Monthly Archives: July 2008

Four Tankmen And a Dog

July 29, 2008 – 12:05 pm

I woke up this morning humming the theme song from “Czterej pancerni i pies” (Four Tankmen And a Dog). Don’t ask me why - I must have had some really wacky dreams last night. Mercifully, I remember nothing. So how did this song get stuck in my head this morning? A total mystery to me.
It’s [...]

By Anna | Posted in Culture, History | Comments (11)

Of House and Home

July 25, 2008 – 1:19 pm

Today’s topic is actually a little off topic but Thomas made a very interesting comment under the last post, and I thought it would be worth taking a closer look.
I’ve always assumed that the “house” and “home” confusion was exclusive to foreigners who learn English. And for some very strange reason it’s never even occurred [...]

By Anna | Posted in Vocabulary | Comments (7)

Mr. Geremek’s Funeral

July 23, 2008 – 11:48 am

This past Monday I was listening to the funeral services for Bronisław Geremek. Only listening, because I’m not into state funerals with full honors, unless of course, it’s one of the world’s famous despots who’s dead – their funerals are always fun. But the service on Monday was very dignified, sad and solemn.
Bronisław Geremek was [...]

By Anna | Posted in History | Comments (7)

Genitive Case, part 2

July 21, 2008 – 7:45 am

Since we’re in the midst of a little grammar kick, I thought we might as well continue. But to keep things interesting, we should let the adjectives rest for a while and talk about something else. Remember when we discussed the genitive case – dopełniacz? Yes, I know, it was a while back. So here [...]

By Anna | Posted in Grammar | Comments (9)

Polish Adjectives, part 1

July 17, 2008 – 11:45 am

In my last article, while talking about “grand beaver dwelling places” (oh yes, we talk about some strange things here) I briefly touched on the subject of adjectives. So I suppose it’s only fitting to finally give those adjectives a post of their own.
Polish adjectives get a bad rap among foreign speakers, but totally undeservedly [...]

By Anna | Posted in Grammar | Comments (3)

Bobrowniki Wielkie

July 14, 2008 – 2:38 pm

One of the readers, Ed, had a question about a village called Bobrowniki Wielkie, located somewhere near Tarnów. Ed’s mother was born in Bobrowniki and he wanted to know more about the place. Initially, I was stumped, I never heard of it myself. But no worries, after a bit of searching, I found some info.
I [...]

By Anna | Posted in Geography | Comments (8)

Pronunciation Samples

July 11, 2008 – 12:30 am

At last!
I know you’ve been asking about pronunciation, and I know you’ve been requesting phonetic equivalents for all the Polish words I’m introducing in each post.
The problem with phonetic approximations is that if we use English sounds, then for those readers who are not native English speakers, such examples will not make much sense. Also, [...]

By Anna | Posted in Vocabulary | Comments (16)

The Many Polish Greetings

July 8, 2008 – 6:56 am

In all this excitement with grammar and country music, I totally forgot to tell you about the intricacies of Polish greetings. I realized that last night when a friend from Finland skyped me and very indirectly pointed out my oversight.
My friend is an older lady whose brand new daughter-in-law is Polish. The girl’s Polish parents [...]

By Anna | Posted in Culture | Comments (14)

Plural, Singular or Something In-Between?

July 4, 2008 – 12:47 am

This last post about wakacje (holidays) made me a little bit confused. OK, not a little. A lot. While writing it, I was unable to fully determine the grammatical gender of “wakacje”, and a random selection of my countrymen to whom I posed that question just looked at me with utter bewilderment.
“You mean it has [...]

By Anna | Posted in Grammar | Comments (5)

A Little Bit About Mrągowo

July 1, 2008 – 9:47 am

One of our readers is going to Poland this summer, and that in itself is nothing unusual, tons of people visit Poland every year. But not very many of them go to Mrągowo. In fact, I was rather surprised to hear that anyone from abroad would actually know where Mrągowo is. Because I’d bet that [...]

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