Language / A Native American or a Native Pole: Who is better into which language? [116]

Unless you are lucky enough to be truly bilingual, then you're going to be stronger in your so-called "mother tongue" than any other language. Does this mean that a native speaker of English will do a better translation from Polish into English than a native speaker of Polish and vice-versa?

Well, this depends on the native speaker of English's knowledge of Polish and the native speaker of Polish's knowledge of English. He/she may write beautifully in their native tongue but if they don't know source language and culture well enough, they risk making a mistake.

I remember one time when I was on my interpreting course in Poland and we were interpreting a speech by a Polish politician in Parliament who was angrily bemoaning the state of the country. "Children are going to school without shoes, without breakfast and are fainting in the corridors" he ranted. The word for "to faint" is kind of similar to the word for "to feel nauseous, and I didn't pick up on which word was being used. You can imagine the other people in the language lab laughing their heads off when I interpreted the sentence as "Children are going to school without shoes, without breakfast and are throwing up in the corridors."

The same applies to the native speaker of Polish. They may speak perfect Polish but if they are not sufficiently well attuned to the nuances of the source language, they can run into difficulties. It annoys me when I read subtitles which are badly translated into Polish on the BBC Prime station in Poland when the translator has clearly misunderstood. For example, once, the phrase "I'm not pissed at all" was translated as "I'm not at all angry." This would have been OK if the program had been an American one. But "pissed" in British English means "drunk" and not "angry." I've seen plenty of mistakes like this. If I had done the subtitles, there may have been a few grammar mistakes, but the viewer would have had a guarantee of the translator's full understanding of what was being said.

In a way, I feel more comfortable translating or interpreting into Polish because I know that I will fully understand the speaker. And coming from Britain, I am used to hearing a whole range of different accents. I remember once when I was living in Kraków there was an Indian gentleman who was part of an investment project in the local steelworks. None of the Polish interpreters could understand him! I, on the other hand, had spent my whole life listening to people from India speaking English so I could interpret into Polish for the gentleman.

And I know that often Polish interpreters prefer interpreting into English. English grammar is simpler than Polish grammar; often when you are interpreting into Polish you can only interpret after the whole sentence has been uttered to make sure you get all the declinations right. And a native Pole has valuable cultural knowledge that an native speaker of English may lack thus resulting in an erroneous translation.

Language and culture are inextricably entwined and so any interpreter has got to be familiar with the history and culture of the country where their source language is spoken. Only now, after years of living in Poland do I see how a knowledge of Polish history and an understanding of what the Polish nation has been though is invaluable when translating. Similarly any Pole wishing to translate well into English must be familiar with British history. Then, when there is a famous quote or saying, the interpreter knows how to render it properly.

Generally speaking though, a translator translates best into their native language. And this is what most translators do. If you want to work for EU institutions as a translator/interpreter, you interpret/translate into your native language. However, this only holds true on the condition that you have an excellent knowledge of source language and the culture of the people who speak it.

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Contributed by: Matt Hammo, a British-Polish translator based in Poland

Life / Stereotyping in the Polish culture: Are Polish blondes really dumb? [130]

Stereotypes are nothing unique to the Poles - every nation has them; stereotypes make life easy. The Scots are stingy, the Swedes are uncommunicative and the Russians are always drunk and so on...

The unusual bit, though, appears to be the fact, that Poles seem to exaggerate the "problem" with the hair color just a (fair) bit more than the rest. The redheads, just like the cats - for some unexplained reason, the men more often than the females - are by the Poles believed to be false by nature, and the blondes are cast as totally unintelligent, dumb, and stupid - unbelievably stupid. (Strangely enough the other hair colors do not seem to reveal or influence any other character traits.)

True, the blondes are dumb even by US standards. A sign of a blonde starring in a Hollywood movie tells you all you need to know about her mental capacity or the lack of such, the platinum head being an obvious signal of deficiency, signaling the kind of girl that will laugh loudly at anyone's pointless jokes and stare at you, no matter how trivial the conversation, with her big blue eyes wide open, as if you were Casanova's next of kin, which you are obviously not, judging by your image in the mirror.

The Polish blondes do not compare to their American compatriots. Being a laughing stock is one thing, being a complete imbecile, yet another. The Polish blondes excel at stupidity, according to the Polish (male) lore. In this context, I still find it incomprehensible why the color of one's hair would influence one's mental capacity.

The matter becomes even more mystifying taking into account that very few Polish females are real platinum blondes. (Marilyn, where are you?) In general the natural hair color of a Polish female is what you could call dark blond (which is a bit ordinary and not at all exciting shade of blond). It is a bit hard to describe in words but if you have seen a (female) sparrow, you get the idea.

True, the real Polish country girls are often depicted as blondes equipped with suitably pigmented pigtails, but this is all simply a poetic license.
So why are the Polish males having so much fun on the account of poor blondes, while not fearing any repercussions? Could the explanation be, that since there are no real blondes in Poland, the jokes about them are safe to make. The dumb blondes are not your sisters, mothers, girlfriends or wives, thus making fun of poor blondes in the land of Poles is totally risk free. Any girl can join in and laugh.

This is not a new phenomenon. The jokes about the blondes have been around for as long as anyone can remember. Sometimes the blondes are stupid when they drive their cars, as if car driving required a special kind of advanced (read male) intelligence, but in general, they are stupid under any circumstances.

A point is case is that it is mostly men, that conceive jokes about blondes and laugh at them. To illustrate the point, let me tell you an old one about two blondes driving a Fiat with an engine in the rear. One of them is having a problem with her car. She opens the hood and gasps. Another blonde in the same kind of car stops to help. "What's the trouble," she asks. "Look here," replies the first one. "Someone stole my engine."

"Relax," says the other. "I just checked my boot in the morning, and I found out that I got a spare one. You can have it."

Obviously the "blondes" are too stupid to understand the complexity of the men's world of motoring. Seeing it this way, the jokes are not about the blondes at all, but about women in general. The blondes are just a symbol of a stupid female, a dumb cow that is neither bright, nor capable enough to master the intricacies of the male world. In this context the blondes are simply a convenient metaphor employed to denigrate the females in general, not only the blonde ones.

I am afraid the jokes tell us much more about the Polish men than about the Polish blondes. They do seem to reveal the true nature of the very macho men of Warsaw or Krakow in their wonderful machines whistling loud when seeing yet another, not necessarily blond, female behind the steering wheel.

Females behind the wheel? Men, they do all look blond to us!

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Contributed by Steven

Love / What kind of girls do Polish men like, and why? [30]

When I first came to the United States of America, a country described by my friends as "heaven on earth", I worked for some time in a print shop. Since the machine I was working on was unbelievably old, and constantly broke down, I often had time to talk to some of my coworkers. During one such conversation a friend of mine, who came from Ecuador, asked me a rather simple and banal question: "What kind of girls or women do Poles like"? Without any thought I answered that all men on earth like women who are young, beautiful, and smart.

When I came back that night to my apartment and told this story to my flat mates, it turned out that it's not that easy to find an answer to this question. Each of us had different preferences when it came to women; some of us liked brunettes, and others saw their hearts explode when they noticed a woman or a girl with light shiny hair and pale eyes. I became so interested in this question that when I came back to Poland I tried to find out what kind of girls are the most suitable for us Poles, and what is the reason behind our choice.

It's important to distinguish between two things here: Sometimes Poles have a very narrow preference towards someone with whom they would like to spend the rest of their life, and sometimes what is meant by that are the characteristics a girl must possess so that she could attract, like a magnet, a Poles' eyes, no matter whether they're still the so-called "lone wolfs", or already carry on their fingers a symbol of belonging to the caste of happy or unhappy husbands.

What turns out is that some Poles have a very specific request with respect to the women of their lives, and others don't quite know what sort of things a woman should possess so that she, as they say, could "catch their eye". There are also those who don't quite think about this because they believe it simply doesn't make sense to do so. According to them, when they find the right girl, they will instinctually know that she is the one, and whatever characteristics she has will not matter much.

A great majority of Poles don't consider this earnestly at all. A certain friend of mine, asked by me what kind of girl would really be appealing to him, said in all seriousness: "My future girl must be beautiful, loyal, she must be able to cook well and has to be intelligent." His answer made me laugh, but after some time controlling myself I asked him whether his requirements aren't a bit high. He thought for a second, and after a moment of silence answered: "You know, you're right, I'm expecting too much: the girl doesn't have to be too smart."

Another of my acquaintances was futilely looking for a girl with a "grain beater". He had a large farm, but had no grain beater, hence he was looking for a girl who would bring with her marriage this kind of farming equipment. Notwithstanding whether he found one or not, his preferences for a future life partner must be considered quite specific.

Once we move aside these humorous but still very real preferences towards women, and we begin to study which kind of women we like and which we don't, the results of these findings can be quite surprising. As I found out from my friend's answers, which are supported by scientific publication, to the minds of Poles the "long legged beauties" are not the main target. It comes out that a much better success rate is had by girls of medium and short build. The reason for this is very simple and banal, and women would probably call it carnal: Smaller women have... much shaplier and pronounced hips and breasts. This is certainly not a joke, and no matter what women would think about it, these characteristics have a great impact on what physical things in women stimulate and interest men. When it comes to things like eye or hair color, the preferences are so varied that it's impossible to generalize. Perhaps a small advantage belongs to brunettes, which really means nothing since, as they say, "the woman is a master of disguises" - and that could be taken both literally and as a metaphor. Most women in Poland change their hair color more often than men are able to notice it.

While discussing the theme of men's preferences towards women we can't of course forget the inner characteristics, although the vast majority of men considers these as irrelevant since they believe that "it doesn't matter whether the cake has chocolate pudding or peach pudding; it tastes similarly, and is eaten the same way."

Leaving these slightly chauvinistic arguments on the side, it is necessary to point out the fact that men are increasingly more bothered by the increasing maleness of women. Polish women are increasingly more resembling men in terms of the way of thinking, their values, lifestyle, etc, which definitely impacts on their attractiveness. I won't go in to this never-ending argument whether it's right or not, and to what degree is it necessitated by the battle for equal rights vs. whether it is some feminine aspiration complex.

The fact is, to Poles the women who are the most attractive are the ones who don't forget that they are women in the broad meaning of the word - starting with the most visible (i.e., not using words such as "bitch, shit" like commas in a sentence) to the more concealed thing like being delicate, being able to show love and sacrifice, creativity, patience.

Ending these contemplations on this deceptively banal and simple topic it's important to note that the number of women ideals mirrors the number of Poles themselves. Some will not be able to turn their eyes from a pretty girl in a tight shirt and a mini skirt (which hint at the idea of the world's oldest profession), while others will do the same for a moderately clothed girl who can simply highlight her natural beauty. Each of us has different expectations both towards women in whose eyes we already see our future children, and towards those whom we meet on the street so that we could later exchange some more or less crude remarks about them.

Contributed by Mateusz

Life / Is Sex in Polish a Dirty Word? [16]

To start with "sex", or as Poles spell it "seks" is not a word of Polish origin, although sex itself very well might be (just joking). A better question is what kindo f dire connotations the word "seks" has in Polish. (We can rather safely assume that it is the (American) English, which brought the word "sex" into Polish, as well as into most other languages.)

Words like "seks bomba", a sex bomb, "seksapil", for sex appeal (both with the Polish spelling), that almost do not require translation, or "seksowny" meaning sexy, are commonly used in Polish, and, in the last half century of so, have become an integrated part of every Poles everyday vocabulary. "Having sex" can easily be translated into Polish as "uprawiać seks", which rather well copies and conveys the original meaning of the word. The expression has all but replaced other previously used euphemisms for this type of sinful, and by the religious zealots frowned upon, but nonetheless, widely practiced, activity.

In a Catholic country like Poland where the great majority of population are practicising Catholics, you would expect the word "seks" to have some negative connotations. After all, according to Pope himself, the highest authority on the subject, as well, as the rest of the Catholic clergy, whose views are apparently supported by the Bible, "seks" is only to be practiced as a means of procreation, not for fun.

Not so, say the Poles, possibly wondering how the clergy would know what it is all about - especially, if they are celibate, as intended and proscribed by the Holy Papa.

Nothing wrong with religion, but nothing wrong with "seks" either, say the majority of the Poles, and, in some clever way, manage to combine the chaste view of the Church with the sinful practices of an average Pole.

Just check the number of kids born out of wedlock in Poland and you'll be surprised. Compare the number of abortions in the Catholic Poland with any other non-Catholic country and you will see that the Poles hold their ground. (Although, Mr. Walesa, the first president of Poland after the communist era, had prohibited the abortions, they are, unfortunately, still as common as ever.)

And what about the oldest profession in the world? Would the Catholic ladies of Poland be afraid of the sin, as well as of the hell waiting for them? A pleasurable profession, that also pays and is relatively easy to master, will always find its fair share of practitioners.

There is besides a long and proud tradition of Polish courtesans and cocottes. One of them managed even to sneak into Napoleon Bonaparte's bed, another had the famous French writer, Balzac, beg for her favors. Obviously "seks", although, the word had yet to be invented, has been on the mind of the Polish ladies (and gentlemen) for a long, long time.

And how about the situation today? Write the Polish version of the word in any search engine on the Internet and be prepared to see thousands of sinful, some even disgusting, "seks" pages of Polish origin, committed to this fascinating, and, for some, very lucrative subject.

As it seems, the idea of sin propagated by the Polish Church does not deter any Pole from exploiting the subject. There is also a veritable army of Polish girls looking to marry a foreigner, in other words, prepared to offer themselves as "seks" partners to the interested, as well as financially sound, gentlemen from abroad.

For a strange reason, there is much less interest in the corresponding "seks" services that can be rendered by the Polish men, but this is a universal phenomenon. The men create the demand; the ladies supply the wares, not the opposite.

Not only the word itself but "seks" as an activity is definitely not frowned upon by an average Pole. Be it as it may with the official view of the Catholic Church, "seks", both as a word and as a practice, is here to stay.

To answer the question we started with. Is "sex" a dirty word in Polish? It very well might be, depending on whom you ask. The clergy, for one, will certainly agree. But for the vast majority of Poles, "seks" is a word like any other, possibly just a little bit sexier.

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Article by Steve

History / Polish History - Potop [9]

The commonwealth of Poland and Lithuania escaped the ravages of the thirty-years war, which ended in 1648. But the ensuing two decades subjected the country to one of its most difficult trials. This ruinous period, the stuff of legend and the popular historical novels of nobel prize winner Henryk Sienkiewicz, became known as the "potop," or deluge, for the magnitude and quickness of its many disasters. The emergency began with an uprising of Zaporojhian cossacks in Ukraine which quickly spread to the whole of the Eastern commonwealth. This culminated in an attempt of establishing an independent Cossack nation with Kiev as its capital, in spite of the efforts of the commonwealth to crush the rebellion by force. After the Cossacks concluded the Treaty of Pereyslav with Moscuvy, prolonged and increasing Russian intervention began in the Ukrainian and Belarusian territories. Taking advantage of Poland's preoccupation and weakness, Charles X of Sweden rapidly conquered much of the remaining territory of the Commonwealth in the same year. Many Polish magnates who were Protestants betrayed the commonwealth and joined forces with the Swedes in an attempt to overthrow the Polish king. Poland-Lithuania was Pushed to the brink of dissolution, but rallied to recover most of its losses from the Swedes. In exchange for breaking the alliance with Sweden, the ruler of Ducal Prussia was released from his vassalage and became an independent sovereign. Swedish brutality, and especially the failed siege of Jasna Gora monastery at Czestochowa in the winter of 1655 raised the level of resistence against Charles, whom a part of Polish nobles had recognized as their ruler in the meantime.

One noble who did not switch sides, became something of a national hero for the commonwealth. Hetman Czarniecki distinguished himself by his heroic defence of Cracow, which he only surrendered under the most honorable conditions. His energy and ability as a leader hampered Charles X at every step, and though he was frequently defeated by the superior forces he from time to time inflicted serious defeats upon the Swedes. The most famous victories came at Jaroslaw and at Kozienice in 1656. Under his leadership the popular rising against the invading Swedes ultimately proved triumphant. It was he who brought King John Casimir back from exile and enabled him to regain his lost throne. He is well remembered as a hero in Poland and his name is even mentioned in the Polish national anthem.

Despite the survival of the Commonwealth in the face of the deluge,the episode inflicted irreperable damage to the commonwealth and contributed heavily to the ultimate fall of the state. When King John Casimir abdicated in 1668, the population of the Commonwealth had been reduced by almost half owing to war and disease. War had destroyed the economy of the cities and raised animosity between Catholics and Protestants which ended the commonwealth's policy of religious tolerance. From that point on the Commonwealth would be constantly on the defensive facing hostile neighbors. Never again would the commonwealth compete with Russia as a military equal.

According to Norman Davies, the reason why the commonwealth was able to lose all her prestige, strength and unity in a matter of decades was the internal stucture of governance in the country to begin with. The traditional rights of the "szlachta" or nobility were greater than those of any other nobility in Europe. They included the "liberum veto" which allowed any one delegate the right to shoute "veto," and thus bring the work of the parliament ("sejm"), to a halt. This was thoroughly exploited by the enemies of the commonwealth to cause internal strife at key moments. Such moments were usually crucial votes in the sejm calling for a "general levy," which was the mobilization of all the armed forces of the commonwealth. Such anarchy was bound to cause the commonwealth to fall to her more centralized neighbours.

-- Contributed by Jan --

Life / Poland: The Things That Make Foreigners Lift a Brow [123]

In case you wonder, if Poles are just like the rest of us, they are not. - Nothing sinister about that, really. They are just different - like any other foreigners. Most of this strange stuff is not very noticeable if they live abroad. After all everyone needs to adjust to the people they live with, but at home in their homeland - of course, they do things their way.

As a first time visitor to Poland you should be prepared for a cultural shock, although, a minor one - after all Poland is not Burundi or New Guinea, but still. The first thing you will notice is that the Poles like to talk. They talk all the time: to family, friends, standing in the queue, in the street, on a bus - to the people they know - and to the people they don't know. The Poles enjoy talking, sharing their views and experiences, often unconcerned whether you want or don't want to listen. If you travel by train, with people that you need to spend a few hours with, you should not be surprised if you will have to listen to someone's life story - or tell them yours.

No wonder that another favorite Polish pastime is telling jokes. During the communist years, it used to be the way of dealing with the system - if you can't change it, laugh at it - but nowadays the jokes, although, they are seldom political any more, still are a way of dealing with the, often harsh, reality. Compared to other nations, jokes are a serious business to the vast majority of Poles.

Another strange thing, more concrete this time. Did you know that Poles like to shake hands? They shake hands all the time, when they meet, when they say good-bye. A handshake tells you a lot about the person, thus, you better practice to be perceived as the person you are. Not to hard, not too soft, don't hold it for too long, your handshake is you and an important part of giving the right impression. (This is a common thing that Poles abroad continue, the practice of handshaking often making their foreign counterparts uncomfortable.)

Kissing ladies' hands, especially the older ones, as a sign of respect, is still a common, although a bit outdated, practice in Poland. (Not all that long ago the children used to kiss their parents and grandparents hands, but this does not happen anymore. The way we treat our parents has obviously changed quite a bit in the last century).

Another strange thing is that, mostly at night, but even during daytime, you can see drunken people in the street. This is very uncommon in the West, but the Poles do drink a lot outside their homes and often ride a bus or a tram or simply walk home - singing, talking (often to themselves or others), swearing, sometimes abusing or even attacking strangers. This is the famous Polish vodka talking. Unfortunately, nowadays, many drunks have an easy access to a vehicle and choose instead to drive into the night. No wonder that Poland has triple the rate of the drink driving accidents compared to the West.

Beware of when the drinking takes place: it is a common practice to get drunk once you receive your pay at the end of the month. People also drink on the weekends, on their name's days (Poles do not celebrate birthdays), but any reason will do. Many do not even need a reason, thus, it is a common practice, especially among unemployed (or people after work) to hang out outside shops selling beer, and - often for hours - drink beer straight from the can or bottle. The beer is as good as in any pub, and the price is much more acceptable.

Another common pastime for young people, mostly young men, many of them unemployed, is to hang out in the streets. Many are not aggressive, but some are. They can also be abusive, so better watch out. Thus, it is advisable to avoid walking in the night, especially in the areas like parks or dark streets. During the communist years, the Police had been very observant for this kind of behavior, but the new regime is not very proactive in this respect.

You might also be surprised by the stuff Poles eat. The tripes (intestines of a cow) cut in long pieces, cooked with spices are one of the Polish specialties. It might not be your piece of cake, so better check out the offerings.

Like any nation, Poles do have their quirks, but surprisingly, you will get used to them much quicker than you thought possible. And hey, avoid those dark parks and alleys.

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Contributed by Steve

Food / Poles in the Kitchen [4]

Every one of us who has a grandmother knows what does it mean a good traditional cuisine. Tasty pancakes, sweet pies, dumplings, cakes, mince pies, pastries, roast meats, pâtés, salads, sauerkraut stew, pastas and delicious baked apples. That is what we remember from our youth and what we sometimes miss looking at elegant but impressively insufficient dishes on our plates in trendy restaurants. What is worse, thanks to popular TV shows we often find the same helping on our favorite plates in home. Why?

Polish cooking and so called Polish cuisine have changed very much during last fifteen years. Now we don't have any problems with finding exotic spices or ingredients on the shop shelves. Kitchen equipment, cooking books as well as food stuffs are easily available. Both Polish Television and commercial channels produce programs where famous cooks and celebrities (some of them from 80' or 90' but whatever) present their own recipes often used in restaurants and hotels, novelties and tricks. Of course all those ideas and recipes are after that published and can be found in every bookstore with a nice price on them. Poles are generally enthusiastic but a little blind therefore they watch TV shows and buy book without a bit of criticism. Oh, I almost forgot, they look really nice on the bookshelves. Because that what they are used for. Let's imagine: on public TV we have at least four cookery programs a week, in every one of them three recipes and we get a magic sum of twelve new things to cook every week. Average housewife eliminates game, because it's too expensive, and snails for her family would never eat something like that. Still we have about nine novelties and an army of women ready to prove that they are more modern that their neighbors. If a lady has a sense of humor as well as common sense, she uses about two new recipes. These are usually salads, soups, meats or cake. If she has a husband and children she probably won't make a very original, expensive and exotic dish like Mexican sea ragout because before she finishes her family will be out eating pizza.

Yes, fast food becomes a real problem in Poland. We drive fast, we live fast and we don't have time to celebrate and appreciate a good meal which was a tradition not so many years ago. One by one new fast foods, pizzerias and little Chinese or Vietnamese bar appear in big cities and small towns. It's easier to order a pizza than to make it oneself.

On the other hand we can observe that many people start to be aware of what they are eating or drinking. Shops that offer ecological food become more popular not only among vegetarians but among ordinary people as well. Of course we have out share of vegetarians, vegans, people who eat only meat or only raw food or only vegetable shakes.

Many of mentioned above: those eating only part of food stuffs, women always on diet and crazy TV cooks, in time return to what is called traditional Polish cuisine, though maybe a little healthier. Again they eat pork chops with potatoes and sauerkraut stew, and custard pie on Sunday. These dishes differ from those that were made by our grandmothers. They are greaseless or with little grease and flour amount. Spices, vegetables and other natural ingredients are very important in preparing them. Today we don't have to take popular in the past decades "Rapacholin" - a remedy for stomach problems.

Thanks to still developing food and cookery market our cuisine also evolves and Poles learn how to mix traditional Polish cuisine and variety of cuisines of the world.

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Written by Ula