You’re Welcome!

4
Oct
2008

Like I said in the comments to the previous post, it’s official, I have the best readers ever! Thank you so much for all your kind words, and even more – for your suggestions.

Today’s post is inspired by a comment made by Thomas in the post below. Remember his problems with finding the Polish equivalent to “you’re welcome”? I couldn’t believe what kind of nonsense he found in his dictionary, and so I decided to do some googling of my own and see what I could come up with.

While there are quite a few free on-line dictionaries (which in my opinion are a better choice than on-line translators), the one that I like the best is Ling.pl.
It’s not just one dictionary, what Ling does is to compile answers to a query from every source in its database. Or at least that’s how I think it works.
Knowing Polish is not really necessary to use the service. Just type a word in (use the Polish letters they show you if it’s a Polish word), hit enter and then waddle through the multitude of results. From what I’ve seen, Ling also includes definitions from the dictionary that Thomas had mentioned – Ectaco, which personally, I have found to be less than perfect, to put it gently. Very gently.

So how do we say “you’re welcome!” in Polish? There are a couple of ways to do it. Ling (if you have the patience to read through the definitions after you punch in “welcome” into the search box) gives these two:

Nie ma za co means something like “nothing to it” or “that’s nothing.”
Proszę bardzo is the same as “please.”

Both are used to answer when somebody’s thanking you, like this:

  • - Dziekuję bardzo! – Thank you so much!
  • - Nie ma za co. – You’re welcome! (audio)

Then I wanted to find out if one of these phrases was more popular than the other, and so yesterday, I got on the phone and called ten random businesses and administrative offices in Warsaw and beyond, and asked a bunch of idiotic (but still plausible questions). I wanted the people to spend some time on looking for an answer to give me a reason to thank them profusely and then listen to their responses. Apart from one very rude woman at a certain institution of higher learning in Warsaw, which because I’m such a great gal, shall remain nameless, who hung up on me almost immediately, everybody was extremely nice and helpful.

They patiently searched for a solution to my imaginary problem and when I finally showered them with a slew of “dziekuję bardzo”, five responded with “nie ma za co”, two said “proszę bardzo”, one said “nie ma sprawy” (no problem) and one – “z przyjemnością” (with pleasure).

So, the conclusions?
Poles are very conscientious when it comes to acknowledging somebody’s thanks and use a variety of expressions to do. And I definitely don’t like the Warsaw School of Social Sciences and Humanities. Their loss, because I am seriously considering going back to school. For real.

On the other hand, the good ladies at the University of Warsaw were super patient and super polite. I spoke to two, one said “nie ma za co” and the other – “proszę bardzo”. So there you have it.

photo: urbanlegend


By Anna | Posted in Culture, Vocabulary | Comments (2)

Your Wish Is My Command

30
Sep
2008

This blog is a few months old now (if it were a baby it’d be fed solids with a spoon), and I’ve been feeling very guilty lately. Why? Because I just write this stuff and post it here and it finally came to me that I never really thanked you. You - my readers. Well, it’s about time, I hear you say.

So, without any further ado, please accept my sincere thanks for coming here, reading what I write, leaving constructive comments and generally, for making this Polish blogging experience so pleasant for me. I couldn’t have done it without you. Sounds like a dorky cliché, yes I know, but as it often happens with dorky clichés, it’s also absolutely true.

It’s interesting for me to see how this blog has been evolving, well, at least I hope that’s what it’s been doing, but because I do write this stuff, it might be hard for me to stay objective. Especially since staying objective has never been my strong point.

And hence my question to you. Tell me what you want to read on here! See, it wasn’t even a proper question, but an order.
So, here’s a proper question for you: what is your reason for learning Polish? I think that knowing it will help me blog better, and besides, I’m really nosey and want to know.

I know that some of you have Polish spouses (or am I imagining things here?) and I also know that having a foreign partner is indeed great motivation to learn whatever goofy language that partner may speak. So, to everybody who’s learning Polish because of their wives (and I kind of suspect, it’s the wives that are Polish, am I right?), I feel your pain – I had to learn Japanese for my man. And you thought you had it bad, huh?

But I know there are many more of you out there who read this blog, and I want to be able to write about what YOU want me to write about. So please tell me!
Is there too much useless stuff on here? Too much grammar? Not enough current events? More pretty pictures like this one? Too much complaining? Not enough complaining? Hey, I’m Polish, I’m SUPPOSED to complain, it’s my national birthright, or somesuch.

So, your wish is my command. You demand, I deliver. Tell me what you want to read on this blog, and it will magically appear. Well, not exactly magically, but you know what I mean. I want to make it the best Polish Blog in the blogosphere.

In October I’ll be preparing a cute little surprise for you and when it’s ready it will be a great addition to this blog. You want a hint? More voice files – a new Polish word every day. How’s that for cool, huh? In the meantime, we’ll have to be patient while this is all coming together. I’m very curious myself how it’s going to turn out.

But apart from that, please tell me what your motivation for learning Polish is, and what you’d like me to cover in my future posts. Just please don’t say that more grammar! I sometimes think we have a grammar overload here already.

Ok, but if you really want more grammar, that can be, of course, easily arranged.

Words for today:

PS. Yes, I know that some of you come here and read this blog, because you’re my friends and I told you to do it. But if there are any particular subjects you want me to cover, please chime in too, OK?

photo (Gdańsk) by Pete


By Anna | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (16)

Subtitles: Yes or No?

27
Sep
2008

There’s been quite a discussion going on among my friends about this plan of TVP2 (one of the Polish TV channels, link sadly in Polish only) to start using Polish subtitles for some of its programming. And it’s about blerry time, I’d say!

You see, while most countries either use subtitles in their native language or dub foreign programs completely, in Poland the set-up is slightly different. There you have one person (normally a guy) reading the lines of all actors in Polish while the original soundtrack is still somewhat audible in the background. So let’s say, you have Dr. House going on one of his usual rants and you can just barely hear Hugh Laurie’s voice muffled by the sound of the Polish reader. Sounds weird? It is!

And now TVP2 decided to start showing original English language programming with Polish subtitles. In other words, like it should be. The program selection will be targeted towards teens and the idea behind it is that it should help the kids learn English.

And the reaction of the public? Surprisingly, only 19% of Poles want to have subtitles, the people actually prefer the reader! And they give you a myriad of excuses why the dude reading the lines out loud should stay. They say that it’s impossible for kids to read that fast. Oh really? Then it’s time to learn to read faster. The level of reading skills among Polish youth, and not just youth, is truly atrocious. I myself have several friends who, for all intents and purposes, are functionally illiterate.

The public then says that Polish, being a Slavic language, is too complicated and difficult to translate nicely into coherent subtitles. Oh really, again? Slovakian is a Slavic language too, and somehow those poor Slovaks manage to read their subtitles just fine. The public complains that visually impaired viewers won’t be able to enjoy TV if there’s no one reading the lines. Here, they do have a point, and their concern for their fellow countrymen is really touching. Not like all those heartless Scandinavians for example, who must live in countries where everything on TV, without exception, is only subtitled.

What puzzles me the most is that films shown in Polish movie theaters are subtitled, have been subtitled for ages, and somehow people can read fast enough and nobody sees a reason to complain. But try to stick subtitles on TV and there’s a public outcry. There are opinion polls and studies and expert opinions pretending to prove just how ineffective subtitles would be and how physically impossible for people to read fast and comprehend. (So, my question again, how have they been managing at the movies all those years, huh?)

And then, there are some naysayers who don’t believe that this initiative will help at all with convincing kids to learn English. Maybe not, but don’t you think it’s worth a try? Because isn’t it odd that in places like France, where everything on TV is dubbed, the level of English is what it is. Or rather isn’t. And just the opposite is true in the countries with subtitled TV programming. Coincidence? I don’t think so.

So I say, bring on the subtitles and you’ll see that everybody wins. Kids will start learning English, and the rest of us will be forced to get reacquainted with reading again.


By Anna | Posted in Culture | Comments (8)

Why We Need Professor Miodek

25
Sep
2008

Lately I’ve been writing in Polish more and more, and while I’ve always thought that my Polish spelling skills were decent, now I’m not so sure. In fact, I am sure - they suck.

It’s of very little consolation that I am not alone. Any random read of internet forums populated by Poles will prove that a great number of us can’t spell. And that to me proves that Polish spelling is not as easy and uncomplicated as our school teachers once upon a time tried to tell us. Liars!

“iść“ is an easy word, you write “ść” at the end, just like you say it and just like it sounds.
Same with “pójść“.

But what about “znaleźć”? Or is it “znaleść”? Here Anna runs to look it up in a dictionary.

OK, I’m back. According to the on-line dictionary, it’s supposed to be “znaleźć”. Yet when you pronounce this word, you still hear “ść” at the end, not “źć”. Actually, to even say “źć” there would be hard, if not impossible. Then why do we write it like that, huh?

I seem to remember that if this “ść/źć” sound follows a consonant, then we write “ść”, and if it follows a vowel – then “źć”. But I’m not sure if this is something that my teacher just made up (which is highly possible, the woman made up many things, including our final grades), or if this is an actual rule.

And then there’s this “ó” and “u” confusion. I used to be so good as this stuff, and now I have to stop and think if it’s “skrócić” or “skrucić”. Then I remember that “krótki” is written with an “ó” so “skrócić” must be the same.

The “ż” and “rz” fiasco is something that I experience quite often, too. I know the general rules, oh yes, I do:

  • “rz” after b, ch, d, g, j, k, p, t, w,
  • and when it morphs into “r” in other forms of the same word or in related words,
  • and in certain masculine nouns ending in –arz, -erz, -mistrz and –mierz,
  • and in words not covered by any other rule,
  • except during the second Thursday of every other month ending in a “y”, but not right after the full moon. Or something like that.

But knowing the rules, and following them are two different things.

Seriously, Polish spelling IS complicated and convoluted, and there’s no shame in admitting that it’s hard to write it correctly. We even have special experts, who write newspaper columns, or who have TV or radio programs devoted to the intricacies of the language. And those columns are widely read, and the programs widely watched.
One of those expert guys is professor Jan Miodek, who thanks to his TV program about Polish language became a popular media personality. Can you believe it? That we’d actually NEED a TV program to discuss the more convoluted points of our convoluted language? And even professor Miodek admitted to making mistakes. Spelling mistakes, no less. And he is THE authority on the Polish language, trained linguist, professor at Wrocław University and a member of the Polish Language Council (Rada Języka Polskiego).

Now I don’t feel so bad. And as I write more and more in Polish, I’m re-learning to spell properly. And all those goofy spelling rules are slowly coming back to me. Too slowly, if you ask me, though.

Words used today:

  • iść = to go (in a general sense)
  • pójść = to go (somewhere)
  • znaleźć = to find, to discover
  • skrócić = to shorten
  • krótki (adj., fem – krótka, neuter – krótkie, pl. masc – krótcy, pl. other – krótkie) = short

By Anna | Posted in Grammar | Comments (12)

How To Make Sernik Wiedeński

23
Sep
2008

I have no idea why sernik wiedeński (Viennese cheesecake) is called that. I couldn’t find it anywhere in Vienna, but maybe I was simply looking in wrong cafes and cake shops. So where that name came from, I am not really sure. What I am sure of is that this cheesecake is in fact very much Polish. Even though there are many other types of Polish cheesecakes, it’s sernik wiedeński that comes to most people’s minds the moment you mention cheesecake. I mean most Polish people’s minds, of course, though I am working very hard to include other nationalities, too.

So how does one make this super-fabulous cake? Supposedly, it’s super-difficult to make, at least that’s what I had been lead to believe. You see, my mom was a decent cook, her food was OK for the most part, because she stuck to the basics and never tried anything fancy. And it’s really hard to mess up meat and potatoes. Or chicken and potatoes. It worked fine for us, and if we wanted really good food, we went to grandma’s.

Things would get a lot worse when mom tried to bake. And that’s an understatement. Fortunately grandma was a killer baker, too. Yet even grandma couldn’t make a nice sernik wiedeński. And so I grew up believing that this sernik was something so extraordinarily difficult that mere mortals, like you and me, shouldn’t even dare to dream about attempting to bake it.

As any Polish cheesecake, it’s made with a special kind of cheese called “twaróg”. I don’t think you can buy twaróg anywhere outside of Poland. And what is it? You will see this word variously translated as “cottage cheese” or “quark cheese”, but in fact, it is neither. While quark is very similar to twaróg, proper Polish twaróg is much firmer and fattier. In Canada that firm type of quark cheese is known as “baking cheese.”

Oh yes, baking! So, back in the olden days, you took a lump of twaróg and your indentured servants ran it through a grinder several times to make it properly fluffy. Since these days servants are hard to come by and I don’t own a grinder, I use normal Philadelphia cream cheese. Saves me several hours of work.

I use two 300-gram packages and a little bit, which comes out neatly to three 8-oz packages. Make sure it’s the normal full fat version, because otherwise it will not work.
But before you start getting all cheesy, you need a crust. The original recipe calls for a special “kruche ciasto” (shortcrust pastry), which really, who has the time to make it these days? I make normal graham cracker crust and it works just fine. Except I use Marie biscuits, because I like them better than graham crackers.

A proper sernik wiedeński is made in a springform pan (the one with a removable bottom) but really, any old pan will do. I use a springform, but not because I’m such a traditionalist, but because I don’t own any other cake pan.

And speaking of traditional… traditionally, this sernik was made with 12 eggs. Yep. Twelve. The original recipe was obviously created in the blissfully ignorant days when cholesterol was still unknown.

I only use 4 or 5 eggs, depending on how big they are. The trickiest part in the whole sernik making process is separating the yolks and the whites. Once you’re done with that, it’s a (cheese)cake walk, really.

This is what you do:
The yolks go into a BIG bowl, the whites into a smaller bowl.
Beat the whites until they’re stiff. And I mean really stiff. (I can’t imagine how they did this in the days before electric mixers, those poor indentured servants…) When you’re done beating the whites, put them in the fridge until you’ll need them. Which will be soon.

Now I have a confession to make. I’m allergic to measuring cups. I don’t even own a set. I just add things until I either like the taste or have to throw out whatever it is that I’m making.

But to make it easy for you, I tried to measure today just how much powdered (confectioner’s) sugar (cukier puder) you’ll need. And the answer is: about 1 cup and a little bit, depending on how old and sour your cream cheese is and how sweet you like your stuff.

Add some of that powdered sugar to your egg yolks and beat them until they become white and fluffy. Start adding the cream cheese. Really, it doesn’t matter if you do it all at once, or bit by bit. I’m lazy, I do it all at once. Add some vanilla if you like; vanilla powder, vanilla extract, it’s all good.

The traditional recipe calls for orange peel, but a) I don’t like orange peel, and b) who has the time to peel, chop and gently roast that stuff, huh? Not me. The original recipe also calls for raisins. Those I do add, about a handful, which I guess would be about 1/3 cup. You can soak them in rum or bourbon, if you like. I don’t. Today I forgot to soak them even in water. It didn’t matter. Sernik turned out just fine.

Baking powder is another issue, I don’t know if it matters or not. I always add some, just in case. But then again, I add baking powder even to pancake batter, just in case, so maybe you shouldn’t take this point too seriously.

Ok, back to our cheese mixture. Dump the raisins in it, and add those stiff egg whites sitting in the fridge. And here’s the Most Important Ingredient: add a couple of spoonfuls (big!) of cream of wheat (uncooked of course). Use your mixer to mix it all nicely and pour into the pan. The mixture will be runny. Very runny. But no worries. That cream of wheat will work its magic. It will make for a wonderfully soft and mousse-like cake. I promise you!

Bake the whole thing at 350F or 175C first for about 30 minutes or until the top gets golden, then cover it with a sheet of aluminum foil and keep baking it for another 30 minutes. Then, because I’m lazy, I just turn off the oven and leave the cake there until it cools a bit. And voila. You’re done. You’ve just made an almost typical Polish cheesecake. It will be the fluffiest most amazing cheesecake you’ve ever tried. I guarantee it!

Now if you excuse me, I have some serious eating to do!

Words for today:

  • ser biały, twaróg (masc.) = white cheese
  • jajko (neuter, pl. jajka) = egg
  • żółtko (neuter, pl. żółtka) = yolk
  • białko (neuter, pl. białka) = egg white
  • cukier (masc.) = sugar
  • cukier puder (masc.) = powdered (confectioner’s, icing) sugar
  • rodzynek (masc. pl. rodzynki) = raisin
  • kaszka manna (fem.) = cream of wheat, semolina
  • proszek do pieczenia (masc.) = baking powder

PS. If you want to make it look a bit fancier, you can sprinkle some confectioner’s sugar on top when the cake is cool. Enjoy!


By Anna | Posted in Culture | Comments (6)

Dative Case, part 2

21
Sep
2008

After studying Fran’s wonderful poem in the last post, you should know a little bit about the dative case (celownik) already. It’s a very unassuming case, really. And when you see it in a sentence, it will be most likely used to modify a personal pronoun in expressions like these:

  • Jest mi gorąco. – I am hot (as in, the temperature is so high that I’m sweating)

“Mi” in that sentence is in the dative case. And of course, as you’ve already probably figured out, it’s the personal pronoun “I” – “ja”, which as almost everything else in Polish, also declines.

The same happens in these examples, but with different words, naturally:

Here “nam” is in the dative case. And yes, in the nominative version it would be “we” – “my”.

“Wam” is the dative form of plural “you” – “wy”.

So, I think I should use this lovely dative excuse and show you all the other personal pronouns, as well. Let’s go!

  • ja – I
  • ty – you
  • on- he
  • ona – she
  • ono – it

And now in plural:

  • my – we
  • wy – you plural
  • oni – they masculine and mixed gender
  • one – they feminine and neuter

You may have also noticed that unlike in English, the word “ja” (“I”) is not capitalized in Polish. Instead, when writing to somebody, both in personal and official correspondence, Poles capitalize the word “ty” (“you”) in all its permutations. And yes, if talking to more than one “you”, the word “wy” is capitalized, as well. It’s done to be polite, and other than that, has no other stylistic function. You can tell a Polish speaker writing in English by the fact that he or she will most likely stubbornly write “you” with the capital letter.

But enough of this digression. Let’s get back to the dative case and see how those personal pronouns would look then. You already have some examples above, and here’s a complete list:

See, it wasn’t so bad. One use of the dative case and a whole stack of Polish personal pronouns is what you get today. Next time we will talk about something more exciting – I’m planning to make a typical Polish cheesecake!


By Anna | Posted in Grammar | Comments (0)

Dative Case, part 1

17
Sep
2008

It’s been a while since we talked about our lovely Polish noun cases, so I thought we might get back to it today.

But first, I have a little treat for you. One of our readers, as it turned out, is also a very talented poet. I mean, you have to be talented to write a poem about Polish declensions. Yep. That’s exactly what Fran did. Just take a look:

In Case of Polish

The Polish language is quite curious.
Seven cases! Yes, they’re serious.
The Nominative Case is so exquisite.
Answers the question: who or what is it?

If there’s few or even many,
Or you tell me there’s not any,
Look for something that’s a possession.
Carefully listen for a preposition
Od, ze, do, dla, or koło
Genitive case does a solo.

Now I know it sounds amusing
To what, to whom – it’s just confusing!
But if you listen to the help I give,
I lend to you this case of Dative.

I see I need to get going soon
Of course, I’d like to fly to the moon
Just remember when passing through
That any old direct object will do
And action or motion to anyplace
Always results in the Accusative case.

Whether in front or behind, above, under or below
There’s one more thing that you need know
Transportation is fundamental
When the case is Instrumental

Although it may seem quite apparent
About “on”, “in”, “by”, or “after” it is inherent
That these are prepositions of locations.
(I thank you now, for your patience.)
We’ve arrived at the case called Locative
And all that’s left – hey you! Vocative!

By Polish learner
Frances Turner

Isn’t that just great, or what?! Thank you so much, Fran, for agreeing to include it in here.

I was going to talk about dative today, but no matter what I say now, after reading Fran’s poem, it won’t look very impressive.

So let’s just stick to the basics. Dative – in Polish – celownik. The English name of the case came from Latin “casus dativus”, but where the Polish name “celownik” came from I have no idea. “Celować” is a verb and it means to aim (at somebody). Obviously, somewhere along the way, there is a connection to this grammatical case.

Next time, we will discuss how, when and where this case is used. Now let me read Fran’s poem again. She basically did all the hard teaching for me, all I will need to do next time is to give you some usage examples. And voila!


By Anna | Posted in Grammar | Comments (3)

The Mysterious Ways of Polish Surnames, part 2

12
Sep
2008

As David pointed out in the comment section to the previous post, we still have one more group of Polish last names to discuss. Actually, come to think of it, TWO more.
But let’s start with the easier one of the two:

4. Surnames ending in vowels OTHER than “a”, “i” and “y”. And yes, “y” is considered a vowel in Polish. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any Polish Nobel Prize Winners in this category.

But there is a guy that no doubt will be familiar to my Polish readers, and whose name makes a fine example here: Aleksander Fredro.
He was a playwright, poet and author who lived a while back (19th century). One of his famous comedies “The Revenge” (Zemsta in Polish) was made into a film by Andrzej Wajda in 2002, and as I remember it, it was quite decent.

Read More »


By Anna | Posted in Culture, Grammar | Comments (2)

The Mysterious Ways of Polish Surnames

9
Sep
2008

My friend called me today and that should be good news, right? But it wasn’t. The poor woman was very stressed and urgently requested my help. You see, she was applying for a visa to one of those countries that still require a woman to provide information about her male guardian, either a father or a husband. So my friend dutifully filled out the visa application form, included her photos, paid the fees and waited. And then waited some more. Finally today she got a letter stating that her visa application was rejected due to her name (as printed in her passport) not matching with the name of her male guardian (father).

She doesn’t live in Poland, and apparently, the officials at the Embassy of The Very Strange Country over there were not familiar with the peculiarities of Polish surnames. And I don’t blame them. Even in the not so strange countries, it’s sometimes hard for the administrative automatons to comprehend the fact that some Polish last names can have both a feminine and a masculine form and some don’t. And that some last names decline (grammatically speaking, of course) and on certain documents they can be printed in different grammatical cases. And that with some last names it’s only the guys’ forms that decline, but not the girls’. Really.

Read More »


By Anna | Posted in Culture, Grammar | Comments (4)

Westerplatte Film Controversy

4
Sep
2008

So, continuing on the subject of Westerplatte, I don’t know if you’ve heard about this new Polish movie “Tajemnica Westerplatte” (The Secret of Westerplatte). The movie is not even made yet, the script has barely been written, and it’s already a huge scandal in Poland. For those who don’t know, here’s a quick recap:
Paweł Chochlew is a relative newbie of a writer and director, he used to be an actor actually, and his first directing project was “Takie Życie” (That’s Life) in 2004 and, at least according to me, it was a total flop. The fact that it’s not even included in the International Movie Database seems to confirm my opinion.

Anyway, for his second directing project Mr. Chochlew decided to re-tell the story of Westerplatte. He also wrote the script and applied for funding from the government, which is normal for filmmakers in Poland. And it all went downhill from there.

Read More »


By Anna | Posted in Culture, History | Comments (7)