Toaleta płatna...pomocy :)

[marcinek.pl]

Czy ktoś mi może napisać "toaleta płatna" w języku angielskim? :))) będę
wdzięczny za pomoc thx

[chris-joe]

w Kanadzie i w USA takich nie ma. "Paid lavatory/toilet"?
A moze "pay-n-pee", "pay-n-poo"? :))

[marcinek.pl]

Stąd wynika mój problem, myślałem podobnie do Ciebie.W każdym razie dzięki

[ms.jones]

I thought toilets were toilets, well, public toilets. Usually you can use them
free of charge but in some places you may be charged a small fee as if it
wasn't enough that you're spending a penny anyway.
Just discovered 'pay toilets' on google and that it's unlawful to charge for
male urinals! Hmm, was it men or women who introduced this law? ;)

[chris-joe]

wait, wait, ms.jones, I got lost here. You are being charged "a small fee" AND
you "spend a penny anyway"? What's the penny for?

And yes, I too have stumbled upon "pay toilets" on google, and on "paid
toilets", too.
Not on pay-n-poo, however...

[ms.jones]

'to spend a penny' is a (common:) euphemism for going to the loo.
Probably goes back to the time when it meant - literally- what it said.

[chris-joe]

Aha! And that tells me that in N. America you never had to pay to poo- since
there is no such euphemism here :)
We give a penny for a thought, tho :) But so do you, don't you?

[ms.jones]

we drive a better bargain - it's a penny for your thoughtS :)))

[chris-joe]

ouch! touche :)

ps.

[chris-joe]

and we hardly ever drive good ba:gns, we usually get good deals:)

[ms.jones]

Come to think of it I wouldn't call our cars 'ba:gns' either. Not just on
account of their prices ;P

Good deals? There's a famous story about plain old London Bridge being sold to
an American millionaire who thought he was buying the Tower Bridge. Could be an
urban myth :)

[chris-joe]

"Could be an urban myth"
-could be, but to find that out we would need to talk to the Americans:)

We Canadians, on the other hand, got ourselves some great bargains, too, lately.
No, no cars, no bridges or towers, either. We bought ourselves some subs from
the British. Not all of them made it across the pond, neither did all of the
Canadian personnel sailing them to their new home for that matter...
Seems neither the Yanks, nor Canadians can outsmart the Brits :)

But I digress. What were we talking about? Oh, yes, about public toilets :)

[ms.jones]

True, the Canadians keep getting crap submarines from the Brits, they should
know better by now... If there was a threat of nuclear attack, the government
(GB) would probably be advising people to put sellotape round the windows...

[chris-joe]

I had to look sellotape up in order to find out that you're talking scotch tape
here. This should go to the "American vs. British English" thread :)

And let's be honest here: do Canadians really need their own subs? We already
have three tanks :)

Anywho, going to watch some weird Cronenberg flick on dvd. Later:)

[kylie1]

Hate to say this but I agree, Ms Jones....

[kylie1]

Well, we got ripped off but at the same time our governmnet got what it paid
for.Those machines weren't checked over before the purchase took place. And of
course their engeeners will deny any knowledge of the malfunctions until they
are blue in the face but it was also up to our governmnet to make sure that
people using those subs will be kept safe in them. It's like with selling a
car. If you don't get a technician to look at it first,most likely you will end
up being taken for a ride.Some say there was no real cost to the taxpayers
because these submarines were a piece of junk - a real embarrassment to the
British Navy. I think the blame is on both sides - but no matter how you look
at it, it's too late for our sailors that died for nothing.

[kylie1]

"crap-and-go"
"Piss-and-go" by donation

I am quite capable of leaving them a nice deposit. :)

[ms.jones]

That must be a relief for you ;)

[kylie1]

Right. Anything over two pounds, lower with the rope.

[axxolotl]

Stop it!! I'm trying to eat breakfast here.

[chris-joe]

Breakfast! Australia calling? Do they pay for the loo down unda?

[axxolotl]

Close enough. Just don't tell the Kiwis I said that or they'll skin me alive :)
I haven't come across any pay-per-use loos but what I don't like is that they
don't have automatic hand dryers (or at least most of them don't) and none of
them has paper towels. What they have is cotton/polyester towels on a roll (in
some kind of a device on the wall) and you are supposed to pull down enough to
dry your hands, but then the used and wet part of the towel that others had
used before just hangs there and whether you want to or not you touch it. I
don't find it very hygienic.

[chris-joe]

Oh, axx, I hate those linen towels contraptions, too! Luckily you don't come
across those much these days up here. It's all paper or blow dryers.

As for the Kiwis, the only befriended one I've got lives far away on the West
Coast, so rest assured that your transgression stays safely with me:)

[kylie1]

Don't leave just yet!! We are into the submarine stuff right now. Sea sick too?

[ms.jones]

Can I switch to homesickness for a moment? Are you familiar with Eva Hoffman's
book 'Lost in Translation'? It's about her (Jewish) family emigrating from
Poland in 1959 to Canada when she was 14, the country and childhood she left
behind and the struggle to carve out a new life in the new country.

[kylie1]

I am not. But I think there is a movie that goes by the same title. Haven's
seen the movie either. Have you? Good book? :)

[chris-joe]

Excellent book! (and the movie had nothing to do with it)

[kylie1]

Thanks. Time to look into it. :)

[ms.jones]

The film is nothing to do with the book. I nearly fell asleep watching it.
The book, yes, I do like it, well - most of it. I bought it mistakenly
believing that it was written by my tutor from Poland - the same name, coming
from Krakow, musical talent, Jewish, intellectual, fantastic with language,
great personality/individuality, so I was biased from the start.
I was taken with how she conjured up images of Poland - from the point of view
of a child, her family with their history, the walks round Krakow, the reality
of living in the 50s as she saw it, and then the mixed feelings of leaving
their roots behind. I think she described brilliantly the leap into the New
World, the clash of values (Polish v Polish/Canadian & American) and the whole
struggle to work out where she has landed and who she was. I kind of lost
interest once she's made it to university and later became the literary critic
for the New York Times. I've often wondered about the universality of the
experience.

[kylie1]

Thanks:) That sounds awfully interesting! In fact I really want to look up
Chapters and see if they have it here. Thanks for the info. That would be right
up my alley - I love autobiographies !!! :)

Back to the kitchen for me. Teenagers will keep their beaks wide open expecting
some dinner and mother better get in gear here.
Ms.Jones, isn't it time for you to go to bed ?! I was wondering that
before...You stay up really late. You must like that or perhaps working late
into the night?

Talk to you later and thanks again! :)

[ms.jones]

I hope you enjoy it, it's not everybody's cup of tea, but for me it was a real
find. Keep us posted if you get your hands on it! I think I'll put it into my
daughter's suitcase when she goes on holidays to see what she makes of it...in
case it rains in Greece and the bars are closed :) Unlike my son, she speaks
(some) Polish and reads books of her own free will :)
Do your teenagers have much contact with Polish language/culture?
You're right, I've got to be more disciplined with this internet lark - I'm an
owl but right now a properly knackered one!

[kylie1]

I checked Chapters and they do have that book. One more on my list to get this
week! I will be at Chapters this weekend so I will probably scoop it then
unless my library has it.I will see.
I have three "brats" at home. Two are "almost" on their own, the youngest
(girl,16) still at home. She just got her learner's and long restful sleep is
out of the question...
No, none of them speak a word of Polish except some swear words and no, they
didn't learn those from me (in case you were wondering :) The 19 year old was
working in a body shop July last year with a fellow from Poland whose Polish
was extremely rich in certain expletives. Of course,his older brother wanted to
pick up some Polish to impress his buddies and believe me, my daughter didn't
miss a beat when it comes to "k..mac". She thinks it sounds cool and her
friends think it sounds extremely refined. Everyone looks at her with respect
and reverence...
No comment.
I love London. I was there some 30 years ago but I really miss the historical
aspect of living there. Canada is a very young country so architecturally you
won't find anything here that London/England/Ireland has to offer. Perhaps
except Montreal and some places in Quebec. I am sure Chris Joe would agree with
that:)

[axxolotl]

How come your kids don't speak Polish? And no, I'm NOT criticizing. Just
curious. Do you have English-speaking hubbies? And even if you do,
didn't/don't you speak in Polish to your kids? What about hen they were
small? Did they know Polish then?
Mine is nine, born and raised in Canada, been to Poland once for 3 weeks, but
he speaks, reads and writes in Polish. He reads probably the best, writes
phonetically most of the time, that is he'll write sh instead of sz, and o z
kreska and other such animals are foreign to him. He speaks quite well, but I
wonder how long it will last as I'm too lazy to correct him and sometimes it's
just easier in English so I don't bother with Polish. I wonder what'll happen
when he's a teenager.

[ms.jones]

:)I never thought of "k..mac" quite in those terms, but now that you said it,
it's got a certain ring to it, kind of Latino temperament combined with
Slavonic soulfulness, which must equal European cool and sophistication. :)
It was fun for me to see signs warning of 'curva peligrosa(s)' in Spain (=
dangerous bend(s). I'm with them, it's a great sound!
I've got a 16 year old (boy)too! He's doing his GCSEs now (I'm guessing similar
to learner's). He'll be looking for his first summer job after the exams -
that'll be interesting... I hope he doesn't have any ideas involving
motorbikes!
To answer axxolotl's question - it's the way things worked out. Dad is English,
we didn't have any contact with Polish language locally and traipsing to
some 'Polish' Sunday club miles away was not a viable option. It was natural to
speak Polish to my daughter when she was little, but she had the added bonus of
staying in Poland around her 2nd birthday (when I went back to finish my
degree). Her only contact with English for 9 months was dad's voice on the
phone and on tapes - she did have to relearn it when we got back. Her brother
(4 years younger) was late with his speech and needed help from me with
language generally - so I didn't want to confuse him by speaking two languages
to him. Besides I didn't think that one person was enough to create an
environment rich enough for his Polish to develop sufficiently. His sister was
learning to read and write in English, he was catching up on delayed speech, it
made sense to speak one language at home. But also, dare I say it, I didn't
think it was terribly important if he didn't speak Polish. Now that they are
almost grown up, my daughter speaks French and Italian, and some Polish, enough
to giggle with babcia when we visit. My son is not linguistically minded at
all. Very good at maths and physics but languages have no attraction for him
whatsoever. Babcia chats away to him in Polish anyway :)

[kylie1]

I am sorry ladies, I will get back to you tomorrow. Getting late and I am
tired. It was a long and busy day.
Thanks for the replies.:):)

[kylie1]

My story is very similar to Ms.Jones's, except with have 3 "delinquents" at
home. The 19 year old is moving out to live on a college campus in September.
Right now, he is working full for some tree cutting company. No, he didn't vote
for the Green Party two days ago...
The oldest one will stay with us for another year or so and wants to move out
after that.
The youngest still in school and doing exteremely well in English. Will be
taking English honors in grade 11.
In our home it was also up to me to teach my kids Polish but I was too lazy. We
have no close relatives back home. I've lived here way longer than I did in
Poland. Got married quite late as well. The oldest one in fact had the same
problems Ms Jones is describing with her boy. What a coincidence.His
pediatrician also told us that a bilingual home will add more to his problems
rather than solve them.
The youngest one got her learner's driver's license last week. She graduates
from school in two years. That's why I said it's pretty scary to hand them over
the car keys. She still needs to learn how to drive but so far she's just
passed her quizz test. The road test is still far away in the plans.

:)

[chris-joe]

I bumped into E. Hoffman back in Vancouver years back. It was during a Yom Ha
Shoah presentation at a theater there. I intended to talk to her, she was busy
talking to the then Polish foreign minister W. Bartoszewski, however. Well, she
was a celebrity.
I was very touched by that book, even though I have never really experienced the
nostalgia. But then again, I was in my twenties when I chose to leave Poland
and I was more than ready to embrace whatever was happening to my life. And -to
some degree- I never parted with the language. I was grown enough to carry it
in me.

I miss English however, and very painfully at times, here in Qubec. English -in
British Columbia- brought me from my twenties all the way almost into my forties.
If I were to call Polish -melodramatically- my mother, I would have to call
English my wife (well, my husband really :).

I frequently cross the border only to regain my speech, to feel at home, to blab
and joke freely with waitresses and cabbies.

The Quebecois French is an alien for me. It and I, we tip our hats for hello,
we're neighbors, we shop at the same stores, but we are barely aquainted. And
we wouldn't go out of our way for one another.

I guess, only when I moved from BC to QC, I started my life of an exile.

[ms.jones]

What was she like in real life? How did she sound? I'll have to check what Yom
Ha Shoah is.
I left when I was in my twenties too, and now another twenty years on I feel
very comfortable here, although it took a long time to get to this position. I
still catch myself being excited that I'm actually in England! There are times,
on a bad day, when it feels like I'm neither fowl nor fish, Polish in England,
English in Poland, but I wouldn't change having more or less intimate access to
two cultures. I envy you being tri-lingual! Why is it different with French for
you? I would have thought (guessing really) that Poles have an easy affinity
with the French culture - to make a sweeping statement.

[chris-joe]

Ms.Jones, my brief encounter with E.Hoffman took place so long ago that my
recollections of her have become blurred with her photographs on the bookjackets
and in magazines I have seen since:)
She was short and good looking, but without that kind of elegance we normally
associate with NYC magazine editors:)

Yom Ha Shoah (the Holocaust Day)- it's an anual Jewish holiday commemorating Shoah.

And I am not trilingual, I must disappoint you (as I have disappointed myself).
My bf, whom I met shortly after my arrival in QC, speaks French fluently, with
a strong Brazilian accent however, you see. And I am learning French from
him... As a result I speak the language but can hardly understand it spoken
unless it is spoken with... Brazilian accent:)
And so, we speak French at home, but as soon as I step into the real world I
prefer to speak in English. The complication is that we do not live in an
English part of the city. Therefore I am not exactly being made feeling at home
here, therefore I get the looks and attitude, therefore I snottily continue
speaking in English.
On the other hand, whenever I do speak in French, once my problems with the
language are detected -and that happens sooner rather than later, as you can
imagine- they switch into English, however broken it may be (and laced with the
looks and attitude).
And so it goes. English vs. French Canada in a nutshell. You get the picture:)

As for the Polish affinity for the French culture... hmmm... I often say that
had I moved here directly from Poland (or even from Greece, where I had spent 2
yrs before moving to Canada) it would all be very different. But I moved here
already as an "Anglo" from BC. And if you move from BC to QC, well, it's a very
difficult transition. THAT, however, is an entirely different topic:)

[ms.jones]

Good old Anglo - French 'amitie'! I'll never forget a programme on the radio
about a Muslim girl moving into a religiously divided estate in Northern
Ireland. She was asked straight away to declare if she was a Protestant or a
Catholic. Not happy with her answer that she was a Muslim, they asked 'but are
you a Protestant Muslim or a Catholic Muslim?'! I hope it's not like this
in "La Belle Province" - I mean the depth of English/French Canadian division.
It sounds hilarious about the Brazilian accent though! :)

to pay or not to pay

[ontarian]

here I sit, broken hearted
paid a dime, and only farted
yesterday, I took a chance
saved a dime, and shit my pants

[kylie1]

I like it. Says it all. :)