News / How do Poles feel about the outcome of Germany's elections? [90]

Many Germans with whom I've spoken express the desire that Merkel reach out further to Poland and treat her more as an equal trading partner than was the case under previous chancellors.

News / How do Poles feel about the outcome of Germany's elections? [90]

Based on what I read as of today in the Polish press, the outcome is generally perceived as overwhelmingly positive , Greece and southern Europe notwithstanding:-)

Po polsku / Dlaczego uczysz się Polskiego? [101]

Niedawno czytałem w angielskiej prasie że język polski jest praktyczniej w Anglii, n.p. w Londynie, niż w Polsce z powodu polskich immigrantów, którzy przychodzą do stolicy a jeszcze nie płynnie mówią po angielsku. W Polsce mówi dla gospodarki międzynarodowej więcej Polaków po angielsku.

Czy to prawda?

Już dzisiaj w gazecie londyńskiej artykuł o księgarnię w East Endzie na której wystawie było pisano "HELP WANTED! POLISH LANGUAGE A MUST!!"

News / How do Poles feel about the outcome of Germany's elections? [90]

Thus far, Tusk and Merkel appear to have at least a professional (if not overly "cordial") working relationship. Curious on the presidential level about the relationship between Komorowski and Gauck!

News / How do Poles feel about the outcome of Germany's elections? [90]

Herr Guenter Grass was born in at-that-time Danzig, GERMANY, considers himself (and is logically enough considered by everybody else!!) a GERMAN, not a Pole, though technically his mother was a full-German, his father a Kaszub ^^ The fact that Danzig is today known throughout Europe, furthermore is listed in all atlases, as Gdansk, resp. GdaŃsk, alters nothing about what I just stated.

Law / I am a US company, I want to sue a Polish company. [5]

Sam,

Just curious as to whether or not you scoped out the situation BEFORE entering into business with a Polish, for that matter any foreign, company using local contacts prior to the deal! Without sufficient knowledge beforehand of either local lingo or business customs, you could be screwed!

Sorry to be so blunt, but in your shoes, I'd contact a bilingual Polish-English lawyer ASAP and use a certified or experienced interpreter at ALL business meetings with your Polish interlocutor.

Hope this helps a little:-)

Work / Young dutch graduate (social sciences at university level) - job prospects in Poland? [15]

Learning Polish well can only increase your chances at getting a decent job at a decent salary:-)
Don't expect however for a Polish equivalent/competitive salary to be the same as a Dutch salary for the same higher level, that is, academic or managerial type work!

News / How do Poles feel about the outcome of Germany's elections? [90]

Depends folks on whom you call "flag wavers". If you mean do-or-die, my-country-right-or-wrong nationalists, then I'd agree. Yet, being partiotic in a balanced fashion surely wouldn't offend most Germans. Indeed Germans have much to be proud of in their history, the 1933-'45 period nothwithstanding!! The latter was clearly NO abberation, but the ineluctable conclusion to a long and tragic death of Judeo-Christian enlightenment as we know it.

Work / Young dutch graduate (social sciences at university level) - job prospects in Poland? [15]

About that I coudn't say exactly. I do know though for a fact that Dutch engineers particularly are often in high demand throughout the continent, Venice, Italy for instance. A Dutch firm was called in a number of years back to help in raising the sea-level of the city. As Holland has centuries of experience constructing dykes etc.. ("Dike" even a Dutch word originally!), they were thought to be the most skilled workmen for the job.

They were right:-)

News / How do Poles feel about the outcome of Germany's elections? [90]

Exactly, jon! Patriotism means many different things to many different people. To me, for instance, partiotism's not about hoisting an Eagle in front of my front lawn and blaring Wagner's "Ride of the Walkyren" to annoy my neighbors (actually impossible in Germany due to their strict regulations regarding noiseLOL). Patriotism's more about a shared pride in Germany's tremendous, to be sure in some areas, immeasurable accomplishments in the arts, sciences, technology, R&D etc..

News / How do Poles feel about the outcome of Germany's elections? [90]

Distinguish then between partiotism vs. NATIONALISM!! There's the rub. The latter's what the soccer houligans practice, not the former:-)

Language / "..Spotykamy vs. spotkamy sie ....." [3]

Somehow wouldn't have imagined that a newspaper could've made such a basic mistake.
Thanks for confirming my suspicions that "SpotYkamy się.." makes grammatical sense within the context of the sentence:-)

News / How do Poles feel about the outcome of Germany's elections? [90]

???? Jarosław Kaczyński a flag waver?? Must have missed something here!

News / How do Poles feel about the outcome of Germany's elections? [90]

And "evidently" what "must" that have been, pray tell?

News / How do Poles feel about the outcome of Germany's elections? [90]

If Germans feel they're supposed to feel guilty about being culturally patriotic as Germans, how then do the Poles feel about being Polish?

To whom are you directing your query, Szczepański?

News / How do Poles feel about the outcome of Germany's elections? [90]

In The Federal Republic, someone who says "Ich bin stolz, Deutsche(r) zu sein!" = I'm proud to be German! = Jestem dumy(a) być Niemcem(ką) is immediately suspect of being a nut job, some sort of subversive and might even risk an unwanted encounter with local law enforcement! In Poland, is the sentence "Jestem dumy(a) być Polakiem(ką)!" enough to cause fur to fly as it would in Germany?

My point is simply that in certain European countries, national pride remains an open wound!

News / How do Poles feel about the outcome of Germany's elections? [90]

Poland is of course different because the Gomułka Era is but a distant memory to any contemporary Pole under at least 60!!! The GDR lasted far longer and went FAR, far deeper into the marrow of the nation. See the deeply moving "Lives of Others" to appreciate what I'm saying. Furthermore, Wojciech Jaruszelski was many things, but he was certainly no Walther Ulbricht:-)

News / How do Poles feel about the outcome of Germany's elections? [90]

To which "commie" spirit are you referring, TheOther? I see mostly capitalism alive and well and living in Cracow! Check out the article from last year some time "Krakow: Cud nad Wisłą" and tell me that the spirit of pre-Solidarność Poland is still as palpable:)

News / How do Poles feel about the outcome of Germany's elections? [90]

In fields such as mechanical engineering perhaps this is so, but one always reads in the foreign press about the young generation of Polish entrepreneurs in the IT industry etc....

How does that square with what you've said?

News / How do Poles feel about the outcome of Germany's elections? [90]

Thanks, Delphadomine!

Yes, I just checked out the article and it suggests to me anyway that Tusk needs to do a lot more to court foreign businesses within Poland. That the Democrats are gaining in polls taken by a clearly partisan source, I'm reminded of what Towarzysz Lenin is supposed to have said umpteen years back "It's not WHO votes that counts, it's HOW you count the votes!

Happy SaturdayLOL

History / Slavic vs Germanic thinking.... and the philosophical differences [251]

Well there are at least two volumes on this most intriguing of topics which I heartily recommend to any and all interested parties out there; one is called "The Germans:Portrait of a People" (written in English!) by Hans Kohn, a German émigré, from around 1960, the other written only in German with no existing translation "Die verspaetete Nation: ueber die politische Verfuehrbarkeit buergerlichen Geistes" - Nationhood Deferred: On The Political Gullibility Of The Bourgeoise Intellect, authored by Helmut Plessner in 1938 under the Nazis and reprinted in 1959. Both of these works, especially the former, attempt to explain "Germanic" thinking/personality to the unannointed Anglo-Saxon reader. Both books however suggest that Germany's latent burgeoning democracy along with the Thirty Years War may account for the Germans' inbred skepticism towards Christianity not to mention a collective rejection of European Enlightenment values cf. with Britain, the US or France, for example.

Not familiar with a book or books about Slavic thinking which go into this sort of detail other than those by Harvard historian Richard Piper on Russia. About Poland, I've yet to read a decent thesis about the subject:-)

News / MORE ANTI-POLISH SENTIMENT IN GERMANY [280]

Anti-Polish sentiment in Germany's akin, though certainly not identical, to anti-Turkish sentiment. Poles are resented because again and again they are perceived as low ballers, underbidding native-born (German, English, French...) workers out of decent-paying jobs often due to their willingness to work far below minimum wage and turn out more or less equal-quality work!

In the case of the Turks, their frequent unwillingness to integrate successfully into German society, both linguistically as well as culturally, has caused more than its share of friction, much of it turning quite ugly, if not fatal. Noone accuses Turko-Germans of turning out "inferior" products, yet with both groups, Germans have historically valued incremental achievement in science, industry, the arts and architecture. In all these areas, both the Poles and the Turks appear lacking according to Germany's often lofty standards.

Think of the old saying, "I'd rather be a French peasant than a Gipsy king."

News / MORE ANTI-POLISH SENTIMENT IN GERMANY [280]

You mean "...get OVER..."?? Oh yes, I concur. Albeit if they don't overcome their negativity with regard to foreigners in their midst, who knows what the former will get AWAY with in the futureLOL

News / MORE ANTI-POLISH SENTIMENT IN GERMANY [280]

Check out German TV-comedy channels, RTL etc... often rife with the dumbest of "dumb-polak" jokes, the reputation of Poles from the early 90's on of being carjackers, cat burglars and business cheats.

History / Slavic vs Germanic thinking.... and the philosophical differences [251]

Ooops is rightLOL

News / MORE ANTI-POLISH SENTIMENT IN GERMANY [280]

"It's GERMAN engineering......" thanks, at least in large part during WWII, to JEWISH slave labor:-)))))

News / MORE ANTI-POLISH SENTIMENT IN GERMANY [280]

And yet, whilst that picture has changed on the surface at any rate, I sense lurking beneath the exterior of material contentment, many Germans still cannot quite shake that admitted stereotype of the Pole. Surely, with the death of Marcel Reich-Ranicki just this past week or so, who would've ever thought that post-War resp. Wall Germany's "Literaturpapst" would've ended up being a Polish-Jewish transplant??

News / MORE ANTI-POLISH SENTIMENT IN GERMANY [280]

A sort of internal occupation in the East, to some degree though, wasn't it? The GRD was "occupied" after '89 by the BRD's capitalism.

News / MORE ANTI-POLISH SENTIMENT IN GERMANY [280]

No, Palivec, not anti-German, just anti-falsifying history!!! After all, let's give credit where credit is due:-)