The BEST Guide to POLAND
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Posts by Bartolome  

Joined: 14 Sep 2006 / Male ♂
Last Post: 27 Jan 2013
Threads: Total: 2 / Live: 0 / Archived: 2
Posts: Total: 1083 / Live: 104 / Archived: 979
From: Kraina Deszczowców
Speaks Polish?: Kruca fux, ja
Interests: Kufa, panie, acomieto

Displayed posts: 104 / page 1 of 4
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Bartolome   
27 Jan 2013
Language / Fun with Polish ambiguous language [59]

a bit too black

I like black humour:
Wystawił żołnierz głowę z okopu i coś mu do łba strzeliło.
Wszedł żołnierz na minę i się rozerwał.

Alkohol to wróg! A wroga trzeba w mordę lać!
Bartolome   
3 Jun 2012
UK, Ireland / Ad from my UK newspaper today : not worth a zloty [16]

Polish bank notes:

Polish coins:

Poland coins

- all bank notes and coins MUST have an eagle with a crown - old PRL ones had an eagle without a crown
- no coins in current circulation are made of pure aluminium or silver or have a nominal higher than 5 zł (coins with higher nominals are only struck in silver or gold for collectors/investors and nobody sane would use them to pay in everyday transactions, since the intrinsic value of precious metal they're made of is much higher).

I read of someone tricking a shop assistant into accepting this 30 lat prl silver coin here - its nominal is 200 _old_ złotych, its (numismatic) value is about 35 new zł.
Bartolome   
26 Jun 2011
Language / Indirect/direct speech in English and Polish. [4]

Well, uncle google says that direct speech is quoting what someone said with quotation marks. Indirect - just 'reporting' without them.
Direct speech in Polish is similar to English: Powiedział: 'Nie mówię po polsku' / He said: 'I don't speak Polish'.
Indirect speech in Polish retains the tense of the original expression:
(direct with past tense) Powiedział: 'Nie mówiłem po polsku' (c.f. He said 'I didn't speak Polish'.).
(indirect with the same past tense) Powiedział, że nie mówił po polsku. (c.f. [I guess in Englis it would be:] He said he hadn't spoken Polish)

Guess is as simple as that. Ju just have to remember that this grammar construction is different in Polis and English (easier said, than done).

Correct me if I'm wrong, but this is how I see it.
Bartolome   
14 May 2011
Law / Weapons laws in Poland. Carrying a concealed handgun? [918]

Leave your guns in the US. As a foreigner you would need to ask for a permit from Polish consulate to bring your gun over to Poland just to have it taken away from you by the Police for deposit (unless you'd be working as some guard at US embassy or the like). In practice only hunters can have hunting weapons (you have to be a member of PZ£ow. - Polish Hunters' Association). Acquiring weapon other than hunting one is very difficult for a 'civilian'. However, you can become a weapon user (as opposed to an owner) by joining your local shooting range (strzelnica). Having a gun without a permit in your house is illegal and you would most likely would get some holidays at taxpayers' expense in one of Polish penitentiary resorts. You can have an airgun or a 'hand gas thrower' (ręczny miotacz gazu obezwładniającego), but you need to register them with your nearest Police station.

Wapons & Munitions Act (in Polish)
cietrzew.lowiecki.pl/prawo/prawo_3.html
Bartolome   
7 May 2011
Love / Polish women are the most beautiful in the world! [1718]

The Polish Playboy seems to prefer Computer Generated Imagery over real polish women ;)
At least this month edition.

You shouldn't comment on someone else's pop culture if you don't know the context. Triss is a character from a cycle of fantasy novels very popular in Poland - 'Wiedźmin' ('The Witcher'). So it's some response to this wave of popularity. Additionally, the game based on that cycle has become quite popular, not only in Poland. Besides, in the Photoshop era, is there such a big difference of pictures of so called 'real' women and computer generated ones? Hehehe
Bartolome   
26 Jul 2010
Love / WILDROVERS FIVE YEARS IN POLAND....come to an end...! [132]

Funny you should say that....but one of my crazy ambitions is to drive there in the winter using a specially prepared Russian army truck....

Then you'll have to learn how to drink vodka not with these small shot glasses, but with a ladle. Anyway, good luck in Matuschka Russia.
Bartolome   
20 Jun 2010
Genealogy / Funny Polish surnames [64]

In my primary school I had a Sobota (saturday) in my class. There was also a Piątek (friday) in one grade higher. My dad has a copy of an old German map showing our village in great detail, and one of the farms was belonging to a Pierdolla (pierdoła means something like old fart or a clumsy and helpless person). There is also Niesłony (not-salty-one).
Bartolome   
4 Jun 2010
Law / Old Polish money banknotes - what's their value today? [415]

These banknotes are not so worthless as you think, because I would say not much of them are around. Examples of prices are here:

numizmaty.com.pl/index.php?kat=371&podkat=373]
ggn.pl/aukcja33/cz6.htm
Bartolome   
17 Nov 2009
Polonia / POLES vs BULGARIANS [160]

Recently a Bulgarian I met told me he feels safer in Glasgow(!) than in his homeland Bulgaria. I guess that sums up the discussion about who's EU and who's not yet there.

And before you call Poland 'asia', look at your own backyard, pal
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7440551.stm
Bartolome   
8 Nov 2009
Language / Polish words difficult to translate into English [66]

kożuch po dziadku nie pasował na niego (bo był za mały) -

Who? Kożuch, dziadek or him? (Edit: a little joke here)

Żul, menel have probably no counterparts in English. But these are slang words.
Bartolome   
17 Jun 2009
Work / Questions about teaching in Elblag or Opole? [23]

Opole is rather small but a great student city. It is home to Itaka so any trips that you take abroad through them will have their buses located there.

Even better, it's not far away from Katowice-Pyrzowice airport.
Bartolome   
4 Mar 2009
History / Polish-German alliance. [489]

On the other hand Poland would had sunk with Germany and Stalin would had ruled till East Germany after the end....so nothing new here!

The outcome might have been quite different. Let's not forget that Churchill called alliance with Stalin 'A Pact with the Devil', so I don't think Brits would run to help Soviet Union if they weren't already involved in war with Hitler. And without being at war on two fronts, without strategic bombings to worry about Germany had the potential to win the war with Stalin. But the Nazi ideology proved to be doom of itself in the long run - we all know that Germans were treated as liberators during the initial phase of Barbarossa, but their barbarism towards nations of the USSR soon turned the latter against them.
Bartolome   
9 Feb 2009
Language / Polish Swear Words [1242]

But in Silesian?

Bullseye. Or donkeyseye.
Bartolome   
9 Feb 2009
Language / Polish Swear Words [1242]

"cold as f__k"

Piździ jak w Keleckym na banhłofie
Bartolome   
27 Jan 2009
Life / If I could introduce something from my country into Poland, I would.... [175]

THE IDEA THAT TRASH BELONGS IN A TRASH CAN AND NOT ON THE STREET OR TUCKED INTO BUSHES OR DROPPED WHEREVER YOU FEEL LIKE IT!!!!!!!!!!
DIDN'T YOUR MOTHERS EVER TEACH YOU _ANYTHING_??????????

The Polish attitude toward litter in public is certainly not one of the more attractive national characteristics and every once in a while drives me to a screaming frenzy.

Oh really ? Then let me invite you to Glasgow. Unless only Poles live there ?