Posts from November 2008

Which Grammar Book?

Posted by Anna No Comments
Nov 17 2008

I really don’t understand why it’s so hard to find a grammar book. A Polish grammar book, that is. In English.
I spent the entire weekend schlepping from one bookstore to another, sometimes in the rain, and the only result was sore feet. My sore feet, that is.
I went to normal bookstores and to “language” bookstores and I would have raided the local libraries, too, except that during the weekend them public libraries were closed. Yes, shame to admit it, but I was ready to nick a book. I am that desperate for a Polish grammar book in English. A GOOD Polish grammar book in English.

It’s relatively easy to find Polish grammar books in Polish. I saw several different editions. It’s even relatively easy to find Polish grammar books in German, Russian and French, or even in Turkish. But not in English. Really puzzling, if you ask me. I wanted to know why it was so but the ladies at the Pol-Anglo bookstore in Wrzeszcz could only offer me their blank stares for an answer. They didn’t know. Nor did they know whether such a book is even currently available. They told me to look on the internet and come back to them with a name of the author and/or publisher – THEN they would be able to tell me if such a book could be ordered.
“Now, proszę Pani, if I had all that info do you really think I’d be asking you?” I said. They stared at me some more. One of them even blinked.

I had more luck at the English Unlimited store on the other side of the street. There, a nice girl behind the counter very helpfully offered me “Gramatyka języka polskiego dla cudzoziemców” (Polish Grammar for Foreigners) by Barbara Bartnicka and Halina Satkiewicz and published by Wiedza Powszechna (ISBN 83-214-1068-5). Alas, the book was written in Polish. Now, I might be a bit slow on the uptake sometimes, but this one has me puzzled even now, which is two days later. What’s the point of writing a Polish grammar book for foreigners in Polish? If someone’s only learning Polish, do you really think he or she can read an entire, complicated (yes, complicated, because after all it’s Polish grammar we’re talking about here) book in Polish?

Poland has advanced by leaps and bounds in so many other areas so is it really that hard to prepare and publish a good, simple, sensible, PRACTICAL book to help foreigners learn our beautiful (well, sometimes it IS beautiful) language?
And while I’m on the subject of advancing, what’s the point of having a new shining airport terminal in Warsaw WITHOUT any wireless hot-spots?

OK, rant over. Words for today:

  • księgarnia (feminine, pl. księgarnie) – bookstore
  • książka (feminine, pl. książki) – book

Did you notice? The word “księgarnia” begins with the same three letters as the word “książka.” And if you suspect what I think you suspect, you are absolutely right. These words came from the same common source. But wait, there’s more:

  • księgowość (feminine, plural, but only theoretically: księgowości) – accounting
  • księgowy (masc., pl. księgowi) – accountant (male)
  • księgowa (feminine, pl. księgowe) – accountant (female)
  • księga (feminine, pl. księgi) – book (big, fat one), tome, volume, ledger

See, it all started with a big, fat book. And I finally found the book I was looking for on the internet – “Concise Polish Grammar for Foreigners” by Magdalena Foland-Kugler (ISBN: 83-89913-51-8). I loathe buying books, and especially language books, without being able to see what’s inside, but I guess in this case I have no choice.

Independence Day

Posted by Anna No Comments
Nov 12 2008

Yesterday (November 11th) was the Polish Independence Day (Dzień Niepodległości), but according to my contact in Gdańsk, the celebrations were mostly invisible. The white and red flags appeared on street corners, but I was told that was about the extent of it. Most people were just happy to get an extra day off. And what did they do with their day off? They went shopping, of course. Apparently, the malls places that dared to defy the new law ordering them to stay shut for the holiday (and there were a few of them) were quite crowded.

Yes, as you can see, I’m back in Gdańsk. And I plan to continue with my to-do list, which I had prepared for my last visit three weeks ago.

But back to the Independence Day topic, shall we? It’s a relatively new holiday. I say “relatively” because it didn’t exist back in the olden times when I was born. Back then I think, but don’t quote me on it, Poland had a different “independence” day, which wasn’t even called that. Instead, it was called “National Day of Rebirth of Poland on the anniversary of signing the PKWN Manifesto” and it was celebrated on July 22nd, and if you ask me, that was quite pointless in the first place. A major holiday in the middle of summer when everybody was on vacation anyway? Well, that’s the famous communist logic (or rather – lack thereof) for you.

Personally, this independence day, reminds me of Thanksgiving. In a way, it’s also a day to give thanks, and on November 11th many Poles do just that. Initially – they gave thanks for the end of the communist rule, now for an extra day to shop.

But seriously, it’s supposed to commemorate the anniversary of the foundation of the Second Polish Republic in 1918 after 123 years of partitions by Austria, Germany and Russia. It was celebrated only twice before WW2, and then reinstated in 1989.

Few people remember now (especially few young people) that back in the olden days there was also a holiday in early November, alas for a very different reason. It used to mark the anniversary of the Russian (October) Revolution and was celebrated on November 7th. And in 1989 the government knew they couldn’t just take away a day off and give nothing in return. So voila, we have a redressed holiday with a different name and an occasion we can be proud of.

And the old “independence” day on July 22nd? Now it’s a day to celebrate the Baltic Sea,
or somesuch.

PS. I’m having a hard time uploading images, so we’ll have to wait until I get to a computer that I can actually use ;-)

Stary Piernik and Other Expressions, part 1

Posted by Anna No Comments
Nov 8 2008

John H. came up with an excellent suggestion for a blog post and I gotta say that neither I nor my friends have ever had so much fun gathering material and doing “linguistic” research. Some of those expressions – I even forgot they existed. Like “stary piernik” for example. When translated literally, it becomes “old gingerbread.” But in fact, it’s a gentler version of a more “to the point” Polish expression, which is not quite polite – “stary pierd…” and I don’t think I should be teaching you these, anyway.

(Now you see why my friends and I had so much fun… I think we event invented a couple of new Polish curse words!)

But, stary piernik is a rather benign version – and it means something like “old fart” or “old geezer.” And just like in English, it’s used to describe men of a certain age and certain characteristics.

And while we’re on the subject of “piernik” – this word is also used in another idiomatic expression:

  • Co ma piernik do wiatraka? – What’s that got to do with anything? (but literally: What’s a gingerbread got to do with a windmill?)

“Nieopierzony kurczak” was another example given by John. Translated literally it becomes “unfledged/featherless chickling.” And as you can easily guess, it’s used to describe a young, immature and inexperienced person.

And while we’re on the subject of young and inexperienced, another useful word is “żółtodziób.” Literally – yellow beak.

Also, just as in English, you can describe someone as being “green” – “zielony” – a total newbie.

We will continue with this in the future. For now, here are the words we’ve used today:

  • stary (fem. stara, neuter: stare, pl. masc. person: starzy, pl. other: stare) – old
  • piernik (masc., pl. pierniki) – gingerbread, spice cake, honey cake, lebkuchen
  • wiatrak (masc., pl. wiatraki) – windmill
  • nieopierzony (this is not a very common adjective, but if you want all the forms, here they are: fem. nieopierzona, neuter: nieopierzone, pl. masc. person: nieopierzeni, pl. other: nieopierzone) – unfledged, featherless
  • kurczak (masc. pl. kurczaki) – chicken, chickling,
  • żółty (fem: żółta, neuter: żółte, pl. masc. person: żółci, pl. other: żółte) audio – yellow
  • dziób (masculine. pl. dzioby) – beak, also a derogatory term for a mouth
  • zielony (fem. zielona, neuter: zielone, pl. masc. person: zieloni, pl. other: zielone) audio – green

And I don’t know about you, but that photo of pierniki makes me very hungry for some reason. I can just about smell the freshly baked lebkuchen… Hmmmm….

Image: Caro Wallis

Diversity or Political Correctness?

Posted by Anna No Comments
Nov 5 2008

A while back I pledged that I wouldn’t write here about politics and religion, and for the most part, I stuck to my promise. But today, I will break it and talk about religion, albeit vaguely and not in the way you think.

People abroad always think that Poland is a uniformly Catholic country. And it sure does look like it. There are churches everywhere you go, and big crosses, and statues of John Paul II (Jan Paweł II). And then there’s Father Rydzyk riding in his Maybach. Or was it his very own private helicopter?

Anyway, you get the picture, Poland is a seriously Catholic nation and proud of it. You’d never think that there might be other denominations active in the country. So, imagine my surprise when I went to visit my friend who was in the hospital, waiting to give birth, and saw this:

This is a list of various religious services and chaplains available for the patients. It lists Catholic, Lutheran, Greek Orthodox and Russian Orthodox options. When I asked a nurse (quietly of course, as not to embarrass my friend) she said that the hospital could also arrange for a rabbi or an imam, if a patient requested it.

This was not a private hospital. This was a public hospital named after a Catholic saint. A hospital with dirty corridors and restrooms without toilet paper – my friend wanted me to bring her a couple of rolls, which she carefully hid by her bed. I asked the nurse if they were mandated by law to post such a note. She said that no, not really, but that occasionally they did have patients who weren’t Catholic. And then she added that some patients from out of town might not know that the hospital could provide chaplains of other religious denominations.

I don’t know if this is just an example of political correctness, but to me Poland has never seemed very politically correct.

What it did make me wonder was this – if this was just a normal public hospital, I want to know how it works in a private institution. Alas, my friend gave birth before she could transfer to a fancy private hospital, and I didn’t have a chance to find out. By the way, it’s a girl!

All Saints’ Day

Posted by Anna No Comments
Nov 2 2008

Yesterday the entire Poland celebrated the holiday of All Saints’ Day (Wszystkich Świętych) and initially, I wasn’t going to write about it. I’ve always found this occasion to be totally and utterly depressing, regardless of how beautiful all those flickering candles may look. There is something about it that I just can’t wrap my mind around – definitely not my kind of religious celebration.

Today is the Catholic follow up to All Saints’ called All Souls’ Day (Zaduszki), which commemorates the departed faithful who have not yet been purified and reached heaven.

So why am I writing about it? This morning a friend started to ask me questions about All Saints’ Day and I realized that to be perfectly honest, I knew very little about this holiday.

When I was a kid I always tried to come up with excuses to stay home and not participate – there was always a math test I needed to study for, or a history paper I had to write, which meant that I could sit in front of the TV with a bag of candy while others were scrubbing graves and listening to extremely boring sermons about damnation, repentance and eternal life. The candles bit was fun, but since I had a somewhat dangerous pyro streak, I was not allowed to play with them anyway.

Fortunately for you, this guy has a great gallery of Polish cemetery photos and a lovely description of the Powązki Cmentarz in Warsaw. Go take a look, it’s definitely worth it!

photo: Wikipedia

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