Learn how to introduce yourself
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Gina: Hello everyone and welcome back to PolishPod101.com. This is Absolute Beginner, season 1, lesson 2, First Meetings in Poland. I’m Gina. |
| Joanna: And I’m Joanna. |
| Gina: In this lesson, you'll learn how to introduce yourself. |
| 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 |
| Alex: Cześć! |
| Gosia: Hej! |
| Alex: Jak masz na imię? |
| Gosia: Jestem Gosia. A ty? |
| Alex: Jestem Alex. |
| Gosia: Miło mi. Fajne masz imię. |
| Alex: Dzięki. |
| Gina: Let’s hear the conversation one time slowly. |
| Alex: Cześć! |
| Gosia: Hej! |
| Alex: Jak masz na imię? |
| Gosia: Jestem Gosia. A ty? |
| Alex: Jestem Alex. |
| Gosia: Miło mi. Fajne masz imię. |
| Alex: Dzięki. |
| Gina: Now let’s hear it with the English translation. |
| Alex: Cześć! |
| Alex: Hi! |
| Gosia: Hej! |
| Gosia: Hey! |
| Alex: Jak masz na imię? |
| Alex: What's your name? |
| Gosia: Jestem Gosia. A ty? |
| Gosia: I'm Gosia. And you? |
| Alex: Jestem Alex. |
| Alex: I'm Alex. |
| Gosia: Miło mi. Fajne masz imię. |
| Gosia: Nice to meet you. You have a cool name. |
| Alex: Dzięki. |
| Alex: Thanks. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Gina: Let’s talk some more about Polish names. What’s interesting about them? |
| Joanna: Well there’s a few things. A lot of people might think Polish names are confusing though. |
| Gina: Why? |
| Joanna: Because almost every Polish name has one or sometimes even two or more diminutives, which very often look completely different than the full, original name. |
| Gina: Okay, now I understand why it can be confusing. |
| Joanna: Let me give you an example anyway. |
| Gina: That would be good! |
| Joanna: There’s the female name ‘Aleksandra’. It would be used in official situations and in documents. |
| Gina: I bet it changes drastically if a friend or a relative addresses Aleksandra though... |
| Joanna: It does! The name will become ‘Ola’ or ‘Olka’ |
| Gina: But that sounds completely different! |
| Joanna: So sometimes it can be tricky, but as long as you use the version of name the person introduces himself or herself with, you’ll be fine. |
| Gina: For more examples of Polish names and their diminutives, be sure to check the lesson notes. For 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: jak [natural native speed] |
| Gina: how |
| Joanna: jak [slowly - broken down by syllable] jak [natural native speed] |
| Gina: Next |
| Joanna: mieć [natural native speed] |
| Gina: to have |
| Joanna: mieć [slowly - broken down by syllable] mieć [natural native speed] |
| Gina: Next |
| Joanna: miło [natural native speed] |
| Gina: nice, nicely |
| Joanna: miło [slowly - broken down by syllable] miło [natural native speed] |
| Gina: Next |
| Joanna: ty [natural native speed] |
| Gina: you |
| Joanna: ty [slowly - broken down by syllable] ty [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: imię [natural native speed] |
| Gina: name |
| Joanna: imię [slowly - broken down by syllable] imię [natural native speed] |
| Gina: Next |
| Joanna: hej [natural native speed] |
| Gina: hey |
| Joanna: hej [slowly - broken down by syllable] hej [natural native speed] |
| Gina: Next |
| Joanna: fajny [natural native speed] |
| Gina: cool |
| Joanna: fajny [slowly - broken down by syllable] fajny [natural native speed] |
| Gina: Next |
| Joanna: dzięki [natural native speed] |
| Gina: Thanks (informal) |
| Joanna: dzięki [slowly - broken down by syllable] dzięki [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 our first word? |
| Joanna: ‘fajny’ |
| Gina: it has quite a few meanings, like “cool, nice, neat, and “extra” |
| Joanna: It’s one of those words that can be used only among your friends or family. |
| Gina: Is it a common word? |
| Joanna: Yes, it’s very common, especially among young people. Basically, everything we like or enjoy can be ‘fajny’ |
| Gina: This is the masculine form, right? |
| Joanna: That’s right. |
| Gina: Can you give us all three forms? |
| Joanna: Sure. Masculine is ‘fajny’, feminine is ‘fajna’ and neuter is ‘fajne’ |
| Gina: Okay, what’s next? |
| Joanna: A very useful question which is - ‘a ty?’ |
| Gina: which means “and you?” |
| Joanna: It can also be translated as the English “how about you?” |
| Gina: When do you use it? |
| Joanna: Whenever someone asks you something, and you’d like the person to answer too. Instead of repeating the question again, you can just say - ‘a ty?’ |
| Gina: What’s another situation where you can use that question? |
| Joanna: When you share some information about yourself, for example - ‘Lubię lody waniliowe’ |
| Gina: “I like vanilla ice-cream” |
| Joanna: if you want to know about your friends’ preference, just say - ‘a ty?’ - after the statement... |
| Gina: “how about you?” Okay, now onto the grammar. |
| GRAMMAR POINT |
| Gina: In this lesson, you’ll learn about how to ask what somebody’s name is, and how to answer that question yourself. |
| Joanna: Let’s start by learning how to say your name first. To do that you need to know the verb “być” |
| Gina: Which means “to be” |
| Joanna: The first person singular form of the verb “być” is ‘jestem’, so when you want to introduce yourself you simply say ‘jestem..’ and then give your name |
| Gina: Ok...‘jestem Gina’ |
| Joanna: Perfect!! |
| Gina: Thank you! |
| Joanna: In the dialogue, after Gosia introduced herself with ‘Jestem Gosia’, she said ‘a ty?’ |
| Gina: Meaning “and you?” |
| Joanna: It’s the easiest way of asking somebody something, but to use it, you have to give the same information first. Just like Gosia did. First she told Alex her name and then asked for his, using the simple phrase ‘a ty?’ |
| Gina: But there’s also a more complex way of asking for someone’s name, isn’t there? |
| Joanna: Of course. We heard it in the dialogue. It goes like this - ‘jak masz na imię?’ |
| Gina: meaning “what’s your name?” |
| Joanna: listeners, repeat after me - ‘jak masz na imię? |
| Gina: (pause) “what’s your name?” It isn’t a literal translation, right? |
| Joanna: No. The difference is that in Polish we use the verb ‘mieć’ |
| Gina: which means “to have”. Let’s break down this question so the listeners know exactly how it’s done |
| Joanna: We start off with the question word - ‘jak’ |
| Gina: Which literally means “how”, but we’ll stick to the English equivalent “what” |
| Joanna: Then it’s followed by the second person form of the verb “to have”, which is ‘masz’. Next is the preposition ‘na’ |
| Gina: which means ‘for’ |
| Joanna: And lastly ‘imię’ |
| Gina: meaning “name” |
| Joanna: Altogether, it’s - ‘jak masz na imię?’ |
| Gina: “what’s your name?” |
| Joanna: You can answer with your name only, or you can use ‘jestem...’ and then give your name |
| Gina: There’s another way of answering this question, but to find out what that is, be sure to check the notes for this lesson. |
Outro |
|---|
| Gina: Okay, that’s it for this lesson. Thanks for listening everyone. And we’ll see you next time! |
| Joanna: Papa. |
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