PARTIES AND BALLS, OR ON TERMINOLOGY FOR SOCIAL GATHERINGS IN THE POLISH LANGUAGE

NEW YEAR`S RESOLUTION – POLISH LANGUAGE LESSONS
The beginning of the year is a time not only to think of New Year’s resolutions (perhaps one of them will be a Polish language course), but also to take full advantage of carnival. It is also a good opportunity to discuss, in the framework of learning Polish, what all kinds of social gatherings are called in Polish. Let’s start with carnival.

BALLS, PARTIES, RECEPTIONS – HOW DO THEY DIFFER?
Bal is of course an elegant, very formal, social gathering with gourmet food and dancing and where you are obliged to follow a formal dress code. In contrast to the French language, the Polish bal refers only to formal social gatherings. If a gathering has an informal character: with casual clothes and quite spontaneous rules of functioning, it is just called impreza. Impreza – depending on what we are celebrating, has still other names, but more on that in a moment. However, not every formal gathering with music and elegant clothes is bal. If an event takes place at an embassy and the participating guests are officially invited and are required to wear formal gowns, there is music (but then again without dancing) and a glass of champagne (or good wine), it is called przyjęcie. Obviously, such a reception can take place at any other institution or a private house.

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NAMES FOR INFORMAL PARTIES (IMPREZY) - PARAPETÓWKI AND PĘPKOWE
Let’s return, however, to somewhat less formal gatherings. If a party (impreza) is organised on the night of the 31st of December and 1st of January, we call it sylwester (from saint Sylwester, whose name day falls on that night); we also have urodziny (when we celebrate the event of someone’s birth a given number of years ago) and imieniny. The latter type of a party is a Polish speciality. The older we get, the more we prefer to celebrate our imieniny instead of urodziny that expose our age:). We celebrate our imieniny on a day that in catholic calendar falls on the saint’s day whose name we bear. The celebration itself has no religious character whatsoever. Impreza on the occasion of moving to another house is called parapetówka (from the word parapet, presumably, to stress the fact that at the new place there are still many things missing and therefore the windowsill has a more important function than usual); impreza during which a fledgling father celebrates with his pals the birth of his child is called pępkowe (from the word pępek - a navel); pre-wedding parties for women and men are called  wieczór panieński (a hen night) and kawalerski (a stag night), respectively; a Christmas gathering is called opłatek  - a communion wafer (from the act of sharing a communion wafer with each other), and a get-together just before Easter is often called caressingly jajeczko - small egg (from the custom of sharing an with each other a boiled egg). Impreza taking place on the day of sint Andrew is a popular party called andrzejki (it’s an occasion for telling fortune, and for those who are more religious, it’s the last opportunity to dance before the approaching Advent), and the ostatki - literally it means remains or leftovers -  (or zapusty) is the last chance for some carnival fun before Lent (fasting period in preparation for Easter) comes.

As you can see, with or without religion in the background, there are a whole lot of opportunities for a pleasant celebration. Find the time for it between your Polish language lessons. All the best in the New Year!!!

POLISH CHRISTMAS EVE CUSTOMS AND TRADITIONS

WIGILIA MEANS A VIGIL
During the time before Christmas, students of the Polish language courses for foreigners often ask about the Polish Christmas customs and traditions. There are so many of them and they are so interesting that it can take more than one lesson to describe them.
In Poland, the Christmas time begins with the Christmas Eve supper. The name Wigilia is derived from the Latin word vigilia, which means keeping vigil at night, standing guard. During this day it is important to show kindness to each other, since, according to the Polish tradition, it will guarantee us a good ambience throughout the next year.

POLISH RECIPE FOR PROSPERITY
It is considered a good idea to put one scale from the Christmas Eve carp into your wallet. This will bring you prosperity and secure abundance.
Beautifully decorated Christmas tree - choinka -  (do you know that Poland is one of the largest manufacturers of glass Christmas ornaments?) symbolises the tree of life and placing gifts under it is in Polish tradition a sign of goodness and sharing the joy. Following Polish custom, we begin the Christmas Eve supper with the appearance of the first star in the sky. In this way we make a reference to the Star of Bethlehem, which showed the way to newborn Christ to the three Magi of the East.

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COLOURED [COMMUNION] WAFERS
Before we sit down at the table, in Poland we share wafers with each other (it’s baked from white flour and water without any yeast). The breaking of this wafer signifies a sacrifice for others. This simple gesture brings people closer together and means that we want to share what we have with our loved ones. In the countryside, farmers share, additionally, a coloured wafer. A long time ago each animal species was given a wafer in a specific colour: there was red for horses, which would protect from evil and malediction, yellow for cows (with the addition of the rue plant), to prevent the milk from going bad, and the one with pepper added for dogs so that they would become yet better guardians of the household. Nowadays farmers usually share a green wafer with plant eating animals and the orange one with carnivore farm animals. As a rule, it takes place on Christmas Eve, but in some regions of Poland on Christmas Day or even Boxing Day.

SYMBOLS ON A CHRISTMAS EVE TABLE
To remind us about the place in which Christ was born, but also to ensure prosperity, we place a handful of hay on the Christmas Eve table. We cover the table with a white tablecloth (the symbol of purity) and on top of it we set a candle (the symbol of Christ himself) and one spare set of dinnerware. This set is meant for an unannounced guest and it is also a token of remembrance about our loved ones that are far way or those that passed away forever. And of course, the 12 dishes, about which you can read here.

CHRISTMAS CAROLLING IN POLISH
At Christmas we cannot miss singing carols together. Polish Christmas carols are regarded the most beautiful in the world. Ask your teacher for help and learn at least one verse of a Polish carol for this Christmas:

                                                 Bóg się rodzi, moc truchleje,
                                              God is born, the power shakens,
                                                 Pan niebiosów obnażony!
                                             The Lord of Heavens lies naked!
                                                Ogień krzepnie, blask ciemnieje,
                                                    Fire stalls, light darkens,
                                                  Ma granice Nieskończony.
                                                  The Eternity has now limits.
                                                  Wzgardzony, okryty chwałą,
                                                 Scorned, showered with praise,
                                                Śmiertelny Król nad wiekami!
                                                   Mortal King over the ages!
                                                   A Słowo Ciałem się stało
                                                  The Word was made Flesh
                                                   I mieszkało między nami.
                                             And made his dwelling among us.

                               Franciszek Karpiński: Bóg się rodzi/God is Being Born

ĆWICZYĆ, UPRAWIAĆ I PRAKTYKOWAĆ OR ON SPORT IN THE POLISH LANGUAGE

ĆWICZENIA Z JĘZYKA POLSKIEGO (POLISH LANGUAGE EXERCISES)
Sport is one of the most popular topics among the participants of our Polish language courses. Within its context, however, several verbs appear, which often causes confusion. The students are already familiar with the verb ćwiczyć (to exercise/work out) and they know that one can ćwiczyć at a gym or a fitness club, but this word may also be used with regard to the issues related to the work of the brain. Therefore, we can ćwiczyć mówienie po polsku (practise speaking Polish), ćwiczyć gramatykę
robiąc ćwiczenia gramatyczne (practise grammar through doing grammar exercises) lub ćwiczyć rozwiązywanie zadań matematycznych (practise solving mathematical problems, e.g. before an exam). However, when we talk about specific sport disciplines (sailing, basketball, volleyball, skating etc.) we need another verb.

JAKI SPORT UPRAWIASZ? WHAT CAN YOU UPRAWIAĆ IN POLISH?
First of all, in Polish we never do sports (nie robimy sportu), but we cultivate / practise it (uprawiamy go). We use the same form when referring to specific disciplines when we want to emphasise that they are present in our lives on a regular basis. Obviously, you can say that you play basketball (gramy w koszykówkę) but if you spend half of your spare time on a basketball court, saying uprawiam koszykówkę (I practise / cultivate basketball) is more adequate (gram w siatkówkę - uprawiam siatkówkę; pływam - uprawiam pływanie; jeżdżę na nartach - uprawiam narciarstwo, żegluję - uprawiam żeglarstwo etc.). In the Polish language you can also uprawiać jogę, pilates, body balance, lekkoatletykę, but also...seks. You can check here for the other contexts in which you can use this verb and for its inflection.

VERBS PRAKTYKOWAĆ AND TRENOWAĆ IN A POLISH LESSON
When talking about sport, foreigners learning Polish ask about the verbs trenować (to train) and praktykować (to practise). Both of these forms are very easy to memorise, they have similarly-sounding equivalents in other languages, and as a consequence, they are particularly commonly used by the foreigners. Well … here is where a problem comes in, since in the Polish language these verbs can be used only in strictly defined contexts. We can trenować do triathlonu, maratonu, trenować boks lub karate – that is intensively practise (ćwiczyć), because the specificity of the sport or the fact that we are (semi) professionals requires it.
In the Polish language we practise (praktykujemy) yoga, Zen, Buddhism or any other religion – this verb thus relates to activities staying rather within the spiritual sphere, it indicates exercise but at the mental level (by saying ćwiczę jogę we concentrate on the aspect of performing physical exercise and not on the spiritual sphere).

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In summary, to have a good command of the Polish language it is necessary to dużo ćwiczyć (practise a lot) and here uprawianie sportu (doing / cultivating sports) in a group with Polish colleagues can turn out really helpful. Furthermore, sportowe treningi (sports trainings) should be supported by praktyka medytacji (meditation practice) so that our brains will be ready to absorb a greater amount of knowledge during the Polish language courses.

CO MOŻE MORZE? - HOMONYMS OF POLISH LANGUAGE

ONE OR TWO WORDS?
Everybody who has been learning Polish, whether during a group course (you can learn more abort courses for foreigners here), or in individual lessons, must have noticed that there are words in Polish that sound or are spelled the same but have a different meaning. Obviously, we are talking about homonyms that can sometimes amuse students but at other times simply confuse them.

MAMY MAMY – REPETITION OR A DIFFERENT MEANING?
Let us take a closer look at the word mamy, which in the Polish language is the 1st person of plural form of the verb mieć in the present tense and looks quite innocent. What does then mamy mamy mean then? Is it just an erroneous repetition or a piece of information stating that we have mothers? Mamy is also a plural form of the noun mama (mother).
Thanks to homonyms one can state while playing cards with friends: nie dam dam, that is I’m not going to give away the queens (in Polish, the playing card called queen is referred to as a lady i.e. dama). The word dam denotes here both the 1st person singular form of the verb dać (to give) in the future tense and the genitive plural form of the noun dama (literally a lady; in cards, meaning a queen). Here we are dealing with the similarity between two distinct forms resulting from inflection of two different words.

MOŻE ON MOŻE POJECHAĆ NAD MORZE
In the beginning some of you might be surprised by the information that the word może is the 3rd person singular form of the verb móc as well as a way to express uncertainty. Additionally, there comes yet another morze (this time spelled with rz), which means sea. We have here then as many as three words that sound the same and on top of that two of them are spelled identically, however, their meanings have nothing to do with each other. There are many such words in the Polish language. Sometimes two different verbs can have identically pronounced forms in different tenses:

Po podróży goście długo myli się przed kolacją
(the verb myć się – to wash oneself - in the past tense 3rd person plural form).
but
Saper myli się tylko jeden raz
(the verb mylić się – to make a mistake - in the present tense 3rd person singular form).

CONTEXT IS YOUR BEST FRIEND
To avoid making mistakes related to homonyms, when we have any doubts it is worth paying extra attention to the context. From the context we will know whether our interlocutor is using the word ranny meaning something that takes place in the morning hours:

Tuż po wschodzie słońca słuchałem śpiewu rannych ptaków
Or meaning “wounded”:
Kilka rannych ptaków czekało na pomoc lekarza.

To był duży bal charytatywny, w którym wzięło udział wielu znanych ludzi (bal – a big dance party, a ball).
To był duży bal drewna i ludzie nie mogli go podnieść bez pomocy maszyn (bal – a log of wood).

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Ó – A SHORT STORY OF A CERTAIN POLISH LETTER

WHERE DID Ó COME FROM?
As early as during their first Polish language lessons, when working on the Polish alphabet, the course  participants are stunned by some of the Polish letters. However, none of these letters, neither vowels ą / ę, nor ć, dź, ś, ż, ź, absorb the foreigners as much as the small, beautiful and mysterious ó. What's the point of this letter, how do you pronounce it, and in which words does it occur? Ladies and gentlemen, the hero of today's episode is the letter Ó.

EVOLUTION OF Ó
In a nutshell, there used to exist short and long vowels in the Polish language. The letter were recorded with a characteristic, long dash above the a, e, i, u, and consequently also above o (ā, ē, ī, ō, ū). While the other vowels disappeared over time, ó has remained as a sort of peculiar relic of the past. Still, there are a lot of words in Polish that have kept the historical spelling based on the old pronunciation (chór – choir, góra – mountain, król - king, mózg - brain, późno – late, źródło - water spring, ogórek - cucumber, etc.).

U OR Ó? WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE AND WHERE CAN WE ENCOUNTER Ó?
This is a very common question in a Polish language course. Students are concerned with the fact that we have two letters that sound the same. Is their pronunciation really the same? Are the u in Ursula (a Polish female name) and the ó in Józef (a Polish male name) pronounced in the same way? Well, yes! Nowadays, there is only a spelling difference between these letters. The letter ó occurs very often in word endings: - ów, - ówna, - ówka (Kraków – the city of Cracow, kreskówka - cartoon, lodówka – refrigerator, etc.). You will never see it at the end of a word, and very rarely at the beginning (ósma - eighth, ósemka – the number eight, ów – that one, ówczesny – of that time).

Do you like the letter Ó slightly more now?

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EXERCISE FOR YOUR TONGUE – POLISH TONGUE-TWISTERS

EVERY LANGUAGE HAS ITS DARK SIDE… OF PRONUNCIATION
When we begin our adventure with learning a foreign language, apart from practical phrases and expressions, we are bound to encounter tongue-twisters. Such combinations of words are usually very difficult to repeat and every language has that “something” that causes serious problems with pronunciation.
Among many of the foreigners learning Polish there is a widespread conviction that this language has very complex phonetics. Well, if you happen to overhear Polish people talking to each other on the streets, you might, indeed, conclude that they are making some sort of whistling and crackling sounds. The popular tongue-twisters that your Polish acquaintances tend to use to “frighten” the foreigners, only seem to prove that notion.

POLISH IS NOT AS HORRIBLE AS IT MAY SEEM
Don’t be scared, though! During a Polish language course, especially the one for beginners (if you are looking for a good course, you should definitely look here), you won’t need to repeat the famous verses about a beetle making sounds in the reeds in Szczebrzeszyn (pol. chrząszcz brzmi w trzcinie w Szczebrzeszynie) or about the postmaster from Tczew dancing cha-cha (pol. poczmistrz z Tczewa tańczący cza-czę). In fact, tongue-twisters, in spite of their name, are not meant to twist or break your tongue, and even less so to discourage you from learning, but to practice what’s difficult and troublesome. That is why you shouldn’t be afraid of them. You simply need to get used to the sound of the language first, and then practise phrases and words which are of more practical use, such as Jak się pan nazywa? rather than the abovementioned chrząszcz or piegża (white-throated warbler). Only then, just for fun, can you try to repeat some of the Polish tongue-twisters. And there are quite a few of them.

A CHALLENGE NOT ONLY FOR A FOREIGNER
We shouldn’t forget that these tongue-twisters have appeared not without a reason and some of them are a great challenge even for the native Polish speakers. All consonant clusters that are pronounced with such beautiful whistling and whishing are not hard for native speakers to pronounce as long as they appear in separate words. However, when too many of such words come together, they Poles might “over-whish it” and instead of saying: Sasza szedł suchą szosą (Sasha was walking along a dry road), you’ll get something like: Szasza szedł szuszą szoszą.
It is just as hard to pronounce the words such as artyleria (artillery), artyleryjski (adjective derived from the noun artillery) or rewolwer (revolver). In the Polish language “r” and “l” are close in articulation point (by the way, artykulacja is another difficult word) and therefore it’s easy to make a mistake.

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So, if any of your Polish acquaintances asks you to repeat: cesarz czesze cesarzową, a cesarzowa czesze cesarza (the emperor is combing the empress and the empress is combing the emperor), you can suggest that you will give it a try, but in exchange you should ask them to repeat: król Karol kupił królowej Karolinie korale koloru koralowego (king Karol has bought a bead necklace of coral colour for queen Karolina). You can rest assured that it’s not going to be an easy task.
Let’s not forget that most Poles have been learning these tongue-twisters all their lives. When they rattle them off without pausing for breath, you can be sure they have done it many times before.

And if you want to pleasantly surprise both the Poles and foreigners speaking Polish, it is enough, while spending time in your cosy domesticity, to memorize one of such tongue-twisters (in case of difficulties just ask your teacher for help), and then to show what you can do. And then, it will turn out that Polish is easy after all (and especially so, when you learn it at Po Polsku)!

MIGRATING "SIĘ", OR A VERY FLEXIBLE POLISH PHRASE :)

WHERE SHOULD SELF (SIĘ) FIND ITSELF? ;) 
A simple question with an equally simple answer it would seem, but then again very often asked during the Polish language courses. Students are quite concerned with the fact that they hear the reflexive pronoun się in different parts of a sentence. Is it possible that the position of this pronoun is … random? Well,… very often… it is. It mainly applies to questions. We can say jak się pani nazywa? and jak pani się nazywa? (literally how do you call yourself, lady/miss?) and still, both questions are correct! There is no difference between: jak się pan czuje? and  jak pan się czuje? (literally how do you feel yourself, sir/mister?); gdzie znajduje się centrum? and gdzie się znajduje centrum? (literally where does the centre find itself meaning where is the centre located); dlaczego się jeszcze nie umyłeś? and dlaczego nie umyłeś się jeszcze? (literally why haven’t you washed yourself yet); gdzie się tak przeziębiłeś? and gdzie tak się przeziębiłeś? (literally where have you caught yourself a cold).

POSITION OF SIĘ IN A POLISH SENTENCE. ARE THERE ANY RULES?
Yes, there are rules. In principle, we should use się neither at the beginning of a sentence nor after a preposition. Accordingly, the question z się czego pan śmieje? doesn’t make sense. Instead, it should sound z czego się pan śmieje? or z czego pan się śmieje? (meaning what are you laughing at, sir/mister?). In affirmative sentences it’s best to position się just behind the verb (Obejrzałam się za siebie – I looked behind; Rozgadał się strasznie – He rambled on and on; Nasłuchał się głupot – He heard a lot of nonsense; Umówiła się ze mną na dworcu – She arranged to meet me at the station etc.). The pronoun się can be found at the end of a sentence if this sentence consists of a predicate only, for instance: Napijesz się? (Do you care for a drink?); Rozpadało się (It started to rain); Wypogodziło się (It [the sky] cleared up); Odsuń się (literally Back yourself off); Pogodziliśmy się (We made it up); Pokłóciliśmy się (We had a row).

SIĘ AND COLLOQUIAL POLISH PHRASES
It might happen that you hear się at…the beginning of a sentence. If you want to emphasise that a situation is very complicated and that it’s going to be hard to deal with it, you can say Się porobiło (literally It has done itself); someone’s ridiculous comment we disapprove of we can sum up (with a dose of sarcasm) Się wypowiedział (literally He expressed himself); to vigorously express your engagement and pride in something, we can use a phrase Się pomaga! (literally It helps itself! meaning I’m helping here). However, from point of view of grammar, these phrases are incorrect and they are chiefly used in informal, spoken language. Time will tell if such expressions will be incorporated into the Polish language for good, or if they are just a passing fad.

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