TRAVELLING TO THE NORTH OF POLAND

WHICH REGION OF POLAND TO CHOOSE FOR A WEEKEND TRIP?
After the first majówka (we mentioned it in our post here), when it starts to get warmer and warmer and days are getting longer, staying at home for the weekend is a waste of time. Therefore, many foreigners ask their teachers in Polish classes where to go away for the weekend and what to see in Poland. Obviously, the first answer that springs to mind is „Everything!“, since Poland is a country that boasts beautiful cities,  forests, lakes, mountains and the sea...

LETS SPEAK POLISH IN TRÓJMIASTO (TRICITY)
It’s a good idea to visit Tricity in warm weather. The old city of Gdańsk is a must for every tourist, with its over a thousand years of history, which is closely connected with the fate of Poland. It is reflected in the architecture of the city. You definitely need to visit the Old Town, see St Mary’s Church (Bazylika Mariacka), Artus‘ Court, which reminds us about the wealth and might of Gdańsk. Another must-see is Żuraw (medieval port crane), and you should take a picture of the statue of Neptune. And in the summer you can do the shopping at St Dominic’s Fair (Jarmark Dominikański), sit in one of the cafe or restaurant gardens and order something to eat and drink in Polish (you can learn how to do that in the courses of Polish at Po Polsku).

WALKING AROUND GDYNIA
In Gdańsk take the SKM (Szybką Kolej Miejską, suburban train, which is the best means of transport in Tricity) and go to Gdynia. You’ll be delightd by the fountain in the very centre of the city. And after you’ve taken a photo there, definitely go to Akwarium, where you can see the inhabitants of waters from all over the world. Later, you should go for a walk along the beach and Bulwar Nadmorski (Seaside Boulevard), where you will enjoy a wonderful view of the sea and can feed the swans.

        Marina in Gdynia. If you want to get to know other beautiful places in Poland, check out our FB profile

SUNSET IN SOPOT
Finally, take the SKM again and go to Sopot to see the sunset, admire the beautiful yachts moored alonside the Sopot Marina. And those who like sea travel can take the evening cruise.
And after that you can share your impressions with your colleagues or the classmates from the course of Polish, speaking in Polish, of course.

PIJĘ KAKAO W CARACAS, OR ON UNINFLECTED NOUNS IN THE POLISH LANGUAGE

DOES THE NOUN KAKAO INFLECT?
We have good news for students of Polish struggling with declension! There are nouns in the Polish language that do not inflect! Those are loanwords that end in – ao, - oa, - i, -u, among which the most common ones are kakao, euro, awokado, alibi, salami, graffiti, kiwi. There are also some, such as boa, rodeo, makao, igloo, okapi, tabu, guru, emu, kakadu or karibu that do not appear that often in everyday conversations. As you can see, they are mostly names of exotic (from the Polish perspective) plants and animals, and their endings do not have analogical forms in Polish declensions. The word kakao is especially worth mentioning, since, unfortunately, the Poles quite often try to inflect it. Let us repeat: the noun kakao DOES NOT inflect (nie piję kakao, marzę o gorącym kakao, tiramisu z kakao etc.).

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UNINFLECTED WORDS BORROWED FROM FRENCH
The words borrowed from French stressed on the last syllable, such as jury, menu,tournée, attaché, atelier or etui make up a separate category of uninflected nouns. Consequently, we say: Rozmawiamy o menu na przyjęcie (We are discussing the menu for the reception); Przez wiele lat zasiadał w jury (He was a member of the jury for years); Napisaliśmy list do attaché wojskowego (We wrote a letter to the military attache); Pracuje w swoim małym atelier (He works in his small atelier); Wrócił z tournee dookoła świata (He has returned from the tour around the world); Okulary były w etui (The glasses were in the case).

UNINFLECTED NAMES OF CITIES AND COUNTRIES
Geography also pleasantly surprises us in terms of uninflected nouns, since there is a fairly large group of names of cities, countries and regions which are not subject to Polish declensions. Baku, Oslo, Caracas, Los Angeles, Ułan Bator, Kilimandżaro, Ohio, Bordeaux and Kongo are examples of those. So, the next time you eat awokado, perhaps somewhere in Baku, think warmly of the Polish declension :)

POLISH ANIMAL IDIOMS, OR WHAT’S YOUR HOBBYHORSE (konik)

IDIOMS AND KNOWING A FOREIGN LANGUAGE
It’s no secret that  a language is not only vocabulary, conjugations (which are very important, as a seemingly small mistake in a verb form may change the meaning of an utterance, so if you re not sure how to conjugate a Polish verb, check it out here), or declensions. Idioms and proverbs are part of a language as well. The more of them we are familiar with, the better our command of the language is. Obviously, that is also the case of the Polish language.
Like any other language, Polish has its idioms, which sound ridiculous or weird when translated literally, but as soon as you learn what they really mean, they are very useful in everyday conversations.

WILCZY APETYT, OR HOW AND WHEN TO USE POLISH IDIOMS
Animal idioms make up a large part of idiomatic vocabulary of the Polish language, which proves the creativity of this language.
When Polish people want to say that someone is in very good health, they say: jest zdrów jak ryba(he’s as fit as a fiddle; literally: as healthy as a fish) or ma końskie zdrowie (he has the constitution of a horse).
The horse appears as well when we want to communicate that we are extremely hungry. In such a case we say that someone mógłby zjeść konia z kopytami. i.e. eat a lot (they’re so hungry they could eat a horse, literally: a horse with hooves, so the whole horse). Such a person ia also głodny jak wilk (as hungry as a bear; literally: as a wolf). And if we know someone who has a hearty appetite, we can say that he or she has wilczy apetyt (a ravenous, wolfish appetite).

IDIOMATIC AND DYPLOMATIC EXPRESSIONS TO DESCRIBE PEOPLE’S WEAKNESSES
Animals help us to describe our behaviour and personal qualities, too. If someone suddenly starts to behave oddly and unreasonably, fool around or even become aggressive, we say that he or she dostał małpiego rozumu (literally: got monkey brains).
Someone not too clever has ptasi móżdżek (has a bird brain).
A tight-fisted person ma węża w kieszeni (literally: has a snake in his or her pocket)
Someone shrewd and cunning may be called szczwany lis (sly/cunning as a fox; literally: a cunning fox)
And if you see someone crying over someone else’s misfortunes and you know that their tears are not sincere, you say that he or she płacze krokodylimi łzami (weeps crocodile tears).
Someone who is told that słoń nadepnął mu/jej na ucho (an elephant stepped on his/her ear) does not need to be taken to hospital, they are absolutely fine except for the fact that they are tone-deaf.
And when a message we get is illegible because of someone’s awful handwriting, we can honestly say that the author bazgrze jak kura pazurem (scribbles like a chicken with a claw).

                                                    Check out our FB profile for more Polish idioms

So, if learning Polish is your konik (hobbyhorse), you should definitely enrol on ne of our courses (more on the courses Po Polsku offers on our website), and you will learn lots of interesting idioms, proverbs, as well as everyday words :)

TARG, BAZAR, RYNEK, OR WHERE TO DO THE SHOPPING

SHOPPING AFTER A LESSON OF POLISH
Shopping is a great opportunity to practise the vocabulary you have learned in Polish courses (more on shopping in Polish here). But how to do that if we are surrounded by supermarkets, where we hardly need to communicate, and buying things online these days is... a piece of cake? The easiest way to do that is to go to a targ (market). But ... wait... targ or bazar? Well, it depends what part of Poland we are in. The inhabitants of southern Poland go to a targ, and the inhabitants of central Poland go to a bazar (in Cracow, for instance, they have Targ na Kleparzu and you can go to Bazar Różyckiego in Warsaw) Both words refer to a place where people buy and sell goods, mostly food, in the open air. The word bazar is derived from the Persian language and its variants are commonly used in many other languages, and in the Polish language it probably appeared  through Turkish. This noun is often used to describe a place here you can buy not only food but also clothes and other everyday objects.

WHERE DOES THE WORD TARG COME FROM?
Targ came into Polish from behind the southern border (our Czech neighbours use the word trh) and became the root of the verb targować się (negocjować cenę, to haggle over the price of something), component of the phrase pchli targ or targ staroci (flea market) and expressions targ rybny (fish market), targ warzywny (vegetable market) or targ koński (horse market), which you can encounter while reading a guidebook. Let us not forget about the plural form, targi, which refers to exhibitions, trade shows, fairs, e.g. targi książki (book fair), targi mieszkaniowe (housing fair), targi pracy (job fair) etc.

                         Targ or bazar? More on Polish vocabulary and grammar on our FB profile

„MARKET PROBLEMS“ OF STUDENTS OF POLISH
Polish people sometimes say Kupiłam te pomidory na rynku (I bought these tomatoes at the market), by which they confuse foreigners, who have heard the word many times before on holiday trips. In fact,  in the modern Polish language the noun rynek (market square) refers to the central, historical part of a town or city. Let us not forget, however, that in the old days it was in this part of town that people bought and sold goods (hence they have Rynek Solny, the salt market, in Wrocław). Later, the word rynek has taken on a broader meaning, and, the same as in other languages, it is now also an economic term, e.g. rynek pracy (job market), rynek nieruchomości (real estate market), rynek finansowy (financial market), wolny rynek (free market), czarny rynek (black market), etc.
Next time you go shopping, pay attention to what the locals call the place where you can not only do the shopping, but also practise your Polish.

THE MAY LONG WEEKEND, OR POLISH STYLE CELEBRATIONS

MAJÓWKA
When warm days come, and the Polish spring starts with an explosion of greenery and colourful flowers, it means that the May long weekend, commonly known as majówka, is fast approaching. Polish people usually spend that time outside, in the bosom of nature. How did the Polish come to have such a long weekend every year, which is also considered, both unofficially and officially, the kickoff of the summer tourist season? The question is frequenty asked by foreigners doing courses of Polish.

ACCUMULATION OF POLISH HOLIDAYS
We owe the May long weekend to „accumulation of holidays“. The first of them is Labour Day (aka International Workers‘ Day), celebrated on 1st May to commemorate the events of 1886 related to the strike in Chicago (when, among others, they advocated for the eight-hour work day :)). Before the political changes of 1989, Polish authorities used to organize formal parades, processions and demonstrations, which the citizens had to attend willy-nilly. Nowadays the most popular way of spending Labour Day is to go out of town, go cycling or visit beautiful tourist spots, which Poland has a lot of, because the Poles enjoy active leisure (and a trip to the mountains or Masuria with a group of Polish friends is a great opportunity to speak Polish).

THE FIRST CONSTITUTION IN EUROPE WAS WRITTEN IN POLISH! 
The second May holiday is the National Holiday of May 3rd, commonly knows as the May 3rd Constitution Day. It‘ s one of the most important national holidays in Poland. It commemorates the adoption of the act that regulated the Polish legal system by sejm (the lower house of the Polish parliament)  in 1791. It was the first modern written constitution in Europe and the second (after the US) in the world.

The first constitution in Europe was drawn up in Poland on May 3rd 1791. More on important events in Poland and the Polish language on our FB profile

THE NATIONAL COLOURS OF POLAND
The second of May, in spite of appearance, is not an ordinary bridge connecting the two holidays (it is not, unfortunately, a statutory day off work, either). On this day we celebrate the Flag Day of the Republic of Poland. The date was not selected randomly. Labour Day and the May 3rd Constitution Day with the Day of the Flag between them is the perfect time to reflect upon the fate of Poland and its chequered history.
It’s an accepted custom to wear white and red bows on that day.

Now that you know „where the long weekend came from“, it’s time to visit one of numerous tourist spots in Poland. Have fun celebrating :)

ZAGRANICZNY KORESPONDENT, CZYLI O CUDZOZIEMCACH ZZA GRANICY I Z ZAGRANICY :) (Foreign correspondent, or on foreigners from behind the border and from abroad)

FOREIGNER IN POLISH
There is nothing more important for students of Polish than being able to say that they are foreigners. Jestem cudzoziemcem? Obcokrajowcem? Learners of Polish usually get confused by those two words.  Meanwhile, they both mean the same thing, which is a person from foreign land (cudzy – foreign, alien) or a foreign country  (obcokrajowiec). Interestingly, the word obcokrajowiec has only one form, masculine , so we say on/ona jest obcokrajowcem. The noun cudzoziemiec, on the other hand, has a feminine form as well, so we say on jest cudzoziemcem/ona jest cudzoziemką. Additionally, we can form an adjective from the latter: cudzoziemski, e.g. Legia Cudzoziemska  (Foreign Legion), cudzoziemski mąż (foreign husband), cudzoziemskie zwyczaje (foreign customs), which is not possible with the noun obcokrajowiec.

NOT IN POLAND, WHERE THEN? ZA GRANICĄ OR ZA GRANICĘ?
When you take a closer look at that phenomenon,  you’ll notice that bookshops have two different sections: literatura obca (i.e. books written by foreign authours, BUT translated into Polish) and literatura zagraniczna (i.e. books in their original language, e.g. written in English). But... another word has come up, which is quite difficult to use not only for foreigners, but also for native speakers of Polish. Zagraniczna literatura, zagraniczny kapitał, zagraniczny korespondent, Ministerstwo Spraw Zagranicznych (Ministry of Foreign Affairs) etc., are quite common adjectives formed from the noun zagranica, which means the land outside the territory of a particular country. There are two forms in the Polish language: zza granicy and z zagranicy. The space is in a different place, so it would seem that the difference is merely cosmetic, but... that’s not the case. If we say that Maciek wrócił zza granicy it’s his stay behind the border that we literally have in mind (e.g. Maciek works for the Polish border guard and therefore he often crosses the border). We have to admit, however, that a context like that is rather unusual in contrast to the sentence Maciek wrócił z zagranicy, in which case Maciek has returned from outside Poland (from abroad), e.g. he’s been on holiday in Spain, or on a business trip in the UK. Remember that when we’re going away, leaving Poland, we say Jadę/Wyjeżdżam/Wybieram się za granicę (I’m going abroad), so we use the accusative form. While when we are there, in which case we are referring to a state, we should use the construction Jestem/Mieszkam/Pracuję/Spędzam wakacje za granicą (I am/live/work/ I’m spending my holiday abroad), i.e. we need the instrumental form.

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