I’d love to see some of your thoughts on my comment but no hurry, I can very much empathize with exam times! My classes now are more focused on writing than tests, which personally I think is a better way to learn and develop (and less stressful in some ways). Good luck with your test, although I’m sure you’ll do/did well. Let me know how it turned out…

I’ve taken five years of Latin (a requirement of the Boston Latin School) and would have to agree that picking up French would be “easy”.

Grammatically your post title is fine (although would say mom rather than mum, but either one is correct depending on if it’s British or American English). I wouldn’t worry too much about grammar if I was you as many Americans (myself included) don’t use correct grammar. I’m quite known amongst my friends for making up words and phrases that simply don’t exist!

Can you take a look at this post http://polishpress.wordpress.com/2007/06/11/yossi-avni-interview/ and tell me if the title sounds natural, and maybe suggest a change, if such is required:)

I gave up with grammar analysis on this one;)

I should have had that blog in French! French is such a simple language:) eheheh

It’s not just the Poles who are becoming more skeptical, Americans (I should stop using that term, since there is a North and South America, not just the USA, habits are tough to break though) are very wary of their government now, which is why Ron Paul is a very popular candidate on the internet right now (a Google search for Ron Paul shows more results than any other presidential candidate), because he opposes big government and wants to make American government small and focused on the USA, which is a very scary line of thought for the ruling elite in the USA.

My mom is very similar to your dad, she came over here about 25 years ago because A…the USA was a land of opportunity and had many benefits over Poland. Now, she criticizes the current situation here and is very pleasantly amazed that Poland is a better place to live, politically and not yet economically but getting better every day. I think the USA could be a much better place, with similar ideals to the Europeans, if we were a true and free democracy, but we are not. The government here is now run by big corporations and cherished American liberties, such as freedom of speech and habeas corpus come under attack every day by these corporations and the government which supports them.

One of the ironies about the USA right now is it is very difficult to find true Americans! The YouTube link you provided shows the typical American who is not aware of the greater world they live in. This was not always true, and if go to the right places you will be able to find many people like myself who understand that the USA is only a small part of a very big world. The sad truth is Americans are increasingly “brainwashed” to such an extent that Whitney Houston / Paris Hilton / oral sex dominate our news and debates more than important matters like government corruption and excess. History has shown us that when the citizens are either unable or unwilling to criticize their government and hold it to a high standard, bad things happen.

My grandmother and grandfather on my mom’s side were saved from concentration camps (we are not Jewish, something popular history seems not to focus on is the Germans attacked and tortured and killed all Polish citizens, not just Polish-Jewish citizens) by American troops, so personally I am very biased on how the USA helped Europe at this time. Looking back on it, yes the USA could have done A LOT more and A LOT sooner, but the personal bias of history weighs heavily here. If it wasn’t for those American troops showing up when they did, I very well may not be here…

The wikipedia article you linked to however focuses on how France and the U.K. did not fulfill their promises to Poland. I did not see much mention of the USA in regards to promises made but not fulfilled. At the time, the USA was a very non-interventionist country and I feel they were waiting to see if Europe could handle the German attack on their own. Once it became apparent they could not (e.g. when much of Western Europe had already fallen) and once the war made it to American soil, the USA did finally step in and once they did were an immense force to reckon with. What the USA did once they entered the war is what I reference when I state that positive sentiment goes back to WWII. It is true that the USA did not directly rush to the aid of Poland, but as a result of their actions Poland was indirectly helped. Of course, after the war Poland was almost a second though to these other countries. I find it slightly ironic that now Poland is (finally) receiving such a focus on the global stage.

Something I found interesting from wikipedia,”In November 1933, there were rumours in Paris that a “preventive war” option against Germany was being considered by the French, Belgian and Polish governments. The British historian Lewis Bernstein Namier claimed later that the Poles had proposed a preventive war to the French at this time, but the French declined the offer.”

Imagine if that happened though, history may be a lot different. If Poland and the west were the first to attack, Germany may have had more sympathizers because France, Belgium and Poland were attacking Germany first, even though realistically it was only in response to menacing actions by the Germans.

Another interesting point from wikipedia an something I simply did not know, “In May 2005 US President George W. Bush admitted that the Soviet domination of central and eastern Europe after World War II was “one of the greatest wrongs of history” and acknowledged that the United States played a significant role in the division of the continent and that the Yalta conference “followed in the unjust tradition of Munich and the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact. (…) Once again, when powerful governments negotiated, the freedom of small nations was somehow expendable.”

Of course, it’s easy to look back on the past and admit mistakes but it is still admirable that Bush did publicly admit “one of the greatest wrongs of history”. It does not make up for his poor leadership and anti-American policies, but it goes to show he did do something right. It also doesn’t make up for the 60 years of Communist rule in Poland. In either case, thank you for pointing me to the wikipedia article as it was enlightening in some ways. I remember learning about the Western Betrayal in one of my Chapel Hill history courses but not in that much detail.

While I will agree with you that there is a lot that can be changed about Poland, I must disagree that I cannot do the same here in the US. Poland is in a way lucky to be a young democracy, and hopefully has less corruption than some of the more established ones like the UK and US, but change can happen anywhere at anytime. I hope Poland can avoid some of the stupidity that America has experienced that has led to some simply bizarre laws, there is a very good list at:

http://crazytopics.blogspot.com/2007/01/craziest-laws-in-america.html.

What I meant by the “bigger fight” between the USA and Russia is in essence a reference back to the cold war, and that if anything did escalate between the two we could experience a nuclear war before we knew it. It’s a very unlikely scenario today, I hope, but that was my reference. If we look at if from a historical perspective, then the bigger fight would be between Poland and Russia (they did actually fight after all).

Hmmm, those classes are very intriguing…it seems that a room AND food is included in the price, which makes it VERY cheap! That is actually quite an unbelievable deal…plus the city is quite nice.

You also are right when you say the Poles are becoming more and more sceptical towards the US under current administration. USA in fact are becoming less and less attractive as a whole to the Poles. My father for example, who has spent part of his life in Toronto, Canada, still has, like many Poles in his age, a very “positive sentiment”. USA used to be an “ideal model” of development, democracy and freedom. But with the end of communism we just started to notice we are not like them. We prefer Swedish or British models, we prefer caring states, we prefer solving problems with international community, we prefer Europe. Europe is something that we aspire to, in every possible respect. Carbon emissions, human rights standards, sustainable development, foreign aid, secular public life, European ways of life, free healthcare for the poorer, et caetera
You remember Whitney Houston’s “wardrobe malfunction”? Everyone in Europe wondered why was everyone so outraged on the other side of the pond. It’s just body, its beautiful, and the surprise was fun:) Or that Clinton indulged himself to oral sex with his assistant? Big deal. Guns availability and death penalty, televangelism, millions living in poverty in the richest country in the world, mad competition, bad education http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJuNgBkloFE , all this makes USA seem awkward and alien in the eyes of Europeans.

This trend of abandoning USA manifests itself in unexpected places:) for instance in universities’ departments of English. Twenty years ago 3/4 students were choosing American phonetics and American spelling etc. Now vast majority prefer British.

But I have to strongly disagree with what you said that “a lot of positive Polish sentiment towards America still goes back to World War II and the fact that America, obviously, helped out Poland a lot then”. Which is actually totally the other way around:) USA, obviously, never did anything that directly helped Poland during this war, and they didn’t engage for many months from its beginning. When they did, they helped UK with supplies, and fought on Western Front.
But what did they do after the war? They gave us as a nice gift to Stalin in Yalta/Potsdam. For 60 years. Thank you very much for such help:) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_betrayal
Its not WW2 that Poles respect USA for. Its for their opposition to USSR during cold war, and for some support people like Reagan were giving it.

As to visas, this is not such a simple matter. As you know Poland is now part of the European Union. One of the basic principles of the EU is equal treatment of its member states (for instance all EU member states nationals hold the EU citizenship and EU passport): now most EU countries’ nationals don’t need visa to enter USA. European Commission cannot tolerate foreign country to treat some members states better than others, and it is pressurising the US to change its visa policy. European Commission threatened to impose visas on all US citizens coming to EU (like Brasil).

The sole fact that you criticise USA, I would never interpret as anti-Americanism — you don’t have to worry, i’m not Fox News;))

And I think I criticise Poland a lot more than you criticise your country, yet I still I still think this is my place on Earth and I love the fact that there is still a lot to do. What we do now, will shape how this country will look in the future, something you cannot do in America, UK or France.

As to the missile shield, it pretty much looks that American govt has its mind made up – since it’s on tour trying to persuade others to join.

As to Russia, I’m not really sure there is “bigger fight” between US and Russia. As you said USA is always seeking for better profit, and that’s what tones down US criticism of Russia, China in respect of human rights violations, and undemocratic, unlawful rule. that’s what makes US-companies censor internet in China or cooperate with Russia on doubtful projects. Poland has always been very well informed on Kremlins’s actions, but also people here never hesitate to point to her wrongdoings, and never hesitate to support democratic opposition not caring about the consequences.
Poland is very dependant on Russian gas – and the best way for Russia too fight with us it to turn the faucet down. Which currently they cannot do – because the gas they sell to Germany and Western Europe goes through Poland. But when German and Russian companies complete the pipe under the Baltic going around Poland, they will be able to do what they want.
Now it’s pretty much Tom and Jerry with Russia anyway. For example for more than a year Russia has embargo on Polish meat exports claiming that it doesn’t fulfil the sanitary standards. Which is a laugh, if you have ever been to Russia and seen how meet is being sold there. Whereas Poland is obliged to follow strict EU sanitary regulations, so any accusations Russia makes are of course very false. It is just a means to punish Poland for being “naughty” towards Putin. In response Poland is successfully blocking the new EU-Russia commercial treaty and plans to block Russia’s entry to WTO. Thanks to this meat-gate we now at least have the EU on our side, as they can clearly see what Russia is doing.

As to Polish:) Writing Polish is much more simple than writing English:) dough/doe/dow/dou dew/due LOL:)
Polish is one of those languages with phonetic transcription: there is only one way a sound can be written (with the exception of rz/ż ch/h u/ó, but there are clear grammar rules that let distinguish). I’m sure that you’d be able to write absolutely perfect Polish after a short course.
I can recommend this one: http://www.fil.umk.pl/skijpdo/ at Nicolaus Copernicus University, which I know is very good, and you get the additional bonus of spending your holiday in this magnificent city:)

Pozdrowienia z Torunia:)