Life / Most UK DAB radios don't work on Poland's DAB network [12]

It is not strange that it's not working if it's current limit is 800 mA and the box needs 1.5 A. One with higher current and the same voltage would be OK. If the connector to the box doesn't fit, then even cut off the one from the broken power supply and exchange it.

It would be good if you gave the make of this box here, I can't recollect any brand of them that would begin with H. The most popular are: Manta, Wiwa, Ferguson, Cabletech. There were also some called Blow, Strong, Opticum, Signal, Krueger&Matz, Not Only TV. Even something from Thomson. All based on Chinese integrated circuits, especially 2 most popular ones :) But nothing beginning with H.

Life / Most UK DAB radios don't work on Poland's DAB network [12]

Yes, I know, I have a computer monitor from Hyundai.

It seems that they have even a few different models.

As I;ve already written, all the Polish TV boxes are based on a few the same Chinese integrated circuits. The only thing that is usually slightly different is the software. Some companies (for example Wiwa or Ferguson) developed it for some time, they published updates. This way they could eliminate errors. Other companies have firmware in their boxes full of bugs and they aren't even going to change it.

Anyway, in this situation you need a power supply of the voltage of 5 V and current at least 1.5 A. And there should be not a problem to buy one.

I found a big choice here:
sklep.avt.pl/category/systemy-zasilania-zasilacze-stabilizowane
sklep.avt.pl/category/systemy-zasilania-zasilacze-5v

I think it's much cheaper than a new box.

Genealogy / How Daniel surname is common in Poland? Could it have had its origins in the 17/18th c. Scottish immigration? [9]

It's a normal common name. Maybe not as popular as Piotr or Tomasz, but still common. Nothing funny or connotating in it.

Life / Most UK DAB radios don't work on Poland's DAB network [12]

Were you in a specialistic shop with electronic equipement, or only in some supermarkets like Media Markt or Neonet?

Law / Is Betta fish fight illegal in Poland [5]

If not animals, then what? Plants? Fungi?

Some people consider fish meat something different than usual meat, for example it's perfectly "legal" (from religious point of view) to eat fish during fast, hence carp (or other fish) on Christmas Eve dinner in Poland, but it doesn't mean that fish is not animal.

Life / Electricity in Poland: plug and voltage? [72]

As for me, it does not seem to look strange at all. Many of those who spoke English left Poland when the country joined the EU and the borders went open. Even if you speak Polish, it's difficult to find an electrician, you often have to wait for a few months, especially if you want to have more done than some simple things like socket relocation.

Real Estate / How to get back money? I paid one-month rent + deposit for a room in Poland which I don't like. [5]

What does the contract with the flat owner state?

Life / Polish Song About Emperor of China / ... wielki cesarz Chin [7]

Your spelling of the beginning ("Wyszedł sobie raz na spacer wielki cesarz Chin") is perfectly correct :)

Law / Price on printed pack of product sold in Poland differs from barcode & shelf price. System. [4]

The price printed by the manufacturer on the package has probably a star and somewhere on it a description that it's a suggested price ("cena sugerowana"). That means that it's a price that the manufacturer suggest the shop to sell it for, but it's not obligatory at all.

Valid is always what states the label on the shelf. If it's written there that the price is 4.55 zł for 500 g, it should be sold for this price for 500 g according to the law. You should have complained, if it was a big supermarket, you should have gone to the customer service point and there they would explain it. If it was 400 g in fact, they should return money for the lacking 100 g.

Maybe the label you have read referred to another yoghurt brand.

Life / Traditional Folk Costume for those from Warsaw [16]

Typical exactly for Warsaw - such one rateher doesn't exist. Warsaw is a city.

There is Wilanów costume, typical for the southern outskirts of Warsaw:
warszawa.gazeta.pl/warszawa/1,34889,10678751,Warszawiacy_maja_wlasny_stroj_ludowy__Z_Wilanowa.html
(when you open it, copy the content to a text file, because you can open this article for a limited number of times for a month, then you have to pay).

Examples:
google.nl/search?q=str%C3%B3j+wilanowski&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=dcy6VL-wDsrX7QaBhoDwDA&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAQ&biw=1440&bih=743

Wilanów is a former village, now a district of Warsaw, with a beautiful palace, sometimes referred to as the Polish Versailles.

Law / Price on printed pack of product sold in Poland differs from barcode & shelf price. System. [4]

You should complain to the seller, and if it doesn't work, to the shop director. The law states that the price from the shelf is important, not what is saved in the memory of the till.

In bigger shops it's sometimes met that when the customer waits at the service point for explanation, they quickly change the label on the shelf to show them that they were wrong :)

And they will probably try to make difficulties when you want to complain, because it's difficult for them to register on the till something with changed price or with fractional amount. Which is very easy in case of a foreigner, they can just say they don't understand you. But it's always worth to try. Maybe you meet helpful staff.

Related: System of barcode in Poland?


In the whole EU it's all EAN13.

Life / Traditional Folk Costume for those from Warsaw [16]

If we talk about Mazovia, it's hard not to mention the very colorful and known in Poland £owicz costumes:
google.nl/search?q=str%C3%B3j+%C5%82owicki&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=3PK6VOLjBc3paNnugJAP&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAQ&biw=1440&bih=743

£owicz region is also a part of Mazovia, although it lies about 100 km west to Warsaw.

The logo of the "£owicz" milk company, which products are popular around whole Poland, is a women wearing the £owicz costume:
google.nl/search?biw=1440&bih=743&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=%C5%82owicz+mleko&oq=%C5%82owicz+mleko&gs_l=img.3...0.0.4.65049.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0..0.0.msedr...0...1c..61.img..0.0.0.JslaArTHgTg&bav=on.2,or.r_qf.&bvm=bv.83829542,d.d2s&dpr=1&ech=1&psi=MfO6VOWqHY7S aNCJgEg.1421538101348.7&ei=IPS6VJaODtHvav3wgPgN&emsg=NCSR&noj=1

Travel / First vacation in Poland [15]


With Ryanair plane - 1:10h + time for transfer between city centre and airport. But the plane is only twice a week, on Sundays and Thursdays.

Work / Is there any search engine in Poland? Like Google? Yahoo? On-line business [5]

In the past we had NetSprint, Szukacz, Onet search engine. Currently they all have been superseded by Google and no longer exist (maybe Onet still exists - szukaj.onet.pl - but uses Google engine). Not different from the rest of the world. For example, who remembers AltaVista?

Language / Instrumental and byc - Polish grammar issue [46]


Wrong. I mean "To jest samochód" is OK, but "Jesteś (piękna) kobieta" is wrong. "Jesteś (piękną) kobietą". Nominative is only with "to". "To jest (piękna) kobieta" would be OK, but in this case meaning is changed (from "You are a [beautiful] woman" to "This is a [beautiful] woman").

If you are talking about somebody or something in the third person then you can replace "jest" with "to" ("to jest" sounds rather innatural), and then you use Nominative instead of Instrumental. But in the second person it doesn't work.

You can do something like this (and the meaning is still the same):
"Anna jest piękną kobietą" -> "Anna to piękna kobieta"
Maybe the version with "to" is a bit more formal.

If you really would like to do it in the second person, it would be something like this:
"(Ty) jesteś piękną kobietą" -> "Ty to piękna kobieta"
But don't even try to do anything like this! This sentence (meaning the second one) is ugly, innatural and nobody would like to be addressed in such a way. It's horrible.

The first one (I mean with "Ty" included) is OK if you want to emphasise that beautiful is just the woman you are talking to and nobody else.


"To jest moja matka" - "This is my mother"
"Pan jest moim nauczycielem" - "You are my teacher" ("You are" in the polite form, so it is the third person in fact, but it changes nothing apart from the verb form)

After "to" you have nominative.


It seems so :)

So, concluding:
- the object after "to be" normally is in the instrumental case
- after the pronoun "to" it is in the nominative
- in the third person (both singular and plural) the verb "to be" can be replaced with the pronoun "to" (which don't have the meaning "this", it means just "is"/"are") and then the object is in nominative

Some people try to extend this last use of "to" as "to jest", but as for me (as for Polish native speaker), it looks a bit strange and it rather isn't used in practice. The only place where I saw it were some definitions given by teachers at school (especially those teaching biology). Even there it looked weird and taking notes I replaced it with just "to". "To" (or maybe this strange "to jest", which keeps the behaviour of the rest of the sentence such as with "to" only) is preferred to "jest"/"są" in giving definitions, just because of the fact you continue it in the nominative, so the whole is less messy. Of course, in definitions you can also use just a dash.

Like, let's take one from the Polish Wikipedia (or, at least, its beginning):


(here it's with a dash)
which means


If you use "to" (or "to jest", but I don't recommend it):


Everything remains like it was with the dash - in Nominative.

If you want to apply "jest", then it gets a bit messy (here it's OK because it's quite short, but were it longer, it would be worse):


Generally speaking, the form with "to" is preferred in long, complex sentences.

Life / Traditional Folk Costume for those from Warsaw [16]

Even though this costumes are no longer used, they - or especially the woman skirt with colorful strips (so called "pasiak") - are something like a symbol of £owicz and £owicz culture. Even some of local buses are painted in colorful strips:

These costumes are also quite popular in the town of £owicz for the children for their First Communion religious ceremony.

Life / Traditional Folk Costume for those from Warsaw [16]

£ódź has never been a Mazovian centre :) It has more in common with Greater Poland than with Mazovia. Or, to be precise, with the regions of Sieradz and £ęczyca. But some areas of the £ódź urban agglomeration (its north-east outskirts) belong historically to the £owicz region.

Generally speaking, £ódź is a product of the industrial revolution. Before, it was a small village.

Language / Instrumental and byc - Polish grammar issue [46]


You can ask "Co to?" and it's enough. Although "Co to jest?" is also very OK. But in such sentences the object is always in Nominative. Continuing the topic of stars from my previous post :) : "Co to biały karzeł?" = "Co to jest biały karzeł?" = "What is a white dwarf?".


Looks considerably better than "Ty to mój nauczyciel", but still I don't recommend to use anything like this with respect to anybody, especially taking into account that if you use "Pan" you want to be polite. Although... "Pan to bardzo miły człowiek" looks OK. It's a thing of very tiny nuances.


Anna to inteligentna kobieta.
or
Anna jest inteligentną kobietą.


I would say "Zgadza się" (something like "Right"). If you really want to use your version (but it's not too good) - it would be "Tak, jest". "Tak, to jest" can mean only "Yes, this is". Comma is important because "Tak jest" without it is an answer to a command. Something like "OK, I will do it". I may imagine a soldier having been given an order, saluting and saying "Tak jest" for confirmation.

In "Tak, to jest" comma is also important. Otherwise it would be "Tak to jest" - "It's just so". And "Tak, to jest" rather isn't used without any continuation.

Generally speaking, in Polish it's enough to answer "Tak" or "Nie" to a question, you don't have to add anything like "she is" or "she isn't" and it's not natural for the language.


Yes, you can, but I would say just "zgadza się".


Perfectly OK, a longer version is "To są samochody".


"Jest" doesn't have the meaning "this is" included, so without any introduction only the first one is correct ("This is a professor"). But if somebody asks you for example "Kim jest Mateusz", you may answer "Jest profesorem" (with default subject, of course you can add "Mateusz" in the beginning; "On jest profesorem" I would translate as "It's he who is a professor"). Or even shorter: "Profesorem" ("Who is Mateusz?" "A professor.").


"Jest profesorem" is better because you continue the form from the question. "To profesor" is worse stylistically but it will also work (as something like "Ten facet to profesor" with the subject cut out because we know about whom we are talking).

Life / Traditional Folk Costume for those from Warsaw [16]

Maybe a bit yes - for example many people from the lands on the east (so called Kresy Wschodnie - Eastern Borderlands), which were given to the Soviet Union. were forced to move to the areas taken from Germany (Ziemie Odzyskane - Regained Lands) which resulted in diminishing regional identity. But generally speaking, the historical division into regions has often nothing in common with the current administrative needs.

And up to the moment of the introduction of the current administrative division of the country, from the WW2, the voivodships were named - quite reasonably - from their capital cities. For example there was "województwo warszawskie", "województwo poznańskie", "województwo katowickie" (for a short period of time called "województwo stalinogrodzkie" bacause the name of the city of Katowice was changed into Stalinogród - in "honour" of Stalin). It was so from the end of the war to 1975, when the division was similar to the current one, as well as between 1975 and 1998, when there were much more smaller voivodships and no powiats. But in 1998, when the current division was introduced, somebody thought it would be cool and "European" if they name the voivodships from the regions. And regardless of the fact that the division which they were introducing had less in common with the historical reigons than the one from the communist times (up to 1975), they did so.

Life / Warsaw M2 line? Will it ever run? [8]

It's rare for ifrastructure investments in Poland to be finished on time.

Language / Polish grammar, are these sentences correct? Najnowszy film kustariki ... [6]


Enough will be:
Wczoraj Johna ugryzła jego papuga.
or you can change order:
Johna papuga wczoraj go ugryzła.
This is the most basic version.


This is for any parrot. It translates:
A parrot bit John yesterday.
not:
John's parrot bit him yestarday.

"Jego papuga ugryzła wczoraj Johna" is also OK if you have been talking about somebody (meaning not John, someone else) and this person owns the parrot you are talking about.

Tom possesses many pets. His parrot bit John yesterday.
Tom posiada dużo zwierząt. Jego papuga ugryzła wczoraj Johna.


Have you heard about a ball that would do what it itself wants?
Marek uderzył się wczoraj piłką w głowę.
But it's still strange, I have no idea how you can hit yourself with a ball, how it might be possible. Maybe:
Marek został wczoraj uderzony jego piłką w głowę. -> Marek was yesterday hit with his ball on his head.
or the best:
Marek dostał wczoraj swoją piłką w głowę.
"Dostał czymś" coloquially means "was hit with something".

Love / Civil Cermony Details in Poland - music, vows? [10]

I have taken part in such a civil ceremony, where the bride was a Pole, but the groom was a foreigner.

He repeated the vow in Polish - so well as he was able too. He spoke Polish a little bit, but rather not enough to understand its words :) Then they had to sign the wedding act and that was all of the official things.

The music was just a simple "Here Comes the Bride" played from a CD in the background, nothing more. After the official part there were wishes and a toast with champaigne, some people gave also their gifts (although some were given at home before, some also on the wedding reception).

And it was the end of the ceremony in the office. Who was invited to the wedding reception, went to the place where the reception was organised. By car, because the distance was quite long - in a column of cars, followed by the one with the young couple. Not without difficulty, there were "obstacles" for the bride and groom due to one of Polish wedding traditions (so called "gates") :)

It was in the countryside, in a city the customs might be different - but generally speaking, it should look more or less similarily.

Love / Civil Cermony Details in Poland - music, vows? [10]


In "my" case it wasn't needed.


That's not much. In the countryside you need to take a lot of vodka with you :)

Real Estate / Mortgage for apartment - difference between Kredyt Hipoteczny (Mieszkaniowy) and Pozyczka Hipoteczna? [2]

In Polish, but maybe a translator will help:


kalkulator.pl/czym-sie-rozni-kredyt-hipoteczny-od-kredytu-mieszkaniowego
direct.money.pl/poradnik_finansowy/jaka-jest-roznica-miedzy-kredytem-hipotecznym-a-pozyczka-hipoteczna,poradnik-finansowy,haslo,15.html
finanse.egospodarka.pl/51282,Kredyt-hipoteczny-a-pozyczka-hipoteczna,1,48,1.html
bankier.pl/wiadomosc/Czym-rozni-sie-pozyczka-hipoteczna-od-kredytu-hipotecznego-2060633.html

From the quick overlook I understand that "kredyt hipoteczny" (mortgage credit) is for buying, renovating or building a house or flat, while "pożyczka hipoteczna" (mortgage loan) for anything else, but to take it you have to possess a house or flat. "Kredyt mieszkaniowy" (apartment credit) is only for buying a flat or house, not for construction a new one or renovation.

News / SKM and surcharges - Fast Local Trains in Tri-City, Poland [25]

The conductor has many tasks other than selling tickets, for example checking that the train can safely pull out and noticing the driver about it (without this notice the driver cannot start the train), testing the brakes on the end stations or when the direction (so in case of multiple units - the driver's cabin) is changed and so on. Also a lot of paper work.

The rule on all the trains in Poland is that when there is a ticket office on the station (and it is open and sells tickets of the given train operator), conductors charge the extra fee. Otherwise, they don't. The only exception I know is the £ódzka Kolej Aglomeracyjna, where according to their regulations the extra fee should be charged like in case of all other train companies, but in reality it isn't. I met a situation that the conductor was complaining to people that they hadn't bought the tickets on the station (some of people wanted to buy them in a ticket machine on the board, but it was broken down, so they also went to the conductor for tickets and finally there was quite a lot of them) and then he didn't have time to fill in all the papers. And even then the conductor didn't charge the extra fee. Maybe it's because they are a new operator and they are trying to gain a good company image. Maybe also because not each ticket office sells their tickets (although there are usually two such open on that station).

This rule is in the regulations and the price list of each train operator in Poland, even, as I've written, £KA, although they don't charge it in reality. It's height is usually a few PLN (depending on the train operator, for example in PKP IC it is higher than in Przewozy Regionalne, because PKP IC operates mainly long-distance trains; you've written that in SKM Trójmiasto it's 2,5 PLN, so it's quite low there - which is also sensible, because their trains are usually used for inner-city journeys), with the exception of the Pendolino trains of PKP IC (the category Express InterCity Premium - EICP), and only them, where it is 200 PLN.


The idea is that you should come earlier and buy ticket on the station, otherwise you pay extra. There is some point in it - you are saving time but you pay more. The problem is that this extra fee is not connected with the price of the ticket (but only with the train operator), and regardless of if you travel by long-distance InterRegio, or within a city by a Regio train (both of the company Przewozy Regionalne), you pay the same extra fee.

News / SKM and surcharges - Fast Local Trains in Tri-City, Poland [25]


Well said.

In the UK the train operators have competition among them. In Poland the government doesn't want to allow independent operators to the national tracks. The only exception is when local governments, sometimes being more sensible then the national one, choose a private operator in a tender to operate the local trains.

With the national train operators it is more or less like with the national mining companies - for sure you heard about the recent strike in one of them.

The government - as an owner of different companies, like railway operators, mines and so on, does little to make them competitive. In case of railway it's easy to block any competition on the tracks. Of course, it is quite short-sighted, because many people resign from trains at all and they use private cars (which results in increased air pollution and road traffic) or bus connections (especially since PolskiBus appeared). But it's enough for the period of office of the given government. They don't care of what will be later - it doesn't bother them. What is important is to find jobs for their family, relatives, acquaintances in form of well-paid managerial positions (even if they know nothing about management - and it's the next reason why it looks as it looks).

The next thing is to keep the existing employment in the national companies. Even if they give no profit and the government must even pump extra money into them (yes, from people's taxes). In national companies it's quite common - usually it's a reminder from the communist times, where the basic rule was that the country must give job to everyone. To make these companies bring profit, the only way are massive layoffs. But here, there are two problems. Firstly, it would set people against the government. Secondly, it would result in huge social problems. If somebody was educated as a miner from the very beginning, he won't find another job. After being made redundant, he will stay unemployed probably for the rest of his life. So the government is often saying about "restructurisation" of the national companies instead. Which in practice means that they fire a few people on managerial positions, employ new ones (this means, of course, fellow politicians or family members) and that's all.

This is the problem with all the national, and generally speaking, public companies (it includes also those owned by local governments, for example by a city). Instead of making the company competitive, the authorities don't allow any competition to appear. Or, at least, they think they don't allow, but it's not fully possible. Why? It's simplier. What is most important for them - they are saving the workplaces. Which are usually not needed, but it turns out that people can bear too high taxes, but at the same time they cannot bear massive layoffs in public companies.

Of course in case of the fields in which it's totally impossible to exclude competition, like in case of mining, the company finally goes bankrupt. Because it turns out that it's cheaper to import coal from Russia or Czech Republic than to use one produced in Poland. Although it was always said that the coal is the greatest wealth of our country.

Conclusion - I don't know how it looks like in the other countries, but the national or public ownership of companies belonging to any field of economy isn't a good idea in Poland. In theory it should be more profitable than when the company is private - there is no "capitalist" who takes some of the money for himself. But it doesn't work so in reality.

About the people that resigned from trains at all - it is depicted quite well by the recent TV commercial of PKP Intercity: "Kto z Państwa jechał ostatnio pociągiem PKP?" - "Who of you has recently ridden a PKP train?".

youtube.com/watch?v=TKrcKYBxKdw

I will try to translate it.

There is a meeting of parents and the teacher (supervisor of a class) at school.

Teacher: At the end, the issue of the school trip.
Parent 1: I don't know if it's a good idea for our children to go by train. Have any of you recently ridden a train?

Parent 2: Excuse me, but have any of you recently ridden a PKP train?
Parent 3: But each train is PKP!
Parent 2: And each man with a pitchfork is Poseidon!
Parent 3: Who?

And then the lector: We are one of the biggest Polish transport operators, but not the only one. Therefore, not all the trains are PKP. See how we are changing and choose a journey with our trains!

Even producing such a commercial is a great progress in a company such as PKP Intercity. They are, at least, trying to recover the lost customers. It is improving - but very slowly, and maybe not in case of the PKP SKM company, which really has no competition (unlike the PKP Intercity, operating on long-distance routes, where there are also for example PolskiBus coaches).

News / SKM and surcharges - Fast Local Trains in Tri-City, Poland [25]


So try a new local train operator in the neighborhood of £ódź - £ódzka Kolej Aglomeracyjna (£KA). They have ticket machines onboard:



And they have conductors selling tickets too. As I've already said - without the extra fee, even if there is a ticket office at the station.

Today there was even a funny situation. The computer system used by conductors for selling tickets was crashed. Normally in such a case conductor would have to write the ticket manually on a special form. It was much faster to buy a ticket in the machine, which was, luckily, working, at least for coins (there are usually problems with bank notes in their machines). So the conductor directed the passengers to the machine. If somebody was for example an elder person and claimed not to be able to use it, the conductor just bought the tickets for them in the machine instead of writing in on paper, which would take much time. Paper forms were used only if somebody didn't have any change (they didn't want to risk using bank notes in the machine, although in theory it should accept them too - or maybe they had already tried for a few times and knew it didn't accept them :) ) or wanted to buy a ticket that isn't available in the machine (for example with changing trains, or with a discount for railway employees).

Normally, thee conductors in £KA have, of course, these special devices for selling tickets, with a touchscreen and printer, like in all other Polish train operators. But the system was broken down and they weren't working.

News / SKM and surcharges - Fast Local Trains in Tri-City, Poland [25]


You are right about the directors, but this extra fee is perfectly legal.

News / SKM and surcharges - Fast Local Trains in Tri-City, Poland [25]

Could you prove it with some examples of national regulations? As for me, it's enough that it is in the regulations of the operator that such an extra fee is charged. It is even a position in the price list:

skm.pkp.pl/taryfy-i-przepisy/przepisy-i-druki/?eID=tx_rtgfiles_download&tx_rtgfiles_pi1%5Buid%5D=139 - page 74, point 3.

If you take a city bus, or tram, you also have to have a ticket already with you. Is it OK according to you, but similar situation on a train is no more OK?

News / SKM and surcharges - Fast Local Trains in Tri-City, Poland [25]

You are right that it's sick (although legal).

But what can we do, as the citizens? Change the authorities? Every 4 years there are elections for the parliament, every 4 years there are elections of the local authorities. In terms of the local authorities, it's different in different areas, but if we take into consideration the country government in Warsaw - there are two main political forces: PiS, which started making clowns from themselves after that plane crash in Smolensk (but still having plenty of commited supporters), and PO, governing now. What's PO like - you can see (they, for example, increased VAT as well as the age of retiring), but they are still better than PiS. PiS did totally nothing in the country, PO invests, at least, in the infrastructure (but mainly in roads, forgetting about the railway). Exploits the money that are coming from the EU. And, by the way, they do quite a good propaganda. If I am not wrong, the PO government is the first one from the political system transformation that was elected once again after 4 years of governing. And I'm afraid that in the elections this year PO will win again, because people will not want PiS to win.

In terms of the local authorities, sometimes they try to do more for people. For example in £ódź the authorities of the £ódź Province started a new railway operator trying to create something like SKM in the Tricity (£KA - I've written about them before). And, as you can see, although there is still much to improve, it's much better than in the Tricity with the national PKP-SKM. They have, at least, ticket machines onboard, and, in spite of that, the conductors don't charge for tickets even at the stations with ticket selling points. So you should ask the authorities either of Gdańsk, Gdynia and Sopot, or of the Pomerania Province why it looks like that there.