POWIEDZIAŁ BARTEK, ŻE DZIŚ TŁUSTY CZWARTEK* (Bartek said it’s Fat Thursday today)

POLISH FESTIVAL OF ... PĄCZEK (Polish doughnut)

Fat Thursday, often called „Polish doughnut day“ by foreigners, is probably the sweetest day of the year. It’s the day when you can buy doughnuts virtually everywhere. Patisseries sell mostly pączki and faworki, also known as chrust (angel wings). By tradition, it’s the day when everyone eats loads of sweet food.
Foreign students attending courses of Polish often want to know where this nicely sweet custom came from.

THE LAST DAYS OF CARNIVAL

Fat Thursday is the last Thursday of carnival, in Old Polish called zapusty. There is a superstition, which says that you should eat at least one pączek on that day if you want to be lucky in the future.
In the past Fat Thursday opened the Fat Week (Tłusty Tydzień), i.e. the last few days before Lent. That meant you needed to eat as much „fat“ food as possible, not only pączki and sweet food, but lots of meat and hearty meals as well, before the period of abstinence began.

FIRST PĄCZKI ON POLISH TABLES

The custom of eating pączki on Fat Thursday dates back to the 17th century, and it first appeared in Polish mansions and cities. However, it didn’t reach the countryside until the end of the 19th century. First pączki looked nothing like what they look like today: sweet, round, glazed or sprinkled with icing sugar. They used to be... generously sprinkled with pork scratchings and filled with pork fat. When sweet pączki started to appear on Fat Thursday, some of them had an almond or a nut hidden inside. The person who found one while eating a pączek was supposed to remain healthy and happy all their life.

A TALE OF CRACOW STREET PEDDLERS (Krakowskie przekupki **)

In Małopolska (Lesser Poland) legend has it that the first Fat Thursday, also called Comber Thursday, was connected with... the death of a strict city head named Comber, who took delight in oppressing and tormenting people. He was known for making Cracow peddlers‘ lives a misery by forbidding trade on town square, imposing high fines or even putting some peddlers to prison. When he died, the people of Cracow started to celebrate and festivities began in the streets. The peddlers made loads of pączki and treated everyone to them. Ever since the last Thursday of carnival has been celebrated as the day when the inhabitants, and the peddlers in particular, were freed from the wicked city head.

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TRADITIONAL SWEETS :)

However, the most important rule of Fat Thursday is that we should simply forget about dieting and have a pączek or two, or grab a few faworki (angel wings). Enjoy :)

* Tłusty czwartek (literally: Fat Thursday) is a Polish equivalent of Shrove Tuesday
**  Przekupka is a female form

THE WINTER CAPITAL OF POLAND

WINTERTIME MADNESS

Summer is not the only time that encourages people to take some time off work and relax, or attend an intensive course of the Polish language. As we all know, any time of the year is good enough to learn a language, regardless of the season.
When winter comes, it’s time for białe szaleństwo (witness madness), which means ferie or urlop na nartach (skiing holidays), and if you don’t know what the difference between ferie and urlop is, please check out the previous blog entry.
You might go skiing in the Alps, or in one of the skiing resorts of Poland.

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SKI MECCA 

Zakopane, a town located 85 km south of Cracow, has long been and will probably long remain the ski Mecca for both Polish and foreign skiers. It has been called the winter capital of Poland for a long time. Once you’re there, you’ll understand what it owes its name to. Besides being one of the largest winter sports resort in the country, it’s also beautifully  located, thanks to which you can admire the mightiness of the mountains.
In Zakopane there are routes for advanced skiers and for those, who have just started their skiing adventure. If you haven’t tried skiing before, you can get ski lessons given by experienced instructors.
Even if you don’t ski, you should definitely take the cable car to the top of Kasprowy Wierch (1987m above sea level) to enjoy the panoramic view of the Tatra Mountains.
You will experience amazing emotions while watching the Ski Jumping World Cup. At the end of January Zakopane hosts fans of ski jumping. They go there to cheer the skiers on in the competition that is held on Wielka Krokiew, which is the largest ski jump in Poland.

GRZANIEC IN KRUPÓWKI

When you feel tired from sports emotions, skiing, snow and cold, we recommend going for a walk along Krupówki, the most representative street of Zakopane. While there you must try grzaniec (mulled wine, hot wine with spices and honey), or góralska herbata z prądem (literally: highland tea with electricity, which is tea with alcohol). Try the traditional dishes of Podhale cuisine, which are known and liked by people from all over Poland. Finally, go to the Tatra Museum to get to know the art and culture of the inhabitants of Podhale, which has long fascinated not only the Poles, but also foreigners who come here.
While in Zakopane you are bound to hear the dialect used by the native inhabitants of the region. Besides the dialect, they also speak Polish very well, so you’ll be able to practise your Polish and the declension: jestem w Zakopanem, przyjechaliśmy do Zakopanego, or Zakopanemu trudno się oprzeć, jest takie piękne - Zakopane is so beautiful that you can’t resist it (more on Polish grammar you can learn in courses of Polish for foreigners).

TERMS USED TO NAME PERIOD OF REST IN THE POLISH LANGUAGE

WHY DOESN’T MY CHILD HAVE AN URLOP?
There are several commonly used terms to name the period when we rest, have time off work or school. We often use them interchangeably, however, sometimes the rules for their use are strict. Students of Polish often feel surprised to hear that they can’t say moje dziecko jedzie na urlop. Why?

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN WAKACJE AND URLOP?

There are two basic terms to describe the period of time, which we use to rest: wakacje and urlop. Both words are international words. The term wakacje is derived from the Latin word "vacatio" (liberation, release), no wonder that the French, Italian and Spanish students immediately recognize it easily (vacances, vacanza, vacaciones). In the Polish culture the noun wakacje refers to the time off work or school, usually in summer. When using this form you should remember that it is used in plural form only. The latter of the above-mentioned terms, urlop, is derived from the German "Urlaub" is only used when referring to working adults, who take time off work at any time off the year.

FERIE AND MAJÓWKI – THEIR MEANING IN POLISH

If the same adults take their children along, and they are planing to go on holiday in winter, we use another form, ferie. This noun refers to the break from school, but only in wintertime. We can say that ferie is a kind of January-February equivalent of the word wakacje. The word ferie is also used in plural form only.
Another interesting and popular noun to name a period of rest is majówka. That is a colloquial name for the first three days of May: 1st (Labour Day), 2nd (Day of the Flague) and 3rd (Day of the Constitution of 3rd May), which, if combined with a Saturday and Sunday, make up the so-called długi weekend majowy (long May weekend). But why use that many words if we can call it simply and nicely majówka?!

As you can see, when you’re going away to take some rest, the way you call it in Polish depends on time and your personal situation. Accordingly, you can say: jadę na urlop/wakacje/ferie/majówkę.

                                       
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DIMINUTIVE FORMS OF POLISH NAMES, SO IS ASIA JOANNA?

FOREIGNERS AND POLISH NAMES

- Wysłałeś mail Asi? (Have you emailed Asia)?
- Nie, wysłałem mail Joannie. (I’ve emailed Joanna)
- No, właśnie: Asi. (Exactly: Asia)
- Nie, Joannie. (No, Joanna)

A dialogue like that is quite common in companies where foreigners work with the Polish. Even the foreigners who can speak Polish quite well already, especially thanks to  the Polish courses they’ve attended, still stumble over issues that seem trivial, such as names of their Polish colleagues. While it’s fairly easy to figure out that Tomasz is Tomek, Magdalena – Magda, Jakub – Kuba, and Anna is Ania, it gets more complicated with names like Jan, Jerzy, Agnieszka etc.

VARIATIONS OF THE SAME NAME IN POLISH

What is obvious for the Poles, may surprise foreigners. How can a diminutive form of Aleksandra possibly be Ola, or Kasia a diminutive of Katarzyna? And how to remember that Antonina may be called Tosia or Tośka? Is Czarek really Cezary, and is my nice colleague from the open-plan office, Gosia, in fact Małgorzata? Why does Anna‘s business card say Anna, while the colleagues call her Ania and she introduces herself as Anka?! And since when is Jerzy called Jurek? Why do colleagues call Andrzej from the IT department Jędrek? And why does my mother-in-law call her daughter Agusia, if, I remember that very clearly, I married Agnieszka, whose friends call her Aga? And my son has two friends in the kindergarden: Antek and Antoś. They both share the same name, which is Antoni. We cooperate with an accountant, her name is Maria (a beautiful name!), but our colleagues call her Marysia, and once I heard her husband calling her Marynia. And how come my son’s name is Maciuś?! It was my wife, Aga, who insisted on naming him Maciej, after his Polish grandfather. Our hipothetical foreigner never ceases to be surprised, despite the fact that such processes occur in other languages, too (William – Bill, Robert – Bob, Margaret – Peggy, Michael – Mike, Elisabeth – Lizzie etc.)

HOW TO MASTER THE DIMINUTIVES OF POLISH NAMES

When you speak Polish the choice of the name variation very often depends on our relation to the bearer of the name. The Joanna we’ve mentioned above will introduce herself so in formal situations, but her friends, if they want to emphasize the informality of their relations, will call her Joaśka, her beloved or her parents will call her Asia, and when Joanna was a little girl some people might have called her Asiunia. She may have played in the yard with a Tomek, whose mother called him Tomaszek, or even (horror of horrors!) Tomuś, while his documents said his name was Tomasz.
For a foreigner who has just started to learn Polish each of the forms seems to be a different word. How to learn and use them so as to avoid misunderstandings? That’s  easy. Speak Polish as much as possible, practise grammar in the meantime, e.g. here

MINISTROWIE or MINISTRY? STRUGGLING WITH THE PLURAL FORM OF MASCULINE PERSONAL NOUNS

TWO PLURAL FORMS IN THE POLISH LANGUAGE 

What is the plural form of the noun minister?  This question is asked by many foreigners attening courses of Polish as a foreign language.
In principle, the plural form in Polish is regular, but... There is a but. There are two forms of plural in the Polish grammar, for non-masculine personal and masculine personal nouns. The former are regular in most cases: koleżanka, but dwie koleżanki, kot but dwa koty, piwo, but dwa piwa, fotel, but dwa fotele etc. The latter cause more problems. Should we say profesorowie or profesory, dziadowie or dziady? Polish people use both forms, which makes things even more complicated. Let’s look into that to answer the questions which of the forms is the correct one.

NEUTRAL AND DEPRECIATIVE FORMS OF NOUNS

Interestingly, in theory, every masculine personal noun in the nominative and vocative case of the plural form may take both above-mentioned forms. However, the ones that take the same form as the non-masculine personal nouns, are of depreciative kind. They are potentially possible, but rarely in use. Several of them, however, are in quite frequent use, e.g. profesory, policjanty, ministry. They express a great deal of negative emotions. Therefore, if we want to emphasise our respect for the ministers, we should say dobrzy ministrowie. We should use the personal masculine form of the adjective in the plural form accordlingly. However, if we want to make sure your listeners or interlocutors understand that you believe the people in question do not deserve to be in the position, you’ll use the form ministry, and the adjective will take the non-masculine personal form.
It’s woth noting that only some nouns take a different ending to distinguish the negative meaning form the neutral one (the above-mentioned ministrowie, but also dziadowie meaning ancestors, and dziady meaning beggars, the poor). In most cases it is the adjective or the verb (you can find the right forms of verbs on websites with conjugations) that „does the trick“, and that’s why we can say both: to byli znani burżuje and to były znane burżuje.
Let’s not forget that these forms are common for the spoken language, and should be avoided in the correct Polish language.

POLISH AND THE SLAVIC LANGUAGES

The plural form of nouns is quite hard for the Slavs, who try to make the plural forms based on the rules of their native languages. For them, the words like Polaki or Francuzy sound neutral, while for the Poles they sound offensive, since the correct forms are Polacy and Francuzi. Therefore, you’d better make sure by asking the teacher or look the form up in a dictionary. If you want to know more about the Polish language, check it out here.