Zdążyć

zdążyć - to be on time, to catch, to be in time for

This verb will be mostly used in the past tense:

ja zdążyłem, zdążyłam
ty zdążyłeś, zdążyłaś
on zdążył, ona zdążyła, ono zdążyło
my (masc.) zdążyliśmy, (femin.) zdążyłyśmy
wy (masc.) zdążyliście, (femin.) zdążyłyście
oni zdążyli, one zdążyły

Przykłady:
Nie zdążyłem na pociąg. (past)
Zdążyłaś na wcześniejszy autobus? (past)
Może zdążymy zanim zacznie się lekcja. (future)

Moda na sukces

‘The Bold and the Beautiful’ is known in Poland as Moda na sukces ‘it's the fashion to be succesfull’ .

dowiedzieć się, dowiadywać się – to find out
ja dowiaduję się
ty dowiadujesz się
on dowiaduje się
my dowiadujemy się
wy dowiadujecie się
oni dowiadują się

odc. stands for odcinek – episode

Hahhha, I can't stop laughing! Nie mogę przestać się śmiać!
I remember watching it when I was a child. Each episode makes you feel that nothing can surprise you anymore;)

Learn Polish Feel Good

LearnPolishFeelGood.com is part of the LearnEnglishFeelGood.com family of websites and draws upon their structure and standards.

The website is designed for beginners and intermediate level students. It offers grammar and vocabulary excercises. It also has an online Polish phrase book for travelers. 'If you're planning a trip to Poland, and would like to learn some Polish before you go, this section will help you learn many useful words and expressions for your trip!'

If you know any other useful online resources, please share it.

Lost in Translation by Lera Boroditsky

'Lost in Translation' by Lera Boroditsky is an interesting article about how the languages we speak affect the way we think. You can read it here, on The Wall Street Journal website.

Given below is a short extract from the article. Fascinating!

Some findings on how language can affect thinking:
* Russian speakers, who have more words for light and dark blues, are better able to visually discriminate shades of blue.
*Some indigenous tribes say north, south, east and west, rather than left and right, and as a consequence have great spatial orientation.
*The Piraha, whose language eschews number words in favor of terms like few and many, are not able to keep track of exact quantities.
*In one study, Spanish and Japanese speakers couldn't remember the agents of accidental events as adeptly as English speakers could. Why? In Spanish and Japanese, the agent of causality is dropped: "The vase broke" rather than "John broke the vase."


'The Tower of Babel' by Pieter Brueghel the Elder, 1563.

I would be extremely interested to find out about your own experience with the Polish way of thinking.

Poloneza czas zacząć!

'The FSO Polonez is a Polish motor vehicle produced from 1978 to 2002. The car's name comes from the Polish dance, polonaise.'

'The polonaise (Polish: polonez) is a slow dance of Polish origin, in 3/4 time. Its name is French for "Polish." Polonaise is a widespread dance in carnival parties. It is always a first dance at a studniówka ("hundred-days"), the Polish equivalent of the senior prom, which is approximately 100 days before exams.'

'Pan Tadeusz [by Adam Mickiewicz] is recognized as the national epic of Poland. It is compulsory reading in Polish schools. A film based on the poem was made in 1999 by Andrzej Wajda.' If you watch this fragment of the film, you will see a polonaise:

Don’t worry if you don’t understand what they say, there is a lot of old-fashioned vocabulary you will never need. You can learn the phrase starting at 0:55 sec. – Poloneza czas zacząć! And at 3:20 begins Inwokacja – the most famous piece from Pan Tadeusz that every child in Poland learns by heart at school. Well, you can try it if you want... ;D

(info copied from Wikipedia)

Życie to gra

przycisk - button
Naciśnij przycisk! - press the button

If Poland had a Facebook page…

Paweł, mój znajomy z Polski, przesłał mi link do ciekawego artykułu na Wirtualnej Polsce (name of a website). Warto przeczytać!

If Poland Had A Facebook Page….
by Jamie Stokes

A recent study, carried out by scientists who surely should be doing something more useful, has revealed that our Facebook pages are, unexpectedly, a good reflection of our real characters. Since the entire world is now on Facebook, it is only a matter of time before countries themselves decide to join. This is my imagining of what Poland's Facebook page might look like.

Birthday: April 14, 966; July 1, 1569; November 11, 1918; December 31, 1944; January 30, 1990 (It's complicated)

Interested In: Being loved

Languages: Polish (It's not easy); English (Of course!); German (Easy); Russian (Forgotten everything)

Profile picture: Krakow's Sukiennice with Tatras in the background and bison swimming in a Mazurian lake in the foreground.

Relationship status: Lithuania (Widowed); Ukraine (Separated); USSR (Divorced); EU (It's complicated)

Family: Chicago (cousin), London (son), Dublin (daughter), Australia (second cousin) Friends: Linda Evangelista, Robert Redford, Russell Crowe, Daniel Radcliffe, plus 250,000 other really cool, famous people who really, honestly like me (or have heard of me) Employment: Saviour of Europe (1683, 1920); Freelance martyr (1772–present); CIA prison (2002-05); Economic miracle (2004–present)

Education: All waiters, shop workers and road sweepers are required to have Master's degrees; Presidents leave school at 14.

Religion: Catholic, especially on Sundays.

Political views: Democratic (all citizens have an equal right to hate politicians); uprisings whenever possible.

People who inspire you: John Paul II; John Paul II's mother; John Paul II's barber; Adam Małysz Favourite quotations: "Habemus Papam!"

Music: Mazurek Dąbrowskiego, Dziwny Jest ten Świat, Sto Lat, Jedzie Pociąg Z Daleka, anything by Chopin

Books: Trilogies about uprisings and beating Germans.

Movies: Trilogies about uprisings and beating Germans.

Television: Documentaries about uprisings and beating Germans; Documentaries about noun cases; Mam Talent Favourite Sports: Any that we get gold medals for.

Favourite athletes: Ones that get gold medals.

Activities and Interests: Blaming Russia; being modern; commemorating things; complaining; inferiority complexes; shifting westward over the course of several centuries; being exiled; writing constitutions; fighting other people's wars; heliocentrism

What's on your mind?

Just telling my buddies at the Council of the European Union, which I'm president of, about how healthy my economy is.
A few seconds ago

Tasty mussels in Brussels. If you are ever here as President of the Council of the European Union, like I am, you should try some.
40 minutes ago

Having a beer in Brussels, which is where the Council of the European Union is, which I am president of.
Thursday at 19:03

OMG! Russia still refuses to apologise for that time it ran over my cat!
Georgia likes this
September 22 at 05:34

WTF China? You can build a Great Wall but not a measly motorway?
September 11 at 10:28

How do you know when you've driven into Germany? The cars are prettier than the women! LOL
Germany: Not cool man!
September 4 at 12:30

I to samo po polsku: Jej "profil" na Facebooku zaskoczy czy zażenuje Polaków?

Dzięki Paweł!

Polish IT specialists ;)

zajmować się - to work, to do something

ja zajmuję się
ty zajmujesz się
on/ona/ono zajmuje się
my zajmujemy się
wy zajmujecie się
oni/one zajmują się

word family:
zajęcie - occupation
zajęte - occupied

zajęty - busy

Purely love this demot!!!! :D

A ty czym się zajmujesz?

American Polish lessons

It’s amazing that an American girl gives Polish language lessons. She’s good. Her lessons are well structured and her explanations are clear. And she seems to be saying everything from the top of her head! Impressive! She says that she’s extremely busy but hopefully she will put more recordings on YouTube in the near future. Maybe the quality of the video is quite rough but I actually find it rather cuteJ

Emily's pronunciation is near perfect. It is very difficult to pronounce Polish sounds such as ‘ś’ and ‘ć’. Therefore I always show my students where they have to put their tongues to say it correctly. It really helps but it still takes time to get used to the ‘weird’ tongue positions. You have no choice but to listen and practise endlessly. And don’t worry if you feel it is still not right. I’ve been an English language user for over three years now and I'm reconciled to the idea that it will take years and years, if not forever, to sound like a native speaker.

My lovely drawings present tongue positions while pronouncing ‘sz’, ‘ś’, ‘cz’ and ‘ć’. Remember that your tongue must be close to the middle of the palate when you pronounce letters with the [‘ ] sign above. They are supposed to be soft and it will soften them! Try!

Hope that was of some use.

Silniejszy i mocniejszy

Gradation of adjectives:

silny – silniejszy – najsilniejszy

strong – stronger – the strongest

mocny – mocniejszy – najmocniejszy

powerful – more powerful – the most powerful

Remember!

stronger than =

silniejszy od (+ genetive)

silniejszy niż (+ nominative)

Jestem silniejszy od mojego brata.

Jestem silniejszy niż mój brat.

Vocabulary:

siła – strength

silniej – stronger (adverb)

moc – power

mocniej – more powerful (adverb)

przesąd – superstition

stereotyp – stereotype

wątroba – liver
mocne i słabe strony - strengths and weaknesses

jak na Polaka/mężczyznę/ojca przystało – as befits a Pole/a man/ a father

Jeden ze stereotypów o Polakach mówi, że dużo piją. Zapewne dlatego, że mają mocną wątrobę...
Znasz inne stereotypy?