UK, Ireland / Polish is Britain's second language, says UK report [52]

my local news agents are going to try and stock Polski for me, they can't stock Angora or Dziennik because they don't deal with Quickmarsh distribution, so i'll still have an excuse to visit the beautiful market town of Leek

isn't it wierd how the story of Immigration here always starts with the Windrush in 1959, they never mention the Polish resettlement act of 1947.
My Dad just found his old army photos (Tank Corps) from the late 50's and pointed out his highly decorated Polish Sgt who fought his way across North Africa and up through Italy in WW2, the whole regiment signed the back of the picture but we can't decipher his signature.

will Polish politicians campaign here like the French do?

Tim,
( who is happy to be living in North Polonia, aka England)

Life / The old Polish FM Band (66-73 Mhz) R.I.P [3]

Thanks, i always regretted that we were too late to buy one when we went to the Czech rep in '93. they rushed through the switchover ridiculously fast.

theres a bit of a revival in Ukraine because Chinese manufactuers like Tecsun have started making cheap high quality portables that tune down to 64mhz

Pukas in Kaunus on 70.22 must have hardly any listeners because they had a fault last year and radiated dead air for months, apparently nobody even noticed!

looks like Russia will run both systems for many years to come, i hope 66-73 lasts for decades. i don't want every country to be identical!

we used to have big old Unitra valve radio with Lvov marked on the dial, it left me with a deep fascination with Lvov.
it made a loud bang when turned on that used to terrify me when i was a little kid, but the reception quality was amazing

History / Slovakia - Poland's neglected neighbour? [13]

yes that is interesting, this is one of the things i love about the Slavic Languages, when you learn one it helps with the others, if i ever had to go to Serbia or Bulgaria (for instance) i could probably manage to order food and be polite to people

when i wanted to talk to a Slovene radio ham online i used Czech without any problems.
when i was on Holiday in Tunisia in 96 i got talking to an Elderly German Lady who was a refugee from either Stettin or Wroclaw, i forget which. she spoke German & Polish, but no English

i knew a tiny bit of German, No Polish, but i still remembered most of my Czech back then, and she could understand Czech words and i could understand her Polish words so we talked in a mixture of German and Polish/Czech. i'm really glad i got to talk to her, that generation is mostly dead now and its a remote historical event. but having that conversation makes it a little less remote

the Dental assistant at my Dads dentist is Slovak but understand when my Dad speaks Czech to her

Language / "Niemal" & "Konkurs" do they mean the same as in German? [8]

they're in Angora (in different articles)

Language / "Niemal" & "Konkurs" do they mean the same as in German? [8]

Thanks Lenka

UK, Ireland / Polish is Britain's second language, says UK report [52]

you could argue it either way..
the Atlee Government was terrified of offending Stalin which caused them to behave shamefully and insultingly but they also treated the Karen in Burma badly too.

and as late as the 70's you still had stupid stuff like the Labour Government trying to block construction of the Katyn Monument in Cannock

however if we ignore the idiocy at the top of the uk, theres some amazingly inspiring stories about how the Polish community was built here.

there was a brilliant article in Dziennik on 3rd Jan this year (which i should have kept!) about how exiled academics from Universities like Lwow built new Polish

universities in abandoned RAF Nissan huts in places like Gloucestershire, then theres the Cadet school which was moved from Palestine to Southampton in 1947.
surely all of that couldn't have happened if the UK was totally unwelcoming?

UK, Ireland / How might Britain`s withdrawal from EU affect Poles there and here? [474]

fwiw i am European & English i just don't like what the EU has become, my happiest times were in Europe, i love Germany & Germans

I tried to emigrate to Malta in '09

i don't need to be in a political union with Germany, Poland etc even though i love them.
but i do feel strongly that there is such a thing as a european Identity that includes Ukraine and other non-eu states


using mostly free resources online like family search i'm back to 1275/1750/1575 (norman/viking)on my mothers side 1530 (English/Welsh/Irish) on my Dads side ;-)

phrases like "pure bloodline" scare me.. no English person has a pure bloodline even ones as spectacularly in-bred as me ;-) (i suspect mum & Dad share a common ancester)

my family tree is pretty typical for an English person and bloody boring,i keep hoping to find a Kazakh herdsman or something but there weren't many in Stoke on trent!

UK, Ireland / Polish is Britain's second language, says UK report [52]

cool, i didn't know about the DAB station, i guess its a start. but PRL is a rather unfortunate set of initials! ;-)

i once met a Welsh woman on holiday who was at a train station in Slovenia, so she thought she'd shout something really obscene since nobody would understand, but the reply came back : same to you Mrs!

yes pity about the music, Znad Wili is the same.
but the news was interesting to me, Belarus is never reported here

UK, Ireland / Polish is Britain's second language, says UK report [52]

35,000 is a nice surprise, good luck to them keeping their traditions alive.
my Dads great grandmother was Welsh (b1842), that sounds quite distant but when he was growing up in the 1940's there were still some Welsh words used in his home related to food etc.

have you guys heard the stories about possible linguistic links between some Native Americans and Welsh?
theres a theory that some ancient Welsh Cleric or Nobleman (i forget which) crossed the Atlantic, one of the words they used as proof is the word for Brook: "Nant" (as in Nantwich near Crewe)

we Holiday in the Lleyn Penninsular (near the Polish Retirement village) its the most beautiful place in the UK IMO, its nearer than Cornwall and the locals are friendlier!

if anyone reading this wants a really relaxing holiday i suggest North West Wales, hearing people speaking another language only adds to the feeling that one is far away from home and all ones troubles. if anyone wants details of B&B accomodation in the area, PM me

the BBC are now saying that Polish is 3rd Language after Welsh!, clearly nobody knows what the heck is going on and they rushed into this story without checking facts!

the media are catching up very slowly, Last Night BBC Radio 3's excellent late junction show played 2 polish tracks and advertised the Polish film festival

We need some Polish language radio in the UK, actually we've needed it since 1940

UK, Ireland / Polish is Britain's second language, says UK report [52]

pretty excellent news for people trying to learn it like me, maybe i'll even be able to get the Polish papers in my Home Town soon.

BBC Radio 4 this morning quoted the Daily mail as saying that Polish was the 2nd Language in the UK, this felt incorrect to me due to my experience in Wales. Even in Congleton i hear Welsh spoken more than Polish, not very much but still more than Polish.

when i saw a copy of the paper it said 564,000 Polish Speakers in the UK as a whole , i still found it hard to imagine there were less Welsh Speakers but a google search reaveals that apparently its true, theres only 562,000. (19% of the Welsh Population)

I'm really shocked by the decline in Welsh over the last decade as my own experience in North & Mid wales made me think the Language was in Robust good health. I'm saddened that a language with such an ancient history in this Island is struggling

you'd think with devolution that there would be increased interest in Welsh, i had naively imagined the number of Welsh Speakers would maybe be 1.5 million since its taught in School at primary level.

the government could do some things to improve this, it could put BBC Radio Cymru on national freeview/DAB multiplexes to make it easier to hear outside Wales and the same with the TV Station S4C.

here in North West England BBC R Cymru is available via overspill on 104.3 FM, i often have it on in the background.
Before Digital Switchover i could also watch S4C

My own towns name is almost certainly derived or partly derived from Welsh who were the original inhabitants here, we also have a district called "Hulme Walfield" the last part of that name indicating it was named after its Welsh inhabitants

so i'm pleased by the growth of Polish but saddened by the decline of the UK's oldest surviving native language

History / WAS KATYŃ GENOCIDE? Polish officers were killed [237]

heres an interesting angle on it,
the campaign to restore Konigsberg is citing Kalinins part in Katyn
kaliningrad-eu.blogspot.co.uk/search?updated-min=2012-01-01T00:00:00-08:00&updated-max=2013-01-01T00:00:00-08:00&max-results=17

i can't see how to sign the petition however

History / Unusual soldier (The bear - named Voytek) [71]


amen,

and i'm proud to say the Wotjek beer is brewed in my Town Congleton!
we've always been called bear town so it makes sense

History / The Ribbentrop-Beck Pact [7]

if you want to save some money on the book its being serialised in Angora.

UK, Ireland / How might Britain`s withdrawal from EU affect Poles there and here? [474]


i hope not and i don't think so, immigration in general though yes. european courts overriding government decisions ( i know only some of those court decisions are EU related). fears about regulation on our banking sector, the cost of 2 EU parliments.

concerns over the Euro arrest warrant, France misusing the CAP and blocking reform, some parts of single market still not fully in place 20 years after 1992,

some countries not implementing directives which we have to, paying for Catherine Ashton to fly around the world being crap ;-)
Frustration with eurozone countries for "dragging the rest of us down with their doomed experiment"
lack of obvious benefits to population apart from those who live near the channel tunnel.
refusal of any major British politician to seriously make the case for Europe.
silly things regulated by Brussels ie: we have to change our clocks at the same time as France which means we have more dark days in the "shoulder months" than we need to have

i won't deny that some people who want to leave are confusing/conflating the ECHR with the ECJ

@richfilth: aaah! that explains it, thanks

History / WWII - Battle of Britain and Poles [104]

you've got to admit there's something a bit demi-god-ish about the soldiers who walked from Siberia to India to Join the British army ;-)

i totally take your point but it seems from recent documentaries like "Bloody Foreigners" on channel 4 that the Polish contribution to BoB was considered important by the top brass, we were losing a lot of pilots and needed the fresh blood

UK, Ireland / How might Britain`s withdrawal from EU affect Poles there and here? [474]

something i don't understand is this supposed survey thats being touted in the media in the UK saying that in november a majority wanted to leave the EU and now its only 40% who want out!

it makes no sense to me, of my small circle of friends only a very few want to stay in, and what has changed since November?

Language / Easy texts to practice Polish sentences/reading/vocabulary? [33]

i find the cartoons and kids section in Angora goes down quite easily :-)
i wish you the very best of luck my friend, its been lots of Fun getting to grips with Polish

i get the papers once a month and spend the whole month on them at my leisure and i know i'll always be able to go back over anything later

History / WWII - Battle of Britain and Poles [104]

we'd have been stuffed without Polish airmen & Soldiers, not just the battle of Britain but North Africa, Italy, Arnhem, you name it.

with all the recent war commemorations, i really wanted to say thank you, since the media usually ignore Polands role,
and since i don't know any Polish ex-combatants this forum will have to do!

at the imperial war museum north Polands contribution wasn't even mentioned, the trend now seems to be to emphasise the role of commonwealth troops for reasons of political correctness. at least David Reynolds film "1942" mentioned Poles as :"by far the most recklessly brave allied fighters" and gave Montecassino good coverage.

so you saved our arses , and what happened after the war is too tragic for words, and yes our governments actions were shamefull in the extreme at times

but the contribution to British lives of the Polish Refugees who couldn't go home is amazing.

My Mum used to work for this Exiled Polish Author


hokus-pokus.pl/autor/30/index.html
and i used to spend my holidays at her large country house while mum worked, the family spoiled me every xmas and they were some of the happiest times of my life playing with the dogs, exploring the house and garden. i'm really glad to read that she lived to see her book published in Poland in 2009

(the family moved north so we lost contact)
the house was often visited by famous people and i got the autograph of the late great actor Phillip Maddoc, i remember sitting on his knee

so anyway this rambling post is my grossly inadequate attempt to say Thank you Poland

UK, Ireland / How might Britain`s withdrawal from EU affect Poles there and here? [474]

funny how we weren't allowed to even discuss immigration when it was from outside Europe, but now elements over here are whipping up a frenzy when its immigration from Eastern Europe!

I want Britain to Leave the EU for economic reasons since its not what the electorate in 1975 thought they were voting for
, but i really hope Poles stay here as they're a tremendous asset, apart from the fact that theres the obvious historical debt to them

several of our more depressing towns have been revitalised

History / Ukrainian-occupied Eastern Poland [135]

Thanks

History / Ukrainian-occupied Eastern Poland [135]


i'm amazed how closely the Eastern Border of 1548 matches the pre-1939 German/Polish Border- unless i'm not using that page properly!

i was going to start a thread but this one is a good fit:
What does Lvov mean to you?
is its loss comparable to the UK losing Cambridge or Oxford?
what are the main Polish historical sites in Lviv i should visit? you can pm me if thats too far off topic. birthplaces etc, and the spot where the Poles routed Stalins regiment in 1920 would be of interest to me.

I'm determined to get there this year or next, i made the mistake of asking someone to join me and they just delayed me before they decided not to go.

I'm surprised how much Lvov is mentioned in the Polish newspapers i buy.
more so than say: Lublin or Chelm or Katowice for instance
Is the loss deeply felt?

I wonder if Polands increasing (and fully deserved) economic power would allow Poles to buy property in Lviv and commute to work in Eastern Poland?

particularly if UKR eventually joins the EU, like Danes commuting from Sweden

Lvov is a special case IMO, unlike Grodno you'd probably still have Lvov if the retarded chimp in the British Foreign office who drew the curzon line had taken more care in his work! - sorry about that ;-)

the soviets then used our F*ck up to screw you out of Lvov

hopefully UKR will escape from Putin and join the EU then the border won't matter anymore, the Ukranians i talk to hope for a western future, but of course theres the Russians in the Eastern half pulling the other way

Life / Polish radio stations in English [6]

fwiw: if you're after General English language radio
you'll probably Hear BBC Radio 5 at night time
909 & 693am
its probably nearly 24/7 in winter
try moving the radio about to get rid of Romania on 909 and Germany on 693 if needed

a mate in Central Ukraine gets Absolute radio 1215 well enough to listen to
you might even hear the venerable old 198 long wave!

History / WAS KATYŃ GENOCIDE? Polish officers were killed [237]

in itself its a war crime,
but it was surely a part of a larger genocide in Kresy?

the De-Polonisation of cities like Lvov & Grodno was genocide/ethnic cleansing, and Katyn was surely part of that (as well as an attempt to weaken a future Polish state). combined with the deportations to Kazakhstan you could make a pretty good genocide case IMO

Hi Sourabh,

As for why it happened: i'm sure others will write this better, but part of it was the fact that Stalin was humiliated by Polish Military Genius in the 1919-1920 war and had not forgotten.

also the Soviet Government never accepted the loss of the Russian Empires Western Territories which became independant in 1918, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia & Finland.

so the USSR signed a pact with Nazi Germany that gave the USSR the Baltic states, Finland and Poland east of the Curzon line. 14 days after the Nazis Invaded Poland from the West , the USSR invaded from the East.

the USSR rounded up anyone who might have been able to lead a future Polish state and deported, imprisoned or Executed them.

History / Lech Walesa - Happy Birthday! [21]

if i'd have seen it in time, i'd have posted, i hope he looks after himself better than Vaclav Havel did!

I wish we'd kept our Solidarnosc t shirts instead of wearing them until they fell to pieces.
in nov 1989 my Mum was working for an exiled Family of Polish aristocrats, on school holidays i would come with her and run around their big house. they were lovely people who used to spoil me at xmas.

the matriarch of the household was on the phone to poland keeping up with events, i wish i was older back then and able to appreciate what was happening, but i do remember the stories of their terrible war time experiences.

for all his faults he's a great man who changed history

is he really as unpopular as Maggie T is here? (i'm not an Anti-Maggie person, but its true she's hated)

heres a cartoon of him from the Imperial War Museum North

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Language / Foreigners speaking Polish - examples. [61]

sorry i can't find the webstream. but 963am (if you don't live near a Twoje Radio transmitter) or anywhere between 7200 & 7400 short wave in the evenings

Language / Foreigners speaking Polish - examples. [61]

you need to hear some of the Polish Language programmes on China Radio International!
i thought i'd discovered a new language!

i listened to their Czech service for 10 minutes once before i could figure out what language it was supposed to be!

it is a hard Language to learn compared to Czech, Portugese is almost as hard.
theres actually a lot of similar sounds in Portugese & Polish that i have trouble with

Life / Why is Prostitution still legal in Poland? [106]

that does surprise me, wierd that it wasn't mentioned when the TLC website was discussed on radio 4

wonder how disabled you have to be to qualify
thanks for the link

amazing, i can't get the local council in Congleton to give me a disabled Bus pass ;-)

History / Memos show US hushed up Soviet crime against Poland [97]

once again i'm amazed and blown away by the new information i've learned since joining up here

the 1945 election was terrible for a lot of our allies overseas like the Karen in Burma, because Attlee didn't care about foreign affairs

My dad said something interesting to me, he was moaning about always being hungry in 1939-1945, obviously thats not much suffering compared to Poland but i played Devils advocate and said so was it worth being hungry to try to save Poland? and he said, "yes, because it wasn't such an abstract concept, the Poles were stationed in town so you could understand what the war was for"

Dad was too young to vote in 1945 but it would be nice to think that lots of people could have been persuaded to fight on