Learn how to use the Polish verb that means "to speak"
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Betsey:Hello everyone and welcome to PolishPod101.com. This is Beginner series, season 1, lesson 12, Who wants to be a polyglot? I’m Betsey. |
| Joanna:And I’m Joanna. |
| Betsey:In this lesson you’ll learn how to say what languages you can speak. |
| Joanna:This conversation takes place during a job interview. |
| Betsey:It’s between an employer and Ewa. |
| Joanna:They don’t know each other, so they’ll be using formal Polish. |
| Betsey:Let’s listen to the conversation. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| Pracodawca:Dzień dobry. Proszę nam coś powiedzieć o sobie. |
| Ewa:Nazywam się Ewa Nowak. Jestem Polką. Mieszkam w Krakowie. Z zawodu jestem księgową. |
| Pracodawca:Czy mówi pani po angielsku? |
| Ewa:Tak, mówię po angielsku. |
| Pracodawca:Czy mówi pani po francusku? |
| Ewa:Nie, nie mówię po francusku. |
| Alisha: Let’s hear the conversation one time slowly. |
| Pracodawca:Dzień dobry. Proszę nam coś powiedzieć o sobie. |
| Ewa:Nazywam się Ewa Nowak. Jestem Polką. Mieszkam w Krakowie. Z zawodu jestem księgową. |
| Pracodawca:Czy mówi pani po angielsku? |
| Ewa:Tak, mówię po angielsku. |
| Pracodawca:Czy mówi pani po francusku? |
| Ewa:Nie, nie mówię po francusku. |
| Alisha: Now let’s hear it with the English translation. |
| Pracodawca:Dzień dobry. Proszę nam coś powiedzieć o sobie. |
| :Good morning. Please tell us something about yourself. |
| Ewa:Nazywam się Ewa Nowak. Jestem Polką. Mieszkam w Krakowie. Z zawodu jestem księgową. |
| :My name is Ewa Nowak. I am Polish. I live in Krakow. I am an accountant. |
| Pracodawca:Czy mówi pani po angielsku? |
| :Do you speak English, ma'am? |
| Ewa:Tak, mówię po angielsku. |
| :Yes, I speak English. |
| Pracodawca:Czy mówi pani po francusku? |
| :Do you speak French, ma'am? |
| Ewa:Nie, nie mówię po francusku. |
| :No, I don't speak French. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Betsey:Since the focus of this lesson is talking about the languages we can speak, how’s the situation in Poland? Can every Pole speak a foreign language? |
| Joanna:Unfortunately, no. According to a survey conducted in 2009, about half of Poland’s citizens can’t speak any foreign languages. But the good thing is that if they DO speak, it’s usually two languages. |
| Betsey:Wow! Do you know why this is happening? |
| Joanna:I think the half that can speak foreign languages consists mostly of younger people. Older people don’t speak any foreign languages, because in the past, their education was completely different. Also, we can’t forget the periods of war and occupation when people in Poland were forced to learn Russian. |
| Betsey:So, how has Poland’s educational system changed now? |
| Joanna:Now, students start learning a foreign language from the first grade of elementary school - it’s usually English. Then from the first grade of junior high school, they start a second foreign language. |
| Betsey:And what motivates Poles to study languages? |
| Joanna:People mostly study to get a chance at a better job, but also to understand the culture and traditions of other countries better. |
| Betsey:Ok, well, we should also learn more about the Polish language, so let’s move on to the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| :Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| :The first word we shall see is:pracodawca [natural native speed] |
| :employer |
| :pracodawca [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| :pracodawca [natural native speed] |
| :Next:powiedzieć [natural native speed] |
| :to tell |
| :powiedzieć [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| :powiedzieć [natural native speed] |
| :Next:o [natural native speed] |
| :about |
| :o [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| :o [natural native speed] |
| :Next:mówić [natural native speed] |
| :to speak |
| :mówić [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| :mówić [natural native speed] |
| :Next:po angielsku [natural native speed] |
| :in English |
| :po angielsku [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| :po angielsku [natural native speed] |
| :Next:po francusku [natural native speed] |
| :in French |
| :po francusku [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| :po francusku [natural native speed] |
| :Next:mieszkać [natural native speed] |
| :to live |
| :mieszkać [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| :mieszkać [natural native speed] |
| :And last:księgowa [natural native speed] |
| :accountant |
| :księgowa [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| :księgowa [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES |
| :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:‘księgowa’ |
| Betsey:“accountant” |
| Joanna:‘księgowa’ is a feminine noun. |
| Betsey:Do men also do this job in Poland? |
| Joanna:Of course. |
| Betsey:So what’s the masculine form of this noun? If, for example, my male friend did this job? |
| Joanna:‘księgowy’ - that’s the masculine form of this noun. |
| Betsey:Let’s have our listeners repeat after you. First, feminine... |
| Joanna:‘księgowa’............. |
| Betsey:Now the masculine form... |
| Joanna:‘księgowy’........... |
| Betsey:Okay, what’s the next word? |
| Joanna:This time it’s a phrase - ‘z zawodu jestem...’ |
| Betsey:I remember Ewa used this in the dialogue. |
| Joanna:Yes. She said - ‘z zawodu jestem księgową’ |
| Betsey:“I’m an accountant” |
| Joanna:In Polish, whenever you say ‘z zawodu’... |
| Betsey:...which literally means “from profession”... |
| Joanna:...it means you have obtained an education in this field... you’ve taken a course or chosen this major at university. You can only use ‘z zawodu’ if this is the case. |
| Betsey:Hmm, that’s a pretty important piece of information. Let’s keep that in mind and go to the grammar. |
Lesson focus |
| Betsey:In this lesson, you’re going to learn how to ask others about their language skills, and also how to respond to a question like this. |
| Joanna:In the dialogue, we heard the question about English - ‘Czy mówi pani po angielsku?’ |
| Betsey:It translates into “Do you speak English, ma’am?” |
| Joanna:We started with the particle ‘czy’ |
| Betsey:What does this mean? |
| Joanna:It can have many meanings, but in this case, it is “do” or “does” in English. Please refer to the lesson notes for more information about this particle. |
| Betsey:Okay, so what’s the next component of our question? |
| Joanna:‘czy’ is followed by ‘mówi’, the third-person form of the verb ‘mówić... |
| Betsey:...which means “to speak”. |
| Joanna:Next there’s ‘pani’... |
| Betsey:...which means “ma’am”. |
| Joanna:The last component of the question is ‘po angielsku’... |
| Betsey:...which stands for “in English”. |
| Joanna:So let me say the question one more time, and listeners, please repeat after me - ‘Czy mówi pani po angielsku?’ …..................[pause] |
| Betsey:“Do you speak English, ma’am?” |
| Joanna:Here we used the verb ‘mówić’... |
| Betsey:...meaning “to speak” |
| Joanna:Ok, I’m sure you all know what to do after listening to this lesson... |
| Betsey:….check the notes for the conjugation of this verb. |
| Joanna:Exactly! |
| Betsey:So, how do we answer the question the employer asked Ewa? |
| Joanna:It’s very easy, since it uses the verb ‘mówić’, but of course this time conjugated to first-person singular and ‘po’, followed by the language you can speak, for example ‘po angielsku’ |
| Betsey:Let’s practice this a little but. Let’s say I want to say that I speak Russian. How will that sound in Polish? |
| Joanna:‘Mówię po rosyjsku’ |
| Betsey:How about - “I speak German”? |
| Joanna:‘Mówię po niemiecku’ |
| Betsey:What if we don’t speak the language someone has asked us about? |
| Joanna:Well, that happened to Ewa during the interview. |
| Betsey:Yes, the employer asked her - “Do you speak French?” |
| Joanna:‘Czy mówi pani po francusku?’ |
| Betsey:And she answered - “No, I don’t speak French” |
| Joanna:‘Nie, nie mówię po francusku.’ |
| Betsey:I see that we added some words here. |
| Joanna:Actually, just one word - ‘nie’... |
| Betsey:...which means “no”, “not” and “don’t”. |
| Joanna:See? It’s so simple! In English, you have so many different words and in Polish there’s only one - ‘nie’ |
| Betsey:(laughs) You just want me to say that it’s easy! |
| Joanna:(laughs) But it is! If you want to deny that you speak some language, it’s enough to just add ‘nie’ in front of the verb...in this case ‘mówić’, so in the end we will get ‘nie mówię’. |
| Betsey:Which means “I don’t speak” |
| Joanna:In the lesson notes, you’ll find other possible answers to this kind of question. |
| Betsey:And be sure to to join us for the next lesson... |
| Joanna:...in which we’ll learn how to say that something belongs to you. |
| Betsey:That sounds like it’s going to be a very important lesson! |
| Betsey: Okay, that’s it for this lesson. Thanks for listening, everyone, bye! |
| Joanna: Do widzenia. |
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