What's special about Poland?
Together with Val Kilmer, Natalie Portman, Russell Crowe and many more world celebrities discover the uniqueness of Poland!
Monday 26 September 2011
Monday 5 September 2011
The strangest Polish customs/habits/traditions by foreigners
Dzień dobry,
This time it will not be me to tell you about some observations - time for People who have enough distance to Polish culture.
Foreigners in Poland (and those who met Polish people abroad) have been asked what customs/habits/traditions (zwyczaje) they find strange or unusual pointed out:
1. Traffic rules such as being overtaken by a car, when there is another car approaching from the opposite direction; using warning lights to say "thank you" to other divers for letting you first etc.
2. Taking your shoes off at home when visiting someone.
3. Kissing woman on her hand as a form of a polite greeting.
4. Christmas Eve tradition of sharing the wafer (opłatek).
5. Kolęda - a visit that a priest pays to his flock around Christmas. Each year they visit all homes in their parish.
6. Train platforms' designation - each platform has two tracks that have separate numbers.
7. Times of the meals and their contents: quite big breakfast, eating open sandwiches and a dinner served between 3pm-5pm were mentioned.
8. An applause the pilots get each time they land (regardless of how difficult or easy the weather conditions were).
9. Drinking coffee in glasses.
The full article in Polish can be found here:
Can I just say, that it is not true at all and we don't do that. I would like to say this loudly once and for all.
Oh ... I must finish now, because someone is at the door and I'll better give them the slippers and a glass of coffee - I am a good hostess after all.... Anna, size 5 you are - do I remember it right? Here you go - the fluffy ones...
See you in class,
Ola
Monday 16 May 2011
Wedding - Polish style part 2
Dzień dobry,
I have received some answers and heard some stories from my students, how they managed to combine Polish and English traditions into their wedding ceremonies and receptions.
I have to say that Polish weddings are getting very popular in UK (London at least :-))).
You were right - there are no wedding speeches at Polish weddings. There can be toasts made by fathers of bride and groom.
There are some points of English wedding speeches that can be misunderstood by the Polish side, however very important in English speeches.
- A groom shouldn't boast about his wife, so saying that she looks beautiful in front of all the guests can be seen as arrogant.
- Saying "thank you for organising the whole wedding" may mean that you don't feel like a part of a family or that you do not appreciate all that was done for you (paradox of Polish culture). As a part of a family, you should accept that people did it for you. Putting all the effort they make into a phrase "thank you" can mean you treat them like wedding planners.
A piece of advise from my students - no literal translations of your speeches if you want to deliver them in both languages. English part with compliments to the bride/groom and Polish without.
See you in class,
Ola
Sunday 6 March 2011
Wedding - Polish style
Dzień dobry,
How many of you married a Polish person?
How many of you are going to?
How many of you would like to read this entry just in case :-)))
Well, as usually, no many answers will be given, but some questions will be asked.
Who delivers wedding speeches?
Who should be in charge of organising a wedding reception?
What do we drink and who pays for it?
When does an open bar end?
What are the traditions for a wedding reception?
How to mix both traditions to do them justice?
What is your experience of Polish weddings - let's all read what you think.
See you in class,
Ola
Thursday 30 December 2010
Święta, Święta i po Świętach...
Dzień dobry,
If you were missing Christmas topic on our blog, please note that we covered this one a year ago :-))).
One thing has been changing slowly I must admit - there is less and less carp fish on our tables and Polish people are introducing more fish variety to their Christmas Eve menus - which would make our grandparents proud.
Our students this year had a chance to try some Polish Christmas Eve dishes on our Christmas Workshops organised at Mamuśka Bar in London.
During the workshops they discussed Polish Christmas traditions and traditions from regions where their Polish friends, families and partners come from.
Together we learnt a carol "Cicha Noc"
I even heard of some after party at Thom's ;-))). Christmas spirit....
Huge "thank you" to the owners of Mamuśka and Pani Ewa, who made sure everything was excellent: we loved pierogi and barszcz z uszkami.
Here is a quick reminder of Polish Christmas Eve traditions.
See you in class,
Ola
Thursday 11 November 2010
It wasn't what I meant
If you tried to make a conversation in Polish and after a few sentences you (or rather the person you were talking to) got stuck, run out of topics or even switched to English the reasons are:
... ok, there might be hundreds of reasons, but I'm interested in only one of them...
No, let's say that you were polite and the person was trying their best, but you both just couldn't figure out what was wrong.
No, this wasn't in the church or in the lift and the person wasn't your dentist either.
No, your accent is ok and you have a broad vocabulary in Polish...
Ok, ok: the reason was - you weren't speaking Polish, I mean you were using Polish words and combining them into sentences, but they weren't Polish - they were literal translation from English.
I'm sure you heard of a Polish mistakes like:
Thank you from the mountain = thank you in advance (lit. z góry dziękuję);
Or It's not my fairy tale = It's not my cup of tea (lit. to nie moja bajka).
and many more which I'm sure can you can hear at our weekly classes :-))
You must have done the same mistake asking someone whether they had a good time you would say (no there is no other reason - I have just eliminated them):
"Miałeś/Miałaś dobry czas?" and what you should say is "Czy dobrze się bawiłeś/bawiłaś?"
How would you say: "No thanks I'm fine?"
Would you choose: "Dziękuję, nie trzeba", czy "Dziękuję, wszystko w porządku?".
Would both mean the same or would they mean something else, or maybe the context would bring the distinction. (Yes, the last answer is correct).
See you in class,
Ola
Tuesday 21 September 2010
instead of swear words...
Dzień dobry,
Do you remember our Polish Swear Words Workshops. Well, I do :-))) - Created monsters ;-)))
Although most people know just one Polish swear word, we can be very inventive with our word formation of bad words.
"No" to swearing we say :-))), but "yes" a huge "yes" to euphemisms. Here are some words, that would be proud equivalents of English "Oh, sugar" but we love them and find it very funny and creative when someone uses them.
pierniczyć - "to ginger bread" (not care about something or to joke);
pieprzyć/spieprzyć - "to pepper" (to have sex or to spoil something);
chrzanić/schrzanić - "to horseradish" (to spoil something or to joke);
kiełbasić/skiełbasić - "to sausage" (to miss your chance or to make a mistake/error);
przysolić/przyfasolić - "to salt/to bean" (to hit someone);
podwędzić - "to smoke/to cure in smoke" (to steal).
Please excuse my literal translations, but only they will show the true beauty of these colloquial words.
The words can change their meaning if you apply different prefixes.
Finally, there are not the only meanings of enlisted words.See you in class,
Ola
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