Folk is in fashion

Did you realize that lately it's quite popular to wear clothes, to have jewellery, bag, watch or school accessories patterned upon folk elements? And I'm talking not only about Polish folk, but also about the Mexican, for exemple. Maybe there is possible to find folk motifs from other countries or cultures (from Africa?), but they aren't so spreaded, well-known or direct. Mexico is one of the most famous nations with rich past and everybody recognize and associate it immediately with the mayans and the aztecs.

Two weeks ago I went to Cracow and I was surprised that there people cultivate so much the tradition of manufacture folk stuff, the majority hand-maded. Necklaces, earrings, skirts, neckerchieves... All that things are so beautiful! And so expensive! Haha! Of course, the price depends also on the fact that in the Old Town of one of the most visited Polish cities are a lot of foreign tourists that can pay for souvenirs like that. But on the other hand, I always remember that the money I spent in the local products stay in my country and give the possibility to the small entrepreneurs to develop. For this reason... I bought some pretty things that I hope hang on more time than their Chinese equivalents ;)

In general, I like folk motifs and I have more and more folk gadgets, if it's a good word. I just want to put you some photos. Maybe they will show you how awesome is our folcloric art and encourage you to acquire one of this.

Poland for begginers map

A few weeks ago, in one of the Facebook's fanpages called in Polish Kartografia ekstremalna (Extreme cartography) I saw a map that can be useful not only for those who learn Polish, but also for all that people who think visit Poland and will need to move from one city to another. It's a map with names of Polish cities written in the way that an English speaker can articulate it correctly. Let's have a look (when you click in the photo, you can see it bigger):

 

I must admit that I wasn't able to recognize some of them... In my case the problem is that many time I don't know which is the ponunciation of words I had never heard. I imagine that there are a lot of funny, I don't know, may I say "collocation"? I mean, that the two or more words that someone put together give the pronunciation, but I'm sure in most cases they have no sense, like for example "Gel on Agora", "Be A Poodle, Ask Her" or my favourite: "π Wow".

Do you think that it's a good idea to try to memorize very difficult words in this way? In my opinion it can be the solution for many of us, although, we have to remember that it can happen that when we see the name or word written originally, we won't recognize it! Is it possible...? I tried a lot of strategies to remember strange nouns, adjectives and verbs in different languages and it turned out that the trick to associate them with something that sounds familiar just works. What's your experience?

Which is the lyrical situation of the poem?

The question I put as the title of this post is one of the many questions that were given in the other class of my studies, called "the icons of the Polish culture: literature". It did me come back to my Polish lessons in the high school, where there weren't already linguistic subjects, but only literature. And the poems are the worst. I don't know if it works in English, buy in Polish, when we analise some poem, we are in the habit to asking "What the author meant?". For me it was and still is quite mysterious. How can I know it???? 

I won't make deeper this train, I just wanted you to understand me that it wasn't nice memory for me. However, the new course started with a poem of Stanisław Barańczak, a famous Polish translator. Unfortunately,  "Wrzesień" ("September") is not available in English. It's a pity, but on the other hand, I can imagine how difficult should be translate it. The mencioned lyrical situation of the poem is that some foreigners from different cultures are participating in a Polish class in USA. But the subject of the class is not grammar or vocabulary. It's literature. They're reading Adam Mickiewicz's "Ode to Youth"!! I can identify with them because it seems that they are suffering doing that!! The point is that, actually, I ought to identify soon with the role of the teacher... In this case, I know since now that I will never treat poems like this one in me classes!

I will put the poem below, but before I need to add that it represents that it's not an easy task to teach Polish literature if we really want present to our students Polish icons (that Adam Mickiewicz is, there's no doubt). That's the conclusion we came to.

Stanisław Barańczak - "Wrzesień"

W pokoju z biurkiem, tablicą i nie dającym się otworzyć oknem

(klimatyzacja) wyjaśnia znaczenie zdania

"goniąc za żywiołkami drobniejszego płazu"

grupie złożonej z Mulata, Japonki, dwojga Anglosasów,

nowojorskiego Żyda i kalifornijskiej Irlandki.

Po chwili skupionego milczenia Japonka podejmuje czytanie,

brnąc po kostki przez Bałtyk spółgłosek. Za oknem wieżyczka Lowell House

złoci się w słońcu, jak co roku świeżo odmalowana.

Skończyło się, dawno temu. Co? Młodość. W promieniu

co najmniej mili (1609,31m)

jeszcze przez dobre pięć minut oprócz niego nie będzie nikogo,

kto by wiedział, co znaczą słowa "spólny łańcuch" oraz "ziemskie kolisko".