Culture bites

24 euro 2016 countries' names in their main languages
The European Football Championships start in France this week and it’s a great opportunity to learn a little bit more about the participating countries and their languages. That’s why I’ve created a fun infographic that lists the 24 participating countries and their names in the main languages that are spoken in each one. So, if you’re watching any of the games with people who are from another country, you may find this infographic useful when cheering their team on! Have fun and good luck to your team! A little disclaimer – I know that each of the countries below has […]

Euro 2016: The 24 Countries’ Names in Their Main Languages [Infographic]

Fat Thursday (tłusty czwartek) Before we indulge ourselves in pancakes, it’s time for doughnut day! Yes – that’s what the Polish Fat Thursday is all about. This year, Polish people will have eaten approximately one hundred million doughnuts on Fat Thursday (12 February) alone, which is almost three doughnuts per person! Can you handle that? I certainly can! How to make Polish doughnuts (pączki)? Pączki (the plural of pączek) can be made in the same way as any other doughnuts. Most Polish doughnuts, though, have fruit jelly or jam, rather than cream or chocolate, in the centre. Jenny Can Cook […]

Polish food: Fat Thursday

Learn Polish (ways of addressing strangers) ‘Mówić na ty’ is something that’s not easily translated into English. It means ‘to be on first-name terms with somebody’ or ‘to address somebody with a familiar version of the pronoun ‘you’’. It’s something that’s too complicated to explain to somebody who only speaks English because in English, there’s only one ‘you’. Paradoxically, it’s easier to explain this by using a comparison to French, German and Spanish – provided, of course, that you know at least one of these languages! Addressing strangers in French, German and Spanish The French have their ‘vous’ and ‘tu’, […]

Why can’t we just be friends?

Asking people how they are in Polish is a risky business. That’s because the question really means what the words suggest. It doesn’t mean the same thing as it does in English. That’s why the question is only ever asked when someone actually wants to know how someone else is. There are two options. The first phrase sounds very geeky and nobody really uses it: Jak się masz? (How are you?) The other one (which translates, although not word for word, as ‘How are you?’) invites the other person to share their happy/sad news in greater detail: Co słychać? / Co […]

‘How are you’ in Polish really means ‘how are you’

Learn Polish - gherkins
The gherkin, as trivial as it may sound, is an essential part of Polish culture. If you ask a Polish person living abroad what they miss, you’re likely to hear ‘real gherkins’ as one of the top three things. What are ‘real gherkins’, though? They’re gherkins that are ‘really pickled’ of course! They spend much more time in the pickle jar than the kind of gherkins that you get in most countries in the world. These widespread ‘semi-pickled’ gherkins are what Polish people call ogórki konserwowe or ogórki małosolne. But for some Polish people that’s just not pickled enough. If you fancy making […]

The real gherkin