History / Gorbachev and Poland [64]

Depends of course on one's definition of "great", Rich! In 1938, Hitler was selected as TIME LIFE'S MAN OF THE YEAR, therefore deemed by some as great (don't forget, Henry Luce was an anti-Semite, despite his hiring of Henry Grunewald).

Both Putin and in a different way, Hitler, were both "great"....greatly evil.

News / Poland to officially demand $1.32 trillion WW2 reparations from Germany [457]

Poland in my opinion has but to prove legal, not merely historical or even psychological, justification for making such an extreme claim, and I'm not referring solely to the monetary amount!

This will doubtless drag on for years and years, since surely Germany will attempt a counter claim/suit if I don't miss my guess, and seek damages from Poland for territory allegedly "stolen" following the end of the Second World War, such as former, Pomerania and East Prussia. Now, Russia is brought into the act as well, e.g. Kaliningrad, erstwhile Koenigsberg etc.

As with the ongoing Arab-Israeli Conflict, closure is never likely to occur unless both sides resolve somehow to accept a realistic truce agreeable to all parties.

I for one don't see this happening, at least any time soon, I'm afraid.

News / Poland to officially demand $1.32 trillion WW2 reparations from Germany [457]

One bad apple can ruin the whole bunch, you mean.
I roundly concur, B.B.

As you guys have a German, Ursula von der Leyen, heading the European Commission, it's not likely there'll be any movement on the European, that is the German, side on Poland's demands.

What's more, Scholz'll be damned if he's ever going to concede to such patent malarkey, already in trouble with his own constituents regarding his willingness to give in to Putin and one helluva frigid winter without Russian petroleum!

So he'd be willing to have Poland on his neck too??
Forget it.

News / Poland to officially demand $1.32 trillion WW2 reparations from Germany [457]

Plain nuts is what it seems to me!

News / Poland to officially demand $1.32 trillion WW2 reparations from Germany [457]

I'd be curious about just how many rank-and-file Poles will go along with their gov't's demands to essentially shake down the FRG for money! :-)

News / Poland to officially demand $1.32 trillion WW2 reparations from Germany [457]

All this will simply stoke increased anti-German sentiment in Poland, not to mention anti-Polish feelings in Germany!

Frankly, I think both sides ought to give it a rest and focus on far more pressing issues of today instead of keeping mired in the past.

What's done is/was done, legally, officially, and the satisfaction most everyone involved, save of course for the proverbial radical extremists in any camp.

News / Poland to officially demand $1.32 trillion WW2 reparations from Germany [457]

Kaczynski then is merely allowing personal hang-ups interfere with sound political decision making, getting side tracked on matters with little relevance to the current affairs of state!

News / Poland to officially demand $1.32 trillion WW2 reparations from Germany [457]

Once again, Scholz is gonna be livid!
So much for future (even present) Polish-German relationsLOL

UK, Ireland / Boris Johnson - is the new British PM a popular figure in Poland? [150]

Merged:

Liz Truss and the future of the Conservative Party

Anyone here care to share their feelings regarding the future PM and Britain's relations with Poland?

Until recently, she was almost unknown to me, but all I know is that she's a born again Thatcherite, at least by her own admission.

UK, Ireland / Boris Johnson - is the new British PM a popular figure in Poland? [150]

She's also rather dodgy concerning Labor....like most self-styled Conservatives nowadays:-)

UK, Ireland / Boris Johnson - is the new British PM a popular figure in Poland? [150]

@Milo.
It is not I who is making a fool of himself, sir!
Are not both the London Times and the New York Times both written in English, albeit with numerous lexical variants??

When I read that Liz Truss turned from an anti-Royal advocate to a lead Conservative, I trust you can give me credit for knowing the English language so as to realize that she's not a flaming US-style libitard:-)

Incidentally, here's where our cultures diverge. By all means do comment on US politics, I'd be most interested. You see, I don't necessarily hold it against a chap who's interested in taking risks in expanding their knowledge...even if they fall flat on their face.

It's not how many times you fall flat, but how often you rebound.

UK, Ireland / Boris Johnson - is the new British PM a popular figure in Poland? [150]

@Bobko,
In fact, my post made all sorts of sense.
You're merely being yet another contrarian, like Milo:-)

Now that Her Majesty has passed on, this could really tilt the odds!

UK, Ireland / Boris Johnson - is the new British PM a popular figure in Poland? [150]

Apology accepted, Miloslaw:-)

Feedback / I love this forum - It's so Polish: tolerant, inconsistent, amusing [184]

@Pawianku,
Do you actually teach every one of those subjects listed?
Curious as to which English textbook(s) you use.
:-)

News / Poland to officially demand $1.32 trillion WW2 reparations from Germany [457]

My first time in Germany, way back in '85 (returned nearly twenty times since then, by the way) I can vividly remember seeing middle-aged protesters in front of the Berlin City Hall, I was told, with angry placards reading "OSTPREUSSEN GEHOERT NOCH UNS!" (East Prussia still belongs to us) and other signs regarding once "German" cities or towns "stolen" from them after the War by the Poles as well as the Russians.

When will the madness end, I keep asking?

UK, Ireland / Why are Polish people, especially women, so disrespectful toward the English? [437]

Why, Crow? Because many choose not to screw everything and everyone that moves?
You're not exactly being fair, are you!

Feedback / I love this forum - It's so Polish: tolerant, inconsistent, amusing [184]

Again, which texts do you use for each of the two language mentioned,
Just curious since by coincidence those are subject which I teach also.

News / Poland to officially demand $1.32 trillion WW2 reparations from Germany [457]

Therefore, former Lusatia and other formerly Slavic-speaking areas should henceforth by ceded (back) to neighboring Slavic nations???!
You're as looney as those Gottscheer folks.

News / Poland to officially demand $1.32 trillion WW2 reparations from Germany [457]

Tell me somerthing. Do you feel that Poland's claims are in any way justified, legally or historically?

UK, Ireland / Why are Polish people, especially women, so disrespectful toward the English? [437]

We don't discuss such things amongst one another.
We already know the answer:-)

Feedback / I love this forum - It's so Polish: tolerant, inconsistent, amusing [184]

Wow!
I like that.

In certain highly advanced courses, I attempt to show the origins of English in O.E. (Old English) up through M.E. (Middle English) Chaucer, as a way of connecting with the Anglo-Saxon roots of the language and to clarify that English is in fact a Germanic language with a Latin overlay.

Essentially, English has two strands or layers of vocabulary, unmasking its Anglo-Saxon origins:

English - Latin-derived synomym

chew masticate
street pavement
sleeping dormant

etc...

News / Poland to officially demand $1.32 trillion WW2 reparations from Germany [457]

How then do you counter Germany's claims that Poland "owes" them once "purloined" territories in the East?

After all, Wroclaw is no longer Breslau any more than Szczecin is still Stettin.

News / Poland to officially demand $1.32 trillion WW2 reparations from Germany [457]

I take it then, Germany has nothing to say in this matter, according to your opinion.

News / Poland to officially demand $1.32 trillion WW2 reparations from Germany [457]

With that last post, Crow, one might take flagrant exception, especially if one is German:-)

Erstwhile Yugoslavia belonged to the so-called "Russian Corridor" after '45 and its Partisan Leader Josip Broz aka Tito, fought the Nazis tooth and nail. Germany never succeeded in destroying either Yugoslavia and her splinter tastes or any of her less fortunate neighbors. They survived bloodied yet unbowed.

Feedback / I love this forum - It's so Polish: tolerant, inconsistent, amusing [184]

"Vindoyga" in either current Icelandic or Nynorsk, I've presently forgotten.

UK, Ireland / Why are Polish people, especially women, so disrespectful toward the English? [437]

Tak, Zosiu co to oznaczy? What are you trying to say?

News / Poland to officially demand $1.32 trillion WW2 reparations from Germany [457]

Yugoslavia was a member of the Warsaw Pact, but until she broke up into separate nations during the '90's following the collapse of the Soviet Union, she nonetheless maintained a sense of separatism, Slavic in hertitage, independent in statehood:-)

News / Poland to officially demand $1.32 trillion WW2 reparations from Germany [457]

I know that Bulgaria, Poland, Czechoslovakia along with a total of almost a half-a-dozen countries belonged to the Pact.

Tito consented to membership in NATO, although I believe a condition for joining the latter. was a policy of Western-friendly and anti-Communist sentiment!

@gumishu,
Of course, I just remembered that back in '55, Western-leaning Yugoslavia wouldn't have been allowed to join the Warsaw Pact.
'Scusez-moi!

News / Poland to officially demand $1.32 trillion WW2 reparations from Germany [457]

@Kaszub and Korvinus,
Again I refer you guys as well as the rest of PF-participants in this thread to the somewhat analogous Arab-Israeli conflict, even the England-Ireland situation, both as yet unresolved!

Feedback / I love this forum - It's so Polish: tolerant, inconsistent, amusing [184]

Exactly, Gumi!
O.N. (Old Norse) remains the foundation of all contemporary Germanic languages.
Swedish on the other hand, like German, appears to have borrowed even more extensively from the French than often admitted ("fonstret"/das Fenster > la fenetre, cf. highfallutin

English "to defenestrate") = to throw out of the window LOL