Learn how to give and understand directions
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Eric: Hi everyone, and welcome back to PolishPod101.com. This is Lower Beginner Season 1 Lesson 23 - Finding Places in Poland. Eric here. |
| Marzena: Cześć. I'm Marzena. |
| Eric: In this lesson you’ll learn how to give directions in Polish. The conversation takes place at a bus stop. |
| Marzena: It's between Kasia and Felipe. |
| Eric: The speakers are friends, so they'll use informal Polish. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Kasia: No to jesteśmy. To jest Park Łazienkowski. |
| Felipe: Bardzo duży. |
| Kasia: Tak, spytam o drogę. Przepraszam, gdzie jest Belweder? |
| Kobieta: Proszę iść prosto i za Białym Domem skręcić w prawo. |
| Kasia: Prosto i w prawo? Dziękuję. |
| Felipe: Biały Dom? Belweder? Wszystko tu macie! |
| Eric: Listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
| Kasia: No to jesteśmy. To jest Park Łazienkowski. |
| Felipe: Bardzo duży. |
| Kasia: Tak, spytam o drogę. Przepraszam, gdzie jest Belweder? |
| Kobieta: Proszę iść prosto i za Białym Domem skręcić w prawo. |
| Kasia: Prosto i w prawo? Dziękuję. |
| Felipe: Biały Dom? Belweder? Wszystko tu macie! |
| Eric: Listen to the conversation with the English translation. |
| Kasia: So, here we are. This is the Royal Baths Park. |
| Felipe: Very big. |
| Kasia: Yes, I will ask for directions. Excuse me, where is Belvedere? |
| Woman: Go straight and turn right after the White House. |
| Kasia: Straight and right? Thank you. |
| Felipe: White House? Belvedere? You've got everything. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Eric: Marzena, what is Belvedere? |
| Marzena: It's the name of a palace in Warsaw, and it's where the current Polish president resides. |
| Eric: What is this palace usually used for? |
| Marzena: Normally it's used for ceremonial purposes, as well as as a residence for special guests of the country of Poland. |
| Eric: Is it close to Lazienki Park? |
| Marzena: Yes. Really close, actually. In the same area there's also Ujazdów Castle, Ujazdów Park, the Astronomical Observatory, and many other places of note. |
| Eric: It's definitely the most popular area for tourists to visit when they’re in Warsaw. Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Eric: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Marzena: bardzo [natural native speed] |
| Eric: very (much) |
| Marzena: bardzo [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Marzena: bardzo [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Marzena: duży [natural native speed] |
| Eric: large, big |
| Marzena: duży [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Marzena: duży [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Marzena: pytać [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to ask |
| Marzena: pytać [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Marzena: pytać [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Marzena: droga [natural native speed] |
| Eric: road |
| Marzena: droga [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Marzena: droga [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Marzena: Belweder [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Belvedere |
| Marzena: Belweder [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Marzena: Belweder [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Marzena: prosto [natural native speed] |
| Eric: straight |
| Marzena: prosto [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Marzena: prosto [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Marzena: za [natural native speed] |
| Eric: behind |
| Marzena: za [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Marzena: za [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Marzena: Biały Dom [natural native speed] |
| Eric: White House |
| Marzena: Biały Dom [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Marzena: Biały Dom [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Marzena: skręcić [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to turn |
| Marzena: skręcić [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Marzena: skręcić [natural native speed] |
| Eric: And last.. |
| Marzena: wszystko [natural native speed] |
| Eric: everything |
| Marzena: wszystko [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Marzena: wszystko [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Eric: Let's have a closer look at some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first phrase is.. |
| Marzena: skręcać w prawo |
| Eric: which means “to turn right.” |
| Marzena: skręcać w prawo is made up of three words- the verb skręcać, which means “to turn,” the preposition w, “in,” and the adverb prawo, which means “right.” skręcać w prawo, meaning “to turn right.” |
| Eric: Marzena, how would you say “to turn left” in Polish? |
| Marzena: That’s simple. Just replace prawo, “right” with lewo, meaning “left,” |
| Eric: So, altogether we will have… |
| Marzena: skręcać w lewo, |
| Eric: “to turn left.” Of course that's just the dictionary form. When you're giving directions, you should change to the perfective form which is... |
| Marzena: Proszę skręcić w prawo, or Proszę skręcić w lewo |
| Eric: which means “Please turn right” and “Please turn left” respectively. Can you give us an example using this phrase? |
| Marzena: Sure. For example, you can say.. Proszę skręcić w prawo na tych światłach. |
| Eric: ..which means “Please turn right at this traffic light.” Okay, what's the next phrase? |
| Marzena: pytać o drogę |
| Eric: which means “to ask for directions.” |
| Marzena: The word pytać means “to ask,” the preposition o means “about,” and drogę is the accusative form of the noun droga, which means “way” or “road.” pytać o drogę. |
| Eric: In the Polish language there's a grammatical aspect to verbs - perfective and imperfective. |
| Marzena: Right. In the dialogue there was the form spytać, which is the imperfective form of the verb pytać. |
| Eric: Can you give us an example using this phrase? |
| Marzena: Sure. For example, you can say.. Zgubuliśmy się. Spytajmy kogoś o drogę. |
| Eric: .. which means “We're lost. Let’s ask someone for directions.” Okay, now onto the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Eric: In this lesson you'll learn how to give or how to understand given directions. |
| Marzena: When Poles give directions, they always use the word Proszę, which means “please,” and then they say the directions. |
| Eric: And our first direction is… |
| Marzena: Proszę iść prosto |
| Eric: which means “Go straight, please.” Marzena, let's break down this phrase to see the meaning of each word. |
| Marzena: Sure. Proszę means “please,” the verb iść means “to go on foot,” and the adverb prosto means “straight.” Once more, Proszę iść prosto means “Go straight, please.” |
| Eric: Another useful direction is “Please turn right.” |
| Marzena: In Polish it will be Proszę skręcić w prawo. We start our phrase with Proszę, “please.” Then we add the verb skręcić meaning “to turn,” and the phrase w prawo which means “to the right.” Proszę skręcić w prawo. |
| Eric: Means “Please turn right.” If you want to say “please turn left”... |
| Marzena: You can just replace w prawo, which means “to the right,” with w lewo, “to the left.” |
| Eric: So, altogether it will be… |
| Marzena: Proszę skręcić w lewo. |
| Eric: Marzena, can we say “Turn right at the traffic light” by using this pattern? |
| Marzena: Sure. First say Proszę skręcić w prawo, which means “Please turn right,” and then add na światłach, which means “at the traffic light.” Na is similar to the English “at” and światłach is simply “traffic light.” |
| Eric: So, altogether, it will be… |
| Marzena: Proszę skręcić w prawo na światłach. |
| Eric: “Please turn right at the traffic light." And what about “Please turn right after the White House” in Polish? |
| Marzena: In this case you can just add the phrase za Białym Domem before skręcić w prawo. Za means “behind” or “after” in context of directions, and Białym Domem means “White House” in the instrumental case. Altogether Za Białym Domem skręcić w prawo. |
| Eric: “Turn right after the White House.” What if we want to tell someone to turn before some building? |
| Marzena: Then we will use the preposition przed. For example..przed Białym Domem skręcić w prawo. |
| Eric: “Turn right before the White House.” Great! The next expression is “It’s on the right,” which in Polish is… |
| Marzena: Jest po prawej stronie. |
| Eric: Marzena, let's break down this phrase to see the meaning of each word. |
| Marzena: Sure. Jest means “is” and the phrase po prawej means “on the right.” Finally, we have stronie - "side." Altogether, Jest po prawej stronie. |
| Eric: “It's on the right,” or “It's on the right side.” And what would be “It's on the left”? |
| Marzena: Jest po lewej stronie. The only difference is the word lewej, meaning “left,” instead of prawej, meaning “right.” |
| Eric: So to recap, we have… |
| Marzena: Jest po prawej stronie and Jest po lewej stronie. |
| Eric: “It's on the right” and “It's on the left” respectively. |
Outro |
| Eric: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. Thank you for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! Bye! |
| Marzena: Do usłyszenia. |
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