Learn how to introduce yourself
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Betsey: Hello everyone and welcome to PolishPod101.com. This is Polish Beginner series, season 1, lesson 1, Easy Self-Introductions in Polish, Part One. I’m Betsey. |
| Joanna: And I’m Joanna. |
| Betsey: In this lesson you’ll learn how to introduce yourself in an informal situation. |
| Joanna: This conversation takes place at university. |
| Betsey: The conversation is between Ewa and Jan. |
| Joanna: They are around the same age, therefore they will be using informal Polish. |
| Betsey: Let’s listen to the conversation. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| Ewa: Cześć. |
| Jan: Cześć. |
| Ewa: Jestem Ewa. A ty? |
| Jan: Mam na imię Jan. |
| Ewa: Miło mi. |
| Jan: Bardzo mi miło. |
| Alisha: Let’s hear the conversation one time slowly. |
| Ewa: Cześć. |
| Jan: Cześć. |
| Ewa: Jestem Ewa. A ty? |
| Jan: Mam na imię Jan. |
| Ewa: Miło mi. |
| Jan: Bardzo mi miło. |
| Betsey: Now let’s hear it with the English translation. |
| Ewa: Cześć. |
| Betsey:Hi. |
| Jan:Cześć. |
| Betsey: Hello. |
| Ewa: Jestem Ewa. A ty? |
| Betsey: I am Ewa. And you? |
| Jan: Mam na imię Jan. |
| Betsey: My name is Jan. |
| Ewa: Miło mi. |
| Betsey: Nice to meet you. |
| Jan: Bardzo mi miło. |
| Betsey: Very nice to meet you. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Betsey: Hey Joanna, do Poles always introduce themselves with their first name? |
| Joanna: Yes, in an informal situation, always. But there’s something very interesting about Polish names. |
| Betsey: What’s that? |
| Joanna: Let’s play a guessing game for a second. |
| Betsey: Okay. |
| Joanna: There are names like mine - Joanna, and also Asia. Are they two separate names? |
| Betsey: I have a feeling this is a trick question! |
| Joanna: Yes, it is. |
| Betsey: I think those are two separate names, they don’t sound or look alike at all! |
| Joanna: But it’s the same name. Joanna, we can say, is an official, full name, and Asia is its diminutive. Most Polish names have a few variations. |
| Betsey: For example? |
| Joanna: In our dialog we have Jan, right? |
| Betsey: Yes. So what will be diminutive of Jan? |
| Joanna: Janek for adults and Jaś for children. |
| Betsey: So there’s a difference between diminutives for children and adults? |
| Joanna: Sometimes the diminutive sounds childish for us, like in case of Jaś. You will never hear an adult being called by this name. |
| Betsey: So what will be some other examples? |
| Joanna: If you ever meet Katarzyna, you’d probably call her Kasia. If it’s Anna, you will call her Ania. As for male names - Krzysztof is Krzysiek or Krzyś if he’s a child. And Piotr can be called Piotrek. |
| Betsey: Wow, that’s really interesting! Now let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Betsey: Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| Betsey: The first word we shall see is- |
| Joanna: cześć [natural native speed] |
| Betsey: hello, hi |
| Joanna: cześć [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Joanna: cześć [natural native speed] |
| Betsey: Next. |
| Joanna: być [natural native speed] |
| Betsey: to be |
| Joanna: być [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Joanna: być [natural native speed] |
| Betsey: Next. |
| Joanna: ty [natural native speed] |
| Betsey: you (singular) |
| Joanna: ty [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Joanna: ty [natural native speed] |
| Betsey: Next. |
| Joanna: ja [natural native speed] |
| Betsey: I |
| Joanna: ja [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Joanna: ja [natural native speed] |
| Betsey: Next. |
| Joanna: mieć [natural native speed] |
| Joanna: to have |
| Joanna: mieć [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Joanna: mieć [natural native speed] |
| Betsey: Next. |
| Joanna: na [natural native speed] |
| Betsey: for |
| Joanna: na [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Joanna: na [natural native speed] |
| Betsy: Next |
| Joanna: bardzo [natural native speed] |
| Betsey: very (much) |
| Joanna: bardzo [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Joanna: bardzo [natural native speed] |
| Betsye: And Last. |
| Joanna: jak [natural native speed] |
| Betsey: how |
| Joanna: jak [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Joanna: jak [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES |
| Betsey: Let's have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. Joanna, What’s the first word? |
| Joanna:‘Cześć’, which means “hello” or “hi”. |
| Betsey: It’s a popular greeting among all generations. |
| Joanna: That’s true. You will hear it all the time when you’re in Poland. |
| Betsey: Can it be used with anyone? |
| Joanna: It’s reserved for friends, relatives, or people who you've met before and who are around your age. |
| Betsey: In other words, we can use it only in informal situations. |
| Joanna: Exactly. |
| Betsey Okay, what’s the next word? |
| Joanna:‘Siema’ |
| Betsey: This is another popular greeting. |
| Joanna: Yes, especially among young people, so be sure to use it towards your friends ONLY. |
| Betsey: This time let’s talk about a phrase. |
| Joanna: Okay, let’s take a closer look at ‘miło mi cię poznać?’ |
| Betsey:...in English “nice to meet you”. |
| Joanna: It’s rather long phrase, isn't it? |
| Betsey: Can we make it shorter? |
| Joanna: Yes, Poles usually say just "‘miło mi’". |
| Betsey: So say this whenever you meet someone for the first time and shake their hand. |
| Joanna: That’s right! |
| Betsey: Okay, let’s move on to grammar section. |
Lesson focus |
| Betsey: In this lesson we’re going to learn how to introduce yourself and ask for someone’s name in Polish. |
| Joanna: Yes, it means that we will talk about a very useful verb in Polish, which is ‘być’. |
| Betsey:“to be” |
| Joanna: In the dialog you heard Ewa saying - ‘Jestem Ewa.’ |
| Betsey:“I’m Ewa”. |
| Joanna: That’s the easiest way of introducing yourself. Just start with ‘jestem’, which is conjugated to 1st person, and then say your name. |
| Betsey: Our verb changed a lot after we put it into a sentence. |
| Joanna: That’s true. Probably the verb “to be” is irregular in almost every language, and Polish is no different here. |
| Betsey: The only solution then is to memorize the forms. |
| Joanna: Exactly. There are three main verb conjugation groups in Polish. |
| Betsey: What does this mean? |
| Joanna: It means that most verbs will follow some pattern when being conjugated. The others, like the verb ‘być,’ unfortunately you will have to memorize. |
| Betsey: Is there any other way to tell someone your name? |
| Joanna: Yes, there is. In our dialog Jan used the other way, which was ‘Mam na imię Jan’. |
| Betsey:“My name is Jan.” |
| Joanna: Here the verb used is ‘mieć’. |
| Betsey:“to have” |
| Joanna: Yes, it’s quite different from English, isn't it? ‘Mam na imię..’ literally means.. |
| Betsey:“I have for a name” |
| Joanna: But we will use the English equivalent, which is.. |
| Betsey:“My name is..” |
| Joanna: It’s worth pointing out that the expression ‘Mam na imię..’ asks for your first name only. |
| Betsey: Is the verb used in this expression also an irregular verb? |
| Joanna: No, this one follows a pattern, so be sure to check the lesson notes for the full conjugation table. |
| Betsey: So let’s practice saying your name in Polish together. Please repeat the beginning after Joanna and finish the sentence with your name. |
| Joanna:‘Mam na imię …...’ |
| Betsey: What about asking someone else’s name? |
| Joanna: It’s very easy. In the dialogue after Ewa gave her name, she asked Jan about his by saying ‘A ty?’ |
| Betsey:“And you?” |
| Joanna: This is the simplest way of asking about someone else’s name. |
| Betsey: I assume there’s one more way, more complicated. |
| Joanna: Yes, you’re right. The other one uses the verb ‘mieć’, which we talked about a few second before. |
| Betsey: So what does the question look like? |
| Joanna:‘Jak masz na imię?’ |
| Betsey:“What’s your name?” |
| Joanna: As you can hear we used the expression ‘mieć na imię’ again. The first word in the question is ‘jak’, which means.. |
| Betsey:“How” |
| Joanna: So the literal translation of ‘Jak masz imię?’ is... |
| Betsey:“how do you have for a name?” |
| Joanna: But here again we will stick to the English equivalent |
| Betsey:“What’s your name?” |
| Joanna:Lastly one important piece of information - in Polish we don’t really use the verb ‘być’ to obtain someone’s name directly, so please be careful about it and use the expressions we've just talked about. |
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| Betsey: Okay, that’s it for this lesson. Thank you for listening everyone, and be sure to check the lesson notes. |
| Joanna: Do widzenia. |
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