Lesson 1

Cześć!

Cześć! Hello!

My name is Samanta and I am really happy to welcome you to this online Polish language course!

I am a teacher of Polish for foreigners in Warsaw. I am fascinated by foreign languages, because thanks to them I can talk with people, travel and get to know the world... This is why I speak Polish, English, Russian, French and Ukrainian. I have experienced first-hand what it means to learn a new language so I like to help those who want to learn Polish!

If you need Polish to do shopping, talk with your boss, your fiancee or father-in-law - welcome to the Polish language course! Maybe you want to study in Poland or watch the films of Kieślowski, Holland or Stuhr in original version? Or maybe you just want to know the language of Chopin or your favourite rock, jazz or reggae group... Do you want to learn Polish? Come and learn!

Lesson by lesson you will get to know the most important phrases which will enable you to talk with people in everyday life situations, you will learn how to describe in simple words the reality surrounding you. You will also get to know basic realities about Polish culture.

Shall we start?

Lekcja 1, Temat: Cześć! Jestem Ania. Lesson 1, Topic: Hello! I am Ania.

During the first lesson you will learn how to introduce yourself in an informal situation. You will also get to know selected letters of the Polish alphabet and some of the greetings.

First you are going to learn how to introduce yourself. Imagine that you are at an informal meeting in a group of friends. Your friend Robert from France is also there. There are many people. International crowd, you don't know all of them.

A girl comes up to your friend, greets him and introduces herself using her first name, saying:

Cześć. Jestem Ania. A ty? Hello. I am Ania. And you?

"Cześć" is an informal greeting used on meeting someone and on leaving, depending on the context it means "Hello!" or "Bye!". "Jestem" is a personal form of a verb "to be" and it means "I am". In Polish you can omit pronouns because each person has a different verb form so "I am" in Polish is "Ja jestem." or simply "Jestem."

Let us return to the situation at the party. In response to what Ania has said, your friend introduces himself and uses an appropriate phrase for the situation:

Jestem Robert. Miło mi. I am Robert. Nice to meet you.

Ania answers:

Miło mi. Nice to meet you.

or:

Bardzo mi miło. Very nice to meet you.

Then Ania wants to learn something more about Robert so she asks him:

Skąd jesteś? Where are you from?

"Skąd" means literally "where from", "jesteś" is a form of the verb "to be" for a second person singular - "you", "you are" means literally "ty jesteś" or in a short version "jesteś". Do you already know what Robert will reply to his new friend? He is going to reply:

Jestem z Francji. I'm from France.

Imagine that at the party there are people from different countries and they answer in this way:

Jestem z Polski, z Warszawy. I'm from Poland, from Warsaw.

Jestem z Włoch, z Rzymu. I'm from Italy, from Rome.

Jestem z Anglii, z Londynu. I'm from England, from London.

Jestem z Niemiec, z Berlina. I'm from Germany, from Berlin.

Jestem z Austrii, z Wiednia. I'm from Austria, from Vienna.

Jestem z Belgii, z Brukseli. I'm from Belgium, from Brussels.

Do you know how you can introduce yourself and what to answer to the question "Skąd jesteś?". Try it!

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You can already introduce yourself by your first name and say what country you come from. Now we are going to learn how to talk about personal data of other people. The basic question is:

Kto to jest? Who is it?

"Kto" means "who", "to" means "this", and "jest" is a personal form of a verb "to be" for a third person singular, "he/she is" is in Polish "on/ona jest".

To this question we reply: "To jest ...", "This is...".

To jest Anna. To jest Robert. To jest Marek. To jest Antonio. This is Anna. This is Robert. This is Marek. This is Antonio.

In order to ask about someone else's country of origin, we ask and answer, depending on their sex:

Skąd on jest? Where is he from?

Skąd ona jest? Where is she from?

Depending on their sex, we reply:

On jest z Czech, z Pragi. He is from Czech Republic, from Prague.

Ona jest z Rosji, z Moskwy. She is from Russia, from Moscow.

Ona jest z Japonii, z Tokio. She is from Japan, from Tokio.

On jest z Chin, z Pekinu. He is from China, from Pekin.

On jest z Hiszpanii, z Barcelony. He is from Spain, from Barcelona.

To make sure that we have the right information about someone, we can ask:

Czy to jest Marek? Czy on jest z Polski? Is this Marek? Is he from Poland?

Czy to jest Maruti? Czy ona jest z Pakistanu? Is this Maruti? Is she from Pakistan?

"Czy" in Polish helps us to formulate a question. We may however omit this element and ask using intonation:

To jest Marek? On jest z Polski? Is this Marek? Is he from Poland?

We will get an affirmative reply:

Tak, to jest Marek. On jest z Polski. Yes, this is Marek. He is from Poland.

Tak, to jest Maruti. Ona jest z Pakistanu Yes, this is Maruti. She is from Pakistan.

or negative one:

Nie, to nie jest Marek. On nie jest z Polski. No, this is not Marek. He is not from Poland.

Nie, to nie jest Maruti. Ona nie jest z Pakistanu. No, this is not Maruti. She is not from Pakistan.

If you don't know an answer to a question, you can simply say:

Nie wiem. Nie wiem, kto to jest. I don't know. I don't know who that is.

Congratulations! You have made the first step in learning Polish. Now I invite you to do exercises which will make you memorize the new material and to read the reference.

You can start from the dialogue!



Before, however, you move on to the other parts of the lesson - let us stop for a moment and look at the Polish alphabet.






Look at the map of Europe and read the names of the countries! Good luck :)




Can you now:

1. Name some countries in Europe in Polish?

2. Say in Polish "Hello!"?

3. Introduce yourself in an informal situation?

4. Ask about someones country of origin?


That's all for this lesson! Bye!

Cześć!
Samanta