Animation

I'm very interested in animated movies. Not only in USA production, e.g. by Disney or DreamWorks, but also our native movies.

Unfortunately, it is very hard to find these kind of movies. Since 1990, virtually there aren't any movies. I really wish there were more.

Anyway, I've found some examples that animation in Poland still exists ;) Very often they're co-production, but still there are some people from our country.

Piotruś i Wilk

This short movie was created in 2006 and won the Oscar award. A person responsibled for scenography was Marek Skrobecki. "Piotuś i Wilk" was made in Se-ma-for Studios in Łódź, the most known Polish animation studio.
This movie is quite strange but worth seeing.

Latająca maszyna - Projekt Chopin
The creators of "Piotruś i Wilk" in 2011 produced another animated movie - "The Flying Machine". In my opinion it is more interesting. It connects the real world with the animated one (like in the French movies "Arthur and the Invisibles"). It is especially good for Chopin's fans :)

I hope in Poland will be more animated movies like that!

The Polish legends

Poland is a country that has a lot of legends. Not only regional that know few people, but also very popular in all the country.

There are some optimistic legends, like legend of Wars and Sawa - a fisherman and a mermaid who fell in love. Because of their feeling she lost her tail and can start live as a normal girl. Also legend of Saint Kinga is very interesting, because it explains from where the salt of Wieliczka comes from.

But there are also pessimistic legends. In my opinion, the most depressing legend is The Fern Flower. It is about an unfortunate boy who seeks the magical fern which can bring wealth. Unfortunately, he losts his family and in the end he dies. It is said that until today he still looks for his parents.

Some of Polish legends are connected with the belief of Slaves, for example with monsters of mithology or the Feast of St. John the Baptist.

For me, my favourite Polish legend is about an army charmed in pigeons from Kraków Old Town. I think it's incredible when you see them and think about it ;)

Cardboard records & vinyl records

In PRL there were a lot of things that now don't exist. One of this stuff is a cardboard record - pocztówka dźwiękowa.

They were usually like the ordinary postcards, but sometimes they were very big. The surface of them was covered by round plastic-coated. Thanks to that it looks like a vinyl record... And it becomes a vinyl record ;) When you put it on a gramophone or in a record player, it can play.

Cardboard records could be sent like a normal postcard by post. Instead of this, they were very often given personally, for example as a present of birthday. 

Nowadays vinyl records aren't very popular, because people prefer buying music on CDs or online - by iTunes. Fortunately, more and more record studios come back to vinyl record. I think it's great :) A sound of it is impressive. My parents have a small collection of these records and sometimes we listen to it together. 

My favourite song of their cardboard records is "Nim wstanie dzień" by Edmund Fetting.
In my opinion this song is simple, but beautiful...

How to say 'no' in Polish?

Negation in Polish is much easier than in English. But it also causes some problem to foreigners with the world "no"...

Let's start with the beginning:
"No" is obviously nie in Poland. But Polish word no means "yeah". Also there are some problems with linking negation with words.

When we are not talking about the lonely word, it is easy. Yeah, it's rare that a language aspect is easier in Polish than in English ;) I mean, when you want to deny a word, you simply add "no" in the beginning and you can get a new word. So: zrozumienie - niezrozumienie (noun), łatwo - niełatwo (adjective), mile - niemile (adverb)... In English it is more complicated. For example: a negation for "understanding" is not "nounderstanding" but "misunderstanding". The other words: impatient, underestimating, distrustful, incorrect. 

In this domain Polish language is more simply. But there is also linking negations with words. The other rules are for adjectives, another for adverbs. Even a lot of Poles have problems with this. 

With nouns and adjectives you don't link negation, but you have to do it with verbs. What about numbers? When you wrire 'not one, but two', you write separately (nie jeden, a dwóch), but when you think of 'a lot', you write together (niejeden). Similar with adverbes - normally they're separated (e.g. nietrudno), but with comparative and superlative form they are together (nie lepiej, nie najlepiej).

What's why we love Polish grammar so much:P

Volcanos in Poland

In the Middle Europe, where the Poland is, there definitely aren't any volcanos. At least, at a glance... ;)

In south part of Poland there are some volcanos. Obviously, none of them are active - they are extincted for 27 millions years. 

There is The Land of Extincted Volcanos (Kraina Wygasłych Wulkanów) in Kaczawskie Mountains. This mountain range is the oldest in Poland (and one of the oldest in the world), because it was created half billion years ago. Nowadays, there isn't any lava there, but because of the tectonic plates, on which the volcanos were created, there still can be earthquakes. On the other hand, it isn't very probable.

It is considered that the most beautiful Polish volcano is Ostrzyca Proboszczowicka, which is near the city Złotoryja. Inhabitants call it 'Śląska Fudżijama'. 

I agree with that opinion - this volcano is very picturesque :)

I saw Polish volcanos by the car's window, but I haven't sightseen them yet. I think I really need to do it, because they're incredible and definitely worth seeing.

Popular stereotypes about Polish habitants

Poznań
I was born here, so obviously I know the most about this city.
Habitants of Poznań are considered to spend the money too fruggle. In my mind,  it's an opinion of jealously habitants of Warsaw, who are too profligacy ;)
In fact, a very popular habit in Poznań that a lot of people have a special money box. Every Friday they put in a small amound of money, e.g. a coin 5zł. After some time you have quite a nice amound of money which you can spend as you want :) A lot of my friends and members of my family do it, but it isn't very popular in the rest of the country.

Warsaw

The "Pots" ("Słoiki") spoil the opinion of the city. It is a pejorative name of someone who moved to a capital and then lends a flat. These people don't want to be a part of society, they don't want to feel the atmosphere of a city. They only sleep and work there. Very ofter they are arrogant and look down on others. But in my opinion, most of people from Warsaw are very nice and helpful :)
Anyway, there aren't true habitant in Warsaw who live from generation to generation. During IIww the city was tore down, so people were killed or forced to run away. I really wish I had had a chance to live among these people and see what kind of people they were.
Maybe some time machine? ;)

Sosnowiec
It is a city with definitely bad fame. It is in Silesia, but residents of Sosnowiec don't speak in local dialect. The two cities, Katowice and Sosnowiec, competed themselves for hundreds years. This aversion is still visible, for example on the Internet.
Sosnowiec is simply the object of jokes in the whole Poland.

To sum up, every city is magic and you shouldn't pay attention to the stereotypes, but visit cities and see it on your own :)

Polish songs by foreign artists

One more time about Polish music :)
When you hear 'cover', you'll likely think about popular English songs. However, there are also Polish covers which were sang very well.

Maria Burmaka
This pretty Ukrainian composed the whole album in Polish. In lyrics there are some mistakes, e.g. 'wino przebrodziło' or 'kluczem swym krętnołam' ;)
But the music... I can listen to it all the day :3
A lot of her songs are covers of her own Ukrainian songs, for example  'Kto taka jestem' is a cover of 'Хто я така є' ('Chto ja taka je').

Laibach 

It is a band from Slovenia. They sang a song 'Warszawskie dzieci', which is a popular song of soldiers. The album which included this song was produced thanks to money of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage (Ministerstwo Kultury i Dziedzictwa Narodowego), for 70. anniversary of Warsaw Uprising.

Joryj Kłoc

The last song is much more positive ;) Or I'd rather say - crazy. This song of Ukrainian band Joryj Kłoc is about traditional wedding. The end of the video clip is quite unexpected, so you should see it to the end.
This is a cover of folk Polish song from Tarnobrzeg, which is sing before a bride goes to a groom's house.

Joryj Kłoc is band which usually sings old Ukrainian songs, but in a modern way - they use electric guitars, drums etc. Unfortunately, they aren't very popular, so it's difficult to find more information about this band.

Some interesting Polish songs

Lao Che - Wojenka ('War')

It's not that I like this song - frankly speaking, it's difficult to 'like' a song like this. It is simply very shocking. This song says about war, but shows it as a little, cruel girl. She is a weird child, because, instead of ice creams she wants bones.  One of the line says: 'Who will bring her bones? Maybe I, maybe you'...
In the beginning of 'Wojenka' there is a childish counting-out rhyme, but it's about serious problems.
There is also astory of a soldier - he have also feelings and he doesn't want to participe in this inhuman conflict. Especially he has just started a family and he needs to survive to assure its existence.

The next song is Bóg ('God') by T.Love.
It's very interesting, because nowhere in the lyrics is the title of this song. What's more, the refrain is 'I want to be your frind'. Because of that, we think it's a song of a human. Only the title tells us that the truth is different.
This song doesn't show the God as someone old and strict with long beard, but as a buddy who we can confess of every our problems. It's very interesting and rare seen point of view.

The last song is Piosenka z praniem w tle ('The song with laundry in a background', I guess).
I listened to it a lot of times, but still I can't establish if it's sad or happy. The music is very cheerful, but lyrics are about unhappy love. It is about a couple that don't want to be together anymore and courage one another to leave the house... But they can't do it, because they love themselves.
Anyway, the voices of vocalists are amazing :)