Comments on: Poles and kombinowanie

By: olka

olka — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 20:28:01 +0000

I think that kombinowanie runs through the fibers of many cultures. I’ve seen it done by Poles, Serbs, Russians, Germans, Canadians and Brits alike. Every lawyer does it. To me its just indicative of intellect and a critical mind. Whether or not it’s “good” is much too subjective to be evaluated.

By: Margaret Phillips

Margaret Phillips — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 22:53:07 +0000

I’d just like to say that whatever “kombinowanie” consists of, here in the UK, where we have had vast numbers of Polish people coming to work, visit or settle in recent years, the Poles have earned themselves an excellent reputation as honest, hardworking, concientious and trustworthy.

By: dks

dks — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 16:00:56 +0000

I enjoyed reading the post and I can see that the website can be of use to my husband who is not Polish. If I can have one little piece of advice: it would help people like him, who don’t speak Polish at all, to be able to read how an actual Polish word is pronounced and what, as in this case, the difference is between kombinowac and kombinowanie (verb vs. noun). Keep up the good work!

By: Chris Crachiola

Chris Crachiola — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 11:26:51 +0000

Hello Anna,

I just wanted to let you know that I finally made it to Poland. I have emailed you before talking about my Polish learning, and I may have mentioned that I was studying abroad in Germany [ go figure] but I finally made the trip to meet some of my extended family there. I have tried to document some of the MANY stories on my blog, and maybe you would like a look from a students perspective

http://ccdeutschland.blogspot.com/search/label/Poland%20Krakow%20Krak%C3%B3w%20Polska

I always love reading your blog posts. One day I will get around to become decent at Polish!

By: Jack Stockdale

Jack Stockdale — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 05:45:58 +0000

Regarding a phrase you used in your article about “kombinować,” with due respect, I don’t believe “that’s a whole another story” is grammatically correct.

I readily admit that I’ve sometimes caught myself (and at other times have been caught by my wife) saying, “that’s a whole ‘nother…”. Of course the word “nother” is not in the English dictionary.

Probably the reason we end up mistakenly manufacturing a new word is that we take the word “another” and for emphasis insert the word “whole” between the first letter (a) and the rest of the word (nother).

What we mean to say, and what is grammatically correct but nonetheless clumsy is “that is wholly another…” Better still to say “that is completely another…” Or one may simply say, “that is another”.

As for kombinować, my wife and I (Americans living in Poznan) first learned the word from our Polish tutor. As she began to try to explain its meaning a slight grin broke across her face indicating to us a bit of what seemed to us at the time a bit of mischief mixed, perhaps, with some embarrassment.

The example she used to illustrate the word was being stopped by a policeman for a traffic violation and using whatever verbal means at your disposal (including deceipt, untruth and offering him a bribe) to wriggle out of a fine.

I do believe that Polish culture generally does not frown on lying to the degree that American culture does. I DO NOT IMPLY THAT AMERICANS DON’T LIE! But I can give you an example of an exercise out of the podręcznik I use in my Polish language course in which a guy lies to his coworkers to “fix” a situation in which he is late for work.
IMO that would rarely IF EVER appear as something standard in an American workbook designed to teach people English.

Just my thoughts.

Respectfully,
Jack in Poznań