It also doesn't exist in English either and it's pronounced in it's own way in English too.
Actually it very much exists in English, however we aren't talking about English. The word has been current in the UK for far longer and came into common use in a different way.
I think you and I travelled in different gastronomical circle Boletus. I remember Karta Dań but not menu. Maybe once in a hotel but that was the exception.
I remember seeing it Poznan in the late 80s along with speizekarte.
On a roll indeed. I remember being impressed that the word was printed in several languages on the front. I think I saved it but god knows what happened to it.
Btw, a quick look on the Internet suggests the word's been around in English since 1837 (or 1658 depending on details). I wonder if it was used pre-war in the posher places in Warsaw?
In the Wałbrzych region quite a few actually - miners who lived and worked in Belgium and France and who returned to Poland, lured by PRL promises.
Funny you said that since I actually married a daughter of a miner from Liege who emigrated to Wałbrzych. She speaks fluent French. But I had in mind the pre-war socialites, artists, students, restaurant owners, waiters, etc.
I wonder if it was used pre-war in the posher places in Warsaw?
I already posted the link in #99. See the pictures of two menus from Bristol Hotel is printed in Russian, Polish and French. Yes, it was year 1906, Warsaw was still ruled by Russian.
Before the war the European elite considered French as their second language. In international relations French has been since ages the language of use. Although probably now not anymore.
Gierek also worked in Belgian mines before the war - though I do not know whether he spoke French I know that the Polish miners who returned to Poland after the war bitterly regretted that move. But reaching retirement age, their Belgian/French pensions gave them a kind of compensation.
Gierek also worked in Belgian mines before the war - though I do not know whether he spoke French.
He did. "He emigrated as a child to France and worked with miners in France and Belgium." "He dressed well, he could behave in a drawing-room and at the conference table like any other normal man."
I know that the Polish miners who returned to Poland after the war bitterly regretted that move.
My father-in-law was mad at himself as hell. Nevertheless it is worth pointing out that mines were a privilege class in PRL. After he contracted pneumoconiosis they would send him to a sanatorium every year for few weeks. He never recovered.
"Pneumoniocosis constitutes 50% of all diagnosed occupational deseases in Katowice, and 88% in Wałbrzych."
I still do not fathom why they decided to move to Poland. After all, moving from Belgium or France to the PRL in the years 1945-50 was a fairly drastic move.
For sure there were some "socialist idealists" between them. But the rest? This is a kind of fascinating history - history within the bigger picture as it was -. What I do know, was that the miners who emigrated to Poland after the war (and emigration it should be called because a lot of them were born in Belgium or the North of France) that their "Western pensions" gave them a position ahead of the locals. (and of course the locals were not exactly "local"). Belgian or French francs went a big way these days.
My first visit to Poland was in 1989, just in time to witness the last gasps of the PRL. I remember hanging around the Poczta Główna in Lublin waiting for a call home to be put through, nipping outside for a speedy Extra Mocne, anxious not to miss my summons to one of the numbered booths.
Pewex was just round the corner, an uneasy Aladdin's cave, Zytnia at 70 cents and a squashy pack of Malboro 17!
Thank you cassandra. Writing them took a lot out of me believe it or not. This thread is starting to nag at me again. All I need to do is just sit down and write...........nope, no book yet. btw, do you think I should continue chronologically or should I just serve up the stories as they come to me - from different years?
I also think your stories are very well-written. Keep up the good work! I came to Wałbrzych first time in 1989 and still remember the typical smell of browncoal hanging over the city.
Probably because every point you've made invites that. As we've established, the word has been part of the English language for centuries, so yes, you were wrong.
Isn't it that in Poland the word "menu" is used in the French sense of "carte" rather than in the French sense of "menu"? The phrases le menu à 15 euros or the 15-euro menu cannot be translated into Polish using the Polish "menu"; you would have to use the word "danie" to render properly the French or English word "menu" here, it will sound ridiculous to say menu za 15 euro.
The French expression "manger à la carte" would be either "wybrać z karty dań" or "wybrać z menu" in Polish; would be the same in English: "to eat à la carte" or "to order from the menu". In other words, "menu" seems to be "dishes' list" in Polish, seems to be both "dish" and "dishes' list" in English, while it only seems to be a "dish/set of chosen dishes" (menu à deux plats, par exemple, ou repas) in French. The list of dishes would exclusively be "carte" in French, it would never be "menu".
It is and you don't have to be a descendant of a French miner in Wałbrzych to explain that. Edward Gierek not only spoke French, but also Dutch. The Dutch and Belgian leaders were astounded at that.
Very true. There are also the people of Wilamowice who speak (the older ones anyway) Wymysorys. Mr Gierek, by the way, had a British boss for a while which have him the habit of pronouncing certain technical mining words with a Fife accent.
