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Welcome, Eastern Europeans

20:53 / 22.08.06

Come on in, pull up a pew. We're allowed to move to your country, we're allowed to move to yours. Brilliant!

OK, to kick off, I'm looking forward to well-qualified workers taking over the jobs* that our useless, slack service industries - I'm looking at YOU in particular, Edinburgh aerial companies, most sparkies, and all plumbers who seem utterly inept and overcharge for the most basic work, should they ever turn up - don't do.
As Marcus Brigstocke recently put it, they're not stealing your jobs, they're DOING your jobs. Yay for the Slavs!

*Not for a moment that I think Eastern Europeans should be restricted to these jobs.

20:59 / 22.08.06

Thankyou Eastern Europeans for always smiling at me when you come into Texaco.

21:45 / 22.08.06

Thankyou Polish co-worker for showing me that yours is truly the best accent to ever pronounce the phrase 'FUCKING SHIT!'.

Thankyou Polish people for having a nice word for 'hi'/'bye' ('cesc' - can't find the squiggles to put over the 'c's and the 's', but it's pronounced something like 'Ch(i/e)shch').

Thankyou (and this applies to all immigrants, really) for adding more cultural genes to our already diverse pool.

Sorry to hear that your home country and economy seem to be suffering somewhat from the sudden drop in workers. I hope some of our money and our people find it back to Poland.

Thanks again.

21:53 / 22.08.06

this applies to all immigrants, really

That's kind of a given. I'm currently being very annoyed at the "We're a' doomed!" headlines about new EU accession countries.

05:15 / 23.08.06

Dziękuję bardzo for marrying me so we can move to Europe! Viva Polska! (i mój zona)

All Acting Regiment

09:37 / 23.08.06

Yes, thankyou Eastern You-rope-Ian, for bringing a kind of Owl-like wiseness to the pubs in place of the local tradition of "being a fuckhead".

12:22 / 23.08.06

I'm currently being very annoyed at the "We're a' doomed!" headlines about new EU accession countries.

Yes. But I suppose 'we' are rather doomed if 'we' stands for those who hold these views. I mean, if the immigration continues, there'll be enough foreigners here that they can't avoid meeting them. And then they might find out that they're quite nice, or something. And then they might have to change their views on the migrants...

Doomed!

Oh. and I just found out it's 'Cześć'.. Yay Poland!

19:30 / 23.08.06

Mówie po polsku! Napij sie herbaty.
So many Poles in Scotland when I was growing up, adding to the general merriment. Certainly enlivened the culture. Lovely people. Half a million? Pshaw, chickenfeed. I piss on the tabloids and their disingenuous headlines. Rupert Murdoch owns half of them and he's migrant labour. Hypocritical cock.

Those phrases courtesy of this site, btw.

paranoidwriter waves hello

19:56 / 23.08.06

Yeah, thanks my Polish brothers and sisters. Your accent and language are one of the most spine tingling on the planet, and I get all warm and fuzzy when I hear you speaking English and/or Polish around me.

Oh and thanks also to Poland for giving us the late, great Stanislaw Lem, and some of Roman Polanski's films. Who knows what our new friends here in Britain will provide us with in time, eh? I reckon it'll be ace.

21:02 / 23.08.06

Let´s not forget about Chopin!

And it´s welcome Eastern Europeans, so Estonians, Latverians, and Hungarians: Hello there!

17:14 / 24.08.06

Hurrah! Welcome to Blighty!

S'good to see ya, especially you,the gaggle of incredibly pleasant Eastern European people who not only sell coffee to me of a morning, but know my name and that I don't take sugar. You rock my world. I'm certain that you're better qualified than selling coffee, what with your bilingualism and pleasant attitudes and so-on, but I'm very glad to see you around.

I know it's probably hard, but please don't let the ignorant guff you're probably seeing all over the place in newspapers get to you. Plenty of us are glad you're here.

19:07 / 24.08.06

Mist, I am so stealing that pic.

20:16 / 24.08.06

You´re welcome, cube, as I pinched it myself from somewhere...

20:53 / 25.08.06

Thank you random eastern european man who attempted to cycle past me on his bike today but actually nearly crashed into the back of a car when he saw the parrot on my shoulder. Thank you for not being cross but instead for turning around and asking to take a picture of the parrot because "no-one will ever believe me there was a parrot going for a walk."

You made my day Mr eastern european man.

22:32 / 25.08.06

I've got the builders in at home at the moment...actually it was only supposed to be the painters, more on that later. Now today while taking off the carpet one of them managed to put a hole through one of the pipes. We only realised this after they left, so we spent a good few hours panicking about flooding downstairs again and running around with towels. Having called the council, we also called the painter Jurek, who promised to be over with a plumber asap.

Ofcourse Jurek and the plumber (his brother) arrived before the sodding guy from the council who, when he turned up just wanted to switch off the water and leave us for the weekend. Thanks to Jurek and his brother's piss-taking though 'Who fitted these pipes - English people or polish people, eh?' the guy from the council stopped stealing our cigarettes and decided to...wait for it...actually fix the burst pipes! Obviously the polish guys saved him from screwing up a few times hehe.

So thank you clever eastern european people for coming here and making the people you can rely on the least do their job properly!

Duzo sczescia i powodzenia dla wszystich ze wschodniej europy i dla wszytskich na barbelith!

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

23:21 / 25.08.06

God bless the Independent. Today they have an article on a town in Bulgaria that's been overrun with English people.

Our Lady Has Left the Building

08:40 / 26.08.06

Bloody Lowri bloody Turner. 'Foreigners exist to service the English white middle classes' is the thrust of her argument, followed by some 'I'm not racist' racism.

09:09 / 26.08.06

She said it, not me.

Bloke down the pub told me, must be true.

10:07 / 26.08.06

This site also has a list of useful polish phrases, not as many as the site Xoc has provided above, but on this one you get to hear the phrases spoken.

Veetam

11:31 / 13.09.06

Is Polish fun to learn? I am contemplating it.

Tryphena Absent

11:41 / 13.09.06

I keep meaning to learn Polish so that I can pass myself off as, well, Polish.

22:59 / 13.09.06

It's fun, but your tongue can get a bit sore from it. I counted to 100 the other day (with the help of my wife) and it hurt! It's such a nice sounding language though...

There's a good Free Online Course from the University of Pittsburgh if you're interested...