Food / Your all time favourite Polish Dishes! [108]

You'd have to call it ravioli then! LOL

Love / Fell in love with a Polish girl, but find it difficult to approach her [620]

Tell him to take all the time that he needs. Avoid pressuring him by nagging or whining. Let him know you love him, but will be seeing other men. Let him know that you want a boyfriend who is committed to you.

He is keeping his options open, and so should you.

It is good that he was honest. But, rather than make ultimatums or just give him all the space in the world while you wait.....let him see that if he takes too much time, he is in danger of losing you.

If you wait around showing him how patient you are, and the new woman is still communicating and saying she misses him, he will remain confused.

Or, he may decide to go with her. By waiting he will view you as someone he thinks is always an option if she does not work out. Never let him think this way. Let him know you are valuable and that you value yourself.

Language / Poltran? (the free online Polish-English dictionary) - where's it gone? [48]

When I find a website for a hotel in Poland (I am planning a trip in June), sometimes the page has an option for google to translate the page into English. So, I just now looked to see if there is a website for google to translate other English text into Polish and came up with this website. Not sure if it is any good.

Life / COMBATING "POLACK" JOKES [460]

Very nice post Paulina.....heartfelt and intelligent. Thanks for sharing. And you did just fine, dictionary or not. :-)

Life / COMBATING "POLACK" JOKES [460]

Yes, Skysoulmate, many of the old Polish jokes in this country (USA), have now become either redneck jokes or blonde jokes. I happen to be blessed by being a both a blonde and have Polish ancestry.

Best thing I can do is smile and ignore it, or crack another ethnic joke right back! :->

It is kind of like when you are in school and being picked on. If you get too upset, you get picked on more. Yes, sometimes you do have to stand up for yourself against the bullies, but a lot of times all you need to do is show you could care less.

Trevek and Fuzzywickets, I believe you are right about the reason behind such fierce ethnic identity in America. Good logic. :-)

And personally, I always thought Archie came off looking like the jerk. He put down everyone! Edith (the dingbat according to Archie), deserved a medal for patience and devotion.

Life / COMBATING "POLACK" JOKES [460]

MediaWatch, I am an American of Polish ancestry. I can understand you being proud of your roots. But to be so ugly to Bratwurst Boy is uncalled for. For one thing, he is ALWAYS proclaiming that Poles and German are equals in the IQ department.

And while he is proud of his German roots, he has never condoned what Hitler has done. Somehow you have imputed a lot of things to him that you believe are true. Maybe you need to see more of his posts to understand how he can love Germany, enjoy talking about war strategy and also see that Hitler was not in the best interest of anyone.

Otherwise, you are just as prejudiced as you claim him to be. All human beings are genetically very close to each other. All people have been noble, all people have done evil. Be proud of your Polish roots, but be prouder still to be in the human race.

Love / How to convince English boyfriend to learn Polish? [39]

It is hard to "convince" anyone of anything. Usually people resist us when they feel someone is attempting to convince them of something. that being said, there are ways to let him know how you feel, and what you want. I'd suggest you write to him exactly what you wrote here. But, rather than convince or attack him personally, share how his reluctance to learn Polish makes you feel.

Phrase things you have written in what is called "feeling messages". How it makes you feel. Something like, "When I see other men with Polish ladies say simple things like thank you and good morning in Polish, I feel sad that my boyfriend tells me he does not want to know how to say anything in Polish. I also feel worried that this means we have no future."

I feel happy when I visit your family and show them that I enjoy being part of your life. What I want is for my boyfriend to be able to say a few things in Polish so that my parents can see he is interested in who I am. That way, I would feel more enjoyment of my visits with them and would include you more often in my visits.

Feedback / No joke, but how do I LOG OUT? [19]

Yes...that is what I like about this forum. You stay logged in until you decide to logout.

I belong to another message board forum and if you are writing a long reply or post, by the time you go to post it....poof...you've been logged out. It's all gone. Very frustrating.

Love / How is the ideal girlfriend for a Polish guy? [15]

I'd say for any man, be who you are. There is nothing to love, if you change like a chameleon for each guy you are interested in. Let him see what makes you a unique person. If he's not interested, then he's not for you, and you're not for him.

USA, Canada / US resident, have a baby with a Polish girl. Need help on Polish Passport. [30]

Apparently the baby has a USA passport, but not the Polish mother. The baby was born in America and so has a right to an American passport.

Genealogy / Are there other ways of finding records that exist further back than 1826? [22]

Maybe you could look for the death record of the furthest back family you have found. That sometimes lists the place from which they came.

Good luck!

Love / Beauty and physical apperance - Is it so important to Polish boys? [26]

I think you should stop being the one to write first. If he really likes you, he will begin making contact. Otherwise, he may just be being polite. Then you will know if he's shy or just not interested.

History / Have Poles blood on their hands? :) [496]

She's what we call in America, Heinz 57 after the famous sauce with 57 ingredients. :-)

I think Wroclaw Boy is saying that his wife has one grandparent on each side of the family that is German, so his wife is 1/8 German and the baby 1/16 German, and 1/8 Irish. It gets complicated....so Heinz 57.

History / Have Poles blood on their hands? :) [496]

Ah.....my two favorite posters on Polish Forums. :-)

Sometimes, McCoy....people like to stay where they always lived. And if they consider themselves German, it is no crime. Others liked to stay where they lived in Poland and although German by ethnicity, they Polonized their names. Things like this will always happen when a place was formerly multinational. And I am not just talking about from when Hitler brought in the Reich Deutsche. People who lived for 500 hundred years within Poland, and were citizens of Poland, but ethnically German.

I know because that was my family. Half ethnic Germans that I have traced back to 1700's in Poland. And the others ethnic Poles living in Prussia. Both peoples treated each other miserably at different times. All humans have done bad things to other humans. I have cried tears about what my Poles experience under the hands of Prussianization. I have cried tears over what my ethnic Germans experienced getting caught between Hitler and Poland.

I take people individually rather than name some a derogatory name. And the same with countries today that have a diverse background of peoples. Yes, they are all somewhat proud of their own roots, but it is no crime for an ethnic German to love Poland, or living there, and still feel German.

It is easier for me to understand because in America, we are like Poland used to be. Multinational. We are all Americans, but proud of our Polishness, or Italianness or Germanness.

When it comes to opinions, there is the purely Polish opinion, the purely German opinion and the objective truth. It's nice to attempt to see the objective truth.

Genealogy / Neugebauer surname in Poland / Nestor, Zurawel, Worobec, Atamanczuk in Galicia Poland [16]

There was someone in the interwar government of Poland by that last name:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mieczyslaw_Norwid-Neugebauer

Love / Polish boyfriend coming to visit [52]

My son was just telling me that when he was over at his mother-in-law's home for Christmas, that his little girl (my grand daughter) drew a picture of a beautiful home with jaccuzi.

My grand daughter's other grandmother told her, "Marry a rich man so you can have a house like that." My son said, "Go to school, learn to be a doctor and you can have the house you want."

So, yes....many times girls are given this type of advice. :-(

Love / Polish boyfriend coming to visit [52]

Thank you, Ooshak!

I appreciate what you said to me. I feel happy that I shared my experience and that someone truly "gets" it. You are no doubt right. Most people tend to make cracks and be cynical because of the fear of being perceived as weak.

Your post is very upbuilding, and I liked your observation concerning the languages that people strive to learn when they are in love with someone from another culture. While it may appear to most of us that people what to learn the languages of the more succesful countries to find a rich mate, you gave us a window into a lesser known forum where feelings and love win out over money.

Love / Polish boyfriend coming to visit [52]


In reference to the older man with the 40 year age difference....


Perhaps that older man would have thought me foolish. A majority of people who heard about the younger man and myself jumped to the conclusion that I was a cougar and said, "Way to go girl!" And many others thought the younger man was in it for the money. I was newly divorced, and without much money. He did not like living in the USA and wanted me to come live in Poland. In fact he found a place for us to live and while his parents were not happy about us as a couple, they also offered for us to live with them. They loved their son and wanted him happy, and they liked me even though I was their age. He and I truly loved each other. The age was immaterial, but in the real world it was not a good long-term idea, if I really loved him, and wanted the best for him.

Older men and younger women often get stereotyped too as the woman being in it for money, and it is like that a lot, money does play a role. Like another poster said, this is not love, but an arrangement. But, love also does exist between very much older men and younger women.

In either case, whether the relationship is for money or love, the idea of an older man with a younger woman has been more accepted in the past. The man can still give the woman children and material things.

In the case of an older woman, the younger man often must sacrifice the idea of having children if he is to be with his older lady. Mine was ready to do that, but I knew he really had always wanted to be a father. But anyway, I am getting off the course of this thread. I merely wanted the OP to know that I could relate to her worries about meeting an online love for the first time. I wish them both luck and have a feeling it will all work out, but it is normal to be excited and apprehensive.

Love / Polish boyfriend coming to visit [52]

No....he was 29 years younger than myself, and I felt that we had the best of what we could have in those years. We were good for each other.

I did not want to get involved romantically in the first place, (I wanted to remain penpal friends), but because of his relentless pursuit, I fooled myself into thinking that it would be o.k. for the longhaul. I came to want to believe.

Later, after I miscarried a baby due to my age, I felt it was unfair for him. I encouraged him to return to Poland to complete his MA, and see what would happen with us down the road. Part of me wanted him to return to me, and the other part wanted him to have a partner closer to his age.

The next summer he was to come back to the USA to spend the summer with me, but after a lot of back and forth in my mind and heart, I decided, no. I could tell that he was beginning to be attracted to a young lady in his class, and he was acting as though he did not like her at all. He was fighting the attraction to stay loyal. I figured, give them the summer, and they will be together. I was right, brokenhearted, and happy for him all at the same time.

She felt badly at first....that she stole my man....and wanted to write to me, wanted me to understand. I let her know that I understood and was happy for them. We became friends by email. She felt that he would always care about me and wanted us all to be on good terms.

They got married a few years later, and last year I went to visit them in Ireland after seven years had passed! I was nervous, but it was a wonderful reunion and I feel that they are happy and right for each other. The love I had is still there, but with no trace of romance.

Love / Polish boyfriend coming to visit [52]

I can understand how OP feels. I had an online bf back in 1999 and worried about everything prior to our first meeting. I lived in the USA and he lived in Poland. It was my first visit to Poland and our first time meeting in real life. We were so used to emails, chat and phones, but meeting face-to-face for the first time was so exciting and scary, too!

We did hug right away and he held my hand as he led me out of the airport in Warsaw. We could not stop smiling, but it felt also a bit weird.

Most people who have gone through this find that after a few minutes, all awkwardness disappears. It is the same person you have come to love online. We spent months and months getting to know how we felt about everything without the physical blinding us to who we really were. This only works well, if both people are genuine. It is possible to fool someone online, but also in real life for a time. And sometimes, you find that there is no in person chemistry. At the very least then you have made a wonderful friend. Most times though the connection is there.

Telling you to relax is pointless. You are going to be thrilled and worried all at the same time! Enjoy the moment. It is something that only happens once. Meeting that special person in real life.

My relationship lasted for three years and was one of the best. We had a large age gap and ultimately that is what ended us, but to this day there are absolutely no regrets.

Life / Russian Language - is it offensive if I speak it to Polish people? [69]

It is strange that my mother who was born in the USA and (who learned Polish as a child because she loved to spend time with her grandmother), could get the gist of some of what Kruschev said when he was on TV in the USA. She also could understand some Ukranian.

She always said that she spoke Polish about on the level of a five year old child. Her brother and sisters could not understand, or speak in Polish at all. And naturally they could not understand anything in Russian or Ukranian.

My mother's mother was born in the USA, as well, but she lived in a community of Polish immigrants in Jersey City, NJ and went to Polish school. She could read and write in Polish, but she used English when she raised her family. My mother was the sibling who spent the most time with her Polish-born grandmother.

Travel / Why do you visit Poland? [222]

I have a hard time explaining it too, but feel good that another person has had such a similar experience! I remember thinking about the land, too as I flew over Poland. Like you, I felt strangely at home and connected to my roots.

Genealogy / Polish Gypsy Roots & Roma ancestors in their families [206]

RAKKY

Good post. Genetics show that there is so little differenes between people of all the "races" that it almost makes the term race obsolete. What looks like differences on the surface, skin color, curly or straight hair, are miniscule. We share most of our DNA and are one family.

Travel / Why do you visit Poland? [222]

I went in 2000 and in fall 2008! My grandparents were born in Poland. My Mom's side are mostly Polish from the Poznan area, and my Dad's side are mostly ethnic Germans from near Rypin and Lipno near Torun.

It was such a feeling flying over Poland for the first time! I was so excited! And it was cool to see things that so many take for granted when their families live in one place for many generations.

I got to see the churches where my grandparents attended, town and villages. It was extra sweet because when I began my genealogy research, I barely knew anything about Poland or where they all came from! Having gone through all the work, it was even more exciting to actually be there!

Travel / What to do when it's raining in Gdansk [33]

When I was planning my trip, I found a suggestion on TripAdvisor for rainy days. Here it is:

"If you find yourself looking for some thing to do on a rainy day, Baltyca shopping centre is a good choice. It's a 20zl taxi ride from the centre of Gdansk. It has over 300 types of outlets and some nice restaurants. Bring plenty of money"!

Here's the link:

galeriabaltycka.pl

History / What Was Happening in Poland around 1905? [73]

During the times of peak immigration, the older census forms asked what nationality and what language was spoken at home. Two of my grandparents were listed as Russians and two great grandparents were listed as Germans because they came over during the partitions. Of the ones listed as from Russia, (ethnic Germans) one declared German to be the spoken language at home, and the other declared Polish on one census and German on another census. The ones that were listed as German, (Poles), declared themselves to be Polish speakers at home.

I think that gives a pretty good idea of ethnicity in most cases, even though Poland was not a country at the time. One of my ancestors evidently had an identity crisis! LOL

I think that as far as Polish immigration to the states went, that time period late 1800's and early 1900's were considered to be "bread" emmigration from the partitioned areas of Poland. People were poor and looking for opportunity.

Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4501]

That is interesting Polonius3. And makes sense. I believe that the Witzke family were from Pomerania before moving into Central Poland. They spoke Polish and Low German.

Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4501]

Thanks Polonius3.

I appreciate the input. Well, maybe the Witzke/Laskowska comination was one of the mixed marriages that did happen from time-to-time in Central Poland.

Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4501]

My great-grandmother was also a Laskowska, but she lived in a hollander village among ethnic Germans. So, I've often wondered if she was Polish, or perhaps a Kashub. Do you know anything of the usual ethnic background of people with the name Laskowski?

Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4501]

Kamy girl...Polonius3 often translates what the village name would mean if it were rendered in English. Pebbleton (pebble town), is the closest English meaning for the name Kamyk.