Love / Polish girls and contraceptives [68]

@Torq

Depends how you read what your link says. Poland sits alongside Kosovo as the worst performing country in this matter..

Language / What is your biggest problem with Polish language? [158]


Have heard this several times over during my life but cannot quite reconcile it with the fact that French people are among the least "liked" in Europe (although food, culture.. etc is widely admired). Can't have it all I guess!

News / Poland economy is a financially drained economy of suppliers? [33]

Ha, ha.. Condor was a loss making business (-14€ mios at operating level in 2017) subsidiary of bankrupt UK tour operator Thomas Cook and is being bought by a half bankrupt airline.. As the German environment Minister once said (admittedly talking about another topic), "it is not by putting two cripples together that you get an Olympic swimmer"!!

Language / What is your biggest problem with Polish language? [158]


A bit more complicated than that, Polish language, like all languages, reflects how the Polish mind works. And in my experience (living 6 years in Poland and having a Polish wife for the last 35 years), it works as an alliance of opposites. Rigorous when it comes to following/respecting procedures, yet impulsive and emotional, like most Slavs. When I was in Poland 10 years ago, I used to say to foreigners visiting Poland that the best way to get insight into Polish mentality was to stand at the corner of Marzalkowska and Grzybowska (close to where my offices were) and watch. Unlike in the UK or France, pedestrians would wait for the green man before crossing, thus epitomizing the respect of procedures side. On the other hand, you just had to watch how motorists behaved to see the Slavic side!

Life / How to really meet Polish people in Poland and actually socialize with people in their Late 20s/Early 30s? [34]

@kaprys

Not quite! UK citizens do not need the have an ID with them when in Britain; however they need to have either ID or passport with them when travelling in the EU.

And even when crossing EU borders by car, you need to carry some sort of identification with you (ID or passport). Most of the time, you will not be stopped and not need it, but if stopped, you need to be able to show it

Life / How to really meet Polish people in Poland and actually socialize with people in their Late 20s/Early 30s? [34]


you do still need a passport or ID, admittedly not for crossing borders but for airline security checks before boarding..

Polonia / Polish Zloty Can't Exchange in France!.. [24]

@Miloslaw
I lived in London between 1993 and 2001 and remember seeing forms in all sorts of languages at my local Social Security outlet when I went to get a NI number

Polonia / Polish Zloty Can't Exchange in France!.. [24]


In fact, it is because France is (with Poland) the country of bureaucracy.. There is a indeed a very generous benefits system but to be able to use it one must speak and understand French (no forms in Urdu etc available!) and fill in numerous forms and answer many questions (even when done on line).. A deterrent for many foreigners..

History / Recommended Poland's history books [176]

@Ziemowit

Indeed, the version I bought is the French translation.. and I agree it is very thick..I hope it will not end like another very thick Polish book which I bought years ago and stopped reading half way through (le Manuscrit trouvé à Saragosse/Rekopis Znaleziony w Saragossie by J Potocki) !!

History / Recommended Poland's history books [176]

Merged:

Just bought "the Books of Jacob" by Olga Tokarczuk, the Litterature Nobel prize winner.

I haven't started it yet. Have you read it and if yes, what do you think of it?

Life / Opłatek, not presents, epitomises the true Polish Christmas spirit [85]


Not quite, it is probably the sole occasion in the year when members of families get together (at least in Europe where Thanks giving does not exist)

News / Polexit? Almost half of the Poles believe that Poland would be better off outside of the EU [548]

@Spike31

You're right about Germany and the Netherlands being the only beneficiaries of the euro.. but that is entirely other Europeans' (and especially Southern Europeans) fault. if you go back to pre euro era, you will find that the countries more in favour of adopting the euro were the likes of Italy, Greece or France and certainly not Germany. What is the reason for this? Simple: lack of basic understanding of how the economy works .. The analysis on their side was, as always, political and not economical in the sense that they viewed the upcoming euro as a proxy for the DM, as strong currency and said " can we have a bit of that, can Germany share a bit of that strength, surely our standard of living will then get closer to that of Germans" .. Worse of the lot was Mitterrand, the French president at that time, a total ignoramus as far as economy was concerned , who only agreed to German reunification when Kohl agreed to take on the euro as a replacement for the D mark (to which the Germans was opposed). 15 to 20 years later, what is the outcome? It is indeed the main exporting European countries which have benefited for the stability of the Euro (before the D mark used to appreciate regularly, making exports more expensive) whereas the other more "fickle" countries who used to devaluate on a regular basis to maintain competitiveness and release pressure out of the system cannot do so anymore..

News / "POLISH death camps" term used by "Parade Magazine" Anti-Polish Bigots [249]

@Bratwurst Boy

No I am afraid the rest is not legend, you can easily check on the web..

News / "POLISH death camps" term used by "Parade Magazine" Anti-Polish Bigots [249]

@Bratwurst Boy


I was recently for the first time ever in Uzbekistan, whose national hero is Tamerlan (Amir Timur). The night when a Russian anthropologist opened Tamerlan's tomb on 22/06/1941, he discovered the following script in the grave "when I will return to daylight, the world will shake". It is on that very night that Hitler launched Barbarossa operation against Russia.

in 1942, Stalin ordered for Tamerlan's body to be reburied according to islamic ritual in his Gur Emir tomb. Shortly after this completed came the USSR victory at Stalingrad, widely seen as the turning point of WW2!

Why did Stalin order the body to be buried again? No one knows for sure, but a potential explanation might be sheer admiration: Tamerlan managed to slaughter around 17 mios people, more than Stalin and more than 500 years earlier, so with more limited means!

Life / Importance of Religion in Poland [187]

it's the eternal fight between the Barbarians (Orthodoxs or Russians/Serbs) and Civilization (Catholics or Poles)!!

Travel / Poland's LOT Air Problems [43]


Because it is the airline who decides on the seat configuration and space between rows not the manufacturer

Food / What Polish foods do foreigners generally not take to? [115]


Not only in America, it is called fromage de tête in France


What about haggis?? And anyway eating is about pleasure not need, at least for most people in developed countries


Love it! One of my favourite treats is speading marrow from the bone on a toast with a sprinkle of salt.

History / Modern myths and legends about communist past in Poland [227]

Pawain's post 163 hits the proverbial nail right on the head

Real Estate / Polish government targeting British property buyers!! [10]


Not quite. In France, buyer and seller can use the same notary, yet the notary is obliged the verify information re the property

Work / TAXATION for a foreigner in Poland [11]

Indeed, I remember eating a delicious meal in Wierzynek in 1986 for a few francs. Even expensive French wines were cheaper in Poland than in France when you applied the black market exchange rate.. I also remember coming somewhat shameful out of this meal; there was a table of Germans next to us behaving as though the place belonged to them..

Work / TAXATION for a foreigner in Poland [11]

Maybe it was heaven for you or for other western foreigners, but it was hell for the Poles living there. I think the current situation is much preferable :)

News / Tram line to Warsaw's Wilanów finally to be built. [35]


The line maybe but no the entrances to the metro station. I find them quite disgraceful with all those angular lines..

Love / Should a marriage proposal to a partner from Poland be done in private or public? [27]


Hopefully that happened 9 years ago..

UK, Ireland / Polish People are Welcome in Scotland [41]

@Ziemowit
Long live the Auld Alliance!

Law / GDP or GDP per capita - what's more accurate number in Poland? [10]


That's highly debatable.. I think that in reality it is the other way around, it is a higher rate of consumption of services as opposed to primary (agri) or secondary (manufactured goods) which characterizes a highly developed economy

Language / So why did you give up learning Polish? [105]

I agree with Lyzko, there is no language which is superior a or inferior to another. Yet, what is fascinating is that by studying a language you can understand (at least partially) the culture of a country and how people behave. English for example is, as others previously wrote, relatively straightforward to learn at a basic level (simple structures, etc) but it is a very rich language in terms of vocabulary (at least compared to Polish, French or German). It is also very flexible, a key British characteristic. The main difficulty for a foreigner is to learn to pronounce correctly a word previously never encountered, since the same group of letters can be pronounced very differently (eg pea or meadow, live or.. live, etc). In English, you have to look beyond what meets directly the eye (similar group of letters) to understand the true meaning; a bit like when a Brit says "interesting " meaning in reality "utter bxx"..

On the contrary, Polish pronunciation, however intimidating it might appear at the outset (all those z, sz, cz and diacritics!) is quite straightforward in the sense that each letter/group of letters is always pronounced the same. But when you get into the structure of language, you do have a glimpse at the complexity of the Polish (Slavic?) soul. Unlike English were most nouns have no gender (with a few exceptions), French which has 2 genders, German 3 genders, Polish has 5 genders (3 on the surface, but if you had the personal, animate, inanimate subdivisions of masculine that's 5). In addition, whereas German has 4 declensions, Latin 6, Polish has 7. So that's 35 possibilities (5x7), which is impossible to get right for a "normal" foreigner, especially when you realise that declensions also vary within a given gender depending on the ending, soft of hard (Kasiu but Edyto). And that is without taking into account that negative sentences are also declined! A real nighmare! My favourite summary of the complexity (or subtlety depending from where you are coming from) is the very simple Polish equivalent of " there is bread/there is no bread". Not only do we have the declension due to the negative, but unlike in any other non slavic language i know, the verb is not the same in the positive and negative phrases: jest chleb but nie ma chleba!! For me that beats everything

Law / GDP or GDP per capita - what's more accurate number in Poland? [10]

Come on..In most developed countries, the service sector represents 70% of GDP, with manufacturing and agriculture put together 30%. if you don't take into account services, you miss out on 70% of wealth creation!!

Language / So why did you give up learning Polish? [105]


dear Lyzko, haven't you just given a ranking, albeit implicitly?? 1. Anglos (4 writers/poet names), 2. French (3), 3. Germans (2) 4. Poles (1!).. Just kidding of course, but sometimes subconscious plays games!

Law / Penalty for driving on expired license in Poland? [30]


Not true, in France it is 15 years, and the renewal is a simple admin matter (no new driving test, mo medical check)

Love / I want my Polish gf to live with me but she says life here is too hard [31]

what topic?? the thread is 9 years old..