Learn formal language and instrumental case
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| INTRODUCTION |
| John: Hi everyone, and welcome to PolishPod101.com. This is Intermediate Season 1, Lesson 1 - A Polish Job Interview. John here. |
| Marzena: Cześć. I'm Marzena. |
| John: In this lesson, you’ll learn about formal language and the instrumental case. The conversation takes place at the office. |
| Marzena: It's between Thomas and Monica. |
| John: The speakers are strangers; therefore, they’ll speak formal Polish. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Monika: Czy mógłby pan nam o sobie opowiedzieć? |
| Thomas: Z miłą chęcią. Nazywam się Thomas Meyer, pochodzę z Ameryki, a konkretnie z Nowego Jorku. Obecnie uczę się polskiego tutaj, we Wrocławiu. |
| Monika: Kim jest pan z wykształcenia? |
| Thomas: Z wykształcenia jestem informatykiem. Zajmuję się projektowaniem stron internetowych. |
| Monika: Ma pan doświadczenie w kierowaniu projektem? |
| Thomas: Nie, ale szybko się uczę. Jestem zdyscyplinowany i sumienny. |
| Monika: Dobrze, muszę się zastanowić. |
| John: Listen to the conversation with the English translation. |
| Monica: Could you tell me about yourself? |
| Thomas: With pleasure. My name is Thomas Meyer. I'm originally from America, New York to be more specific. Now I'm studying Polish here in Wroclaw. |
| Monica: What is the profession you learned to do? |
| Thomas: I'm an IT specialist. I've been designing websites. |
| Monica: Do you have any experience in project management? |
| Thomas: No, but I learn quickly. I'm disciplined and diligent. |
| Monica: Well, I have to think about it. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| John: We’re starting this series with the most terrifying of situations - a job interview. |
| Marzena: They aren’t that bad, are they? |
| John: I don’t know, what are job interviews like in Poland? |
| Marzena: They’re not as formal as in some other countries. |
| John: What’s a Polish CV, or resume, like? |
| Marzena: In some countries, you don’t need to put your age or picture on a CV. In Poland you do. |
| John: Really? That’s interesting. |
| Marzena: Another thing that’s different is that it can be difficult to be a part-time worker and do something else at the same time, such as studying. |
| John: Why’s that? |
| Marzena: Because part-time jobs are less flexible. Usually, they will ask people to come in for the full eight hours. |
| John: That’s harsh. How do we say “job interview” in Polish? |
| Marzena: rozmowa kwalifikacyjna |
| John: Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| John: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is... |
| Marzena: opowiadać [natural native speed] |
| John: to tell a story |
| Marzena: opowiadać[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Marzena: opowiadać [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have... |
| Marzena: pochodzić [natural native speed] |
| John: to come from |
| Marzena: pochodzić [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Marzena: pochodzić [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have... |
| Marzena: konkretnie [natural native speed] |
| John: specifically |
| Marzena: konkretnie[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Marzena: konkretnie [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have... |
| Marzena: obecnie [natural native speed] |
| John: currently |
| Marzena: obecnie[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Marzena: obecnie [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have... |
| Marzena: wykształcenie [natural native speed] |
| John: education |
| Marzena: wykształcenie[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Marzena: wykształcenie [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have... |
| Marzena: projektowanie [natural native speed] |
| John: design |
| Marzena: projektowanie[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Marzena: projektowanie [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have.... |
| Marzena: doświadczenie [natural native speed] |
| John: experience |
| Marzena: doświadczenie[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Marzena: doświadczenie [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have.... |
| Marzena: zdyscyplinowany [natural native speed] |
| John: disciplined |
| Marzena: zdyscyplinowany [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Marzena: zdyscyplinowany [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have... |
| Marzena: sumienny [natural native speed] |
| John: diligent |
| Marzena: sumienny[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Marzena: sumienny [natural native speed] |
| John: And last... |
| Marzena: zastanowić się [natural native speed] |
| John: to consider |
| Marzena: zastanowić się[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Marzena: zastanowić się [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| John: Let's have a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first word is... |
| Marzena: pochodzić z |
| John: Meaning "to come from." In what circumstances would we use this word? |
| Marzena: It can be used to talk about the place of origin. |
| John: So where something comes from. |
| Marzena: Right. The verb itself, pochodzić, consists of two parts: the prefix po and the verb chodzić. That means "to walk on foot." |
| John: Are there any circumstances where you can’t use this verb? |
| Marzena: You can’t use it to say that you “came back,” so you don’t usually hear it in the past tense. |
| John: Can you give us an example using this word? |
| Marzena: Sure. For example, you can say, Te banany pochodzą z Filipin. |
| John: ...which means "These bananas come from the Philippines." |
| John: Okay, what's the next word? |
| Marzena: konkretnie |
| John: meaning "specifically." This is an adverb. |
| Marzena: And like most Polish adverbs, it ends in -nie. |
| John: What’s it used for? |
| Marzena: It’s used to specify something or to ask for extra information. |
| John: Can it be used in any other circumstances? |
| Marzena: Yes, konkretnie has a second meaning of showing how big or worth noticing something is. |
| John: Can you give us an example using this word? |
| Marzena: Sure. For example, you can say, O co ci konkretnie chodzi? |
| John: ...which means "What do you specifically mean?" |
| John: Okay, now onto the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| John: In this lesson, you'll learn about formal language and the instrumental case. |
| John: So let’s start with the instrumental case. |
| Marzena: The instrumental case, or narzędnik, is the fifth of seven Polish cases. |
| John: The instrumental case isn’t used for the subject of the sentence. |
| Marzena: That’s right. It can be a little difficult for non-natives to distinguish the instrumental case from the other cases. |
| John: Can we look at some examples? |
| Marzena: Sure. In the conversation, the speakers talked about their abilities using the instrumental case. |
| John: Let’s hear an example of how to express ability. How can we say “I am a trained lawyer?” |
| Marzena: Z wykształcenia jestem prawnikiem. |
| John: Let’s list the situations where we use the instrumental case. |
| Marzena: It’s used with the preposition z. |
| John: This means “with.” |
| Marzena: Idę z mamą do kina. |
| John: “I’m going to the movies with mom.” |
| Marzena: It’s also used to express a tool or a way of doing something. Pojadę pociągiem. |
| John: “I will go by train.” |
| Marzena: When talking about relationships or with the verb być. |
| John: That means “to be.” |
| Marzena: On jest moim przełożonym. |
| John: “He is my supervisor.” For examples of how to conjugate nouns in the instrumental case, take a look at the lesson notes. There are many examples there. Now, let’s look at formal speech in Polish. |
| Marzena: Like some other languages, we use the third person in a formal situation. |
| John: Is it exactly the same as third person? |
| Marzena: Not quite. When referring to other people, we use Pan, Pani, or Państwo. |
| John: They mean “sir,” “ma’am,” and the plural formal “you,” respectively. |
| Marzena: In writing, we always capitalize these words when directing it towards someone. |
| John: Let’s hear an example using one of these words. |
| Marzena: Czy może pan powtórzyć? |
| John: “Could you repeat (that), sir?” |
| Marzena: In that example, we used może. That’s the third person polite form of móc. |
| John: That means “to be able to.” |
| Marzena: We can make that even more polite by using mógłby for men and mogłaby for women. |
| John: They both mean “could.” |
Outro |
| John: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. Thank you for listening everyone, and we’ll see you next time! Bye! |
| Marzena: Cześć. |
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