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Post by Jaga on Nov 1, 2007 21:33:55 GMT -7
Interesting article about Palace of Culture from Washington Post. Did any of you was inside the Palace? I think, I was only seeing it from outside, sometimes very close, but I never had a chance to see it inside. from the article: Stalin's Gift is owned by the city of Warsaw, which now turns a nice profit renting out its 32 floors for offices, retail enterprises and exhibitions. Movie theaters flank the main tower, and auditoriums once used for Central Committee gatherings offer concerts and other entertainment. "It's a true public house," Sierzpowski said during a tour of the building. Splintered oak floors and marred marble surfaces -- one giant column is still stained red from an inebriated banquet guest who couldn't hold his wine -- underscore the palace's need for a facelift. Otherwise, the building appears much as it did on opening day more than half a century ago. Plaster friezes of Polish peasants in classical Greek garb adorn the upper reaches of the main halls. Bas-reliefs of Friedrich Engels and other Marxist figures stand triumphantly alongside two enormous staircases. The omnipresent communist symbols contrast with a few modern-day touches, including a cheeky green-and-blue painting, circa 2005, in the main lobby. Titled "Big Brother's Eye," it depicts the palace's exterior, with a blinking light at the top of the tower. Most days, the palace is filled with office workers, convention-goers and teenagers looking for a warm place to hang out. But many elderly Poles, whose memories of Stalin remain fresh, still give it a wide berth. more: www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/01/AR2007110102356_2.html?hpid=topnews |
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Post by leslie on Nov 2, 2007 3:51:17 GMT -7
Jaga
I not only have visited the interior of the Palac but I have also run training courses in there. I found the inside forbidding with the masses of empty space, cold with all the marble pillars etc. and I never felt comfortable running a course there. The one redeeming feature, for me anyway, is that you can go up almost to the top by lift to the viewing area from which you get an excellent sight all around of Warszawa.
Leslie
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Post by leslie on Nov 2, 2007 5:58:16 GMT -7
 This is a photo of a training course for trainers I ran in the Palac in December 2004. You will notice the 'small' room it is being held in! I am the one in shirtsleeves; the guy sitting near me at the front is my interpreter; and the guy standing, with the suit, is one of the organisers who is at that moment introducing me. Leslie |
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Post by Jaga on Nov 2, 2007 9:05:47 GMT -7
Leslie
what a wonderful picture. Thanks for sharing! You grew in my eyes... I did not know that you run training course there!
The room is very tall and monumental, just like I expected for Palace of Culture
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Pawian
European
Have you seen my frog?
Posts: 3,266
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Post by Pawian on Nov 2, 2007 12:12:39 GMT -7
This is a photo of a training course for trainers I ran in the Palac in December 2004. You will notice the 'small' room it is being held in! I am the one in shirtsleeves; the guy sitting near me at the front is my interpreter; and the guy standing, with the suit, is one of the organisers who is at that moment introducing me. Leslie And the screen shows a very interesting subject: THE COST OF TRAINING!!!! Les, is it the main motive of your trainings? hahahahaha |
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Pawian
European
Have you seen my frog?
Posts: 3,266
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Post by Pawian on Nov 2, 2007 12:13:49 GMT -7
I was in the Palace as a child, around 70s. I remember the replica of Tyranosaurus Something (not Rex) in the Natural History Museum. They exhibited the skeletons found by Polish expeditions in communist Mongolia in 1960s. And I remember those marble columns and pillars too.  |
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Post by leslie on Nov 2, 2007 13:51:36 GMT -7
Pawi Have you been having lessons in snide today - I read your comments to Charles and now me!!!  Being in education rather than training you wouldn't realise that cost, when applied to training, involves and equation that consists of the actual cost (money spent on it, in every respect) minus the value that is attained from the training - the effectiveness of the training in monetary terms. However, the interpreter on that occasion was the worst one I have ever had and 'cost' should have read 'value'. The principal organiser spent an hour before the event going through the slides that had been translated by this same interpreter, correcting them - this was one he missed - must have thought the guy couldn't get the main title wrong -- wrong!! This was the main problem of using an interpreter. At another trainer event, I had a different interpreter. At the end of the event a young woman whom I had noticed during the event spoke English very well, came up to me for a chat and during this she said that the interpreter had not always said what I had just said. This almost gave me a spur to really learn Polish so I could go over from an hour to several days speaking Polish, like what it is spoke, but I was always too busy at that time. Now I am not busy, there is little incentive to learn it as effectively as that! The problem over accuracy is not the only one when I have to use an interpreter. When the interpretation is not instantaneous, as when radio or wire links are made from me to an interpreter who immediately changes it into Polish and send it out to the audience/group with virtually no delay. Otherwise the interpreter sits beside me, I say several sentences, he translates, then I say some more, he translates, and so on - very unsettling and breaks my continuity. Before my ill health when I was due to undertake several engagements in Poland, I insisted on this latter type of translation before I accepted the engagement. Fortunately there is in Krakow an interpreter/translator who has lived and worked in England and speaks and understands English, nearly as good as wot I do! I try to get him as often as the client can afford him! You don't know how well off you are teaching in your and their native language. The Polish immigrants with children are causing problems here in GB - this September the 3rd year of education in one school started with 12 new pupils in a class of 23 - all Polish who couldn't speak English, other that 'yes' and 'no'!! We all have our problems - some more than others!! Leslie |
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Pawian
European
Have you seen my frog?
Posts: 3,266
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Post by Pawian on Nov 3, 2007 13:40:03 GMT -7
Pawi Have you been having lessons in snide today - I read your comments to Charles and now me!!! Most of what I write in the forum is provocative snide! I thought you have already learnt it! It is natural. English is more succinct than Polish. You can`t say the same things in two languages in the same amount of time. This type requires the interpreter to know the lecture contents beforehand. If so, what is the need for a native speaker to deliver the lecture? Why not take a guy who reads the translation? The effect is the same, isn`t it? hahahahaha Do you mean 1st grade in primary school? Aren`t there certain regulations in Britain which prohibit such cases? |
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Post by leslie on Nov 3, 2007 18:03:47 GMT -7
Pawi
You know I hate disagreeing with you but what I have noticed with having an interpreter do so with my pearls of wisdom is that if I take 5 minutes saying something in English, the interpreter takes about 8 or 9 minutes!!!
No - not 1st grade. These would be children of about 8 or 9 years in in England, official schooling starts at about the age of 5. It isn't a question of regulation, it is one of the extra time that is taken when a large group in one class can't speak or understand the language. No amount of regulation would alter that.
Got it now?!!! ;D
Leslie
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