Dialogue

Vocabulary (Review)

Learn New Words FAST with this Lesson’s Vocab Review List

Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.

Or sign up using Facebook
Already a Member?

Lesson Notes

Unlock In-Depth Explanations & Exclusive Takeaways with Printable Lesson Notes

Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.

Or sign up using Facebook
Already a Member?

Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
Gina: Hello everyone and welcome back to PolishPod101.com. This is Absolute Beginner, season 1, lesson 4, Talking Nationality in Polish. I’m Gina.
Joanna: And I’m Joanna.
Gina: In this lesson you'll learn all about the verb “to be”.
Joanna: This conversation takes place in a cafe.
Gina: It’s between Gosia and Alex.
Joanna: The speakers are around the same age, so they’ll be using informal Polish.
Gina: Let’s listen to the conversation.
DIALOGUE
Gosia: Hej Alex!
Alex: Cześć!
Gosia: Skąd jesteś?
Alex: Jestem z Australii. A ty?
Gosia: Jestem z Polski.
Alex: Super!
Gina: Let’s hear the conversation one time slowly.
Gosia: Hej Alex!
Alex: Cześć!
Gosia: Skąd jesteś?
Alex: Jestem z Australii. A ty?
Gosia: Jestem z Polski.
Alex: Super!
Gina: Now let’s hear it with the English translation.
Gosia: Hej Alex!
Gosia: Hey Alex!
Alex: Cześć!
Alex: Hi!
Gosia: Skąd jesteś?
Gosia: Where are you from?
Alex: Jestem z Australii. A ty?
Alex: I'm from Australia. And you?
Gosia: Jestem z Polski.
Gosia: I'm from Poland
Alex: Super!
Alex: Great!
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
Gina: Are there many ethnic minorities living in Poland?
Joanna: Not many. Poland has one of the smallest number of foreign inhabitants in the whole of Europe.
Gina: Why is that?
Joanna: Things changed after the Second World War. Before that war, around one third of the population was composed of minorities.
Gina: Which one was the biggest?
Joanna: Definitely the Jewish community, but unfortunately their population was almost wiped out in the war.
Gina: How about now? What are the largest ethnic minorities in Poland, and which regions do they live in?
Joanna: I would say - German, Lithuanian, Belarusian, Roman, Russian and Vietnamese. And usually they live in areas such as... ‘Śląsk’
Gina: known in English as “Silesia”
Joanna: ‘Pomorze’
Gina: “Pomerania”
Joanna: ‘Mazowsze’
Gina: “Mazovia”
Joanna: or ‘Podlasie’
Gina: “Podlachia”. Okay, now let’s move on to the vocab.
VOCAB LIST
Gina: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson.
The first word we shall see is...
Joanna: hej [natural native speed]
Gina: hey
Joanna: hej [slowly - broken down by syllable] hej [natural native speed]
Gina: Next
Joanna: cześć [natural native speed]
Gina: Hello, Hi.
Joanna: cześć [slowly - broken down by syllable] cześć [natural native speed]
Gina: Next
Joanna: skąd [natural native speed]
Gina: where...from
Joanna: skąd [slowly - broken down by syllable] skąd [natural native speed]
Gina: Next
Joanna: z [natural native speed]
Gina: from
Joanna: z [slowly - broken down by syllable] z [natural native speed]
Gina: Next
Joanna: super [natural native speed]
Gina: super
Joanna: super [slowly - broken down by syllable] super [natural native speed]
Gina: Next
Joanna: być [natural native speed]
Gina: to be
Joanna: być [slowly - broken down by syllable] być [natural native speed]
Gina: Next
Joanna: Australia [natural native speed]
Gina: Australia
Joanna: Australia [slowly - broken down by syllable] Australia [natural native speed]
Gina: And last,
Joanna: Polska [natural native speed]
Gina: Poland
Joanna: Polska [slowly - broken down by syllable] Polska [natural native speed]
KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES
Gina: Let’s take a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. Joanna, what’s the first word?
Joanna: ‘super’
Gina: Just like English.
Joanna: Exactly. It’s a very common word among young people. Nowadays anything you like or enjoy can be ‘super’.
Gina: Can we hear a few examples?
Joanna: Sure! ‘super pogoda’
Gina: literally “super weather”
Joanna: Say it when you think that weather is great. Another example would be - ‘super ciuchy’
Gina: “super clothes”
Joanna: You can use this phrase when you think someone is dressed really cool, or you simply like the clothes
Gina: There are more examples in the lesson notes, so be sure to check them out.
Joanna: There’s one more usage of ‘super’
Gina: What is it?
Joanna: Whenever you feel like being sarcastic, when you don’t like something, or you aren’t happy about something
Gina: I bet intonation is very important here.
Joanna: Yes! So when you’re being sarcastic, it should sound like - ‘super’
Gina: Okay, what’s the next word?
Joanna: ‘hej’
Gina: Just like the English “hey”?
Joanna: When it comes to pronunciation - yes. If we talk about spelling - no.
Gina: What is different?
Joanna: If in Polish we use some foreign words, some of these sounds are usually written phonetically. So since the letter “j” is the sound matching the English pronunciation, we replace it with a “y” sound. Just like my name! Joanna becomes Joanna in Polish!
Gina: That’s some useful information. When we can use the Polish “hey”?
Joanna: Just as a way of saying “hi”, but of course only to your friends. And we usually don’t hear adults using that word.
Gina: Good to know. Ok, now onto the grammar.
GRAMMAR POINT
Gina: In this lesson you’ll learn about the most basic verb - “to be”
Joanna: Yes, we have already mentioned the Polish verb ‘być’...
Gina: ...meaning “to be”...
Joanna: when we learned how to introduce ourselves.
Gina: Now we’ll broaden our knowledge about that verb.
Joanna: In Polish, all verbs are conjugated to one of 8 persons
Gina: You can find the table with conjugation of the Polish verb “to be” in the lesson notes.
Joanna: Make sure that you master the conjugation, because without it, you won’t be able to continue to study Polish
Gina: Let’s tell our listeners how to pronounce every single conjugated form.
Joanna: That’s a very good idea. Listeners, please repeat after me...
Joanna: ‘ja jestem’
Gina: “I am”
Joanna: ‘ty jesteś’
Gina: (pause) “you are”
Joanna: ‘on jest’
Gina: (pause) “he is”
Joanna: ‘ona jest’
Gina: (pause) “she is”
Joanna: ‘ono jest’
Gina: (pause) “it is”
Joanna: ‘my jesteśmy’
Gina: (pause) “we are”
Joanna: ‘wy jesteście’
Gina: (pause) “you are” (plural)
Joanna ‘oni są’
Gina: (pause) “they are”
Gina: (pause) Great job everybody!
Joanna: Do you remember how to introduce yourself?
Gina: Oh no! I forgot!
Joanna: Well, I hope our listeners are better students than you, Gina!
Gina: (laughs) So, for all those people who forgot, Joanna will say it now...
Joanna: ‘Jestem Joanna’
Gina: So the first word is the verb “to be”, followed by your name
Joanna: Exactly. In Polish, we usually skip the personal pronoun, so instead of saying ‘ja jestem Joanna’, we just say ‘jestem Joanna’
Gina: In the dialogue, Gosia and Alex talked about where they’re from. How do we ask that question in Polish?
Joanna: ‘skąd jesteś?’
Gina: “where are you from?”
Joanna: ‘skąd’ means “where.. from”, and then we have the 2nd person singular form of the verb “to be” - ‘jesteś’
Gina: To answer, we just start off with the verb “to be” in the first person singular, and then give the name of the country?
Joanna: Almost right! Before the name of the country, we need to use the preposition ‘z’, which means “from”
Gina: Let’s hear an example.
Joanna: Ok. ‘Jestem z Polski’
Gina: meaning “I’m from Poland”
Joanna: In the dialogue Alex said - ‘Jestem z Australii’
Gina: “I’m from Australia”
Joanna: Listeners, be sure to check the lesson notes, because you will find a lot more information about how to ask and answer the question about your country of origin.

Outro

Gina: And that’s all for this lesson! We hope you enjoyed it. Thanks for listening, and we’ll see you next time!
Joanna: Papa.
Gina: Bye!

Comments

Hide