Learn how to talk about the place where you live and where you were born
Now Playing: Lesson Audio
Get a breakdown of the dialogue and translations instantly with the Premium line-by-line Audio. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
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.
Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.
| INTRODUCTION |
| Betsey:Hello everyone and welcome to PolishPod101.com. This is Beginner series, season 1, lesson 11, Where in Poland do you Live? I’m Betsey. |
| Joanna:And I’m Joanna. |
| Betsey:In this lesson, you’ll learn how to say where you’re from and where you live. |
| Joanna:This conversation takes place at a restaurant. |
| Betsey:It’ss between Ewa and Jan |
| Joanna:They’re friends, so they’ll be using informal Polish. |
| Betsey:Let’s listen to the conversation. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| Jan:Kate, skąd jesteś? |
| Kate:Jestem z Ameryki. A ty? |
| Jan:Jestem z Polski. Gdzie teraz mieszkasz? |
| Kate:Teraz mieszkam w Krakowie. |
| Jan:Poważnie?! |
| Kate:Tak! A ty? |
| Jan:Jestem z Warszawy ale teraz też mieszkam w Krakowie! |
| Alisha: Let’s hear the conversation one time slowly. |
| Jan:Kate, skąd jesteś? |
| Kate:Jestem z Ameryki. A ty? |
| Jan:Jestem z Polski. Gdzie teraz mieszkasz? |
| Kate:Teraz mieszkam w Krakowie. |
| Jan:Poważnie?! |
| Kate:Tak! A ty? |
| Jan:Jestem z Warszawy ale teraz też mieszkam w Krakowie! |
| Alisha: Now let’s hear it with the English translation. |
| Jan:Kate, skąd jesteś? |
| :Kate, where are you from? |
| Kate:Jestem z Ameryki. A ty? |
| :I'm from America. And you? |
| Jan:Jestem z Polski. Gdzie teraz mieszkasz? |
| :I'm from Poland. Where do you live now? |
| Kate:Teraz mieszkam w Krakowie. |
| :Now I live in Krakow. |
| Jan:Poważnie?! |
| :Seriously?! |
| Kate:Tak! A ty? |
| Kate. Yeah! And you? |
| Jan:Jestem z Warszawy ale teraz też mieszkam w Krakowie! |
| :I'm from Warsaw, but now I live in Krakow, too! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Betsey:I think we should get to know some general facts about Poland. How do you say Poland in Polish? |
| Joanna:‘Polska’ |
| Betsey:Let’s try together. Joanna, can you say it one more time? |
| Joanna:‘Polska …............[pause] |
| Betsey:Where is Poland located in Europe? |
| Joanna:It’s in central Europe, and shares borders with Germany to the west, Slovakia and the Czech Republic to the south, and Lithuania, Belarus and Ukraine to the east. It also shares a border with the Russian province of Kaliningrad. |
| Betsey:In the north there’s a sea, which we have talked about before. |
| Joanna:Yes, ‘Morze Bałtyckie’ |
| Betsey:“Baltic Sea” |
| Joanna:And the capital of Poland is ‘Warszawa’ |
| Betsey:“Warsaw” |
| Joanna:which has approximately 1.7 million inhabitants. |
| Betsey:If someone was planning to visit Poland, which places would you recommend? |
| Joanna:Definitely ‘Kraków’ |
| Betsey:In English “Cracow” |
| Joanna:It’s known as the historical capital city of Poland. Also, in the area surrounding ‘Kraków’ there are many interesting places like the Wieliczka Salt Mine, and the Auschwitz concentration camp built by Nazi Germany. |
| Betsey:Listeners, keep this information in mind when you plan to visit Poland. Now it’s time see the vocab for this lesson. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| :Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| :The first word we shall see is:skąd [natural native speed] |
| :where...from |
| :skąd [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| :skąd [natural native speed] |
| :Next:z [natural native speed] |
| :from |
| :z [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| :z [natural native speed] |
| :Next:Ameryka [natural native speed] |
| :America |
| :Ameryka [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| :Ameryka [natural native speed] |
| :Next:Polska [natural native speed] |
| :Poland |
| :Polska [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| :Polska [natural native speed] |
| :Next:gdzie [natural native speed] |
| :where |
| :gdzie [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| :gdzie [natural native speed] |
| :Next:teraz [natural native speed] |
| :now |
| :teraz [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| :teraz [natural native speed] |
| :Next:mieszkać [natural native speed] |
| :to live |
| :mieszkać [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| :mieszkać [natural native speed] |
| :Next:też [natural native speed] |
| :also, too |
| :też [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| :też [natural native speed] |
| :Next:w [natural native speed] |
| :in |
| :w [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| :w [natural native speed] |
| :And last:ale [natural native speed] |
| :but |
| :ale [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| :ale [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:‘poważnie’ |
| Betsey:“seriously” |
| Joanna:It’s an adverb that Jan used in our dialogue. There are two ways to use this word. One of them you could hear in the dialogue. |
| Betsey:Jan was very surprised by the news that Kate lives in the same city as him. |
| Joanna:That was the perfect situation to say ‘poważnie?’ |
| Betsey:So, we can use it when we hear some unbelievable or surprising news. |
| Joanna:Exactly. And there’s one more use. If you do something in a serious way, or the condition you are currently in is serious, you can use the adverb ‘poważnie’ for example - ‘Jej dziadek jest poważnie chory’ |
| Betsey:“Her grandpa is seriously sick” |
| Joanna:So ‘poważnie’ can be used in two completely different situations. |
| Betsey:Okay, what’s the next word? |
| Joanna:‘teraz’ |
| Betsey:“now” |
| Joanna:It’s a very easy Polish adverb, since the meaning and usage is exactly the same as in English. You use it when you want to emphasize that NOW something is, for example, possible or not possible. You can also use it when something is happening only for a short period of time, and of course, when something is happening exactly at that moment. |
| Betsey:Let’s go through some examples. |
| Joanna:‘nie teraz’ |
| Betsey:“not now” |
| Joanna:‘teraz nie mogę’ - if someone asks you to do something |
| Betsey:“I can’t now” |
| Joanna:‘teraz jestem zajęty’ |
| Betsey:“I’m busy now” |
| Joanna:‘teraz pracuję jako listonosz’ |
| Betsey:“I’m working as a postman now” |
| Joanna:In the last example, by using ‘teraz’, we emphasize that this job is just temporary, and you’re planning to change it eventually. |
| Betsey:So, these are the words to remember from this lesson. Let’s learn some more grammar now! |
Lesson focus |
| Betsey:In this lesson, you’ll learn how to say where you’re from and where you live. So, in the dialogue Jan asked Kate the question - “where are you from?” |
| Joanna:In Polish, this is ‘Skąd jesteś?’ |
| Betsey:Let’s break down this question. |
| Joanna:First we have the word ‘skąd’ |
| Betsey:which means “where... from” |
| Joanna:and then the verb “to be” conjugated to the second person singular ‘jesteś’ |
| Betsey:Let’s hear the question again. |
| Joanna:‘Skąd jesteś?’ |
| Betsey:“Where are you from?” |
| Joanna:Very easy, isn’t it? |
| Betsey:Indeed. How would you answer this question? |
| Joanna:Answering is very simple, since it contains the same verb again, this time conjugated for the first-person singular, ‘jestem’... |
| Betsey:...“I am”... |
| Joanna:...then the preposition ‘z’... |
| Betsey:...which means “from”... |
| Joanna:…and lastly, your country of origin, in the genitive case. |
| Betsey:Oh no, here we are talking about cases again! |
| Joanna:Yes! They can’t be avoided. But in the lesson notes, you will find a list of a few countries in their genitive form, so don’t worry! |
| Betsey:Okay. So how do we say - “I’m from Poland”? |
| Joanna:‘Jestem z Polski’ |
| Betsey:What about - “I’m from America”? |
| Joanna:‘Jestem z Ameryki’ |
| Betsey:Let’s try one more - “I’m from Japan” |
| Joanna:‘Jestem z Japonii’ |
| Betsey:In the dialogue we heard one more question. What was that? |
| Joanna:‘Gdzie teraz mieszkasz?’ |
| Betsey:“Where do you live now?” |
| Joanna:This question is built from the question word ‘gdzie’... |
| Betsey:...which means “where”... |
| Joanna:...followed by ‘teraz’. |
| Betsey:Ah! We’ve already talked about this word in this lesson. Who remembers what it means? …... That’s right! it means “now”. |
| Joanna:The last component of the question is ‘mieszkasz’... |
| Betsey:...which stands for “you live”. |
| Joanna:Maybe you noticed that there was nothing in the Polish version that has the same function as the English “do” and “does”. |
| Betsey:So do we always have to use the adverb “now” in the question? |
| Joanna:No. Of course, you can skip it and then your question will sound like this - ‘Gdzie mieszkasz?’ |
| Betsey:“Where do you live?” |
| Joanna:So this is a new verb for this lesson - ‘mieszkać’... |
| Betsey:...and it means “to live”. |
| Joanna:Be sure to check the conjugation of this verb in the lesson notes. |
| Betsey:How can we answer the question “where do you live?” |
| Joanna:We have to use our new verb, ‘mieszkać’, this time conjugated for the first-person singular, since we’re talking about ourselves - ‘mieszkam’. |
| Betsey:It stands for the English “I live”. |
| Joanna:And it’s followed by the preposition ‘w’... |
| Betsey:...which means “in”... |
| Joanna:...and lastly, the name of the place you live in, for example, the name of the city. |
| Betsey:In the dialogue Kate said she lives in Cracow. How do we say - “I live in Cracow”? |
| Joanna:‘Mieszkam w Krakowie.’ |
| Betsey:Great! Now we can talk about the place we live, and the country we come from. |
| Joanna:I’m sure this will be very useful when you get new friends in Poland! |
| Betsey:Okay, that’s it for this lesson. Thanks for listening, everyone, bye! |
| Joanna: Do widzenia. |
Comments
Hide