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

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.

http://polilang-polish-school.blogspot.com/2009/12/christmas-eve-traditions-part-1.html

http://polilang-polish-school.blogspot.com/2009/11/just-before-christmas-eve.html

http://polilang-polish-school.blogspot.com/2009/11/polish-christmas.html

See you in class,

Ola

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

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

5 things you should never do in Poland

The list of things you should never do in Poland is almost as long as a list of Polish people giving you advice on that.

Some say you should never smile to strangers. Some say you should never approach girls and ask to buy them a coffee or a beer. Maybe someone will tell you not to hand money from hand to hand - just leave it on this ash tray-looking device which a shop assistant shoves money out from...

Oh, there is also the difficult topic of queuing at the train station and asking for information at the information office before buying your ticket at the cashiers...

My 5 forbidden behaviours in Poland that can make you a social outcast are: refusing to drink with us 5 times :-)))

See you in class,

Ola

The things I will never understand - we asked Katarzyna (25, in London since 2008)

Us: What was the first cultural difference you noticed when you moved to London?

Katarzyna*:  (yyyyy) It must have been "How are you" - the phrase and how people react to it. I will never understand (let's be honest, I will learn and obey but will never understand why would people say or do that) why people ask you how you are when they don't want to hear how you are. You start telling them how you really are and then they look at you in a funny way. 

And the other thing is: why would you talk about the weather when you are sitting in the same room and everyone can see what the weather is. It is clearly not about stating your opinion, as they always have to agree with each other... Every time they start talking about the weather I feel like an idiot talking about such an obvious thing.

Us: I'm sure it must be difficult to know what to say not to offend anyone...

Katarzyna: Oh, yes - you can say that the weather hasn't changed since yesterday and this way you will just finish the conversation [laughing]. On the other thing you try to say something about it but can't just go with the same "yes indeed" all the time and you just need to say something creative (I don't know why - perhaps that's just minding my father's words "if you don't have anything wise to say, just don't say anything") . I already tried the names of clouds in Latin and weather forecast for the following day judging on the colour of the sky plus the wind and each time I ended up as a person who tries to show off. 

Us: Do you mind if we continue this interview tomorrow? Actually, let's be honest - not tomorrow - any time in the future.

Katarzyna: As if I had a choice. Yes, sure any time in the future.

(yes it's a small print)
*Just in case - Katarzyna is a fictional character standing for all stereotypical views about British culture. She was created to..., well she was created because she could be created. Just between you and me - I think she is a mixture of the authors experiences and insecurities.

Why Polish?

Dzień dobry,

I often ask new students why they want to learn Polish. 
I am even more often asked why people want to learn Polish and what a typical student of Polilang is like.
The typical student of Polilang - I reply - is usually doing her/his homework and working hard :-) and it usually stops people from asking similar questions :-))).

I however found it important to answer why one has to work hard to learn Polish. That's because it is the second most difficult language in the entire world (natural and discovered).
Polish grammar is very complicated and even essential grammar sufficient for a very simple conversation is extremely complex.


Moreover Polish language is not going to be simplified or changed a lot. There is no way we will stop using different endings to state whether a word is a subject, a positive object or negative object etc. 

Even if someone had such a surreal idea, we would not allow it - we take pride in our language. This was a glue keeping us together and preserving our national identity when there was no Poland on a map of Europe (we regained independence in 1918 after 123 years of being divided among Austria, Prussia and Russia). Then and later - during the communists' regime it was our weapon against the invaders.

Even we struggle with this complex but beautiful language sometimes. We would however always want it to be pronounced properly and with the respect to grammar. Maybe this is why we are so happy when you speak Polish and share our love for it.

See you in class,
Ola