The World of English

Why is selling and buying a house one of the most stressful and tiring experiences of your life? I think it's on a par with having a baby! Since buying a house is probably one of the largest purchases you make in their lifetime, you don't want to make a mistake.

This year the Peace Corps' Women In Development committee initiated a photographic competition to show the value of Polish women in society, and help a good cause along the way.

The Sony Playstation 2 and Microsoft's X-Box sold like hot cakes worldwide this Christmas as the popularity of computer games continues to grow. According to recent research, three out of four students play computer games for at least two hours a week in the US. But what are the psychological effects of the games on the player? Do violent games make kids more violent? And does sitting around wiggling your joystick have any educational value? Deji Akala ways up the facts.

Crocodile tales are always popular among Malaysian children. When I was younger, I was toldcountless stories about the "Mouse deer and the crocodile" , how the mouse deer tricks the crocodile each time it is about to be eaten. But it wasn' t the mouse deer that interested me, it was the crocodile.

STO LAT!!!

The month of October always reminds us that Mr. Edward J. Piszek, the successful businessman, humanitarian and great friend of Poland for the last 40 years, celebrates his birthday. This year it is his 85th and he is still very active in Poland and on behalf of Poland.

What is the world's best-known country? Most people around the world these days would reply: the United States of America. Variously known as the U.S., U.S.A., the States or simply America, this is the most heavily populated country of North America, although Canada to the north, which has fewer people than Poland, is far bigger territorially. Second question: who, or what, is an American? Read on and you'll find out.

Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) is best known today for his novel Gulliver's Travels (1726), one of English literature's greatest satires. Read in its expurgated form, it has been enjoyed by generations of children for its entertainment value alone. But the lasting importance of the book lies in its merciless analysis of the failings of human nature. In Gulliver's Travels, Swift holds a mirror to the face of mankind and shows a degenerate reflection.

Benjamin Zephaniah, one of Britain's leading poets, merges politics and reggae with incisive wit. He was born in Birmingham in the industrial heartland of England, a far cry from his Jamaican roots, but his popularity has since spread around the globe, even earning him a no.1 slot in Yugoslavia!

Throughout the nineteenth century the American frontier was a continuously-advancing line which marked the westward movement of settlers. It separated the natural and native Indian from the civilized and artificial white. It was a meeting place of two entirely different cultures, a place where, on the one hand a tragic clash took place, and on the other a priceless lesson was learned.

Some linguists claim that the Polish language is the second most difficult language to master..... and I won' t argue with that. One of the many reasons I find it so difficult is that the Polish lexicon contains a zillion Zs ... and if you think that I' m exaggerating ...check out these facts:

COLLINS S£OWNIK POLSKO-ANGIELSKI, edited by Jacek Fisiak (The World of English consultant), lists 2,289 Polish words beginning with the letter Z. Its companion dictionary ANGIELSKO-POLSKI contains a grand total of 38 English words that begin with the letter Z.