News / Polish MEP Korwin-Mikke's latest outrage, insulting women [216]

Well of course we always have to use our common sense when evaluating what we're reading. The main thing is to avoid Wikipedia! If you're researching something, always look at a few sources and as diverse as possible so you're not getting too much of a bias.


Here's an interesting piece about him, if this is the guy you mean:

theguardian.com/world/2010/mar/02/ryszard-kapuscinski-accused-fiction-biography

News / Polish MEP Korwin-Mikke's latest outrage, insulting women [216]

Gregy, here's a good starting point for you if you want to argue your points from a more knowledgeable position. There is a lot of rubbish on the internet but if you know where to look there are some good sources:

victorianweb.org/gender/femeconov.html

For example in Scotland in coal pits such as Loanhead in Midlothian in the 1680s or Bo'ness in West Lothian during the 1760s women outnumbered men by two to one.

Just read one short article from that site each day and you'll have a great many more facts at your fingertips than you do now, instead of just having opinions that you've picked up out of the ether, you'll have real knowledge and you can form an opinion based on facts which carries a lot more intellectual weight. Please give it a try, you'll find it interesting.

News / Polish MEP Korwin-Mikke's latest outrage, insulting women [216]

Do you know something Gregy there is hope for you, but you really need to read, read, read and educate yourself. Decent books of social history now, not some old rubbish on the internet. You're obviously capable, remember that 119 IQ :)) And you can crank that up to 125 if you get yourself a book of MENSA puzzles, honestly they're great fun. As to the reading, you'll find that discovering the complex layers of the truth, is much more interesting than your present state of mind.


No pet, that wasn't one college, that was for the whole country.

News / Polish MEP Korwin-Mikke's latest outrage, insulting women [216]


No. They're still two of the leading universities in the world. But during the men only days there was always a tradition of admitting dimwits from aristrocratic families, particularly with Cambridge. They were usually awarded third class honours, such classification becoming known derisively as 'a gentleman's degree'.


Except the stats show the opposite and you haven't produced anything to show otherwise. Just a load of old jaw like a sheep's head.

News / Polish MEP Korwin-Mikke's latest outrage, insulting women [216]


Well now according to the 'male' in question, Charles Babbage regarding the Analytical Engine:

"The notes of the Countess of Lovelace extend to about three times the length of the original memoir," Babbage wrote later. "Their author has entered fully into almost all the very difficult and abstract questions connected with the subject."

News / Polish MEP Korwin-Mikke's latest outrage, insulting women [216]

Gregy, I really don't like to say this but you actually appear to be not the brightest.

However, I am putting some faith in the 119 IQ score and I will persevere for a little longer.

Once upon a time, men and women had distinct roles and nature fitted them for such. Man was the hunter and provider which enabled the family to survive, woman was the bearer and carer of the children and the keeper of the home while the man was away. Gradually over time, society changed and we moved from that very basic way of life and began to develop in many different ways. Women were often not given the same opportunities as men for education but those who were all showed themselves equally capable.

Still, whatever they achieved in private, women were barred from pursuing those things publicly. For example until quite recently, about a hundred years ago women were allowed to study at Oxford or Cambridge and took the same courses as the men, but were not allowed to graduate with a degree. Maria Montessori (I'm a Montessori trained teacher) born in 1870 was the first woman in Italy to qualify as a medical doctor. Originally she wanted to do engineering and had to attend a boy's school to get access to the maths she needed. She was refused admittance to university to study medicine and her father forbade it any case but she kept on and on until they finally agreed and she graduated with the highest honours of all the students. Have you ever heard the term 'bluestocking'? It was a derisive term used contemptously about intellecutal women who were seen as unnatural and an affront to nature. Women were actively discouraged from showing or developing their intelligence.

Your argument is that women are a bit thick so they can't do anything and that history proves it whereas history proves nothing of the kind. It merely proves that women did not have the opportunities to do things to the same extent as men and that those who did were not widely written about or publicised. But, as I say, if you want to, you can find a very long list of educated and gifted women throughout history who managed to rise above the limitations imposed on them by society. But you don't want to, do you?

News / Polish MEP Korwin-Mikke's latest outrage, insulting women [216]


The Leaving Certificate is not a college test. It's a culmination of your five or six years of secondary education and most students in Ireland take around ten subjects at either ordinary of advanced level so it's quite demanding. I agree however that these kinds of exams only paint part of a picture but the reasons that girls excel are worth looking at: more self-disciplined, better organised, more widely read and with better language skills giving them the edge in subjects such as English, History, Geography etc


And refuting is precisely what you're doing yourself. Refuting results that don't support your theory but unable to come up with any concrete evidence to support your own views.

However much you dislike it Gregy, we need some measure of determining at least, an individual's potential, and formal testing is used to decide that when it comes to allocating university places.

Now back to the stats. In Ireland in 2006,of those accepted for study on an Honours Bachelor Degree, 61 per cent of females had scored at least 450 entry points in comparison to 39 per cent of males. So we can say that undoubtedly girls are more studious and are going on to further education with more knowledge of their subjects than the boys entering the same degree courses.

Humanites and the arts remain the most popular subject choice for both sexes which indicates that though men outnumber women in the the sciences they are still more likely to choose the arts. In the UK and Ireland stats show that there is no significant difference in terms of those graduating with First Class Honours or Upper Seconds, some years it's slightly more men, sometimes more women. In the UK in 2009 for example 88% of female students on the Masters in Physics received a First compared to 87% of males so virtually equal.

You're trying to create an artificial intelligence gap between men and women that simply doesn't exist. There is no solid evidence to support your theory and plenty of evidence to contradict it.

Now, did you read up about Ada Lovelace? 'Oh yeah, big deal, she was just one woman, blah, blah'. One woman who might be described as the mother of computer science.

Food / What are favorite herbal teas in Poland/especially loose leaf? [15]

Maricka, unforuntunately for your purposes, there are very few Poles using this forum, so you may not get enough responses to be useful to you. However, I can tell you that herbal teas are very popular in Poland. There are shelves and shelves of them in all the big supermarkets and there are many specialist health shops.

Here's a useful link:

msp.gov.pl/en/polish-economy/economic-news/5676,State-of-the-Polish-tea-market.html
It states that herbal tea has a 14.2% share of the tea market in Poland.

And here's something from the subject which was discussed previously on this forum:

polishforums.com/food/poland-favorite-herbal-teas-especially-65335

A tea that''s popular here amongst those under forty, is Yerba Matte which gives quite an energy boost and is often drunk by the 'young professionals' in place of coffee as they consider it a healthier option.

You might find that googling 'tea drinking habits Poland' could turn up more detailed information.

Good luck!

News / Polish MEP Korwin-Mikke's latest outrage, insulting women [216]


Here you go:

independent.ie/irish-news/education/exams/girls-make-the-grade-again-with-more-as-than-boys-in-leaving-cert-34977861.html

And I quote from the above as you clearly won't bother to read it:

Among 32 Leaving Certificate higher-level subjects, girls produced proportionately more As in 25 of them.
Even in subjects such as engineering, which might be considered traditionally 'male', female candidates edged ahead.
Technology is one of the subjects where the gap in A grades was most pronounced, with 16pc of girls getting the top mark, compared with 12pc of boys.

So in Ireland anyway girls are 'better' at almost everything. But as the article points out it's not just Ireland, it's a worldwide phenomenon.

News / Polish MEP Korwin-Mikke's latest outrage, insulting women [216]


Did you read either of the links about exam results? With your IQ of 119 you are capable of understanding more than you appear to. That's 19 points above average so you clearly have the capability to think logically but your posts would suggest otherwise.

It's not a question of either women or men being 'better' than each other. It's just recognising that each sex is equally capable. Having said that nature has designed us over time to fulfil certain roles and we undoubtedly still show that in certain innate qualities that we posess.



Those things are to some degree subjective and can't always be judged in terms of good, better and best. Obviously there are a number of women in the modern world who are successful in these areas but come on Gregy you can't be that ignorant surely?? Women writers?? The list is too long to catalogue here. As for other art and music there have always been women artists and musicians. They just didn't receive the publicity that men have so unless you're a very widely read person you won't know about them. Also there were many gifted women who could not publicly carry out those professions because it wasn't considered respectable for women to to do anything other than sit at home and sew a fine seam. If you bother to do a quick Google (which of course you won't, because like so many you are a genuine ignoramus having little or no knowledge and not wanting to acquire any) then you'll find a very long list of such women going back centuries.

As for computer science, one word - ADA. Look it up as once again you obviously know nothing about it. As a matter of interest, what DO you actually know about? I mean, do you know anything of substance about anything at all?


Ah yes now that's interesting. I'm afraid that both sexes are equally susceptible to marketing and advertising. Did you know there's no such thing as bisexual? It's just something that was invented to sell more hair products :) Personally price pre litre/kilo would influence me far more than the colour of the bottle.

News / Polish MEP Korwin-Mikke's latest outrage, insulting women [216]

Oh absolutely. If you read the article about third level degree choices that's exactly what one of the teachers says:

"As regards technology or engineering I can talk about it 'til I'm blue in the face because girls want to 'work with people.' "They think if they do science or engineering it will not be as people-centred."

News / Polish MEP Korwin-Mikke's latest outrage, insulting women [216]

Oh and one more thing. Let's not underestimate the importance of emotional intelligence and social skills at both of which women tend to outstrip men. From my own personal observations of children during my teaching years, you see this gap begin to emerge very early on. At the age of three boys and girls are very similar, by the time they reach their fourth birthday it's a different story. The girls are far more verbal and use their words to communicate with each other. The boys are still very physical and often play together with hardly a word exchanged but lots of body contact. If two or three girls are working together for example to build something from Lego, they will discuss what they're doing 'Let's put the big red one on top' 'No, leave it, it's going to fall over' etc The boys will work in silence with an occasional yell of protest, grabbing from each other and squeals of joy when something has gone well. Very basic, caveman stuff.

The girls also begin to show empathy. They're still too young to really be genuinely empathic but they are much quicker to imitate the behaviour of their mothers. So, watch four year old children at play in the school yard. Somebody falls over, the boys generally either don't notice at all, or simply stop for a moment, stare and move on. But with the girls there will always be a few who go over straight away 'are you ok?' Then they help the other child up and very often put an arm around them, pat their shoulder, stroke their head and make sympathetic noises.

The girls are so much quicker too, to read other people's moods and in particular to read the teacher's mood! They understand a whole set of unwritten rules that go right over the heads of boys of that age. Here's a typical example. I was on yard supervision duty, there was an incident and I was scolding a boy of about five for his part in it. An interested girl, from the year below him (so four years old) was watching. When I'd finished reading the riot act, I concluded in a very stern voice 'Now I don't want to see that behaviour again. Do you understand?' The boy just stared at me with open mouth, clearly still having no real idea of what he's done wrong. Girl steps forward, digs him in the ribs with her elbow and mutters 'Say yes!' :D

Now fast forward twenty years to the workplace and the story is the same ;)

News / Polish MEP Korwin-Mikke's latest outrage, insulting women [216]


And yet, strangely, bearing in mind that boys and girls sit the same exam papers:

independent.ie/irish-news/education/exams/girls-do-it-again-with-better-grades-in-leaving-cert-31450666.html

irishtimes.com/opinion/why-do-girls-outperform-boys-in-the-leaving-cert-1.2317485

And here's a rather long but interesting article as to why girls don't opt for science and maths based options at third level.Bear in mind that in Ireland there is almost an equal number of girls and boys taking higher/advanced maths. So why do so few of those girls go on to take a maths based degree when they're clearly capable of it:

irishexaminer.com/lifestyle/features/why-are-girls-not-choosing-it-courses-at-third-level-379396.html

Although the examples given are from Ireland, apparently these kind of stats are reflected elsewhere.

News / Polish MEP Korwin-Mikke's latest outrage, insulting women [216]

What I find most objectionable about the guy is his outrageous views about child pornography. On the one hand he advocates punishing child abusers severely and on the other, legalising child porn. Of course this would be ok according to his nibs because it would be computer generated, not involving any actual living children.

Study / Poznan University of Economics or University of Warsaw ? [25]



The original plan was for her to live with her Babcia in Warsaw. That would cut out the rent expenses which is the major part of the budget for most people. I imagine her parents would then contribute a certain amount each month to Granny for additional food bills etc. Also perhaps Slavic's parents feel that living with Granny would ensure that their daughter behaves herself, no wild partying etc under Granny's watchful eye!


If she lives with her Babcia she'll be talking Polish all the time I imagine and I'm sure she'll see quite a bit of the extended family and get a taste of real Polish family life.

So I'm not sure that the options you suggest, though excellent, have any added attraction for her parents. It will be interesting to see what their reaction is.


That's an excellent point. Slavic, I'm not sure if you're aware but the college contact hours/lectures in full time degrees are very high in Poland. It's pretty much five days a week and can be a full forty hours a week.

Study / Poznan University of Economics or University of Warsaw ? [25]

The problem with other European universities Slavic is that you're up against the same issue of language. You're restricted to choosing study programs offered in English and I couldn't comment on the quality of those, wouldn't have a clue. Your only other option is the UK or Ireland as those are obviously English speaking countries but the cost of living there is very high for an American student, that's presuming you could get accepted.Your GPA is just about the minimum required and your ACTs are probably below the minimum.

Your dilemma seems to be that somehow you and your parents have formed a picture over a period of time that you could save money by studying in Poland and at the same time gain a certain European gloss (a bit like the old finishing school concept) so now you're finding it hard to let go of that idea. Sounds to me like your parents have that typically Polish trait - stubborn! Look, it's like this. Either you take a year out and go abroad purely for the cultural experience or you start your studies at home in the USA and if your parents really want the cultural thing for you, you might be able to do an exchange year with a European uni during your degree. The bottom line is that you shouldn't be compromising the quality of your education. You should let go of the old dream and set yourself some new goals and dreams :) Achievable ones....the most sensible thing to do is to take one of those offers from a good American college or if money is really a serious problem preventing you from accepting them, explore the cheaper or no cost options that Dominic suggested. You're just starting out in life and this is just the beginning of your real education. Sometimes in life we can't get what we want by the quickest route, we have to take a more roundabout way, but as long as we get where we want to go in a reasonable length of time then that's ok. I know people seem to be a bit snobby about community colleges but they're a good starting point so don't dismiss them completely.

Regarding your fluency in Polish, if you have two languages swirling in your head and that impedes your ability to communicate complex ideas, then you're not fluent. You're heading towards fluency but not quite there yet. The reason you can't write long essays is because you've never really persevered with it. If you enrolled in a degree through the Polish language it would be demanding at first, but within a year you'd probably be completely fluent. I suspect that you enjoy writing in English and have developed a certain style over the years but you can't achieve that quality and style in Polish which you find frustrating but don't dismiss your ability to do a competent essay po Polsku. The sad fact is that wihere degree studies are concerned it's not so much about your talents as a writer but often more about serving back to the examiner the same stuff that's been dished up on the course you've studied. You don't really need to be brilliant or outstanding or especially original, you just need to give them what they want and include all the key points that you're supposed to have absorbed.

Well anyway, let us know how it goes with your parents and good luck with everything. Stay strong!

Study / Poznan University of Economics or University of Warsaw ? [25]

Maybe if you go to college in Chicago you could get some kind of summer internship in New York as a kind of compromise? I suppose everybody is chasing them but it's always worth a try.

Study / Poznan University of Economics or University of Warsaw ? [25]

Sorry but something doesn't add up here. Last week you were saying that studying in Poland had always been yourdream, now it's your parents' dream. Last week you were worrying that your 'very average grades' (your own words) wouldn't be good enough to get you into a Polish university but yet you have received numerous offers from great American universities - which your parents won't let you accept............it just sounds weird.

Study / Poznan University of Economics or University of Warsaw ? [25]


Yes Uncle Dom, that's what I done diddly said, diddle I? :))



Which of course the OP won't be able to provide. Even if she'd completed the degree the university probably wouldn't or couldn't give her that information. I think foreigners have absolutely no idea how unhelpful Polish bureacrats can be. So really she can't know until she's potentially wasted three or four years of her life with a degree that will be of no use to her.

I just linked to those equivalency things to give Slavic some idea of how the system works but yes, the bottom line is that there's no way of knowing until you do it for real. Also you're undoubtedly right that an English language progam will be of very basic quality. Your profiling of the students attending those courses is spot on.


Once again you speak the truth oh Wise One.

Study / Poznan University of Economics or University of Warsaw ? [25]

Ok, I managed to find this information for you in terms of equivalence which gives you some idea of credit transfer between Poland and America:

"Ultimately, it is the student's home institution that decides how the credits and grades earned at the Jagiellonian University will be entered into their home institution's records. Many US colleges, for example, consider 2 ECTS points to be 1 US 'credit hour'.

Some North American institutions use the following equivalences for grades:

2.0 = F
3.0 = C
3.5 = C+
4.0 = B
4.5 = B+
5.0 = A

Please consult your home institution before assuming that they will follow any specific system of interpretation or equivalence."

You need to familiarise yourself with the European Credit Transfer stystem (ECT) and the Polish grading system.

Here's a link to the full explanation:

ces.uj.edu.pl/undergraduate/credit-transfer-from-study-abroad

ECTs

are determined by the number of hours required to complete each module/course in a study year. Your Polish transcripts will give ECTs which an American college can then convert into the American equivalent. Roughly a three year undergraduate program will give you 180 Ects if I remember correctly.

ec.europa.eu/education/resources/european-credit-transfer-accumulation-system_en

Here's the American system explained and it has a section on converting ECTS into American credits with an online calculator:

mastersportal.eu/articles/1110/what-you-need-to-know-about-academic-credit-systems-in-the-us.html

This is about transferring to an American college from Europe. It has a transfer profile section where you can search colleges in America for their requirements. Your choice of law school might be on there:

collegetransfer.net/ContinueMyEducation/ChangeSwitchTransfer/TransferStudentCenter/ForInternationalStudents/tabid/997/default.aspx

Study / Poznan University of Economics or University of Warsaw ? [25]

Hi Slavic. You're back! I thought you were going to study political science and economics in the USA? The University of Warsaw is certainly reputable but that doesn't necessarily mean that the degree you choose will be ok for law school. The only way to determine whether the degree obtained in Poland would be acceptable for American law school is to contact the law schools you're interested in and ask them. It may not be easy to get a definite answer from them however. Institutes of higher education usually decide these things on a case by case basis, unless they have an arrangement in place with other education authorities/individual 'partner' colleges, so they usually ask to see a detailed syllabus for the degree you've studied in order to determine the level of the content. So unless they've had applicants in the recent past who've done the same degree as the one you're considering, then they won't be able to give you a definite answer. The same thing goes for the transfer business.

Another thing you'll find when you start dealing with any official stuff in Poland is that though things have improved there, it can still be difficult to obtain information that is easy to get in more 'Western' countries and the process of accessing information can be slow. However it's worth contacting Warsaw University and asking them whether any students from the English language medium degrees have transferred back to American colleges during their studies. You'll probably need to phone them as Polish offices of all kinds are notoriously bad at responding to emails and you won't get a definite answer straight away. It will take a bit of chasing up. Now in Ireland, where I'm from, you can actually get to talk to a Prof from the course you're interested in, they're extremely approachable but that's not generally the case in Poland unless the college has an open day. However it's often the best way to quickly access really useful information.

As to getting accepted, it really depends on the number of applicants they get but even if your grades are a bit borderline, they will probably squeeze you in if they can, because as other posters previously mentioned, they really do want the money.

Law / I bet that many of you forgot to register in the Poland's municipality office [13]

But, Terri you're Polish aren't you? I always thought you were. Poland will always consider you a Polish citizen regardless of your British residency/citizenship. Why would you have to register as a foreigner??

Study / Need advice with admission to the University of Warsaw!! Please help!! [26]

I'm genuinely sorry that you feel your dream crumpled. That's very hard to deal with alright. Look, you could still go ahead with your plans to study in Poland but it depends on what your objectives are. If you just want to a) get a basic undergraduate degree to pave the way to law school and b) save momey, then you can meet those objectives. But against that you have to weigh up the quality of the degree you get, whether it will help you to acquire good study skills and truly further your broader education and what employment/further education prospects it gives you, should you decide not to pursue law as a career.

Language / Capitalisation in Polish language; uncapitalised car marques (fiat, buick, honda)? [17]

Ha ha! Yes I know and Notty didn't pick up on it either, he missed a golden opportunity there :)) You see Harry when I make an error I'm merely taking a liberty or toying with accepted conventions - when somebody else does it they're just wrong.

Language / Capitalisation in Polish language; uncapitalised car marques (fiat, buick, honda)? [17]

As you won't accept my word for it here's an explanation from a PHD in English:

katherinewikoff.com/2012/10/18/whats-the-difference-between-grammar-punctuation-and-mechanics

I understand what you're trying to say, that by using a capital letter and a full stop you are creating the grammatical unit of a sentence but linguistics doesn't see it that way.

Language / Capitalisation in Polish language; uncapitalised car marques (fiat, buick, honda)? [17]

No, Notty, It's mechanics, not grammar. That's another example of how we have usages within English that are accepted though not strictly correct. It's easier to bring everything under one handy heading but mechanics, punctuation and grammar are separate and capitalisation is classified under the heading of mechanics.

Language / Capitalisation in Polish language; uncapitalised car marques (fiat, buick, honda)? [17]


Notty, once again, capitalisation is not a part of grammar. Yes, using a comma instead of a semi-colon is an error but still not anywhere in the same league as failing to capitalise the word 'American'.

Now let's get real here. The fact is that certain widely accepted liberties are taken by educated people in informal written communications. The other main poster in that thread, Dominic, is far better educated than you or I, and his posts also contain numerous 'errors' such as beginning a sentence with 'and'. However, you will find that he wouldn't do that when writing up formal documentation. You would also find that however casual he might be in some respects, he wouldn't fail to capitalise the name of a country - ever - and nor would I.

Language / Capitalisation in Polish language; uncapitalised car marques (fiat, buick, honda)? [17]

[moved from]


Capitalisation is not part of grammar. Anyway it abides by fixed rules. Punctuation is more flexible. In the example you give, a semi-colon would be more appropiate than creating a separate sentence. The use of a comma instead of a semi-colon is a bit sloppy but it's not as grave an offence against literacy as the failure to capitalise a country or nationality.

Study / Need advice with admission to the University of Warsaw!! Please help!! [26]

As a matter of fact Slavic we are - some people are significantly better in a whole variety of ways, be it intellectually, morally, socially. Now that's not to say that I am necessarily better than you but I pay attention to detail (in this case capitalisation) which is something you would do well to emulate if you intend to pursue a legal career. Also it will improve your chances of success in life if you learn to listen and reflect on what people tell you. Nobody here was trying to humiliate or hurt you with their advice, two intelligent, mature people who have experience of teaching and tutoring speculated on your options. The greatest benefit you could have derived from that was to join the discussion like a mature adult rather than pouting and flouncing and head tossing.

Study / Need advice with admission to the University of Warsaw!! Please help!! [26]

Dominic offered you very sound advice. Nothing to get depressed about.

I questioned whether you were academic enough to be considering law. I did so because of your average grades which, having some idea of the standard of the content in ACT tests, is not really university material by European standards. Now those grades may well be less than you're capable of. Perhaps you were bored in school and didn't bother to study. Nobody, no matter how bright will pass exams if they don't know the syllabus. But if that's the case, then you would need to get your act together before embarking on third level studies as a law degree requires enormous amounts of very dull, very dry reading and memorising.

Anyway, best of luck and remember to use a capital letter for American :))