Easter traditions part 2

Witam,

The baskets we take to the church with us on Saturday are not the same our grandparents took. At least they say so. "Today you have cars and buses that take you from your flat to the church directly, but you still don't want to carry a full basket of Easter food. Instead of a loaf of bread, you put in your basket just a slice of it.

Instead of a whole big babka, you just put a slice of it or bake a miniature of a real babka.

Real boiled eggs (pisanki) are slowly replaced by chocolate in childrens' baskets".

Was my Grandma right about that? Sure in some parts of Poland (Wielkopolska) you want your kids to play egg hunting. There is no harm when between hard boiled eggs painted, coloured or decorated you place one or two chocolate eggs. 

And sure it will not be the best idea to take a huge basket with all food for Easter breakfast (and we all know it is a lot of food) with you to the church. There will not be enough space for everyone's basket.

But you have to admit, that our baskets still contain: kielbasa, chleb (bread), chrzan (horseradish), sól (salt), pieprz (black pepper), babka (or other traditional cake),masło (butter) pisanki and a sugar figurine of a ram.

We are not so bad in nurturing the Easter traditions ;) after all.

See you in class,

Ola

Easter traditions part1

Dzień dobry,

Just a quick test:

1. Please name 4 traditional dishes served during Easter breakfast in Poland.

2. What do you take to the church with you on Easter Saturday? 

3. What is Śmigus-Dyngus?

4. Easter Bunny - do Polish children know him?


Having trouble answering these questions?
Let's start with the first one and hopefully answer all of them before Easter.
Students of Polilang don't worry, we will cover all of that (and even more) during our Easter Meeting (Workshops).



Traditional food:

 

 Babka  

 Mazurek  

 Żurek (Barszcz biały)

 

Biała kiełbasa 

 

Ćwikła (beetroot with horseradish)

Well, I'm already hungry. Let's leave something for Sunday breakfast. 

Please visit for recipes:

http://polishfoodinfo.com/polish-food/polish-recipes/86-polish-recipes-zurek-rye-soup.html

http://polishfoodinfo.com/polish-food/polish-recipes/78-polish-recipes-traditional-bigos.html

http://www.polstore.com/html/easterrecipes.html

See you in class,

Ola

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.

British guy in Poland

Having decided to go to Poland for holidays he arrived at Wroclaw airport and was welcomed by very serious looking custom officers. No smile at their faces, no "welcome to Poland", just a short "thank you" returning his passport.

He took his suitcase and made his way to the taxis. A taxi driver dropped him off at the Mercury Hotel. Just one thing had gone wrong - crossing the street he was stopped by a policeman and handed a fine: - "There is a zebra crossing nearby sir and you disregarded it when crossing the street. It is dangerous and against the rules". He was about to say: "Which rules", but was advised by a passer by: "Just take a fine" - so he took it.

Strange, but well I will google those "rules" later - he thought. Hotel was normal, but he wasn't going to get to know Poland by staying in his room. He had a plan: Wroclaw -  Rynek, Ostrów Tumski, Plac Grunwaldzki, Uniwersytet and Ruska Street (called sometimes Pasaż Niepolda) in the evening. One day wasn't enough for all that.

He fancied a trip around Wroclaw by tram - he needed some tickets, but where to buy them. His guidebook said he could get them at any "kiosk". That was correct. He saw "bilety MPK" sign on each small shop he passed. But buying them was much more difficult. He knew what to say, but couldn't understand why everyone was looking at him, two customers left the shop and one of the customers finally nearly yelled at him: Do you want these tickets or not? You are not the only customer here and we haven't got the time to tell you what you should visit in Wroclaw". He tried to explain that he was just asking and in return he was called "arrogant".

See you in class,

Ola

Polish girl in UK :-)

She arrived in UK two weeks ago and she couldn't understand why they all smile to each other.

When she was six she was told not to smile to strangers and once she saw an adult woman smiling to strangers - her older brother explained that the woman was mentally handicapped. That explained everything. She smiles when she sees a familiar face. She kisses and hugs her fiends but to smile to total strangers - ridiculous.

When she had to do the shopping, she was pleasantly surprised. There was a sign with the direction of a queue but no one asked her to obey it when she was the only person queueing. A shop assistant wasn't lecturing her what a correct name of a product was and how to pronounce it. 
She was a bit impatient and even felt offended when a lady in front of her started talking to a cashier and it took them six minutes to bag one bread, two cans of tomatoes and crisps. She thought it was unacceptable in Poland and you can either work or talk to friends, but never at the same time. She was finally surprised that the cashier and the lady weren't friends.

She couldn't understand why they kept announcing everything: a change in a bus route, that a train was delayed by approximately 5 minutes, that you have to send your tax return on time. If she wanted to know, she would have asked someone. 

She went past a policeman and tried not to look at him and then waited for him to disappear round the corned before she crossed the street 100 m from zebra crossing. She was lazy enough not to reach zebra crossing and she was cheeky enough not to be fined for doing it...

Things looked different,  but not the things and language were her problem. She somehow was offending people saying: "Can I have a ticket?",  "Give me that.", "Take it."
What was she doing wrong?- "It was polite. Should I start repeating myself?"



See you in class,
Ola

Polilang is back after Christmas break

Hello Everyone,

As a title proudly states, we are back and we start a New Year with enthusiasm. Which means more classes, more homework, more speaking and writing in Polish...

I know, I'm as happy as you are :-). I hope you didn't forget what you've learned so far and that your have been practising during Christmas break ;-).
 

New Year resolutions as always:

1. We will focus on everyday Polish to allow you to communicate with your friends, family or partner.

2. We will prepare you for a visit to Poland (communication and culture aspects).

3. We will ensure that you learn in a relaxed atmosphere and in a friendly environment led by experienced creative and fun-loving teachers.

4. We will let you decide what you want to learn and give advice on what you should know.

5. We will not bore you with nuances of Polish grammar but let you speak and listen in order to communicate efficiently.

6. We will improve your pronunciation during classes and on professional workshops.

7. We will ask you to practice grammar at home and ask your partner/friend to work on vocabulary with you (it's much easier once you get support).

8. We will tailor the teaching methods to your needs and advise you how to learn.

9. We will lead you through your entire journey with Polish.

10. We will inform you of Polish cultural events.

And to lose weight and start writing a book. So far each year the first ten were the ones I managed to stick to.

Some of the students have their own resolutions: "... speak Polish with my girlfriend", "move to Poland...", "go to Poland for an intensive Polish course", "start talking to my friends in Polish..." - well done guys !!!!

 

New Year means new challenges too. This time for you - our students.

Your first challenge will wait for you at our meeting in a restaurant. 

Everyone will have to introduce themselves (and their partners) in Polish.

More advanced students will have to talk to waitresses in Polish.

See you in class,

Ola