Quick Polish language video lessons – one phrase per video. Stay tuned!

The officials responsible for commissioning the stadium deny it claiming it’s not even in the Top10 most expensive football stadia in the world, says Polish daily Wyborcza.pl, quoting Mr. Wojciech Rokicki from PL.2012, the company behind the preparations for Euro 2012. (Apparently, the new Wembley stadium tops the list.)

Anyway, the reason why I mention the new stadium is its roof. It’s pretty impressive. Officially unveiled to the public a few weeks ago, the roof sits ‘folded’ in a nest above the centre of the pitch. When needed, it ‘unfurls’ in about 15 minutes, pulled by long wires powered by 72 engines. See the video below to see the roof in action.

15 minutes sounds like a long time, but I might be wrong. Hope they have good weather forecasters.

For the second year in a row, this blog has been nominated in the Language Lovers contest and I need your support! One of the reasons why this blog was set up was to teach people all over the world some useful Polish phrases and some basic vocabulary. My approach is always the same: I try to keep it simple and focus on useful or seasonal phrases. There is usually some context and not too much complicated grammar notes. Not everybody is – or wants to be – a linguist and I believe an audio file with a brief explanation can be much more useful than a long-winded explanation.

And while this blog focuses on modern Poland in general – from its cuisine to its culture – my mini language lessons (all grouped under the oh-so-clever “Polish your Polish” category) prove to some be the biggest traffic drivers for this blog. The most popular of all lessons I’ve published so far is definitely the one which explains how to say “happy birthday” in Polish.

The guys behind Language Lovers 2011 appreciated my efforts and my blog was nominated in the Language Professional Blog category, which is fantastic. If you have enjoyed my lessons – or if you think they might work for other people interested in Polish – please do me a favour and do the following:

1 – click on this link and on the Language Lovers 2011 page scroll down to find The Polski Blog – and vote for me;

2 – tell your friends about the blog and ask them to vote if they like;

3 – come back for more

As without you, this blog would not exist. Thank you!

I have noticed in the past couple of months an increase in the number of friend requests from my old friends and acquaintances in Poland. And indeed, official numbers suggest that after years of relying on Nasza Klasa, Poles are now flocking to Facebook.

A recent post on the Social Bakers website claims that in the past six months the number of Poles using Facebook has grown by 79%. In other words, over 2.4 million new users have created their profiles within the past six months. There are over 5.5 million Polish profiles on Facebook at the moment, which makes it the seventh biggest country in Europe on Facebook. (The UK is first, with almost 29 million Facebook profiles, closely followed by Turkey with 26m and France with almost 21m.)

I have also noticed many more Polish pages on Facebook and, surprisingly, Polish-language ads too. Although why they would display on my profile if my language is defined as English and location as UK, remains a mystery to me.

I guess more businesses and brands will take advantage of Facebook’s ability to target its advertising and the number of Polish ads will grow rapidly in the next several months.

Obviously now would be an ideal time to remind you that each post on this blog comes with a Facebook ‘Like’ button – if you like what you’ve read, ‘Like’ it and share with your Facebook friends

Also, if you haven’t done so yet, become a fan of the Polski Blog on Facebook and help us reach even more readers.

Thanks a lot

Image © FindYourSearch via Flickr, used under the Creative Commons licence

Kocham Cię. I love you.

More language of love – here.

More “Polish your Polish” – here.

Kocham Cie image by Funky Tee, via Flickr, used under the CC licence

The Philippines have launched a new tourism campaign, Kay Ganda (‘so beautiful’), which, it would seem, borrowed a thing or two from the logo of the above mentioned Polish Tourist Board:

Thoughts?

Just wanted to let you know about this brilliant comparison gallery the Daily Telegraph put together.

“The film posters that lost the plot” gallery focuses on how communist Poland attempted to create “something that would defeat [stereotypical] Western film posters”.

It’s a great gallery, but also a nice read. The Telegraph reveals how a state-owned film distributor in Poland invited artists to screenings and asked them for their own interpretation of Western movies.

With time the posters became collector’s items and I’m pretty sure that if I went through my dad’s cupboards, I’d find some lovely, but long-forgotten 80s posters…

Did you like them? Do you collect them? Do let me know.

PKO Bank Polski has a nice shiny branch in Shaftesbury Avenue. Weird location if you ask me, but maybe there are more branches in other parts of London.

As it’s Sunday, I couldn’t go inside and check what’s on offer, but I’ll investigate and report back.

This is very flattering and I’m currently blushing.

But I will blush even more (and maybe do a little dance too) if you vote for me.

Please go to the voting page, scroll down to find “the POLSKI blog” and vote. I will love you forever. Voting closes on 24 May.

Dziękuję.

Cliche? What cliche?!