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Blasphemer
Joined: 03 Dec 2008
Posts: 199
Location: NYC/Warszawa
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 Posted: Wed May 27, 2009 7:51 pm Post subject: Re: So if you don't like it leave. |
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| Khrystene wrote: |
I just was reading a post about the 'stench' of Poles on public transport, |
Yea... what a sad thread that was... pretty funny to think that some people think that their sh*t doesn't stink just because they are abroad.
It's the summer... no matter where you are in the world, public transportation is going to be filled with the sweet smell of BO. I don't think any stench can ever come close to the smell of the NYC subways, be it summer or winter. |
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dynow
Joined: 07 Nov 2006
Posts: 1080
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| Posted: Wed May 27, 2009 9:29 pm Post subject: |
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blasphemer wrote:
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| At first I really believed that [don't really know why, during my CELTA I've had the pleasure of working with a fellow who was working in Japan for about two years, he was able to not only communicate verbally, but also read and write, he even switched his keyboard to Japanese characters] ... but now, I've met quite a few teachers at my school... some of them no longer than two or three years here... they are able to hold a conversation [both formal and informal] communicate clearly... get this, I've met a guy who's an actor and after only four years here gets parts in theater plays... he did a dramatic monologue for me from Euripides... simply brilliant! So sorry Dynow, but I just don't buy it anymore. |
again, the "I know this one guy...." statement is meaningless.
btw, when you do a play, you rehearse lines, not speak freely 
Tom Hanks starred in a movie playing a Russian guy stranded in an airport.......  |
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Khrystene
Joined: 17 Apr 2004
Posts: 271
Location: WAW, PL/SYD, AU
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| Posted: Wed May 27, 2009 10:57 pm Post subject: |
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| dynow wrote: |
blasphemer wrote:
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| At first I really believed that [don't really know why, during my CELTA I've had the pleasure of working with a fellow who was working in Japan for about two years, he was able to not only communicate verbally, but also read and write, he even switched his keyboard to Japanese characters] ... but now, I've met quite a few teachers at my school... some of them no longer than two or three years here... they are able to hold a conversation [both formal and informal] communicate clearly... get this, I've met a guy who's an actor and after only four years here gets parts in theater plays... he did a dramatic monologue for me from Euripides... simply brilliant! So sorry Dynow, but I just don't buy it anymore. |
again, the "I know this one guy...." statement is meaningless.
btw, when you do a play, you rehearse lines, not speak freely
Tom Hanks starred in a movie playing a Russian guy stranded in an airport....... |
Oh I'm sorry, I didn't realise we were playing DYNOW is right and everyone else can go suck eggs... |
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Blasphemer
Joined: 03 Dec 2008
Posts: 199
Location: NYC/Warszawa
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| Posted: Thu May 28, 2009 4:03 am Post subject: |
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| dynow wrote: |
blasphemer wrote:
again, the "I know this one guy...." statement is meaningless. |
why is that? Is it because it didn't come out of your mouth? It's the same guy that sat with me in a car with another Pole and was able to hold up a great conversation with only a handful of small mistakes.
50, 000 English speaking expats liver here legally Dynow... just a number that I'd like to bring to your attention.
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| btw, when you do a play, you rehearse lines, not speak freely |
NO!!!! REALLY!!!!???
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| Tom Hanks starred in a movie playing a Russian guy stranded in an airport....... |
There is a difference between having a conversation and parroting. You should know that. |
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Blasphemer
Joined: 03 Dec 2008
Posts: 199
Location: NYC/Warszawa
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| Posted: Thu May 28, 2009 4:04 am Post subject: |
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| Khrystene wrote: |
Oh I'm sorry, I didn't realise we were playing DYNOW is right and everyone else can go suck eggs... |
That's the name of the game. |
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dynow
Joined: 07 Nov 2006
Posts: 1080
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| Posted: Thu May 28, 2009 7:51 am Post subject: |
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the two of you can continue to go tit for tat all you want, but i'd like to re-focus the conversation to the main points I am arguing, that being:
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| So why limit yourself?! Learn the language, break through the barriers, broaden your horizons. It's actually not THAT hard. |
[quote]Polish is no more difficult than any other language[quote]
again, I reiterate, yes, it is THAT hard, and yes it IS more difficult than most other languages. the two of you have been speaking polish since you were old enough to walk....you simply cannot gauge the relative difficulty of this language.
send any of us "expats" on this forum to either Spain, Portugal, Italy, Germany, France, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Austria, etc. etc., and in very little time we'd be rockin' and rollin' with the country's language.
this, nearly every time, does not happen in Poland.
simple experiment: we have several people on this forum that have been here for 3 years or more. how many of you, excluding our super star Polish speaker Hrvatski, would consider yourself to be at at least an intermediate level speaker of Polish or better? go to the Spanish forum, French forum, etc., and I'm sure you will get a much different response to that question. |
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hrvatski
Joined: 16 Nov 2008
Posts: 270
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| Posted: Thu May 28, 2009 8:08 am Post subject: |
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| I attribute my success to an unhealthy relationship with Polish pop culture [see pudelek.pl]. |
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Glenlivet
Joined: 21 Mar 2009
Posts: 179
Location: Poland
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| Posted: Thu May 28, 2009 9:38 am Post subject: |
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| dynow wrote: |
simple experiment: we have several people on this forum that have been here for 3 years or more. how many of you, excluding our super star Polish speaker Hrvatski, would consider yourself to be at at least an intermediate level speaker of Polish or better? |
Jeszcze jedno piwo - koniec 
I do have the disadvantage of having an English wife though... |
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Harry from NWE
Joined: 13 Sep 2007
Posts: 283
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| Posted: Thu May 28, 2009 2:34 pm Post subject: |
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| Blasphemer wrote: |
| dynow wrote: |
again, the "I know this one guy...." statement is meaningless. |
why is that? Is it because it didn't come out of your mouth? |
I know a guy who learned to juggle and within two years he could juggle seven balls at once and became a professional juggler. Does that mean juggling seven balls is easy? No, it means that he has an aptitude for it.
Just because one person can do something doesn't mean that lots of people can do it. Just because one person does something doesn't mean that other people do it. Let me give you an example: I know a guy from New York who acts like a know-it-all tw@t and used to tell all of us all about Poland when he didn't even live here. Does that mean all people from New York act like a know-it-all tw@ts? No it doesn't. |
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dynow
Joined: 07 Nov 2006
Posts: 1080
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| Posted: Thu May 28, 2009 8:23 pm Post subject: |
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that, if anything, further proves my point.
most people don't get 1500's on their SAT's in America.
most people don't graduate med school with flying colors.
most people don't move to Poland......... ..........and so on and so forth.
on the flip side:
nearly everyone gets through their bachelor's degree.
nearly everyone can drive a car.
nearly everyone can do 5 pushups........because it's simply easier. |
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Blasphemer
Joined: 03 Dec 2008
Posts: 199
Location: NYC/Warszawa
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| Posted: Fri May 29, 2009 9:48 am Post subject: |
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| Harry from NWE wrote: |
| I know a guy from New York who acts like a know-it-all tw@t and used to tell all of us all about Poland when he didn't even live here. Does that mean all people from New York act like a know-it-all tw@ts? No it doesn't. |
oh Harry, you are just too sweet... but you don't know me, you know absolutely nothing about me 
why don't you relax, take a load off and try smiling now and again, it really does wonders for you and your surroundings.
Now back to your point... I'm pretty sure that I know more about this place than you ever will, but I'm not trying to be a ... what was the word that you used? Oh, yea a *beep*... and try to convince you otherwise... just like I would never try to tell someone born and raised in NYC anything about NYC just because I spent some time there.
We are all adults and can understand certain truths about being born into a culture vs. living there for a hot minute.
I now live here again and some of the posts on this board still bring smiles to my face.
Some people learn how to assimilate and adapt to any situation that they may find themselves in; others on the other hand... well, others sit on this board day in and day out and pretend. I feel for the second half, I really do, I once was a stranger in a strange land without language skills necessary to live a comfortable life, but in the end I've managed.
I haven't felt the need to call anyone names here just yet, although certain phrases do come to mind while reading some of the "ideas" and "comments" left by certain members. Why don't we keep it civil and try to avoid unnecessary drama.
If anyone here is playing a "know it all" it's you and Dynow, I'm simply trying to bring some reason here once in a while.
If I were to follow some of the advice that the two of you have so graciously provided on this forum, I'd still be playing a desk jokey back in the good ol' NYC giving free privates to Polish immigrants and free courtroom translations, thinking that Poland is this great big abysmal pit of despair.
So with that said, why don't we try and keep it civil from now on, because I could be a *beep*, but I'd rather keep it at least semi-pro on this respectable board.
The fact alone that the number of posters on this board is limited to a lousy handful while there are hundreds of natives in Warsaw alone out of which a large number actually reads this forum yet never bothers to post, should tell you something. This board could have really been something positive, but instead it turned into the wailing wall where natives argue about the, and let me quote here "subpar standards of living"...
now back to the regularly scheduled program: "Flame and Cheer!" so get yer pompoms! |
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Blasphemer
Joined: 03 Dec 2008
Posts: 199
Location: NYC/Warszawa
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| Posted: Fri May 29, 2009 10:15 am Post subject: |
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| dynow wrote: |
on the flip side:
nearly everyone gets through their bachelor's degree.
nearly everyone can drive a car.
nearly everyone can do 5 pushups........because it's simply easier. |
and on another flip side...
nearly everyone can learn to speak another language... or two... or three... maybe even four. |
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dynow
Joined: 07 Nov 2006
Posts: 1080
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| Posted: Fri May 29, 2009 10:19 am Post subject: |
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HAHA!
wow, I TOTALLY missed the "wink wink, nudge nudge" implied in Harry's last post.
brilliant. just brilliant. i don't like the name calling, but yeah, i'm glad someone else sees it like I do.
not to toot my own horn, but I wrote the below comments on March 21st in response to another one of Blasphemer's ridiculous posts talking about how he's got it all figured out. he never responded to it. now he is making a valiant attempt to defend himself, but sorry bud, I, or we, aren't buyin' it. whatever you need to say, or type, to make yourself feel better about a failed attempt at life in America, go ahead. if you had landed a better job, started driving a BMW and living in a nice house, you would've been waving the American flag.....
blasphemer wrote:
"I'm living, working and supporting a fam of four here now"
and I wrote:
you've been in this country what.....less than a month, and you claim to be "supporting a family of four". have you even received your first paycheck yet??? i'm getting tired of repeating myself, but you give me more reasons to do so. you've been here a few weeks, and you describe yourself as someone "supporting a family of four". just silly.
Blasphemer wrote:
"all I've done was present some facts based not on observations but on personal experiences."
and I wrote:
again. personal experiences? such as? what can you tell this board, or anyone looking to come here, about living and working in Poland.....these are 2 things you know very little about. as a matter of fact, everybody on this board for the most part could describe living and working in Poland far better than you.........why?.......because they've actually done it. your childhood (during communist Poland) and the 2 weeks you've worked here so far don't count bud.
then Harry wrote:
"You certainly didn't lose any of the tradition Polish 'you foreigners know nothing about Poland and have no right to say a word of criticism about Poland' attitude."
and I wrote:
"maybe now Blasphemer you can begin to understand why someone might say something like the above comment." |
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dynow
Joined: 07 Nov 2006
Posts: 1080
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| Posted: Fri May 29, 2009 10:22 am Post subject: |
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and on another flip side...
nearly everyone can learn to speak another language... or two... or three... maybe even four. |
and in High School, everyone seems to do fine in their classes but most people struggle or don't bother to take Physics and Chemistry.
i'm done with this. |
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Blasphemer
Joined: 03 Dec 2008
Posts: 199
Location: NYC/Warszawa
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| Posted: Fri May 29, 2009 10:25 am Post subject: |
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Pompoms flying! GO TEAM GO TEAM!!!
What's the score!? |
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