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Posts by szczecinianin  

Joined: 8 Sep 2013 / Male ♂ 		Last Post: 12 Nov 2015
Threads: 4
Posts: 320

Displayed posts: 324 / page 3 of 11
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szczecinianin   
18 Oct 2013
Life / Poland: The land of -isms [63]

I don't get it. Why people make feeble excuses for racism. As if Poles were mentally disabled people who weren't capable of civilised behaviour.

It isn't.

No, it isn't. But that doesn't make racism acceptable.

It's not a "fairly" homogenous country - when we compare it to the West, it's a very homogenous country.
Of course there will be more racists than in the West.

How is homogenity an excuse for racism?

But from my experience, majority of people in Poland aren't racist.

If that's the case, why have you just been excusing their racism?

Delphi's been here about five years or so, but doesn't appear to know a great deal about Poland. However, I would think two and half years is sufficient to get the flavour of a country. You comment about the UK without ever having been there.

Well, John Godson seems to be enjoying it here ;)

I worked with John Godson for a year when he lived in Szczecin. During that time he got beaten up twice. He's what blacks in the UK and US would call an 'Uncle Tom'.

That's almost hard for me to believe, to be honest. But if it happened, you should report it.

I've known such places. You'd have to be very brave to report them. Would you do it?

And I'm really, really sorry that you had such unpleasant experiences, ET.

I'm glad you wrote that. If you genuinely want things to get better then stop making excuses for your people.
szczecinianin   
18 Oct 2013
Life / Poland: The land of -isms [63]

You are not a particularly pleasant person.

Regarding your comments about 'guests' in other people's countries, please let me remind you that Poles far more often demand the hospitality of others than host guests themselves.
szczecinianin   
21 Oct 2013
USA, Canada / Why do Americans (and Canadians) hate Polish people? [226]

I don't,when told Polish joke (it happened),I just politely ask them "So you basically saying that I am stupid because I am from Poland?"

As far as I can make out, you seem to want one rule for yourself and another for everyone else.

When people call you a 'dumb Polack' you complain.

When a black girl complains that people in Poland use racial slurs against her, then you tell her, "she shouldn't move the furniture".

It's either one or the other. If you have a right to complain, then so has she. If she should keep her mouth shut, then so should you.

So, should people complain about racial slurs made against them? If you are right, then so was the black girl who you told us was "a guest trying to move the furniture."
szczecinianin   
23 Oct 2013
Language / Is Polish an easy language to learn and is there a way of learning it easily? [105]

To be honest, I completely disagreed with your comments about language learning. I've lived in Poland for over fifteen years, have a Polish wife, and frequently translate Polish texts into English (but never the other way round).

I'd say that trying to learn the grammar first was a big mistake. There is simply so much of it that you are setting yourself a near impossible task. However much I learned of Polish grammar, I realised there was still more to learn.

My advise would be to simply immerse yourself in the language. Watch lots of Polish films, read Polish texts and so on.

After a while you will develop an instinct as to the correct ending.

I tried to learn the way you did, but it was a failure. What was more useful was watching the news in Polish every evening and reading the news in Polish online.

Just my two cents, as Americans say.
szczecinianin   
23 Oct 2013
Language / Is Polish an easy language to learn and is there a way of learning it easily? [105]

There seems to be (in the case of a country not unconnected to this forum) a kind of inferiority complex about their language - considering (or pretending to consider) it to be impenetrable while claiming mastery of other languages that they mangle.

True.

You get the same with Welsh, Irish, Scots Gaelic speakers too - as much to do with history as the structure or vocabulary of the language.

Polish isn't hard at all

Not true. Polish is hard. I can compare it with Welsh.

Welsh simply appears difficult. Its grammar, however, can be learnt in a few months. That's not true with Polish.

One of the crazier things is people insisting on speaking English, even though their English is far worse than your Polish.

But eventually you will almost always end up speaking the language it is easiest to communicate in.

Polish isn't hard at all - there isn't however any particularly well-developed register in the language for non-natives as there is for, say, English or French.

Or your language skills aren't sufficiently advanced for you to recognise nuances of register in Polish.

Academic, I think you mean.

No, I mean it sounds pretentious and unnatural.

For either a foreign-born, non-native English speaker, or most people under thirty, maybe so. For educated, over fourty, native-born speakers of North American Standard, I beg seriously to differ!

I'm an educated native speaker over forty.
szczecinianin   
24 Oct 2013
Language / Is Polish an easy language to learn and is there a way of learning it easily? [105]

Then I must take issue with your observation/opinion:-)

One person's pretension is another's effortless fluidity and erudite expression.

You give the impression of trying too hard. You seem to be far more interested in showing off your knowledge than in actual communication. Good language skills mean being clear and concise rather than verbose. I once read that in Polish it is the writer who is more important whereas in English it is the reader. I believe there is some truth in that observation.
szczecinianin   
24 Oct 2013
Language / Is Polish an easy language to learn and is there a way of learning it easily? [105]

Szczeczinianin, your comments are as much a reflection of the times we live in as they are of my posts. As expectation levels of language and culture have declined over the past half century or so, what was not to long ago deemed witty, enjoyable and well written, is now perceived (incorrectly, I might add!) as stuffy, pretentious and silly.

People said much the same about standards declining in the ancient world. You are not writing in a register appropriate for this forum. Therefore, you come across as 'pretentious'.

However, it's up to you, I suppose.
szczecinianin   
25 Oct 2013
Language / Is Polish an easy language to learn and is there a way of learning it easily? [105]

As for English, it's only considered as an "easy" language because of its huge influence both culturally en economically.

It is an 'easy' language.

We don't have cases or genders and very few declinations.

Of course, one or two aspects are 'difficult'. However, if you were to take (say) a Japanese person who knew nothing of either language, I feel confident he or she would learn English far quicker than Polish because of its comparative simplicity.
szczecinianin   
25 Oct 2013
Language / Is Polish an easy language to learn and is there a way of learning it easily? [105]

Well, Mandarin Chinese is an 'easy' language to your standards then, given that its grammar is even simpler than in English.

It has its own difficulties. Tones. An alphabet of 20k characters.

Seriously, if Polish was the language of business, a worldwide culture, with famous rock-ski music bands and Hollywoodski movies widespread in the entire World, anyone would find it easy to learn.
There is not such thing as an 'hard' language, it's just a matter of your own backgrounds and influence.

Polish isn't so difficult for speakers of other Slavic languages. Welsh isn't exactly a world language, but can be learned far quicker than Polish because its grammar is far less complex.

Some languages are more difficult than others.
szczecinianin   
26 Oct 2013
Language / Is Polish an easy language to learn and is there a way of learning it easily? [105]

That's a pretty good way to learn the language. Watch (good) films, and the news in Polish. I'd recommend watching with English subtitles first, however.

Films I'd recommend would be: Rejs, Seksmisja, Miś (classics). The new film 'Ambassada' is also good, though it got panned by the critics.

I thought you were Polish, with your name and writing style.
szczecinianin   
26 Oct 2013
Life / The best English newspapers about Poland? [22]

I can give you mine: sz-n.com.

Smurf 3,2 .... 1

Other news sites, try googling them:

thenews.pl
wroclaw uncut
the kraków post
new poland express

I would strongly recommend this every Sunday: wroclawuncut.com/2013/06/16/uncut-sunday-supplement/
szczecinianin   
28 Oct 2013
Language / Is Polish an easy language to learn and is there a way of learning it easily? [105]

and here's the facts: if you had a French husband and lived in France, an Italian husband and lived in Italy, a Spanish husband and lived in Spain, Portuguese, German, on and on.....you'd be fluent. Poland? Yeah, 11 years and you're not even intermediate? Expected, because Polish is WAY harder. Period.

Agreed. Those who say otherwise have made no serious effort to learn it.
szczecinianin   
9 Nov 2013
News / Anybody watch Adam Michnik on Lis this evening? [50]

I have to say I'm completely with Antheads and Wielki Polak on this one. Delphi and Harry are showing their abject ignorance and rabid Polonophobia by not accepting the Smolensk Conspiraloon theory as fact, as any true heterosexual, Catholic person of Slavic descent would do.

The world is not as the Polophobe, crypto-Jewish traitors of PO would like to paint it. It was those very same distinguished scientists who have cleverly unravelled the Smolensk plot, despite never having been to Smolensk itself, who unmasked the great round earth hoax, perpetrated by Jewish infiltration of NASA, as the following video clearly demonstrates:

youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=99E-aTIk9xM
szczecinianin   
14 Nov 2013
UK, Ireland / Former minister admits UK messed up on immigration [78]

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7148515.stm

What a ridiculous person. To have five children and expect others to pay for their keep. The British model of a welfare state was a huge mistake. It simply rewards the idle and irresponsible.

The big lie is that it benefited anybody but the unscrupulous.

It has benefited employers and Poles. It has reduced the income of Working Class Brits.