IDEAS FOR POLISH SYLWESTER (NEW YEAR'S EVE PARTY)

The end of the old year and the beginning of the new one is time for fun as well as for  New Year's resolutions. It’s a good idea to put learning Polish among the latter and to think of signing up for a language course (find out here about interesting Polish language courses for foreigners).
However, first, there’s the night between 31st December and 1st January. It’s called sylwester in Poland (check here to find out about the origin of the name) and there are many ways to spend it.

LARGE OUTDOOR PARTY, WE ARE NOT AFRAID OF WINTER

If you enjoy having fun with a large group of people, usually strangers, and you would like to attend a really good concert, that may be a perfect idea to spend the last night of the old year. Such events take place in Poland in nearly every city and town, usually in rynek (market square), or the main town/city square, or at a stadium. Their main advantages are Polish stars and starlets on stage and the fact that they are free. Just put on some warm clothes, take something to make toasts with and fun guaranteed.

WARM WITH GOOD (POLISH) MUSIC

Those who aren’t fond of crowds and low temperatures may attend one of the events held by clubs, cinemas and concert halls. If you want to dance, be at ease all night and not think too much about what to wear, you can go to a club for a New Year's party (impreza sylwestrowa). Just pick a club where you can listen to your favorite music, buy a ticket and fun guaranteed. For those who prefer to spend that time in a more sophisticated way, the ideal solution is to attend a New Year's Eve ball (bal sylwestrowy). Specific outfit is sometimes required, often related to the theme of the ball (eg .: Latin music, 1950s, etc.). That also refers to the music you are going to dance to.
Lovers of classical music will definitely choose to go to a concert hall, where an evening outfit is required, and the party is of a calmer nature. Movie buffs decide to spend that evening at the cinema, where apart from watching some movies with their favourite actors and by their favourite directors they may also dance to film music.

Naturally, you should attend a bal in the first meaning of the word

TAKING IT EASY

If you would like to spend that time with your friends, don’t want to spend too much on tickets and worry about the outfits, domówka, i.e. a party thrown at someone’s house, is the best idea. Just invite some friends, turn good music on, make some tasty and preferrably Polish dishes (usually each guest brings something to eat) and you can party all night.
Regardless of where and how you party, at midnight (o północy) everyone makes a new year toast (toast), either with champagne (szampan), or sparkling wine (wino musujące), or ... your choice.
SZCZĘŚLIWEGO NOWEGO ROKU! /HAPPY NEW YEAR!

MINI-GLOSSARY OF POLISH CHRISTMAS TERMS

We have asked our friends and students to tell us what they associate Christmas with. And we have received many answers: family, fireplace, gifts, snow, Christmas tree, gourmet food. There are various associations and experiences, and we have already written about Christmas (check here) and about Christmas Eve traditions (check here). This year we have compiled a small (and subjective) glossary of Christmas terms so that you can show you knowledge in your Polish classes or at your family gatherings.

CHOINKA,
a Christmas tree, which should traditionally be decorated on Christmas Eve morning, i.e. 24th December. However, these days the tradition is hardly ever maintained and we can enjoy the sparkling lights and beautiful decorations as early as 2 weeks before Christmas. Choinka can be kept in the house until 2nd January, which foreigners usually find surprising.

                                         check here for more interesting facts about Polish

OPŁATEK,
Christmas wafer, which is thin, white flatbread made without any yeast, symbolises friendship, love and forgiveness. We start the Christmas Eve supper by sharing it and wishing each other all the best.

SIANKO,
hay, a bundle of which is symbolically put under the tablecloth on the table on Christmas Eve to commemorate the birth of Jesus in the stable of Bethlehem.

TALERZ,
a plate, not an ordinary one but an empty one, symbolically awaiting an unexpected guest. This custom refers to the fact that Mary and Joseph were looking for shelter the night Jesus was born.

ŚLEDŹ,
herring, the fish that simply has to be served during the Christmas Eve supper. It may be savory or sweet, served in wine or spices, with sour cream or simply with oil. It’s always delicious and healthy

.                                                       to make (robić ) Christmas herring

KUTIA,
or kutya, a Christmas Eve culinary masterpiece, popular in Eastern Poland, Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania. It’s a sweet dessert made with wheat (or pęczak, a type of pearl barely), honey, poppy seed, walnuts, raisins and almonds. It’s goes very well with strong black tea.

KOMPOT Z SUSZU,
dried fruit compote, has smoky flavour and is good for your digestion. It is served at the end of the Christmas Eve supper and is very nutritious, it is also an excellent alternative to fresh seasonal fruit, the lack of which we feel at this time of year. It is made with dried fruit, such as prunes, apples, apricots, pears, figs and raisins. And it tastes even better when we add some cinnamon, cloves, lemon zest, ginger and nutmeg to it. Delicious!

                                    to make (robić), to prepare (przygotować )dried fruit compote


PASTERKA,
starting at midnight between 24th and 25th December,  is a special mass commemorating the time when the shepherds waited for Jesus to be born. It is also one of the first ocassions to kolędowanie, i.e. singing Christmas carols. And then? Then we slowly walk back home with snow crunching under our feet... If there is snow, of course...

With or without snow; spent in Poland or abroad; with herring and kutia, or without these traditional Christmas Eve dishes, we wish you all Merry Christmas!

                                          WESOŁYCH ŚWIĄT!

A FEW WORDS ON MIKOŁAJKI

POLISH MEMORIES OF ŚWIĘTY MIKOŁAJ (Saint Nicholas)

Gray November has finished. It is time for a truly winter month, which not only brings snow, but also always puts us in a holiday mood. Although there is still some time left until Christmas, it is hard not to notice all the Christmas decorations in the streets, shops, restaurants and shopping malls as well as hear the Christmas songs played everywhere. In Polish classes more and more often foreigners ask about Polish Christmas customs and traditions.
There is one night and one morning at the beginning of December that every Polish child, and adult as well, looks forward to. And that is Mikołajki (Saint Nicholas Day), which is a name day of every Mikołaj (Nicholas) and a time to celebrate the day of Święty Mikołaj (Saint Nicholas). Remembering the generosity and goodness of the bishop of Myra we give each other small gifts on the night between 5th and 6th December.

Check out our  FB page for more idioms and interesting facts about the Polish language.

 

 

 

IN THE SHOES AND UNDER THE PILLOW

The gifts may be left in two places: in the shoes (which have been cleaned and polished by the owner) standing beside the bed, or under the pillow. Not only children but also teenagers often wake up at night to check whether Saint Nicholas has visited the house and left some trifles. No one expects a lavish gift on that day, it would be hard to put it under a pillow or fit into children’s shoes anyway. Sweets, small toys and trifles that may be useful in everyday life or at school are common gifts (a Polish course may be an ideal gift for Mikołajki, check here for details ).
However, instead of a gift or lying right next to it under the pillow or in your shoe, you might find a rózga (twig). That is a sign that you should work on your behaviour and improve if you want to avoid a „gift disappointment“ at Christmas.

AT SCHOOL AND AT WORK (A CUSTOM NOT ONLY IN POLAND)

Another nice custom related to 6th December (check here to see how to write dates in Polish) is celebrating Mikołajki at school or work. Everything starts with drawing the name of a person we are going to get a gift for. Then we have some time to think of a proper gift and buy it (at school children often make the gifts themselves). Next we put the nicely wrapped gifts with name tags attached to them into one sack. The gifts are distributed in a friendly atmosphere and the receivers often wonder who their Mikołaj has been this year, since anonymity is the greatest thing about Mikołajki.

ROZWODNIK (divorcee) AND STARA PANNA (old maid), OR TERMS FOR DESCRIBING MARITAL STATUS IN POLISH

As we have promised in our entry on patchwork family (you can find it here), we are going to present some nouns related to people’s marital status. We have already mentioned that people who are married are called mąż (husband) and żona (wife). These nouns sound familiar to virtually all participants of Polish courses. The ones you are going to read about are much more rarely used in Polish classes.

WHAT DO YOU CALL UNMARRIED PEOPLE IN POLISH?
Those, whose spouse died are wdowiec (widower) and wdowa (widow); people, who decided to end a failed relationship are called rozwodnik (divorcee, masculine) and rozwódka (divorcee, feminine). The two latter forms, despite being correct and used in the legal language, still have negative connotations in Polish society and are stigmatizing. Therefore, the terms rozwiedziony (divorced, masculine) and rozwiedziona (divorced, feminine) are becoming increasingly popular. Similar rule applies to those who have never changed their marital status and remain kawaler (unmarried man, bachelor) and panna (unmarried woman, spinster).  People who remained unmarried for too long (in some people’s opinion) used to be called stary kawaler (literally: old bachelor, confirmed bachelor) and stara panna (spinster, old maid) with contempt. However, nowadays,  following the social changes and the growing number of people who are not in a relationship (anymore) with anyone or decide to get married much later than older generations, the words singiel (single, masculine) and singielka (single, feminine) are gaining in popularity.

                                           more Polish vocabulary on our FB page

KONKUBIN OR PARTNER? OTHER WORDS TO DESCRIBE MARITAL STATUS
What about those who are in steady but live-in,  not legalized relationships? And again, the legal and administration language affect everyday life. The official terms are konkubent or konkubin (cohabitant, masculine) and konkubina (cohabitant, feminine). However, these words have been used so often in the criminal news stories (e.g. Konkubent Marian Z. zabił swoją konkubinę Grażynę K. w trakcie libacji alkoholowej - , i.e. Marian M. cohabiting with Grażyna K. killed her while carousing) that they now are used in a pejorative sense by Polish people. The young generations use these terms humorously nowadays, and when they want to be serious, they go for partner/partnerka when talking about their other half.

As you can see, the terminology related to marital status is a very good indicator of changes in the society that clearly affect the language itself.

COLOURS IN POLISH IDIOMS

GREEN LIGHT TO LEARNING POLISH :)

Since it’s grey, bleak and gloomy outside and it gets everyone down, we propose focusing on  colours today. Naturally, colours is the topic that puts students into a good mood as it’s easy, pleasant and useful. Colours appear in classes (more on Polish courses here) as parts of idiomatic expressions, which is another favourite subject of everyone, not only foreigners studying Polish.
The ‘hero’ of today’s entry is the colour we all probably miss most these days: zielony (green).

FOR A START, ON THE NEGATIVE SIDE OF ZIELONY IN POLISH

You can zzielenieć ze złości  (literally: get green with anger) or z zazdrości (with envy), which means show extreme anger or envy. And if one of our acquaintances ma zielono w głowie (literally: has green in their head; is empty-headed, is an airhead), then they are careless and, unfortunately, irresponsible. A novice in any kind of business or activity is usually zielony (green) or nie ma zielonego pojęcia (has no clue/absolutely no idea; literally: has no green clue) what is to be done or what to do, so has no knowledge of the topic and is simply inexperienced and often young.
If someone has lost their job, we can say that they have been wysłany na zieloną trawkę (literally: sent to green grass/pasture).

Here are zielone płuca miasta – green lungs of the city. Check out our FB page
for more idioms and interesting facts about the Polish language

FINALLY, ON THE POSITIVE SIDE OF ZIELONY IN POLISH

When new opportunities come up and we have been given a chance to put our plans or projects into practice, that means that someone zapalił/ dał zielone światło (lit/gave us the green light). Drivers may be interested to know that zielona fala (literally: green wave) refers to a situation when we can drive through a few consecutive crossroads without stopping because you there is green light every time, a phenomenon welcome by those stuck in the morning traffic jams. Zielone płuca (green lungs), i.e. forests and parks full of plants, provide healthier environment and make us feel better. And let’s not forget about zielone ludziki  (little green men), aliens whose skin is supposed to be green.

ON GETTING MARRIED AND PATCHWORK FAMILY. PRACTICAL POLISH WORDS AND EXPRESSIONS

VERBS THAT COLLOCATE WITH THE NOUN ŚLUB 
Autumn may not be the most popular time of the year to plan a ślub (wedding), but this topic arouses interest in Polish classes regardless of the season. Let us remind you that in Polish you can brać ślub, i.e. get married (brać/wziąć ślub: check here to find out how to conjugate this verb). When we are talking about this occasion from the perspective of a woman, we say that she wychodzi/wyszła za mąż (wychodzić/wyjść za mąż, which can be understood as „she is getting/got a husband“), and when it’s from the perspective of a man, we say that he żeni się or ożenił się (żenić/ożenić się, which means that he is getting/got a wife)

Oto Mateusz i Klara. Oni wzięli ślub. Mateusz ożenił się z Klarą. Klara wyszła za Mateusza.
Literally: These are Mateusz and Klra. They got married. Mateusz took Klara as his wife. Klara took Mateusz as her husband.

                                                 more Polish vocabulary on our FB page 

Another verb you can use in this situation is pobrać się, so:

Mateusz i Klara pobrali się w ostatnią sobotę. (Mateusz and Klara got married last Saturday)

PATCHWORK FAMILY. SOME FAMILY MEMBERS IN POLISH
When two people legalize their relationship outside of Poland and it is not marriage, we say that they zawarli związek partnerski albo weszli w związek partnerski (zawrzeć/ wejść w związek partnerski, i.e. enter/entered into a registered partnership).
As the result of a marriage in Poland people become mąż and żona (husband and wife). Frequently it is their next marriage and then this kind of couple together with the children from their previous relationships become a patchwork family (rodzina patchworkowa). The adults are then not only matka and ojciec (mother and father) for their own children but also become ojczym and macocha (stepfather and stepmother) for their spouse’s children. The word macocha has evolved over the years in the Polish language, since not so long ago it had ominous overtones. For the first time a child encountered this word while reading the Cinderella story. As we all remember, it wasn’t a positive connotation… Additionally, the negative overtone was emphasised by an expression traktować coś/ kogoś po macoszemu, i.e. treat something/someone unfairly, badly, harshly. Fortunately, along with the social changes in Poland the negative meaning of the word is gradually disappearing.

Soon you will be able to read more about Polish vocabulary referring to marital status.

AUTUMN VOCABULARY DILEMAS IN POLISH

NAMES OF FRUIT DELICACIES IN POLISH

Beautiful Polish golden autumn (Indian summer) has started (check here to find out where this name came from) and trees change their colour from green into yellow, red and brown. This is a perfect time for walks or for courses of Polish as a foreign language (alright, there always a good time to learn Polish;-)). And of ocurse, it’s time to make some preserved fruit products (przetwory) , such as dżemy (jams), konfitury (preserves), powidła (plum jam)... And now! Here’s the question: What is the difference between dżem and konfitura? Are these words synonyms, or do they describe completely different sweet products made from fruit?

IN FACT THEY’RE NOT THE SAME

They are definitely not synonyms, and the multitude of names in Polish comes from the difference in their taste and ... the preparation process.
Dżem is the most popular of them, of course. You can find it on a shelf in every shop in Poland, different kinds. It’s made from fruit or its parts. It’s enough to add lots of sugar to it, preferrably the so-called ‘gelling sugar’, and boil it for a long time, stirring from time to time.
Marmolada is the easiest to make (in Polish marmolada – marmalade – is a product made from any kind of fruit, not only citrus fruit). Just add equal amount of sugar to the fruit (50% to 50%), grate it, boil it and then leave it to cool. You can spread it on a slice of bread and eat right away.
If you are a gourmet, however, and love the taste of fruit without any thickeners, you should go for konfitura. You need to select fruit to make it. Only the one that looks best and tasty will be used and added to the sugar syrup prepared beforehand. Konfitury (preserves) require more effort and attention, since you should try not to damage the fruit while stirring and need to keep an eye on the temperature as it should be neither too high nor too low. At the end of the process it’s a good idea to coat the edges of the jars with cognac :) .

No matter which you prefer, dżem or konfitura,
  you will find more interesting Polish vocabulary on our FB page.

POLISH DELICACY

Powidła (plum jam) is a real Rolls-Royce among the Polish preserved fruit products. This is a Polish speciality and it is made only from plums (the węgierka variety is the best choice, Eng. common plum). Adding sugar is not necessary. However, you need time, since it takes several days for powidła to be ready. After that we can enjoy the taste of pure fruit during winter evenings.
Now that you know all these words and the differences between them you can get down to work, or simply go to the shop and simply pick a jar with an appropriate name on it. Enjoy!