Discussion UsefulNotes / Poland

I removed the following paragraph:

Apparently, many Poles believe that Winnie the Pooh is female, because of a mistake in first, now quite obscure, Polish translation, and confused as to why he's male in the second, widely-known translation... the truth is, the second translator, Irena Kwiatkowska, just did better research.

It's wrong on many levels.

• The translation that used "Kubuś" (obviously a male name) was actually the first one, done by Irena Tuwin and it got published in 1938!
• Whoever wrote this, they confused Tuwin with Irena Kwiatkowska, a famous Polish actress, who did an audio-book version of "Kubuś Puchatek" once (but it was based on Tuwim's text).
• The translation mentioned in the questioned paragraph above is probably the one done by Monika Adamczyk-Garbowska. Ms Garbowska concluded that Tuwim's work was rather an adaptation than a faithful translation, so she decided to make a new one which would be in her opinion closer to the original material. It got published in 1986! Garbowska called Winnie "Fredzia", based on the assumption that it was a short form of Winnifred. Winnie, the real bear Pooh got his name from, was actually named after Winnipeg. On the other hand, she got other characters' names like Eeyore or Roo right.
• Even so, this translation mirrors the original writing style of Milne, and always refers to Pooh with male pronouns despite him having a girlish name. He's just a male bear with an unfortunate name, just like in the original book! Despite this, some journalists claimed that Garbowska changed the bear's gender, which is not true.
• Even if there were some other obscure translations, like "Miś Puh-Niedźwiecki" from 1943, none of them referred to Pooh as a girl.
• Tuwim's names have stood the test of time and are used to this day, while Garbowska's version was almost overwhelmingly criticized, with very few voices of defense.

Thus, the belief that Winnie is a female is not as ubiquitous in Poland as the paragraph suggested.

... is my The Runaways joke so offensive that you had to lock the page, or has something else heinous been done and that's not my fault?

Quick question: do you think putting here informations about very infamous "mohair berets" (moherowe berety in Poland) will be appropriate?

Polish National Anthem: Were willing to put it in Change description but accidentaly closed it(Damn you Touchpad I always forgot to turn off). I were thinking that while most common translation of obcy IS alien, it carries the first though of sth from, well Space. I were just thinking that "foreign" would straighter give out meaning of the word in anthem context. Please Correct Me If I'm Wrong. Thank You:)

Due to an editing conflict (I edited the article while Jaro7788 was editing too), I accidentally removed the following paragraph from the page:

** Poles like to think their country lies in the most unfortunate spot on all the earth: right between Germany and Russia. The importance of the struggle for independence in the 19th century is never to be downplayed and probably only some Polish people are aware of the fact that many other Central European nations had to suffer several centuries rather than "mere" 123 years of foreing oppression. Likewise, in any historical debate you can bet your ass a Pole would bring the "thanks to them we/you/whoever can speak Polish" argument, not taking into account the fact that at no point during the 19th century did the Polish language ever come close to becoming extinct or even actually endangered, as opposed to some other languages in the region, such as Czech, which actually did manage to recover once Czechoslovak independence was secured.

This article has many bullshits! I hope the author is shame of himself.

Bullshit nr 1: Poles' consumption of alcohol is rather unremarkable, when compared in quantity to other European nations.

WTF?! Poland is known for it's alcohol. Polish people are one of the most drinking nations!

Bullshit nr 2: Poland is the most religious country in Europe, even more so than (fellow Catholic countries) Ireland and Italy.

Catholic doesn't mean religious. People there are going to church, because of tradition, not because of faith. BTW, nowadays 40% of Polish Catholics goes to church regularly.

But with Poland producing unquestionably the most beloved pope of modern times, it's highly unlikely Catholicism will go away completely in Poland any time soon.

Pope was also supported by atheists and other religious groups just for one reason to exit communism. I think the author cannot live without this Poland-Catholic stereotype.

Bullshit nr 3: Related to this, Polish politics fall significantly to the right of most all countries in the EU. Its two largest political parties are the Civic Platform (PO), which is more or less neoliberal, pro-European, and certainly not leftist; and Law and Justice (Pi S), which is national-conservative, deeply rooted in Catholicism, and somewhat Eurosceptic.

These two parties of course are leftist, because both has socialist model. Only leftists are crazy enough to raise taxes to over 30% and these parties actually did it. Not to mention that Kaczynski has signed the Treaty of Lisbon and now we're no more sovereign.

Bullshit nr 4: It's not cold there, except in the winter.

It's usually cold there, because of the continental climate. Not only in winter but also in autumn.

Please, edit this shit or I will do it by myself.

The second written consitution in modern history, maybe. The Greeks invented the concept, you know?

Chciałbym walnąć gdzieś tu ten rysunek Mleczki - ten z Bogiem mówiącym że wytnie numer Polakom i umieści ich między Rosją a Niemcami - ale czy ktoś wie czy to by nie naruszało jakichś praw autorskich?