We love our language

Can you think of a country where two students of law or IT discuss - over a glass of beer - the difference between two similarly sounding verbs? 

Can you imagine a country where a shop assistant will correct your pronunciation? 

Can you imagine a country where every Friday on TV a program about grammar and spelling is almost as popular as a comedy show (even though it is not funny at all)?

A country where at the same public TV two families compete to win a title of grammar experts?

A country where every year a orthography contest is organised and all celebrities and politicians are happy to take part?

A country where the host of mentioned Friday's show is a celebrity - linguistic celebrity?

Yes - this is Poland. 

We love our language, we love our word formation which gives us: "kancelować", "bookować",

"topupować" even though you will not find it in any dictionary. 

We love the flexibility of the word order in sentences, which gives us the best poets in the entire world and we finally love how a little change in words changes the meanings of these words.

Finally we love how many meanings can hide in prefixes and suffixed of words. Is there any other language where adding different endings to a swear word you can form a sentence: "Wow, that was an excellent party"?

See you in class,

Ola

Why do they laugh when I say....

Dzień dobry,

With years of practice of teaching Polish comes the knowledge and wisdom to lead others and help them to achieve the best results when learning Polish.... Excuse me, could anyone turn the pomposity off...?     That's better. 

There are some phrases that seem to sound perfectly normal and you can't wait to share them with your Polish friends. You think it would be nice to surprise them with some words you learnt and all you get is their hysterical laughter.

1) "Jestem angielski" to say "I'm English". This literal translation of an English phrase means: "I'm made in England", or "I'm an English object", but not a person.
 

2) "Miałeś dobry czas?" (Did you have a good time?) you ask when your friend talks about his party last night.  Firstly he does not understand and then he tells you that they weren't running and no one timed them how fast they could run yesterday.

3) "Jestem gorący". (I'm hot) This simple phrase makes people touch you to check whether you are really hot or suggest you to visit a doctor.

4) "Jestem dobry" (I'm good) is a right sentence to say that you are a good person, but not to reply to a greeting.

*correct phrases:
1) Jestem Anglikiem/Angielką
2) Czy dobrze się bawiłeś?
3) Jest mi gorąco./Gorąco mi.
4) Dobrze./Mam się dobrze.

Oh, oh almost forgot. Have a doughnut for Fat Thursday ("Tłusty Czwartek") - an equivalent of Shrove Tuesday in England.