraków 2006
· Magdalena Szelc-Mays,Coś wam powiem, Universitas, Kraków 2002
· Ewa Lipińska,Nie ma róży bez kolców, Unversitas, Krakow 1999
· Piotr Lewiński, Oto polska mowa, Wrocław 2001
· Izabela Kmietowicz, Tematy cz. A, B, C, PMS, Londyn
· Izabela Kmietowicz, Tam w moim kraju, PMS, Londyn
· Barbara O'Driscoll, Ćwiczenia z języka polskiego, cz. III, cz. IV, PMS, Londyn
· Ewa Lipińska, Anna Seretny, ABC metodyki nauczania języka polskiego jako
obcego, Universitas

Love / Any English guys give me advice please. Are Polish women very different to English women? [46]

I've been with my missus (Polish) now for 6-7 years.

She genuinely has the biggest heard on anyone I've ever met, she'll always put others before herself and go the extra mile, even when it's not required.

On the other hand she can be horrendously jealous and very materialistic, the latter of which surprises me greatly as she grew up with next to nothing and I assumed that she would be a frugal individual. However she has addressed that issue somewhat as she has responsibility for the majority of the family's finances and so she is forced to be careful with money ;)

At the end of the day all women have their virtues and vices, it just comes in a different shapes and sizes, just like men.

Language / Polish language test, NATO Stanag 6001 format. [8]

These are the same sites that I've ended up on before. Sorry for not explaining it better but I'm actually looking for the practice tests, rather than locations that sit the exams :)

Food / What is your favorite Polish Vodka? [653]



Snow Queen is by far the best vodka I've ever had too, so smooth it's ridiculous. However, seeing as it is a Kazakh vodka I don't think it counts as a Polish vodka ;)

Zubrowka is easily my favourite Polish vodka if I'm having it with apple juice.

If I'm just shotting vodka then I'd probably go for Pan Tadeusz.

UK, Ireland / A man from Poland stole Britain's secret nuclear submarine documents to sell to his government. [16]

If the classification was restricted then there would be nothing of value in the documents.

Also if the information was classed as restricted then the information is old, as the classifications have changed, now its either Official, Secret or Top Secret.

Language / What are the hard aspects of Polish according to its learners? - home essay [21]

A2/B1 here if you still require subjects :)

Language / Does this phrase mean anything to you in Polish? "Up to you" while drinking. [17]

Died in the wool Pole but couldn't recognise na zdrowie, even when badly pronounced?

UK, Ireland / Why English do not like Polish? [417]

I think people who say "bugger off back to where you came from" don't really have a grasp of how the world works today. Gone are the days of people being locked within their own country, with transport being unable to take them further than the next town/city/province.

Now we are a truly global people, who (in most cases), are able to travel wherever, whenever.

Whilst I can sympathize will Edinburgh Guys statement (minus the sheer idiocy of how it is phrased) the last time Scotland fell upon truly hard times was back in the days where we were constricted in the distances we could travel to escape poverty and hardship.

Some people feel that remaining in one place and helping to rebuild their homeland is the only option, others don't. That's just how it is.

Work / Job offer from company in Warsaw, EU Logistics. Is this a scam? [22]

Guys, a bit of background work will help solve this problem.

Check the main page, littered with spelling errors, poor grammar and not presented in a way that would suggest it was a viable company.

Secondly, the picture of the gentleman at the bottom left hand corner of the page is a picture of a gentleman called Joseph Saporito, he is the Executive Vice President, Global Supply Chain, Eurocopter Group.

I would not trust this page.

Genealogy / How Polish am I? What is the correct formula? [58]

Why is this so difficult for people to grasp?

If you are born in America, you are American. If you are born in England, you are English. If your family came from different places then they would have belonged to a different social group who had a common national or cultural tradition. That would be their ethnicity, seeing as they did not originally inhabit the country in which they now reside.

E.g. my dziadek was from Poland and settled in England, my Grandma was from Italy and settled in England, they would be recognised as Italian/Polish-English due to their roots and where they reside. My mother was born in the UK so she would be defined as English but with having Polish/Italian roots. For me this only truly works if there is just the single generation gap.

The same applies for the term African American. If you, or your parents were not born in Africa then you are not African-American. You are American with African family somewhere down the line.

Wanting to promote your cultural identitie(s) is fine, but having to come on a forum where you can work out whether or not you are 1/32/64/128 of a certain ethnicity is ridiculous.

Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4501]

I've posted before but I would love to know the locale of my last name.

Szenk

My dziadek was born in Przychody, a small village near Krakow I believe, but most of our family hails from Lomza.

Wouldn't Eastern Prussia be a more fitting area for our name considering our Germanic root of the name. Or were there a few Germans near Krakow many moons ago?

Polonia / Polish satellite TV abroad [40]

I use ncplus and I did my subscription through tehwiz.co.uk and then when I wanted to change the channels I just rang up ncplus and they changed it over the phone for me. Because tehwiz deal with the initial agreement you can just make up an address in Poland.

Love / Addressing your Polish in-laws or boy/girlfriend's parents? [49]

I still called them mum and dad, even before marriage.

Genealogy / Common surnames in Poland NOT of Polish origin ? [87]

My last name is pretty uncommon in Poland.

Szenk - Schenk (I presume)

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Work / Security/Defence Analyst/Consultancy work in Poland [5]

The information I gave was that I was enquiring about analyst/consultancy work in the defence/security field.

The reason that I'm not splashing all my personal details on an open forum is because of my own wish to maintain online security.

All I was looking for was whether or not anybody had any idea of the strength of the job market in those fields. Many thanks for your warm and friendly reply ;)

News / What are notable differences between Poland's National Security Strategy 2007 and 2014? [9]

And still no imorovement on maritime capabilities As it stands Poland's territorial waters would succumb to a foreign invasion in a matter of weeks, if not days.

History / Are Poles grateful to the Russians for winning the war? [120]


I guess he is just mad that Russia can't even invade Ukraine without their economy crumbling ;)

Genealogy / Being ashamed of Polish ancestry? [156]

I love it when Americans say that they are *insert foreign country here*-American and then it turns out that their family emigrated over in the late 1800's, early 1900's.

I always say that I'm English when asked my nationality but my last name is Polish but originally German Schenk/Szenk.

History / Are Poles grateful to the Russians for winning the war? [120]


Not as funny as that post though. Many lols to be had.

UK, Ireland / Poles 'failing to integrate in the UK'? [58]


My dziadek came to England after the war and became about as working class British as you can imagine.

My wife came over to England in 2006 and embraced British culture (what there is of it that isn't negative) and speaks better English than quite a few natives I can think of.

Don't have a cry because someone from another country has griefed you, people from all countries have the potential to be insular when in a different country.

Love / Learning a language solely for your partner [21]

When I started learning Polish around 2 years ago (properly I mean, not just picking up buzzwords) I did it for myself. There was extra motivation to learn it from my wife/child/family roots but most of all it came from me.

I think that that is the only way that you can really do something as intensive as learning another language, especially when you are older. You may pick it up easily, you may find it incredibly difficult, but it's important to remember that it will all come with time. I can read it much better than I can speak it (which I assume is fairly normal for Polish) but the speaking is coming along.

The best thing I have found about learning another language like Polish is that it's fun. Trying to wrap your head around sentence structures, learning new words that you didn't think possible for your mouth to make and just being able to benchmark yourself against where you were a few months before is tops.

Good luck!

UK, Ireland / Polish Vodka, spirituous - available in the UK? [9]

I'm with the other guys. The first time I tried Spirytus was also my last. I was told that it should be drank ideally with distilled water. I sacked it off and tried to have a shot of it mixed with cola. 2 glasses later I was on my ass.

Just get some Zubrowka, can't go wrong with it :)

News / UK to send tanks to Poland. [36]


Possibly the most geographically retarded statement I've heard in a while. To fight in Germany, you'd have to invade East through Poland, likewise for Belgium. To invade Sweden you would probably have to open up at least 2 fronts, East and South. Invading from the South would involve going through Poland then Germany and up North through Denmark. To invade the UK it would be on the premise that you've managed to fight your way through Europe which, funnily enough, includes Poland.

If anyone says that Russia could invade simply by utilising their Arctic fleet is seriously misguided in terms of how much firepower the Russians can muster. Keeping tanks in Poland is perfect. It's a show of force and also the first line of defence in any situation where Russia would be the aggressor.

Language / Learning Polish but not focusing on the grammar, good idea? [37]

The grammar is definitely something that I, as a non-native, found very hard to pick up.

Rosetta Stone is a very useful tool if you are willing to pair it up with something like a text/audiobook.

Fortunately I am surrounded by Polish in my house now as I have the Mrs conversing to me in Polish for day to day chat, I have Polish satellite TV (which is also a lot cheaper than Sky) and Rosetta Stone just tops it all off. When I have a spare moment in work I'll refer to my textbook to just keep me on my toes.

Good luck anyway, once you take a step back and see your progress after a year or so you'll be pleasantly surprised. The wife shed a small tear when I was able to help her teach our young child how to count, say basic phrases etc.

UK, Ireland / My opinion on why Poles & English dislike each other [25]

I absolutely agree with you on this, but the simple fact of the matter is it won't happen. Companies are loathe to invest more than the bare minimum to ensure an educated workforce.


She is more than likely a He. The last name Batesy would suggest a boy's nickname, as girls are rarely referred to by their last name in this manner. He also addressed us as "lads". Unless it is a girl expressing tomboyish behaviour then it is highly likely to be a boy.

:)

Off-Topic / When would Poland start to intervene in the regions in order to protect Her interests? [36]

I think the idea of a pan-Slavic alliance died as soon as it was thought up.

This one is a non-starter Crow, sorry to say.

UK, Ireland / My opinion on why Poles & English dislike each other [25]


And exactly which company is going to set aside the hours and money to train a low skilled workforce when they already have an ample pool to choose from. The problem should have been identified and rectified before allowing open immigration.