Torun International Studies

7

Authors: Natalia Karpczuk

“Multilingualism” is regarded as the ability of communities, groups and individuals to use more than one language on a regular basis in their daily activities, the way to unite “rich in diversity” Europe. ICT can make any necessary information available and accessible, help eliminate language barriers. The European Commission is developing 30 research and innovation projects of language technology which purpose is to help Internet users to get access to the information in their native languages. These projects include the protection of minor languages, the promotion of sign languages, the development of translation technologies.

13

Authors: Natalia Gburzyńska

This article refers to traditions and culture of Old Believers (Russian: староверы or старообрядцы, starovery or staroobryadtsy) in Poland. Old Believers separated in 1654 from Russian Orthodox Church as a protest against church reforms. They were persecuted and forced to emigrate. To Poland they arrived from Pskov and Nowogród. Modern-day Old Believers in Poland live in the three areas – around Augustów, Suwałki and Masuria. Initially they followed Old Believer’s traditions (e.g. they refused to stay in hospital). Now we can see assimilation with the Polish culture. In this article described elements related to Old Believers faith (e.g. molenna, prayer, icons, canonical collection of texts) and elements related to everyday life (e.g. folklore, clothes, food e.t.c.). This article is based on Bachelor Thesis of Natalia Gburzyńska.

13

Authors: Piotr Siemiątkowski

The article shows the role of foreign capital in the transformation of the Polish economy after 1989. The new, democratic government collided with a number of problems. One of them was a huge shortage of capital. This gap was filled in by foreign investors. This paper presents both size of capital that flowed to Poland and the key directions of impact on the economy reform.