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Posts by crochetbitch88  

Joined: 4 Feb 2013 / Female ♀ 		Last Post: 5 Feb 2014
Threads: 2
Posts: 83

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crochetbitch88   
4 Feb 2013
UK, Ireland / Polish is Britain's second language, says UK report [52]

"I don't think we were ever really welcome here, I don't think they ever wanted us"

The same is true today. And I believe majority of that half a million Poles in the UK are well aware of that. The English are not welcoming but they are polite. It takes a while to get used to that cold politeness but once you've realised you will never make friends with them (not the sort of friends you could make with probably any other nationals) and have come to terms with that, you stop getting frustrated and just live peacefully. I've learnt to tolerate the English at work the way they tolerate me and I spend my private time with other people. Apparently there's a book called "The English. Are they human?" I've never read it as it's quite old and not easy to get hold of but I would love to ;)
crochetbitch88   
4 Feb 2013
News / Czechs most liked by Poles! [35]

I'm Polish and I don't know anybody who's Czech but my Slovak friends say they are still one nation and Czechoslovakia is still alive. The Slovaks are top on my list (might be because I once fell in love with one and still haven't entirely recovered ;) I also like the Hungarians because they are our brothers and every decent Pole is meant to like them; and the Ukrainians because of their language which is an amazing mixture of Polish and Russian and I can understand almost every word although have never studied it. I like the African people, especially the black ones because of their warmth and some sort of strength that I've never seen in anybody else. I don't really dislike anybody, but I must say although I have a few very good Indian friends, if I was to speak about the nation in general there is something in them that is so foreign to me, some trait that I can't quite grasp or name, that I do not like. And that trait they have in common with the English. As for Americans - the ones I've met were quite loud and maybe a bit overwhelming but generally ok.
crochetbitch88   
4 Feb 2013
UK, Ireland / Polish is Britain's second language, says UK report [52]

Oh no, there's nothing to be sorry about. I don't see it in terms of negative vs positive, rather as a variety in the human kind. I think our national characters differ so much that anything more than mutual tolerance is probably too high an expectation; and yet despite the differences more than half a million of Poles have settled and live here safely - that makes the English/British virtue of tolerance worth recognition.

It's interesting that you like Finns and Germans - they are thought to be on the "colder", more composed, orderly side of spectrum, as opposite to for example Italians :) I think there's something about the way Poles and other Eastern Europeans digest their emotions and express them that makes it easier for us to get along with "warmer", "messier" nations. One German called us the Italians of the North, and he has lived in Poland for over 20 yrs :)

As for the Chavs - I don't think it's a national thing. In any nation there are people of this sort, just in poorer countries they are forced to making effort in order to survive. Poverty and hardship will not turn a decent person into a Chav, it's the way they cope with poverty and with money, and with all life problems that makes them the way they are
crochetbitch88   
4 Feb 2013
History / Origins of Poland national differences? [41]

For example many Poles do not want even hear about Eastern Slavic people and with shame deny that they even could be somehow related with them

That's not true. There is a wide spread sense of Slavic identity amongst Poles. We do feel a part of the Slavic family, even more so now when the borders are open and so many of us have experienced the West and understood the difference. Even though the Russians say "Poles and not Slavs, they are Catholic" ;)

I'm fascinated by the world beyond our eastern border, I even watch Russian movies and Ukrainian XFactor ;)

But man, you drink vodka without a chaser, that's harsh..
crochetbitch88   
4 Feb 2013
UK, Ireland / Polish is Britain's second language, says UK report [52]

Money

In a world where money equals survival all people are in way money driven.

@Tim Bucknall
I think I know what your Latvian friend means. I find people in England a lot friendlier than in Poland - in the shops, offices, medical centres etc. But when it comes to personal relations I find some sort of coldness that is incomprehensible to me. As if there was so much of friendliness on the outside but when you want to go deeper there is a wall. It's the opposite in Eastern Europe - people will be reserved, even harsh at first, but once you know them better they will be warm, welcoming, they will let you in to their hearts.
crochetbitch88   
5 Feb 2013
UK, Ireland / Polish is Britain's second language, says UK report [52]

No need to get touchy, friends. No offence meant here for one second

romantic tosh

I'm romantic. I'm reserved on the outside, but I'm soft and warm under the surface like a bowl of pudding. I let people into my heart far too easily. I'm not a diplomat, I show my true self. The English often see it as a lack of polish ;) I see them as artificial.

I wouldn't class myself or anyone else I know as being cold and unfriendly!
But don't let that stop you tarring a whole nation with the same brush.

I'm sure you aren't, dear. I'm talking about generalisations and I thought the whole forum was about generalisations

hate us and the place so much

Hate? Oh dear, I couldn't be farther from that. I'm actually enjoying the variety of human perspectives and ways of expression. If I don't identify with something/someone, it doesn't mean I hate it. On the contrary, it makes me curious. By the way I'm starting to think that the virtue of tolerance is not so close to the English heart after all. It's probably more of an almost superhuman ability to bear with what they find difficult to tolarate. That must lead to frustration, which would explain why you read "hate" in my post.

the Poles were a special case!

bless her.. :) She must had gotten influenced by the Polish national sense of uniqueness, which Poles can't justify; all they know is that vague impression it has something to do with heros, uprisings, the pope, Pilsudski and generally being the Messiah of Nations ;)
crochetbitch88   
5 Feb 2013
History / Origins of Poland national differences? [41]

normal in this house.

Same here. The popitka is for wusses.

I'm assuming you're not Russians.. And yet you have those throats of steel, how sexy
crochetbitch88   
5 Feb 2013
UK, Ireland / Polish is Britain's second language, says UK report [52]

Tolerate is such a condisending attitude,its not a *virtue*.

The word "tolerance" is often being used as synonym for "bearing with", in which case it's not a virtue. True tolerance, the ability to accept different opinions and points of view without feeling threatened or becoming aggressive, is a virtue by all means.

once people get closer to you they dont like you

:) I never said such thing! God forbid if that was true... I said I find the English people not as easy to make friends with as other nations. You made me think though - because the very first English people I met in this country were not the nicest bunch and I admit I may be approaching the English with less trust and openness than I usually have for people.

,its just a shame that so many who came here in the last few years are such whingey

We will never beat the English on that :) But I must agree that many, many Polish people who've come to Britain are actually a bit... chavvy. Sorry for supplying you with something you had enough of anyway
crochetbitch88   
5 Feb 2013
News / Poland is the source of horsemeat in burgers? [169]

Meat is meat, I,ll eat it.....(though I don,t think I would eat my faithful dogs 'Szarik' and 'Freya' (unless I was starving))

:) what a refreshing straightforwardness. At least it's meat and not a boiled radiator or something.
crochetbitch88   
5 Feb 2013
News / Czechs most liked by Poles! [35]

The thing about Hungarians I said half-seriously, Vlad. Nobody seems to know where exactly this brotherhood has come from, but somehow we know it exists ;) And because of it we're supposed to like each other :) It might be that we are surrounded by people who dislike us: Lithuanian, Ukrainian, Russian, German, even those far away from us don't like us - the British, the Dutch etc. But Hungarian people like us. God knows why. So we like them too :) Although in fact I know a few Hungarians and have never noticed anything particular about them that I could find annoying or weird, what could put me off them. So maybe there is some mutual compatibility between Poles and Hungarians, like sometimes when you meet a person and within hours you feel as you've known them your whole life, maybe there is something like that on a national level as well.

Maybe we don't like the English because they are too different from us and we find them strange and we don't like the Russians because they are too similar to us and we see in them our own flaws. But Hungarians seem neither too different, nor too similar, but just right :)
crochetbitch88   
5 Feb 2013
History / Origins of Poland national differences? [41]

Neither I saw that intelligent Ukrainians such as engineers or programmers
would misuse alcogool.

And I've seen very intelligent Poles who would misuse alcohol with delight... :D But we don't normally drink it without a chaser unless it's Żołądkowa Gorzka. And in almost every Russian movie I watched there was that main character, very manly and brave who was drinking vodka without a chaser and often times straight from the bottle like it was a lager. So it made me think.

consumption of pure alcohool by Poles per year -
13.25 L

Now this. If I drink 2 litres of pure alcohol per year, who the heck drinks the remaining 11.25l of my alcohol every single year?? I have a few suspects though...

There are national differences, cause peopel can not forget the past .. Like the Poles!

Nope, some people don't want to forget the past, even though it's not their personal past. They are holding a grudge against someone whose great grandfather possibly could have done something wrong to their great grandfarther. How miserable is that. That's why I don't have anything against any nation in the world, just sometimes like pulling people's legs ;)
crochetbitch88   
5 Feb 2013
News / Czechs most liked by Poles! [35]

Thank you Des Essientes for the explanation. It does make sense. It could also indirectly explain why the fact that Britain is a monarchy gets so badly on my nerves and I just can't, just can't comprehend why the British simply put up with that and don't try to make some decent revolution or something...
crochetbitch88   
5 Feb 2013
News / Poland is the source of horsemeat in burgers? [169]

I think you know that isn't true.

If you supply yourself in Polish shops in the UK then you're right, it's not true. If you buy in Poland that's a different story. In Britain there's Asda and there's Waitrose, most groceries in those Polish shpos are the cheapest possible stuff sold for a tenfold of their Polish price
crochetbitch88   
5 Feb 2013
News / Amb. W. Sobków's response to G. Coren's "Today I am make first column in Polski" [59]

Ambassador Witold Sobków responded to Giles Coren's atricle "Today I am make first column in Polski' which was published by "The Times" on 2nd Feb

From time to time, and recently in British media, we find the image of Poles distorted or presented in a negative, if not malicious, way. It used to be the domain of British tabloids. Unfortunately, when it turned out that Polish is the second most widely spoken language in England and Wales, this quality newspaper - by means of Giles Coren's article (...) has joined the choir of fear and prejudice.

The rest can be read here london.mfa.gov.pl/en/news/ambassador_witold_sobkow_s_letter_in_the_times;jsessionid=0C8B42F39A4FB77803A97E4092D21116.cmsap2p
crochetbitch88   
5 Feb 2013
UK, Ireland / Polish is Britain's second language, says UK report [52]

A bit of a shallow statement there cb88, there are good and bad in all nations, it depends on which path you walk

Of course, and if this can cheer you up I'll tell you that one person that I respect and admire so much that I could call her my role model in life - is English. I'm not judging people by their nationality, just talking about some general impressions. It's always nice to get some feedback and see what others' opinions are

let me guess, you live down south,somewhere near London surrounded by uptight bu**ers?

That's right! :)) Would Liverpool be any better?
crochetbitch88   
5 Feb 2013
History / Origins of Poland national differences? [41]

Those movies made in Poland?

No, they were genuine Russian movies

Do you affraid that they will enforce Poles to drink even more?

Poles don't need to be forced to drink vodka :)

But what is your concern in any case how much vodka drink Russians and Ukrainians?

I'm not concerned at all. I'm not attacking you Vlad123, neither I'm attacking the Russians or the Ukrainians, I like them. I like the culture.
crochetbitch88   
6 Feb 2013
News / Amb. W. Sobków's response to G. Coren's "Today I am make first column in Polski" [59]

Does it not disturb you that some newspaper columnist in the UK can cause outrage in Poland

He caused outrage in Britain, not in Poland, in Poland nobody has mentioned it yet.

Even if there were, I don't suppose anyone would care that much what they said.

Oh really, you lot are not that laid back :) It's enough to say something as innocent as "the English are not very friendly" to make people hypersensitive.

What's interesting I can't recall a single article in Polish newspapers that would categorize and bully people in terms of their nationality the way British media repeatedly do. Last thing I remember was that infamous comment of Kuba Wojewódzki about Ukrainian women - and it caused real outrage among Poles.
crochetbitch88   
6 Feb 2013
News / Amb. W. Sobków's response to G. Coren's "Today I am make first column in Polski" [59]

yes, I second the request

For someone brought up in Britain it might be hard to imagine that there is a country where people don't get so heated up over the subject of race. You won't hear about it on television, you won't read about it in magazines. Maybe there's no audience for the topic? Even the so called nationalistic papers are more pro-Polish than against anybody, it's very different from what you have here. In Britain, in my opinion, there is very little true patriotism today, but a lot of subcutaneous anger at other nations. That's why Polish patriotism is being so easily interpreted as racism by the British - because there is no understanding of what patriotism is and it gets confused with racism.
crochetbitch88   
6 Feb 2013
News / Amb. W. Sobków's response to G. Coren's "Today I am make first column in Polski" [59]

indeed, because patriotism (especially English) was frowned upon for many years and equated with the far right, its improved a bit now.
but especially under Blair we were told Scottish & Welsh nationalism =good, English Nationalism = bad

I didn't know that. I remember when I first heard about St George's Day and I spoke to my English colleague and asked whether people would celebrate, dress red&white or something like that. And she said no. I myself would dress red&white for St George's Day, why not? I celebrated national days with my Portugese friends and with my South African friends, and Hungarian; and I remember one New Year's Eve when we celebrated New Year 3 times, hour after hour - one Lithuanian, one Polish and one English. I love it. I love it when people are being patriotic, when they tell about history of their countries and what they are proud of.

But I also remember a story my friends told me - how they went to a pub to watch a football match and they had a Polish flag with them spread over back of the chair, and one man came up, pulled the flag and walked over it. I have never heard about something like that happening in Poland, in Poland you can get beaten up if you walk the wrong alley, but nobody will profane your flag, it's like a sacrilege
crochetbitch88   
7 Feb 2013
News / Amb. W. Sobków's response to G. Coren's "Today I am make first column in Polski" [59]

I'd love to see the Polish Ambassadors comments, anyone got a link?

It's at the very beginning of the thread. To be honest I naively hoped the discussion would be evolving around the ambassador's comment rather than Coren's article...

last night i ordered one of those little Anglo-Polish friendship badges with crossed flags from amazon

:) :) soo lovely of you. I'll order some as well. I think little gestures of friendship would do much more than those neverending discussions where both parties are fighting tooth and nail and no one ever gets convinced to the reason of interlocutor
crochetbitch88   
9 Feb 2013
Language / Polish slang phrases - most popular. [606]

"fura, skóra i komóra" (car, girl, and a cell phone)

skóra is about leather - like leather jacket or leather seat upholstery in his fura
crochetbitch88   
9 Feb 2013
Love / Troubled relationship - is it because I'm Polish or should I blame it on his moustache? [28]

I am Polish, so is my boyfriend. I have read several threads on this forum and it seems to me neither Polish women nor Polish men are really suitable for a happy relationship. Now, after 7 years, I seem to have lost “that loving feeling” for my boyfriend. Is it because I am Polish and that’s just a big no-no for happiness or is it because of him being Polish?

We’ve been going through a crisis for at least a year. And it’s not that we argue or something, we just don’t seem to need each other that much anymore. We still can have a laugh together and enjoyable conversation, but it’s more what you would have with an old good friend rather than with someone you LOVE.

Two months ago I fell in love with a Slovak guy (and his crazy, crazy language). We did not have an affair; or rather we had what’s called an emotional affair. He was here only for a short while and we met shortly before his departure back to Slovakia. He promised he would come back (promises!). He was to me like a second sun on the sky, when he was around I couldn’t stop smiling, his touch made the world melt around me.

Anyway, he’s left and there is no guarantee he’ll ever come back, so I’m trying to forget. But since that time I've been seeing my boyfriend in a different way, I often think I should leave, not because of the other guy, but because our love has burnt out. I hate the thought of hurting him, I still love him as a person and a friend and want him to be happy, I even made my single female friend to come round to our place hoping they would fall in love (they didn't).

Is there anything we can do to make love stay? Or is it just the way it has to be - that love is going to desert us no matter how hard we try to hold onto it. Or is it because I'm Polish, unfaithful, and my heart is a gypsy?
crochetbitch88   
10 Feb 2013
Love / Troubled relationship - is it because I'm Polish or should I blame it on his moustache? [28]

Yet, you decided to share your problem in English. Nice. Determined to practise the language at any cost? :):)

I did share my problems with my Polish friend. She said sometimes she felt the same about her relationship. We cried, got drunk, laughed, cried again, felt the bonds of our friendship have strenghtened. And that's it. No constructive conclusions. So I thought I'd search for some Western, less romantic, more down to earth approach...

Is it a new Polish idiom?

No, but it could have been.

trolls.

Now I feel offended. I'm not a troll.

Talk to him. Maybe he feels exactly the same way about you but doesn't want to hurt you either by saying something.

I have spoken to him. He doesn't feel the same. He doesn't see a problem.

get bored.

Now I'm wondering if this is not the key word in all this.
crochetbitch88   
10 Feb 2013
Life / Polish females who made it [29]

Irena Sendlerowa, who smuggled 2500 Jewish children out of the Warsaw Ghetto and gave them false identity documents. Eventually she was found out by the Nazis and tortured but managed to escape and continued her work. She and her team saved twice as many Jewish people as Oskar Schindler. She was awarded as one of the Righteous among the Nations.


  • Irena Sendlerowa
crochetbitch88   
10 Feb 2013
Life / Polish females who made it [29]

Tamara £empicka - Art Deco painter, whose name lives forever in one of the loveliest perfume in the world :)


  • .

  • .
crochetbitch88   
10 Feb 2013
Language / Dupa - what a beautiful Polish word [103]

:) I don't know if it's the same game. I've never heard of/played dziura w dupie, so I'm assuming it must be a variation of the name dupa biskupa. The rules are accurately described by Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dupa_Biskupa. What do you say? Is it the same?