Posts from December 2009

Happy New Year!!!

Posted by Anna No Comments
Dec 31 2009

We’ve managed to survive another year! Doesn’t it feel great?
And what are your plany sylwestrowe (new year’s eve plans)?
I’m simply going to stay home with my family – Ja bedę siedzieć w domu z rodziną.
Na żadną imprezę nie idziemy. – We’re not going to any party.

And while we’re on the subject of party, let’s quickly (before we all concentrate on more important things – like if we have enough champagne stocked up to welcome the new decade) to take a look at this word.

For most Polish speakers, this word “party” is a no-brainer. We know it means “impreza”, “zabawa”, and similar – any event involving people, fun and most likely – alcohol.

Yet many foreigners I’ve encountered insist on translating this word as “przyjęcie”.

And in a way, it’s true, a party can be a przyjęcie, as well. Especially when we’re talking about a dinner party where the participants sit around in a dignified manner and engage in classy small talk while sipping wine and eating fancy little canapes (with caviar – z kawiorem). Or whatever, I don’t go to very many dinner parties these days. That’s definitely not an impreza, or zabawa. That’s a 100% przyjęcie.

It gets even goofier, when you start talking about “party” as a verb. As in “she likes to party.” That can be translated as “ona lubi imprezować”, which in my mind somehow always immediately conjures up an image of a drunken female upchucking in the middle of the street on a Saturday night.
Or you can say that “ona lubi się bawić”, which is infinitely less harsh than “ona lubi imprezować”. However, “ona lubi się bawić” can also mean that she simply likes to have a good time. Like me.

So, can you have a good time without partying? Czy można dobrze się bawić bez imprezowania?

I’m going to test it out tonight!

Happy New Year wishes to all my readers – Szczęśliwego Nowego Roku życzę wszystkim czytelnikom.

And as always, stay safe, stay alive – don’t drink and drive.

See you next year! (Ha! See you next DECADE!)

Polish Expat Bloggers

Posted by Anna No Comments
Dec 28 2009

It always amazes me how many Poles in recent years have packed up and moved to the UK and Ireland. Sometimes I feel like the last Polish person left alive who hasn’t even properly visited the “islands”, because no, transferring between Heathrow and Gatwick doesn’t count, or does it? I will remedy this glaring oversight in 2010 when I visit Birmingham for about a week in August (any readers in or around Birmingham who would like to get together and have lunch, or a non-alcoholic beverage, please let me know!).

Anyway, where was I? Ah yes, Poles in the UK. There are thousands of them. Or is it millions now? And it seems that despite the bad economy, more and more are heading there. Personally, I know only two people who chose to return to Poland in 2009, and about ten times as many who got on a Ryanair flight with all their dreams and belongings reduced to one piece of checked-in luggage. But as I am a professional nomad myself, it’s not really my place to pass judgment on them and dissect the reasons why they decided to leave Poland.

What interests me are their experiences in the UK. Why? Oh, I’m nosey and real life stories are so much better than soap operas.

Luckily for me, it seems that just about every Polish expat on the “islands” is busy documenting his or her life in a blog. Most, actually – almost all of those blogs, are written in Polish and detail the boring, mundane events of boring, mundane every day life.

What surprised me was how many (many) of those Poles in UK complain, and what they complain about (everything). I know that narzekanie (complaining) is one of our national traits. No, wait, it’s not a trait, it’s part of our Polish genetic makeup. Nobody complains like we do. We’ve turned complaining about life, universe and everything into an art form.

But where was I? Ah yes, Polish expats blogging. Mercifully, since most of the blogs are written in our obscure national language, their readership is also almost exclusively Polish. There are, however, a few brave souls that decided to blog about their experiences in the UK in English. And maybe because they blog in English, they don’t complain as much as the rest.

So, if you’ve ever wanted to know just what those neighborhood Poles are up to, now you can – check out thesee blogs:

Anglopole’s blog is somewhat spasmodic, but still offers a nice glimpse of what a Polish person in the UK does and thinks.

Polka on the island writes a bit more frequently and also covers a wide variety of topics.

If you are a Pole abroad and blog in English, or in a mixture of languages about your daily life na obczyźnie, please take a minute and leave a comment – if you don’t mind, I’d like to feature your blogs next time we talk about this subject.

And yes, if you think I’m a blog addict, you are absolutely right. I love them, I read them, and I write them. Kocham blogi, piszę blogi i czytam blogi – jestem blogowym nałogowcem.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Wesołych Świąt!

Posted by Anna 2 Comments
Dec 24 2009

Wigilia, Wigilia i po Wigilii…
How are your stomachs? Suffering from heartburn and indigestion? If not, that wasn’t a proper Polish Christmas Eve then. If yes, congratulations, and don’t worry, the pain is normal, especially after eating karp.

And oh yeah, you shouldn’t be able to dig yourself out from the mountains of gift wrap that easily either.

Since it’s already Christmas where I’m at, I wanted to wish you all Wesołych Świąt Bożego Narodzenia. I hoped you found what you really wanted pod choinką (under the Christmas tree), or in a stocking, if you’re doing it the “western” way.

I hope you’re spending Święta with your loved ones, whether it’s in Poland or abroad.

Or, if you’re not the Christmasy type (and I admit, I’m not) then have a blast shopping – poświąteczne przeceny (after xmas sales) start tomorrow (at least in the US).

So, one more time – Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Wesołych Świąt!

Oh, and one more thing – don’t become a Christmas statistic – stay safe, don’t drink and drive. I want you to be able to read this blog next year too, you know?

See you all here po Świętach!

On Annas and Agnieszkas

Posted by Anna No Comments
Dec 21 2009

I know there are some foreigners out there who are convinced that 50% of Polish women are named Anna and the other 49% – Agnieszka. The remaining percent is claimed by Katarzyna, Małgorzata and Edyta, with a few Grażynas stuck in there for variety’s sake.

I always shook my head with disbelief when I heard such a thing and went on my merry way murmuring something under my nose about clueless foreigners.

But lately, I see that, golly gee whiz, they actually might have been right. I did a first name tally of my Polish female friends and acquaintances and to my utter shock and horror saw the naked truth about Annas and Agnieszkas.

Exactly 50% of the women I know are named Anna (and I didn’t even include myself in this head count). About 30% are named Agnieszka. And the rest are indeed Katarzynas, Małgorzatas, Edytas and Grażynas. There’s also a Wioletta and a Paulina and a Dominika and two Monikas.

And that got me thinking. How do people choose those names for their children?
My parents wanted something universal in every language, without any funny Polish letters, impossible pronunciations, and short enough so every dummy (including myself) could remember it very easily.

And while Anna is pronounced differently in different parts of the world, it’s still easy to guess that it’s me they’re talking about. In Poland, it’s “ahn – na”, by the way. The middle “n” is doubled not only in writing, but also in sound.

But not all Polish names are so accommodating. If you’re ever heard a foreigner butchering “Katarzyna”, you know what I’m talking about.

Still, that doesn’t explain the immense popularity of Annas and Agnieszkas in Poland.

And why am I writing about it today? I met a new person yesterday, a foreigner. I told him I was Polish, but didn’t introduce myself.

He said, “let me guess – Agnieszka?”
I said, “no.” And his answer was, “then it must be Anna.” And bingo.

Now there’s another person out there convinced that every Polish woman is named either Anna or Agnieszka.

When “witam” Is Not Welcomed

Posted by Anna 26 Comments
Dec 18 2009

I have to tell you about something that happened this week. And after you hear this story, please tell me what you think…

So, I had to write an email to somebody. A perfect stranger. A person I’ve never met. A person who happens to hold an important position at one of the institutions of higher learning in Poland. I had an informal question to ask about Polish language materials.

Because the person is relatively young (younger than me, in fact) and because it was a rather general inquiry directed not necessarily to that particular person (as I wasn’t sure who would read my email), and because the name of the person was not included in the email address, I thought I should start my letter in a rather neutral manner with a rather neutral greeting in a rather non-committal way.

So, to keep things simple, I wrote “witam” in the header. And boy oh boy, apparently I screwed up. And screwed up big time.

I had no idea that there were such strict rules regarding this simple word. I’ve always thought that “witam” was a more polite way of saying “hello” (and yes, it can also mean “welcome”). Tons of people use “witam” as “hello” and I bet none of them ever got chewed out the way it’s happened to me.

Because apparently, by using “witam” to greet a stranger, I’m implying that I am more important than him/her, have higher standing and higher position and what not. In other words, that’s how the ruling class greets the paupers. And it rubbed my correspondent the wrong way. Big time.

My humble “witam” galled the person so much that in response I got a lecture on manners, culture (or my lack of it) and my totally inadequate qualifications to talk to others about the Polish language. Because apparently, according to my correspondent, if I can’t get such a simple thing as a proper greeting right, I am totally unsuitable for more involved conversations on topics such as grammar, spelling, and what it means to be Polish.

Przegięcie totalne, wouldn’t you say? A total overreaction, at least in my opinion.
But because I take such comments very seriously, I went searching for answers.

And when it comes to “witam”, the internet is not a good place to look for references. It seems that at least in cyberspace “witam” is a commonly accepted greeting.

But then I consulted “Poradnik poprawnej polszczyzny”, and wouldn’t you know it? In my face. According to the experts, I committed a terrible faux pas. By using “witam”, I made it clear that I think very highly of myself and consider myself superior to my correspondent.

And what do I think about all this? Those experts should just move on with the times and get a grip. Polish, just like any other language, is evolving, and it seems to me that those experts would like for it to stay in the middle ages.

What do you think? Was it an overreaction on the part of my correspondent, or am I really a classless snob who doesn’t know jack?

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