UK, Ireland / Poles and Irish, what do you think, are we friends or enemies? [62]


Ultimately, yes, this is true; in so far as the majority of Dubliners are 'non-Dubs' when you scratch the surface and find one or both parents or grandparents being from the country.. (indeed, everyone came from somewhere else if you scratch deeply enough) It is also true that this sentimental attachment to the countryside may have contributed to Dublin never fully embracing its urban character. That is a question of mentality and a practical question which is, I believe, changing. I'm a culchee living in Dublin, I lived abroad for years, and I love both where I come from and where I live. No contradiction there.


Nonsense. Like everywhere, we need each other.


I never suggested population density per se is enough to generate prosperity, of course not. My key words here were: 'with proper planning and organisation'.

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


Yep, I've seen visitors in Ireland get confused with that one! ;)

Maybe it's obvious, but it's worth mentioning that ambiguous questions like that are a direct echo of the Irish (Gaelic) sub-stratam; Irish has no present perfect as such. Like other such languages, the concept is expressed in other ways, particularly by context. Similarly, we say things like, 'I'm only after doing that' (lit: tá mé tar eis é sin a dhéanamh') for "I have just done that'..

One of the interesting theories behind this is that when Irish began to be widely spoken in Ireland in the 17th and 18th century many of the teachers were native Irish-speakers and therefore spoke English as a learned language, often almost entirely from books, with a lot of direct translation and then taught this to their students. What began as English as a foreign language became a new dialect of English, Hiberno-English.

UK, Ireland / Poles and Irish, what do you think, are we friends or enemies? [62]


Well I personally know of plenty of Polish people in such cousin-shagging hotspots as Mullingar, Athlone and Ballymahon .. no problem with them - nice, decent, hardworking people in general. Also, by no stretch of the imagination is Poland a third-world country.

It is true that there is a severe population imbalance in Ireland with a disproportionate number of people living in Dublin. We have only ourselves to blame for that. With proper planning and organisation Ireland could sustain at least double its current population, particularly if we learned to embrace genuinely urban culture. A larger population would lead to greater growth, domestic demand etc Significant numbers of immigrants, particularly from culturally-compatible nations like Poland, can only be a good thing in this context.

I'm no uncritical fan of pop economist Marc Coleman, but I'm drawing on his research here.

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


Absolutely, and it also depends on your previous experience with other languages: English is my mother tongue and I also speak Spanish and Irish (Gaelic) and I have studied Japanese more recently. There is a lot to learn in Polish, a hell of a lot, but Japanese was still more difficult. I feel that with Polish, as a speaker of other Indo-European languages - albeit non-Slavic ones - I'm still on more familiar terrain than I was with Japanese.

UK, Ireland / John Drennan: "Poles in fear of starved Irish influx" [15]

That's hilarious, starved horses dying by the sides of motorways?? We're not there yet. Is the Polish edition of Newsweek always this histrionic?

UK, Ireland / Poles and Irish, what do you think, are we friends or enemies? [62]

Teffle


Jayzus, Mr R.Nice - I'm new to this website, so not only do you hate Poles but also any Irish people who are not from Dublin. Although I suspect you probably despise the proverbial Dublin 4 liberal too .. who do you like?

To answer the initial question, Poles and Irish: friends.

UK, Ireland / Polish, living in Ireland and over 18 years of age survery about your health [4]

Gobnait

Hi Gobnait,

I sent that attachment to my (male) Dublin-based Polish teacher ... What is it with men and health?! ;)

Dónall

Language / My struggle learning the Polish language [10]


Yep, that's a really excellent book, extremely clear. I used a book from the same series when I was learning Spanish: 501 Spanish Verbs..

Language / The Polish language - it's bloody hard! [210]

I have only been studying Polish for a very short while, with a native Polish-speaking teacher in Dublin. I've only been to Poland once; I have the impression that much of this "'tunnel' hearing" is a result of Polish people not expecting foreigners to speak their language. Most native English speakers will have spoken English with non-native speakers and are used to a whole range of accents and forms of non-standard and non-native English. I imagine a lot of Poles have never spoken Polish with anyone other than a native speaker and find it difficult at first when they meet a non-native speaker.

I lived in Spain for many years and my level of Spanish got to be pretty good, but very often as soon as people realised I was foreign it was like they assumed I was going to be difficult to understand. So there may be a strange sort of psychological barrier there (?)

News / Why are many Poles anti-Euro2012 [16]

I was speaking to a Polish friend in Kraków who said she wasn't looking forward to it as she feared there would be scenes of violence and general hooliganism by Polish football fans that would make Poland look bad. I was surprised as I didn't think Poland any better or worse than lots of other European countries in this regard.

Maybe it's just a general sensitivity about the country's image (?)

Travel / Vacationing in Krakow for a month, how to keep myself occupied? [9]

I was there for a couple of days last weekend, lovely place..

Drink Żubrówka with apple juice, eat pierogi (Polish dumplings) on a terrace bar. Wander around and get lost, I did this - it's fun. It's not a huge city, you'lll find your way again.

Watch the drunk British stage parties swagger past and pretend not to share the same mother tongue as them.. If I was there for longer I would definitely study Polish. A lot of people in Kraków speak very good English .. But I really feel food, drink and language get you into a country. And read books about Poland.. I read Adam Zamoyski's History of Poland before I went, and also Finding Poland by Matthew Kelly, an Englishman of Polish/Irish descent writing about his Polish family's experiences in the 1930's and 1940s.


Definitely, I also made this trip - highly recommended ..

Life / 3 reasons why you hate Poland. [1049]

Hi Milky,

Ní raibh mé ag iarraidh masla a thaibairt d'éine! They were just exaggerated examples to illustrate a point, the intention was humourous.

Regarding versions of Irish history: some of the die-hard revisionists are also 'nutcases', I know. I don't believe there is an either/or choice between nationalism or revisionism, however.

Love / Do Irish / British guys like Polish girls? [138]

Indeed, they will - bless them - be ideally suited to the world of politics; and also business, popular entertainment and professional sport. Not to mention the military..

Love / Do Irish / British guys like Polish girls? [138]

Absolutely, and imagine what our children will be like: they'll conquer the world!

Love / Do Irish / British guys like Polish girls? [138]

This thread seems to have morphed into an anti-immigration rant in parts.. But to answer the question, the answer is (of course depending on the person etc) a resounding yes..

I think previous posters have pretty well criticised the observations about the average, undesirable Irish male.. That said, I myself am a narrow-minded, mentally unwell, emotionally constipated, alcohol-addicted, semi-illiterate, really foul-smelling philistine - it is true - but I swear I am not representative of all Irishmen..!

Life / 3 reasons why you hate Poland. [1049]

Well, here's my own tuppence worth - and, no, I haven't been able to read every single message on this thread, But I recently spent four days in Kraków, which was my first time in Poland. And I Loved it. No, it's not perfect or glossily wonderful, nowhere is; outside of storybooks and tourist brochures. It's real and human. I've been to many countries, everywhere you get the good, the bad and the indifferent.

But the observation I would like to make here is that people often move to other countries and when they experience something negative that could really happen anywhere, they simple blame the country and portray the problem as some sort of broad cultural characteristic. I lived in Spain for many years and noticed the exact same thing, particularly among English-speaking expats. Indeed some of the dislikes listed here are the *exact* same bitter little complaints you could frequently hear from foreign residents in Spain. When I returned home to Ireland some years ago it was a relief to be able to stop viewing the world through a prism of national stereotypes; so, when someone rips you off they're a con artist not necessarily a typical Irish person, when someone says something bigoted or racist, they're a racist and not a typical Irish person, when someone skips a queue or almost runs you over in their car, they're idiots .. not typical Irish people. When someone rants about Irish history in a crudely simplistic, rabble-rousing manner they're nationalist nutcases, and not representative of every single Irish person etc etc

Travel / A short trip to Krakow. Inexpensive, cultural, historic, with lots of nice women? [5]

OK, here are the images - no need to delete the thread..

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Travel / A short trip to Krakow. Inexpensive, cultural, historic, with lots of nice women? [5]

Merged: Kraków Old & New (snapshots)

Hi, I thought I would share some snapshots of the fascinating contrasts and sights in Kraków, which I visited this weekend..

OK, sorry - the images are too large. I'll try again later. Could someone delete this thread for me? I can't figure out how to do it. Thanks.

History / Help identifying military uniform in Kraków [10]


Absolutely, thanks! I even directly quoted you in my Kraków Facebook album..

History / Help identifying military uniform in Kraków [10]

Thank you very much for the extremely detailed and interesting replies.