English Lessons

We had an English lesson today and Ted learned "this/here" and "that/there". It was a bit of a struggle and we had to call in reinforcements and translators (his sister-in-law, not "sister-in-love" as Ted used to say).

I now know to preface grammatical concepts with the Polish word "Gramatyka" as a warning. Ted has a small travel phrasebook which is known to us as the "English/Polish, Polish/English small book." When I say that, he knows it's time for "Gramatyka".

The book is only somewhat helpful. Today Ted asked about the difference between "work" and "job" and I decided it was time to introduce nouns and verbs, but I couldn't find those terms in the "English/Polish, Polish/English small book." Someone decided that non-English speaking Polish travellers do not need to know "verb" or "noun" but they do need to know:

fritter - roztrwonić

gherkin - korniszon

Harvey Wallbanger - wódka z sokiem pomarańczowym

plimsolls (!) - tenisówki

Ted speaks Polish at work all day which does hinder his progress, but his English is improving. He has now replaced his home-grown phrase "new week" with the correct phrase "next week" and the above-mentioned "sister-in-love" is gone, which is kind of a shame...