Nicknames in Poland

In Poland nicknames are very commonly used. To give some examples of nicknames: Katarzyna is Kasia, Alexandra is Ola, Jakub is Kuba, Joanna is Asia, Tomasz is Tomek and so on. It is much more rare to hear the official name than the nickname. Seems also that in Poland there are also much less variety in names than in Finland. For example when I look at the list of the women working in human resources in our company half of them are having the same name.

Hollywood movie in a Polish way

This weekend I had two floorball matches in Siedlec. Our team is for the first time playing in Polish league called Ekstraliga. We traveled by bus and there was a TV in the bus so we could watch a movie. On the way back we watched Hangover. The movie was not dubbed and not with subtitles. The movie was made understandable for Polish by one narrator who repeated the whole dialog of the movie. In the background you could hear a bit the original dialog. Same monotone voice repeating men and women. Already dubbed movie is worse than with original dialog but a movie with narrator is even worse. I would never want to watch a movie with Finnish narrator. Subtitles is much better. I wonder if they use narrator only in Poland or also somewhere else instead of dubbing or subtitles.

Green arrow light

In Poland green arrow traffic light has different meaning than in Finland. When you have green arrow light in Finland you have completely free way and you do not have to look out for anything. When you have green arrow light in Poland you have to look out pedestrians because they have green light in the same time and you have to look out traffic stream going by trying to find a decent free space to turn right. At least I have impression that cars turning right look out carefully not to run over pedestrians.

Polish men

I have noticed that among Polish men it is very common to be bald or have very short hair. Also I have an impression that here you can see more bodybuilder type of men in the street picture than in Finland. Dressing style does not differ much from the basic Finish style but here you see much less people dressed up in alternative way.

Floorball tournament

This week I had a floorball tournament in  Łódź. I am having now double role in the team as I act as a coach and a player. For coaching I need translation help from English to Polish because many players in the team do not speak very good English. In the first day we won two matches and lost one match. In the second day we won and lost one match so we finished third out of six teams. I am happy for our performance in the tournament.  The problems what we had in the matches should be trained in the trainings. 

Large containers of food

In each country you can find similar products in supermarkets but when you find some product in large container you can say that product is highly consumed in that country. In Spain you can find five liter containers of Olive or sunflower oil, in Turkey you can find five liter containers of natural yogurt and in Finland you can big variety of candies in 500 gram bags. In Poland sauerkraut is eaten a lot in different kind of forms.

Bike taxi

Bike taxis waiting for customers

Piotrkowska is dedicated for pedestrians though taxis and bikes can enter to the street also. As Piotrkowska is wide there is space for bicycles in the middle and therefore you can take bike taxi or ride your own bike in the middle. In the main streets of Madrid or Ankara it would not be possible to take bicycle taxi because streets are so full of people that it is not possible to ride with bicycle in such crowded streets. A ride with bike taxi around two kilometers costs 1,2 euros in Łódź.

Birthday song

Happy birthday song tends to follow same melody everywhere. All languages have their own lyrics for the same melody. For example in English, in Finnish and in Spanish version the melody is the same. In Poland happy birthday song has different melody. Meaning of the lyrics is also different. In a nutshell Polish are wishing a person to live 100 years in their happy birthday song.

Work for Finnish speakers in Poland

Today Finnish newspapers Iltasanomat and Iltalehti published a short article how knowing Finnish can get you a job outside of Finland. I got work in Poland because I know Finnish.  Knowing local language Polish was not a requirement. I communicate in Finnish with the customers but inside the company I communicate in English. Just by having a look on open position in Polish employment website with keyword Finnish gives 42 open positions. Working in Poland for Finnish people is not very attractive option as you earn much less in Poland compared to Finland. In daily life earning less does not make that big difference as everything is cheaper but when you want to travel you have more limited options.

Enjoy your meal

I have noticed that in Poland people really like to wish a nice meal. When I am sitting and eating people who I know at least in some extent always say "smacnego" which means "enjoy your meal" in Polish. If they wish you a nice meal they might just walk by so it does not mean that they would sit with you or stay talking with you. If somebody would say to me "enjoy your meal" in Finland I would expect the person to sit and eat with me. Moreover it is not that common to wish a nice meal for your friends with who you eat in Finland.