Poziom: B1+/B2 · Rozmówcy: Liam (from Ireland, six years in Kraków), Ravi (from India, ten days in Kraków)
📄 To nagranie pochodzi z lekcji Let’s Talk: Poland (Lesson 2, Exercise 2) – pełny scenariusz z ćwiczeniami znajdziesz w naszym sklepie.
Transkrypcja nagrania
Liam: Ravi! Over here! So — ten days in Kraków. How are you surviving?
Ravi: Honestly? I’m completely green, Liam. Yesterday I paid for a coffee with a fifty, said „dziękuję” to the waiter like a polite person, and he just… walked away with all my change.
Liam: (laughs) Classic! If you say „dziękuję” when you pay, it means „keep the change”. You just gave him a very generous tip.
Ravi: Thirty-eight złoty for being polite! And then in the shop, I was waiting in a long queue, and a lady walked straight to the front and said she had „only one question”.
Liam: Ah, „tylko zapytać” — „I’m only asking”. The famous one question. Ten minutes later she’s bought half the shop, right?
Ravi: Exactly! And nobody said anything!
Liam: You’ll get the hang of it. What else?
Ravi: The language. My colleague asked me if I wanted to join them for lunch. I said „no” — I meant it as „no, thanks” — and she said „No, great!” and took me with her. Does „no” mean „yes” here?
Liam: In spoken Polish, „no” often means „yeah”. It took me a year to stop panicking. Also — tell me you didn’t try to go shopping on Sunday.
Ravi: I stood in front of a dark supermarket at ten in the morning with an empty fridge. I thought there was a national emergency.
Liam: (laughs) Most shops are closed on most Sundays. You do your shopping on Saturday, and on Sunday you go for a walk, or you get invited somewhere and eat for six hours.
Ravi: Did that happen to you?
Liam: In my first year my neighbour, Mr Zbigniew, knocked on my door and said it was his name day. I thought, OK, a quick piece of cake. Three hours later I’d had soup, two main courses, four kinds of cake, and I knew his whole family history.
Ravi: What’s a name day?
Liam: Like a second birthday, connected to the saint with your name. Check the calendar — you’ll be invited to lots of them.
Ravi: So what’s your best survival advice?
Liam: Two things. Learn a bit of Polish — even „dzień dobry” and „smacznego” open a lot of doors. And say yes to every invitation. People here can seem serious at first, but once they invite you in, you’re family. Six years later, I’m still here.
Ravi: OK. Yes to invitations, no to „dziękuję” at the till.
Liam: Now you’re learning! Coffee’s on me — and I’ll take my change, thank you.