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Post by Bonobo on Jun 19, 2016 2:30:30 GMT 1
Came across a funny blog matadornetwork.com/life/18-signs-born-raised-poland/2/
1. As a child, you ate gooseberries until your stomach hurt.
Your summers involved eating sour cherries and cherries straight from the trees, raspberries straight from a bush and strawberries straight from a plant. And it wasn’t that you didn’t wash the fruit that caused you pain, you just couldn’t stop and ate way too much! Yes. As a child I spent summer holidays in the countryside. I remember one place in the town of Rabka, a guesthouse with an orchard. One day I ate so many cherries I got sick and threw up all over the room, the one upstairs on the left:    polandsite.proboards.com/thread/868/rabka-town-where-spent-years |
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Post by pjotr on Jun 20, 2016 21:13:22 GMT 1
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Post by Bonobo on Jul 1, 2016 0:51:39 GMT 1
Whel in that case I am Polish.    Which fruit, then?
2. Every Saturday you woke up to the smell of a freshly-baked ciasto.
It was either a golden sponge cake layered with whipped cream and strawberries, a rhubarb crumble yeast-cake or a peach cheesecake, which had to be available for any guests visiting on the weekend. Nope. Why cake on Saturday??? What I remember was that every Sunday morning I was awaken by a peasant who brought potatoes on his horse cart for sale in our housing estate. He yelled "Potaaaatoes!!!" at about 7 am while riding along local streets.  |
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Post by Bonobo on Jul 13, 2016 18:38:13 GMT 1
3. You witnessed a domestic animal being killed at least once in your lifetime.
Your grandparents most likely lived in the countryside and you spent many summer vacations at their house. You ran through the wheat fields and got told off for ruining the crops. You climbed trees and maybe broke your first bone by falling off. You also have an unfortunate memory of a chicken running around without its head or pig screams coming from the pigpen. You might have become a vegetarian because of that.
I once saw hens being killed in the countryside. I don`t remember what I felt. Besides, fish for Christmas was killed on regular basis.
I used to do Christmas fish killing myself but stopped a few years ago.
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Post by Bonobo on Jul 13, 2016 18:40:34 GMT 1
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Post by jeanne on Jul 13, 2016 22:02:50 GMT 1
What I remember was that every Sunday morning I was awaken by a peasant who brought potatoes on his horse cart for sale in our housing estate. He yelled "Potaaaatoes!!!" at about 7 am while riding along local streets. Wait a minute...would a Polish peasant be yelling "Potaaaatoes!!!"? I didn't think most Polish peasants spoke English! |
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Post by Bonobo on Jul 13, 2016 22:11:33 GMT 1
What I remember was that every Sunday morning I was awaken by a peasant who brought potatoes on his horse cart for sale in our housing estate. He yelled "Potaaaatoes!!!" at about 7 am while riding along local streets. Wait a minute...would a Polish peasant be yelling "Potaaaatoes!!!"? I didn't think most Polish peasants spoke English! There were a few pearls in the mud.... |
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Post by Bonobo on Jul 18, 2016 0:18:16 GMT 1
6. Your mum is a cooking machine when you visit home.
Arriving at your parents place you find the fridge stuffed with kopytka, pierogi, bigos and gołąbki and your mum tells you “Well, I wasn’t sure what you would like to eat”. There is ciasto for you for dessert, too, whether it’s Saturday or not.
I suppose this would be true if my mother lived but she died of luekemia in 2003 so I can`t tell for sure.
7. Your father can fix anything yet barely knows how to turn on his cell phone.
Your car broke down – call your dad. The washing machine made a noise – he’ll ask you what kind of a noise it is, how frequent and based on that will tell you what the problem is. Your faucet is dripping? He’ll explain step by step how to clean it out or tighten the seals. When it comes to technology, though, he can barely make calls on a mobile phone (no smartphone please!), turn on a laptop, open a browser or type.
Not really. My father was an engineer who specialised in chemical industry and invented a few things which got patents but when it came to household repairs he was hopeless and mother always complained about wasting money on various handymen.
I am a better handyman for household repairs and I remember fixing the washing machine or the gas heater(old type without modern electronics) not to mention such basic stuff as dripping faucets, but I admit - I seldom use a laptop (tragedy if it doesn`t have a connected mouse) and I don`t have a smartphone, just a simple mobile phone with a small screen.
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Post by Bonobo on Dec 27, 2016 15:00:27 GMT 1
8. You walked to school by yourself since you were in 2nd grade.
You were super independent as a child. You played outside your block with friends and your parents only called you home when it was time for dinner (they would lean out from the window and call your name, no mobile phones back then!). You helped with cooking and by the time you were 12 you could cook a full meal by yourself and bake a ciasto. Around that age, you also started picking up your younger siblings from kindergarten, walk them home and take care of them until your parents arrived from work.
Yes, I did, but I lived in an underdeveloped area without major urban roads, and cars were fewere than today, so it was quite safe.
Yes, I remember playing outside and mums calling kids for dinner.
I didn`t bake but we used to spend a few hours at home alone because parents came back late.
9. Your Christmas dinner involves 12 dishes made out of 5 ingredients.
The ingredients are sauerkraut, wild mushrooms, beetroot, fish and poppy seeds. Historically, not much variety of sustenance used to be available in winter months, and so the Polish needed to invent festive food with what they had at hand. In addition, Polish Christmas dinner is eaten on the 24th, symbolically awaiting Jesus’s birth and is meatless. What’s created of the 5 main ingredients are: a creamy wild-mushroom soup for starters, a clove-infused clear barszcz or beatroot soup, pierogi stuffed with sauerkraut and wild mushrooms, łazanki (noodles with more sauerkraut!), and a variations of fish dishes (with carrot and onion cold topping, in cream, fried). For dessert, there is makowiec (poppy seed cake) and kutia (poppy seeds mixed with wheat, dried fruit, honey and nuts). Surprisingly, there are no potato-based dishes, but given that we eat them on every other day of the year, that’s okay.
When we counted smoked fruit kompot as a dish, and other like that, yes, we reached number 12.
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Post by Bonobo on Feb 5, 2017 14:45:55 GMT 1
10. You know that no party is as epic as a Polish wedding.
A typical wedding lasts for two days. The church ceremony is on a Saturday and the party starts right after that. Bottles and bottles of vodka are constantly brought to tables and drunk in shots. The food is served all evening- and night-long. The dancing and the food slow down the alcohol effect and so everyone seems to be cheerfully tipsy and silly, not downright drunk. The second day of the wedding is called poprawiny and it involves more of the same: food, drinks and dancing.
I think I attended a two day wedding only once, in the countryside in 1970s. Most weddings I was invited to were shorter but they usually had a lot of guests. And there was a lot of food and alcohol, indeed.
11. Your parents don’t celebrate birthdays as much as they celebrate imieniny, their nameday.
Yes, nameday is more popular than birthday to celebrate. On some popular namedays the police are specially prepared to catch drivers after parties.
12. You know at least 10 people with the same name as yours.
Name choices are very limited in Poland and so, first names are very repetitive amongst the population. Every other girl seems to be called Kasia, Basia, Ania and Magda and boys are Paweł, Łukasz, Marcin and Tomek. And if an ‘unusual’ name emerges like Maja or Nikola, it quickly catches on and again, many are named with it.
Actually, I know a few men with my name - all of them my age. But among my students, none!
13. You say no when you actually mean yes.
In Polish, there is a word for yes – “tak” — and no — “nie.” But you use “no” when you agree with what someone is saying. The word sounds negative to a foreign ear. “Do you want some tea?” “No”. “Do you like this TV show?” “No.” Or you use it to show that you are listening attentively. Your whole phone conversation might seem like you are disagreeing with someone, but you’re really not: “Halo? No. No. No. Aha. No. No pa.”
Well, it is nothing about any mental disorders, just a simple language misunderstanding. Sometimes in class when I ask a question I don`t know if students say no in Polish or no in English.
14. When you speak Polish, you sound angry.
You got off a phone with your parents and your foreigner friends ask: “What happened, did you just fall out with your parents?” “No, I just told them about my week”. There is something about our tone of voice or the way we use our language that sounds harsh.
I can`t judge it on my own, but if more people say so, we should believe it`s true.
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Post by pjotr on Feb 6, 2017 1:19:59 GMT 1
Dear Bonobo and Jeanne,
I probably feel more Dutch when I see 100% ethnic Polish family members, wether they are Polish or Polish-American. I am 50% Dutch by blood and 50% Polish, but linguistically and culturally I am more Dutch than Polish due to the reality of life. I Poland part of me felt at home. I felt more connection then I felt in the Czech Republic (Prague), Hungary (Budapest), and other Foreign nations. That was because I heard my mother and babcia speaking Polish as a child and teenager (my babcia died when I was 17 in 1987). And I also heard my Polish aunts, uncles and cousins speaking Polish with eachother and ofcourse all the Poles around me when I was in Poland. So having been in Poland several times as a kid and the fact that my Polish grandmother stayed at our home in the Netherlands sometimes for a couple of months made the Polish language sounding for me quite natural. I didn't understood it or understand it today, but it was the familiar sound of my babcia and Matka speaking Polish with eachother, made it one of the four (or five I have to say) languages which was spoken in gatherings of the Polish, Dutch, American and Danish family in Poland. At the international family gathering in the state hotel Orbis in Poznan I heard Polish, Dutch, English, German and probably the Danish of the Polish-Danish family delegation. I was a 14 year old boy who was rather childish back then for his age and who looked at the international gathering with amazement. Not being used to a large city like Poznan and not knowing large çommunist state hotels either. My sister and I played with our two younger cousins from Poznan (two girls).
In the sixties and seventies when some old aristocratic elements of the family were still alive some of the old folks spoke French at the family gathering with my Dutch grandma. So next to English, German, Polish and Dutch also French was spoken. For me these international family meetings had something diplomatic, sophisticated, complicated and rather unusual. But very nice, friendly and exciting. Nationality didn't matter, genes, dna and blood mattered, we were all family. I remember great church masses with thousands of people. It was the time of Solidarność. The Polish Roman-Catholic church and their own Roman-Catholic faith gave the Poles inner strength, the warmth of spirituality, connection to the faith community and a connection to the Polish culture which was and is rooted in Roman-Catholicism and their Western-Slavic linguistic and ethnic identity. Not narrow minded nationalism but healthy Patriotism existed. Pride of their own culture and heritage and respect for other cultures and people. We foreign branches of the Diaspora family branches always felt welcome. Poland always was a warm bath of hospitality, cosyness and togetherness.
Cheers,
Pieter
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Post by jeanne on Feb 6, 2017 1:30:00 GMT 1
Pieter,
It's interesting to read of your memories from your past...your experiences have shaped you into the person you are today. You have very many wonderful memories to carry with you through life which no one can take from you!
Jeanne
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Post by Bonobo on Feb 6, 2017 14:17:40 GMT 1
Dear Bonobo and Jeanne, I probably feel more Dutch when I see 100% ethnic Polish family members, wether they are Polish or Polish-American. I am 50% Dutch by blood and 50% Polish, but linguistically and culturally I am more Dutch than Polish due to the reality of life. I Poland part of me felt at home. I felt more connection then I felt in the Czech Republic (Prague), Hungary (Budapest), and other Foreign nations. That was because I heard my mother and babcia speaking Polish as a child and teenager (my babcia died when I was 17 in 1987). And I also heard my Polish aunts, uncles and cousins speaking Polish with eachother and ofcourse all the Poles around me when I was in Poland. So having been in Poland several times as a kid and the fact that my Polish grandmother stayed at our home in the Netherlands sometimes for a couple of months made the Polish language sounding for me quite natural. I didn't understood it or understand it today, but it was the familiar sound of my babcia and Matka speaking Polish with eachother, made it one of the four (or five I have to say) languages which was spoken in gatherings of the Polish, Dutch, American and Danish family in Poland. At the international family gathering in the state hotel Orbis in Poznan I heard Polish, Dutch, English, German and probably the Danish of the Polish-Danish family delegation. I was a 14 year old boy who was rather childish back then for his age and who looked at the international gathering with amazement. Not being used to a large city like Poznan and not knowing large çommunist state hotels either. My sister and I played with our two younger cousins from Poznan (two girls). Pieter Forgive me my curiosity which should be probably called nosiness, but there is one thing which I don`t understand. From your text I presume that your mother is/was Polish. But you admit you can`t understand Polish. I thought that mothers in mixed marriages, not only Polish but of all nationalities, through their everyday contact with their children spontaneously teach them the native tongue. |
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Post by pjotr on Feb 6, 2017 20:32:07 GMT 1
Bonobo,
It is hard for me to explain. Polish for me is a nearly intimate, personal, physical, connecting, heart touching, deep personal language even though I can't understand, read, or write and thus think in it. But the sound, tone, atmosphere, feeling and cultural, social and family meaning of Polish as a language is very clear to me. It is part of my life if I want it or not. I can't ignore hearing my mother singing Polish songs in my parents kitchen when she cooks and can't ignore the fact that she still looks things up in her old Polish language encyclopedia. I see that encyclopedia and see the Polish sentences and words written in it. I can't blame my mother she didn't manage to tought us Polish, because my sister said she tried to learn us Polish as kids, and later as an adult when I started to try to learn Polish again in Arnhem in a Polish language course, she really put an effort in helping me.
I think the main culprit was my Dutch family and the Dutch environment which was quite language puristic or dominant. A typical West-Germanic linguistic culture, inbetween the German, English and Frisian languages. My mother was in the Netherlands since 1967 and I was born in 1970. As a baby and toldler my mother probably used Polish coddle words and expressions for me and my sister (who was born in 1971). We had a Polish nanny as little children and she also will have used Polish words or must have spoken Polish with my mother. And like I told you my Polish babcia sometimes spend long periods in our family home in the Netherlands. If my babcia wasn't in the Netherlands I was used to the familiar sound of my mother and babcia speaking Polish with eachother every day, day and night (in the morning, in the afternoon, in het evenings and during the weekends when we were together with the family).
I had or have the strange habbit to watch Polish movies with subtitles, or even watched Polish movies without subtitles to look at the images, and feel the atmospher and let the imagery tell the story. I only know a few basic words of Polish, not enough to understan a conversation. During the Polish lessons by a Dutch Gymnnasian teacher (a quite sophisticated old lady) I really got impressed by the Polish language and the sophistication and culture of that language due to the Latin orthography. Incredible difficult that Polish spelling with it's 7 grammatical cases, and these male, female and plural versions of words and expressions. I have to say that I am quite basic in English and German (some terrible Dutch coal accent German, but accepted and understandable for German, Austrian and Swiss German people), and probably have a terrible Dutch accent in English too (It is a very personal thing that I don't like German with a Dutch accent or English with a Dutch accent).
It is a fact that my parents considered the language French (they are both Anglophile and Francophone, but more Francophone than Anglophile. French chancon music, French cinema and French art and French cuisine was quite appreciated and promoted in our home. Fact that we had our holiday house in the French speaking part of Belgium, in the Ardennes mountains in the Walloon region, ad to that fact. We spoke french with the locals there, also when we played with Walloon Belgian kids over there. French in the supermarket -Supermarché-, boulangerie, Boucherie, le Café des Sports, the local restaurants and shops over there. We had that holiday house from 1978 until 2002, so for almost 24 years I spoke French there). Polish always was present in the background in our home, because my mother calls with old Polish friends in the USA and Poland (Warsaw and Poznan) and even after 50 years outside Poland she still speaks Polish with these people. Sometimes searching for words and using half Dutch sentences and words (without noticing it herself -which can be quite funny -, sometimes I whisper to my mother during these long phone conversations, mom "I don't think she understands Dutch", but my mother still speaks Polish with these Polish and 100% ethnic Polish Polish-American family members -who were raised by two Polish parents who spoke Polish at home - and that is the reason why my American cousins speak Polish and can read and write in Polish. Not as good as Polish Poles, but anyhow they can do it, which is great.
Bonobo, I know that Polishness, Polish culture and Polish identity for a large part is connected to the Polish language, the Polish linguistic culture of music songs, poetry, literature, Polish philosophy and the Polish lithurgy of the Polish mass. That's why I have something with the Polish language. My Dutch grandmother considered Polish to sound very delicate, elegant, sophisticated and nice. Like French, but then a Slavic version. Sophisticated academic Dutch people with some intellectual luggage often considered my mother to be French for some reason. My mother was asked several times if she is French. Funny fact is that in the town of my childhood we had Polish-French neighbours. My sister and I were carried around like living dolls by the French brunette (dark hair and dark eyes) daughters of this Polish-French neighbours (Expats in the Netherlands who worked for a French Petro-chemical firm in our city). In that expat street were not only French expat people, but also Belgians, Spanish and Greek-Italian expats. Therefor next to the Polish nanny, my mother and my babcia I was used to foreign languages as a child. But I was to dumb or to less skillfull in languages to learn Polish. I have to admid that in my Polish class (filled with Dutch NATO military personel who worked in Poland and Dutch guys with Polish wives or girlfriends) in Oosterbeek (a small town next to Arnhem, with some Polish Market Garden heritage) I found out that Polish is a difficult, complicated and sophisticated language. I really had great difficulties with the Latin orthography. I thought that German and French class was hard at my highschool. But French and German were nothing compared to Polish. Maybe Polish would have been less complicated if I would have had Gymnasium as highschool with latin and Greek. Polish probably would have been easier for me if I had learned latin at highschool.
Polish touched something in me, and if I hear Polish somewhere on the street, at a mneeting/gathering or at a cultural event I immediately recognise it and feel a connection. My intelligence goes that far that I can hear the difference between Czech, Polish and Russian. This weekend in Arnhem I saw a huge group of young people in decent suits and dresses walking through the city center. I heard that their language was not Russian nor Polish, so I asked a young man polite which language they were using? The young man replied Czech. We had a large group of Czechs who visited Arnhem this weekend. I loved to watch Kieslowski's Polish television drama series Dekalog, due to the Polish language, Polish atmosphere and acting of the Polish actors in that excellent ten one-hour films.
Cheers,
Pieter
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Post by Bonobo on Feb 10, 2017 20:06:16 GMT 1
Bonobo, It is hard for me to explain. Polish for me is a nearly intimate, personal, physical, connecting, heart touching, deep personal language even though I can't understand, read, or write and thus think in it. I think the main culprit was my Dutch family and the Dutch environment which was quite language puristic or dominant. A typical West-Germanic linguistic culture, inbetween the German, English and Frisian languages. I only know a few basic words of Polish, not enough to understan a conversation. Incredible difficult that Polish spelling with it's 7 grammatical cases, and these male, female and plural versions of words and expressions. I have to say that I am quite basic in English and German (some terrible Dutch coal accent German, but accepted and understandable for German, Austrian and Swiss German people), and probably have a terrible Dutch accent in English too (It is a very personal thing that I don't like German with a Dutch accent or English with a Dutch accent). It is a fact that my parents considered the language French (they are both Anglophile and Francophone, but more Francophone than Anglophile. French chancon music, French cinema and French art and French cuisine was quite appreciated and promoted in our home. Fact that we had our holiday house in the French speaking part of Belgium, in the Ardennes mountains in the Walloon region, ad to that fact. We spoke french with the locals there, also when we played with Walloon Belgian kids over there. In that expat street were not only French expat people, but also Belgians, Spanish and Greek-Italian expats. Therefor next to the Polish nanny, my mother and my babcia I was used to foreign languages as a child. But I was to dumb or to less skillfull in languages to learn Polish. I have to admid that in my Polish class I found out that Polish is a difficult, complicated and sophisticated language. But French and German were nothing compared to Polish. Maybe Polish would have been less complicated if I would have had Gymnasium as highschool with latin and Greek. Polish probably would have been easier for me if I had learned latin at highschool. Cheers, Pieter I think it is extremely interesting what you are saying. Apart from Dutch, you managed to acquire French, German, English. That`s a lot and it proves you aren`t dumb in languages as you said. But it can be a different matter. I know a few Polish guys who were able to learn a foreign language within the Slavic group, e..g, Russian, but were completely resistant to Germanic languages. The differences between these two groups are huge. As for Latin, you didn`t have to learn it to understand Polish better, you speak French, that is enough. As for your expat environment, you are saying things which are completely alien to most Poles - so many nationalities in one area. In Poland we have broiled in the same Polish sauce for decades now. |
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Post by Bonobo on Feb 10, 2017 20:14:54 GMT 1
15. If you don’t like the top your sister is wearing, you tell her.
You are direct with your friends and family. If you’re at your friend’s house and are hungry, you ask them what they have to eat. You only heard about the need to say things gently to people (or not say them at all) when you started hanging out with foreigners.
I have never been like that or at least I try to control myself, but my family and friends do it and I sometimes wonder how they can be so gruff. There is a lot of boorishness in Poland and not only by people from lower classes, unfortunately.
16. You offer tea to anyone who comes into your house.
Tea is just as popular a drink in Poland as it is in England (no exaggeration there!) We don’t drink it with milk, though – just plain tea with sugar or tea with a round slice of lemon in it.
Poles offer coffee or tea. I don`t offer them because I don`t drink them myself and even don`t know how to make them properly.
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Post by Bonobo on Feb 10, 2017 20:23:46 GMT 1
17. You complain.
A lot. You complain about the long winter. When the snow starts melting you complain about the mud. And when eventually the summer comes, it is too hot! You complain about the politicians (even though you haven’t actually voted in years) and prices (even though you can afford to live comfortably and you actually own your apartment and a car and live without mortgages). I never do. I know this typically Polish propensity to complain and try to avoid it because I deem it ridiculous. But I always pretend to listen to people who complain in my presence, I just nod and agree with everything what they say because trying to persuade them not to do it would be a complete waste of time and energy.
18. But all of your complaining doesn’t make you an unhappy person.
A complaint is often a conversation-starter. It’s easier to make friends when you can both moan about something together. Then you move on to joyful topics. Actually, when I hear complaining, it makes me unhappy and I try to avoid longer contacts with such a person next time. I can make friends only with guys who don`t complain.
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Post by jeanne on Feb 14, 2017 15:26:11 GMT 1
Hmmm...based on your responses to some of these items, I'm beginning to wonder...are you really Polish? Actually, though, some of them just sound like human nature...for example, the complaining...everyone does that, especially about the weather! (Except, people in Greece and, of course, people in San Diego, California who have perfect weather nearly everyday.) And over here on the other side of the Atlantic, we offer tea or coffee to visitors! |
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Post by Bonobo on Feb 19, 2017 2:03:20 GMT 1
Hmmm...based on your responses to some of these items, I'm beginning to wonder...are you really Polish? Actually, though, some of them just sound like human nature...for example, the complaining...everyone does that, especially about the weather! (Except, people in Greece and, of course, people in San Diego, California who have perfect weather nearly everyday.) And over here on the other side of the Atlantic, we offer tea or coffee to visitors! I am Polish with a grain of doubt. Why did you mention San Diego and not Miami? It is true that one of my textbooks had a text about San Diego and none about Miami but still, the legend is a legend.... Complaining about the weather is another thing which gets on my nerves. It seems my Polish compatriots are unable to remain soundless when you meet them and they feel obliged to babble about anything to get rid of silence which they deem so obnoxious. The weather is the most popular topic here between strangers, like everywhere in the world. I have stopped responding to those weather remarks, I just say "yes" and go to the student`s room for a lesson. I am so unsociable. |
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Post by jeanne on Feb 19, 2017 3:12:12 GMT 1
Hmmm...based on your responses to some of these items, I'm beginning to wonder...are you really Polish? Actually, though, some of them just sound like human nature...for example, the complaining...everyone does that, especially about the weather! (Except, people in Greece and, of course, people in San Diego, California who have perfect weather nearly everyday.) And over here on the other side of the Atlantic, we offer tea or coffee to visitors! I am Polish with a grain of doubt. Why did you mention San Diego and not Miami? It is true that one of my textbooks had a text about San Diego and none about Miami but still, the legend is a legend.... Well, I have not actually been to either place, but from what people tell me, Miami is hot and humid, with afternoon rain showers frequently, but San Diego apparently has perfect weather every day... And I didn't realize Miami is legendary...what's its legend...good weather??? Suffocating in the heat is not my idea of good weather... We'd get along fine, then, if we had to work together...it's not that I'm unsociable exactly, but I just don't like to talk unless it's about something meaningful and interesting. I'd generally rather listen than talk, so some people see that as being unsociable, but I don't. |
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Post by Bonobo on Feb 19, 2017 3:25:53 GMT 1
And I didn't realize Miami is legendary...what's its legend...good weather??? Suffocating in the heat is not my idea of good weather... We'd get along fine, then, if we had to work together...it's not that I'm unsociable exactly, but I just don't like to talk unless it's about something meaningful and interesting. I'd generally rather listen than talk, so some people see that as being unsociable, but I don't. Miami is legendary due to a TV crime series titled Miami Vice, in Poland translated as Cops from Miami, parodied in a rhyme Policjanci z Jajami, Cops with Balls. Very fine, indeed. You must be a M. if you prefer to talk about meaningful things. As for listening without talking, our position in the society is not so tragic. Most people prefer to talk so when they find a listener, they are so happy that they consider him/her a sociable person. |
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Post by jeanne on Feb 19, 2017 3:36:51 GMT 1
Miami is legendary due to a TV crime series titled Miami Vice, in Poland translated as Cops from Miami, parodied in a rhyme Policjanci z Jajami, Cops with Balls. Ok, that explains it... An M as opposed to what? There are 25 other possibilities...  Ha,ha! Yes there is an element of truth in that! |
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Post by pjotr on Feb 20, 2017 17:29:25 GMT 1
I am Polish with a grain of doubt. Why did you mention San Diego and not Miami? It is true that one of my textbooks had a text about San Diego and none about Miami but still, the legend is a legend.... Well, I have not actually been to either place, but from what people tell me, Miami is hot and humid, with afternoon rain showers frequently, but San Diego apparently has perfect weather every day... And I didn't realize Miami is legendary...what's its legend...good weather??? Suffocating in the heat is not my idea of good weather... We'd get along fine, then, if we had to work together...it's not that I'm unsociable exactly, but I just don't like to talk unless it's about something meaningful and interesting. I'd generally rather listen than talk, so some people see that as being unsociable, but I don't. I can join your club, I am not a weather discussion chap either. And with the lot's of rain in the Netherlands my compatriots have a subject of complaining. I like to talk about other things than the weather. About cultural things, interesting subjects and about photography and art with other people who have an interest in that. Recently people in Vale Gran Rey, La Gomera, Canary Islands, called me the silent guy. You don't talk a lot they told me. I like to walk around, to observe things, and take my drawing book, I-phone and draw and write some stuf. If a conversation starts it is often other people (strangers) who start a conversation, and I will reply in a friendly and polite matter. If the discussion is about the weather or some other uninteresting subject, the conversation will be short to very short. Because in that case I will have nothing to say substantial. But in La Gomera I had great and interesting discussions with German, Austrian, British, Scottish, Irish, Norwegian and Dutch people I met while mountain climbing, walking along the small road that was cut through the mountains to the town, and at a restaurant and a bar. Meeting people of different nationality or culture is a great opportunity for a conversation about the purpose of there travel, their background and about the quality and the interesting aspects of the place you are at. For instance the from the Scottish people I learned about the Moderate Scottish nationalism, that they really want to leave Great-Britain, that the EU is important for them, that Scotland has rich resources and that they really want Independence. Actually it was a English guy who had moved to Scotland and married a Scottish woman and gradually had turned into a Scot. He was pro-Independence too. In the Netherlands I have professional contact with my tv and radio colleages, political contacts with the local politicians, family contacts with the family and social contacts with friends. I will not easily start a conversation on the street with strangers about the weather or a traffic situation for instance. Abroad there can be a subject for a conversation. The fact that others come from ohter places and travel to an interesting destination, read an interesting book or just are interested in a chat with a stanger (me) who is seated next or opposite to them. Cheers, Pieter |
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Post by jeanne on Feb 20, 2017 17:59:16 GMT 1
Hi Pieter,
Welcome back...I hope you had a lovely trip! It sounds from what you have written here that you met some interesting people!
...How was the weather?...hahaha, just kidding!
Jeanne
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Post by Bonobo on Feb 21, 2017 21:24:20 GMT 1
Hi Pieter, Welcome back...I hope you had a lovely trip! It sounds from what you have written here that you met some interesting people! ...How was the weather?...hahaha, just kidding! Jeanne No kidding, it is a serious matter, there is a thread about current weather in this forum, and it is certainly not in the Polish Laughinstock board. |
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Post by jeanne on Feb 21, 2017 23:03:00 GMT 1
Hi Pieter, Welcome back...I hope you had a lovely trip! It sounds from what you have written here that you met some interesting people! ...How was the weather?...hahaha, just kidding! Jeanne No kidding, it is a serious matter, there is a thread about current weather in this forum, and it is certainly not in the Polish Laughinstock board. I know, sorry, I did think about that current weather board...and it's one I do like to contribute to! But I don't consider posting the same as making small talk so that there won't be silence! |
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Post by Bonobo on Feb 21, 2017 23:08:04 GMT 1
No kidding, it is a serious matter, there is a thread about current weather in this forum, and it is certainly not in the Polish Laughinstock board. I know, sorry, I did think about that current weather board...and it's one I do like to contribute to! But I don't consider posting the same as making small talk so that there won't be silence! One might consider it small talk. How many times can you repeat that old song about strong winds blowing or snow falling? |
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Post by jeanne on Feb 22, 2017 0:40:01 GMT 1
I know, sorry, I did think about that current weather board...and it's one I do like to contribute to! But I don't consider posting the same as making small talk so that there won't be silence! One might consider it small talk. How many times can you repeat that old song about strong winds blowing or snow falling? I think it is a phenomenon of human nature (at least for those living in a climate with 4 seasonal changes) that once a season is over, we immediately forget about how cold, or how hot, or how rainy, or how snowy it was, and instead we begin to discuss the current season and all its meteorological characteristics! For example, once winter is over it totally recedes in our memories, and we begin discussing spring like it's the first time we've ever had it in history! |
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Post by Bonobo on Feb 22, 2017 20:32:46 GMT 1
One might consider it small talk. How many times can you repeat that old song about strong winds blowing or snow falling? I think it is a phenomenon of human nature (at least for those living in a climate with 4 seasonal changes) that once a season is over, we immediately forget about how cold, or how hot, or how rainy, or how snowy it was, and instead we begin to discuss the current season and all its meteorological characteristics! For example, once winter is over it totally recedes in our memories, and we begin discussing spring like it's the first time we've ever had it in history! Yes, you must be right on that. |
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