Travel / (Sleeping cars) wagony sypialne on overnight trains in Poland [4]

Cześć wszystkim,

proste pytanie (po angielsku bo jestem zmęczony jak koń po westernie)

is there any option to travel on an overnight train in a cabin with your partner (of the opposite sex) - everything seems to be indicating a big fat 'NIE'.

Anyone out there found a way, or flouted one? what's the big deal anyway?

dzięki

Life / Foreigners learning to drive in Poland [2]

Hey All,

Has anybody out there had this experience? I've been promising myself to try while I'm here. I've been put off recently by people telling me that they have redesigned the Theory Test and made it excruciatingly difficult.

However, recently, I read that there are German and English versions of the theory test available, is that info up-to-date?
My Polish is pretty rudimentary, but I think I could quickly learn the commands needed to take lessons in Polish.
Any thoughts, recommendations, experiences, tales of woe/triumph?

Work / Native Speaker Translation Charge (Polish<>English) [12]

Hey Folks,

I'm looking to start doing some freelance translation work. CVs etc. I have experience, as I work as a salaried 'English consultant' (czyli: translator, teacher, writer).

How much would you guess is the going rate for a native speaker's Polish to English translation efforts? Business was never my forte!

cheers

Language / "żółwik" - the same word?? [55]

Some funny things I've noticed in Polish recently...

tortoise - żółwik



turtle - żółwik

fingers - palce

toes - palce (u nogi.. I know, but still palce! :))

and finally, the straw that broke the camel's back..

slug - ślimak

How can it be ? :)

I suppose the Welsh language has the same word for leeks (pory) and daffodils (żonkile/narcyz) - so each to their own.
The fingers and toes one really shook me up, I have to confess.
Toes have so much personality, in fact, in my imagination it's almost impossible to imagine having the same word for any of these things. Snails are so beautiful, and slugs.. bluurrghhh... turtles so elegant and free, tortoises such old codgers..

Language is interesting.

Any examples in the reverse? or more examples of this phenomenon?

Language / One never knows, does one? (Polish equivalent) [7]

Hey Everybody.

Quick question that I can't seem to find an answer to:

Is there a Polish equivalent to the, now slightly obscure, depersonalised pronoun "One", in English.
(some of these examples might transgress the intended use of urmm... one-ism :) )
Meaning : "I"
"One feels a bit depressed at times like this."

meaning "you"
"How is one today?"

more often meaning Undefined 3rd person ergo: People in general.

"One can never tell"
"Eating too much Bigos does make one fart rather often, does it not?"
"One has to take the rough with the smooth, does one not?"
"One cannot live on bread alone, old boy"
"One's past shapes one's future"

that kind of thing.

Obviously in most of these, you could, and probably would use "you".
This form is rather redundant and one tends to avoid it, unless one enjoys one's friends taking oneself for a member of the Royal elite..

I can think of at least one in a Polish equivalent using "Człowiek"

Language / reinkarnacje + correction request +chomiki [16]

I was writing a silly lyric for a song (in a Polski Beat Happening stylee) today, and I realised I couldn't find a way to describe "to be reincarnated" an 'activity' that always occurs in the passive voice (as with being born in the first place) in English.

I managed to find this construction:
przejść reinkarnacje

Would that be correct?

I couldn't find any evidence of people saying a Polish equiv. for "reincarnated as smth." (eg. a worm, a butterfly, a portaloo etc.)

So, here's my attempted ditty. I'm sure there is a lot to correct, feel free.

skory jenkoowee and all that ;)

w przypadku,
że umieramy
i przejść reinkarnacje
jako chomiki
Obiecaj mi, (tylko)
że będziesz moj
chomik-żona
Podam najlepsze marchewki
pistacje skradzione,
szczęśliwy chomiki my będziemy

Language / shudder - Polish phrase [2]

My friend experienced one of those inexplicable body shudders which in England we explain with the phrase "Someone just walked over my grave"

following hers, she said: "Świnia mnie powąchała!"

a pig sniffed me! is how I would translate it :)

Has anybody heard that before? I haven't had much luck googling it to confirm it's a regular expression, not just something my pal came up with off the cuff.

I ask as the English expression is one of my favourite, with its circular approach to time and mortality, and the funny sensation to which it's attached...

Food / Fishy Kiełbaski! [9]

I tried some of these a couple of days ago, but am struggling to recall, or research the name!
The experience of biting into one for the first time put me in mind of the first time I ever smoked a menthol cigarette, after having dropped some LSD...

"It's hot..... but it's COLD!!??"

A new experience for me :)
It's a sausage... but..... FISHY!?
I believe the little fellas had been fresh caught that morning from the calm waters of Mielno.

z góry dziękuję za pomoc

Language / Źłe Wieszcz - Polish grammar practice [4]

Hej All,

I'm living out in Koszalin, and as I'm sure you'll know if you have visited the city, it's a very poetic place and its beauty has so inspired me that I took up a novel approach to practising my Polish:

Bad poems.
I though you might like to check them out and harangue me for my appalling (or revolutionary!) grammar.
smacznego!

DO NIEBA

biegniemy
do góry nogami
aby jeść salami
bo jesteśmy wspaniali

w piżamach
uciekamy...

będziemy pamiętać
panoramy
na szalonych drogach do..

na parapecie

czy jest gołąb
na parapecie?
czeka-zaczeka-doczeka się

ku ku ku wru,
gru gru gru gruuuu
daru daru daru daru?

jak to powiedzieć
po gołębiemu?
"coo coo coo caroooo"

cicho cicho cicho tam
ogłądam wróble w mgłe

cicho dziobały
żabi cicho skok
na cicha soseneczka
oj!
Ciebię obok

:)