Starting to learn Polish

Visit 

Flag of Poland

Recognizing The Flag

The flag of Poland is easy to recognize and remember. Just two colours. White above and red below.

A little like the flags of Indonesia and Singapore. 

Singapore, being Chinese speaking as well as speaking English, Malay and Tamil as national languages, has the lucky red above, plus a crescent, reflecting its origin in Malaysia. 

Why visit Poland? 

Polish is becoming the most spoken second language in the UK. Polish restaurants and cafes and shops are all over London. 

Let's get the sad facts about the past out of the way first. For a long time I did not want Poland because I thought its sad history would diminish the enjoyment of a happy holiday. (Although the same can be said about history in practically every country.)

 Poland was our ally in WW2. Due to an earlier agreement, Britain went to defend Poland when it was invaded by the German army, and the Polish exiles operated from the UK.

That's past.  Why not visit Poland?  I went there to accompnay my husband who was on business.

We visited assorted museums . Warsaw has the Warsaw ghetto, a recently established Jewish museum.

 The second city is very pretty Krakow. The city centre has a grand cathedral on a fine square. Take a trip to Auschwitz and Birkenau, and end on a slightly happier note at Schindler's factory museum.

Now let's look at the happier things and end on a bright note.

1 Amber. In Singapore I made friends with two lovely ladies who were promoting the Amber Museum. You can buy amber items from shops all over Warsaw and Poland. (And more amber, indeed, from other Baltic states with seaside and beaches bordering the Baltic sea.) Seaside Gdansk has an Amber museum.

2 Polish cuisine. Borsht, beetroot soup, the best. Thick. The way it is served in Jewish style restaurants in London such as B & K in Hatch End in London.  (Contrast with the thin Russian beetroot soup which I sampled in Bondi Beach in Australia.)

Dumplings. In soup. In main courses. With those snowy winters, you need hot filling food to warm you up.

3 Warsaw is historic but modern and clean. Like several cities in Northern Europe, old paintings and diagrams have been used to rebuild buildings with cellar restaurants in romantic, traditional style, but clean and modern with the modern benefits of lighting, plumbing, heating and cooling and so on.

The language used to be a challenge. Books with small print. Huge dictionaries. Impossible pronunciation. Mysterious. 

Nowadays we have at least 3 quick online sources

1 Google translate Polish

2 Wikivoyage Phrasebook Polish

3 /wiki/Talk:Polish_phrasebookWiki Phrasebook Polish. (Discussion on pronunciation.)

Useful Websites

https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Talk:Polish_phrasebook

https://languagetsar.com/polishpod101-review/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_multilingual_countries_and_regions

All about amber - visit the Amber museum, see a public Amber exhibition annually, and in the trade, go to business to business jewellery and gem exhibitons

Photo by Angela Lansbury.

I learned about Amber in Poland from the Jewellery & Gem Show.

The city of Amber is Gdansk on the north coast, the Baltic Sea coast of Poland. You can visit an amber museum, attend an amber exhibition every year, and get your amber authenticated as real. Two lovely ladies, Alexandra and Margaret (in English, in Polish you add some sh sounds) told me all about it when I met them at the Jewellery Gem World show in Singapore in September 2022.

Photo by Angela Lansbury.

Apparently, amber feels warmer than synthetics. It is still living, has been evolving hundreds of years, and is still able to change. It is affected by heat, will change colour.  

They showed me a chart of amber colours. If you visit the annual amber exhibition in Gdansk, you can buy amber. Detour to their stand to get it tested. Any problem? It's rare, but has been known. You could protest to the seller (the retailer who might say they too, were misled by the wholesaler). Sh. Don't say I told you.  If you want a certificate from them at the exhibition you have to pay. For most people just knowing they had real amber would be enough. 

Why would you need a certificate? To tell your family. To keep. To show an insurance company. In case you want to sell your jewellery later, or buy better pieces and would like to release the earliest ones you bought. To be sure you were not buying piece of plastic.

Visiting the amber museum has shot up my wishlist. I have their magazine which is in Polish and English, very handy if you are keen to learn a few words of Polish easily.

While in Singapore, See Pasir Ris Elias Community Club which reveals hidden history of Malays and Jews in Singapore

If you are travelling to Australia and New Zealand, Singapore is a good multi-cultural stopover. It is also a good great destination in its own right.

Singapore flag.

I am a Singapore Permanent Resident and in Singapore I travelled to Pasir Ris Elias Community Club for a Toastmasters International club contest. I was impressed by the bright modern building with seasonal displays in the hallway where people were photographing each other.

Pasir Ris
I got to wondering about the name, Pasir Ris Elias. Pasir Ris is Malay for white sand (sand white).

Elias
What of Elias? I vaguely remembered learning about the Elias family and other Jews in Singapore in the last century and earlier when I was a member of the Friends of the Museum. In addition to free lectures on Singapore history and Asian history on Monday mornings, they had study groups. I was a member of at least two study groups. On one occasion I investigated the Soong sisters in China. On another occasion, I gave a morning lecture on the Jews of Singapore, with photos of Singapore buildings bearing their names or stars.

In February 2019 I looked up the Elias family. The prime mover was David Elias, a man who was the eldest of several siblings. That is often the case with successful people. The oldest child, gets the most attention when he is born with no rivals,no siblings competing for parental attention.

Then he bosses around the younger siblings, acquiring the confidence and habits which last a lifetime. This enables him (or her) to run a business, be an entrepreneur. In the USA many presidents are firstborn sons.

Elias was involved in the opium trade. I am at first horrified. A devout Jew, involved in drugs! Then I recall that opium, before the rise of prescription drugs, was the equivalent of aspirin, a gin and tonic, the cinema, a cup of tea, not just legal, but a trade encouraged and taxed by the government of the day.

Not only Jews, the Chinese leaders and the Chinese majority were sellers or buyers of opium. Opium  was a commonly grown and traded plant, in Singapore, then part of Malaysia, as well as all over Asia then (and now). Opium was and is the source of codeine as well as other drugs used in medicine, and by the public, .

Not just Jews. Christians, Moslems, Chinese, Malays, everybody was involved

Elias and his family were not only involved in opium. The enterprising Elias was involved in many of the enterprises of the day including frozen food, eventually selling his company to Cold Storage which is still around in Singapore today. Elias was also involved in the cinema, and built many fine buildings, some of which have disappeared. others can still be seen today. A few more have left behind their names, Elias and Amber.

Heritage Plaques
If you are visiting Singapore, notice the heritage plaques in historic areas such as Chinatown and Little India.

Community Clubs
Other Community Clubs to notice in the area, even if you don't go inside, include Tampines West with its twisted spiral clock tower.

Tampines West Community Club with its distinctive tower.

Getting there
To Pasir Ris Elias Community Club:
MRT to Pasir Ris on the green East-West line. (If you are on the blue Downtown line, change at Bugis or Tampines.
Walk a short distance from the MRT station exit to the bus interchange which is signposted.

Pasir Ris Community Club
93 Pasir Ris Drive 3
Singapore
519418

Useful Websites
LANGUAGE
To learn Chinese (Mandarin), Malay (almost the same as Indonesian), or Hebrew, go to the free internet language website, duolingo
duolingo.com
TRAVEL
singaporeair.com
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Changi

Singapore landmarks
David Elias Building on Middle Road
http://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/infopedia/articles/SIP_274_2005-01-05.html

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. I have written other posts on Pasir Ris, Malay language, Jews of Singapore, Jews and WWII, and other cities worldwide. Please share links to your favourite posts.

Almost human flashing traffic light

Photo by Angela Lansbury.

Seen in Singapore. I walked back to a car park past this figure. It attracts the attention of both pedestrians and drivers. My new Singaporean friend (who kindly gave me a lift home from a Toastmasters international meeting at Singapore Institute of Management nearby) told  me that she had seen other variations on this figure.

It is signalling a yellow warning with a series of small lights. Presumably they change to red aand green. I took the photo when the lights were yellow. It looks as though you can set the figure up anywhere when you are doing roadworks.

Instead of a real life policeman or woman standing in the middle of the road with a whistle, or a lollipop lady, you have an almost human mannekin.

There's always something surprising to see in Singapore, and indeed travelling anywhere. Travel -beats boredom, distracts you from depressing thought, produces genuine joy.

Useful Websites

Singaporeair.com

Author

Angela Lansbury

Poland's Points of Interest: A-Z Auschwitz to Warsaw: try Chopin's favourite food, gingerbread

Problem
Flying into Poland's current capital, Warsaw, first you must see Poland's two major cities of Warsaw and then smaller Krakow, the former capital.  We flew from Warsaw to Krakow to save time. Then what?

Answers
Start with the monument to Chopin in Warsaw, and end by eating one of his favourite foods, gingerbread, in Torun.

Warsaw - the huge capital city, with museums and monuments - and music.
A city tour will take you past the
1 Chopin monument,
2 Jewish Museum,
3 WWII museum,
4 Old quarter, walls and reconstructed streets of boutiques, restaurants, many arched roof cellar restaurants. Eat Borsht, beetroot soup.

A big city, concert halls and massive WWII monuments and memories: on a general tour our guide talked about Poland versus Russian occupation, the Katyn massacre, Jews in the Warsaw ghetto. On my second day I took a Jewish tour and visited a Jewish cemetery and the Jewish orphanage, still in use, with the statue in the front garden of the orphanage director who could have escaped when the orphans were taken to Auschwitz but chose to stay with them and accompany them and comfort them on their last journey.

If you have a third day:
5 Fryderyk Chopin Museum in O Castle

The Fryderyk Chopin Museum in Warsaw, Poland, established in 1954 and dedicated to Polish composer Frédéric Chopin. Wikipedia

Address: Pałac Gnińskich, 00-368, Okólnik 1, 00-368 Warszawa, Poland.

Krakow
Second city you must see is quaint little Krakow with its pretty medieval cathedral square. It's in the south, just over Germany's northern border.  The Nazis captured it quickly and made it their HQ so it was preserved. Walk to the old Jewish quarter and Jewish museum. Next day take a tour to Auschwitz.

Recover eating an Ashkenazi Jewish favourite food, which is a national Polish dish, borsht, beetroot soup. The Polish version is rich and thick and creamy and filling, unlike the Russian version which is a clear soup.

Borsht. Photo by Dmitri Dzema in Wikipedia.

Beauty and the beast. Every school in Poland and almost every brochure includes trips to:
1 Auschwitz and Birkenau;
2 Schindler Museum; and the
3 Salt Mine.

Why do you have to see the sister site of Birkenau after Auschwitz? Auschwitz is compact, like a boarding school with a series of houses. Each room has exhibits explaining something different.

One room explains why Auschwitz was the camp where people were tattooed after being photographed. Those 'lucky' few who were kept alive to work had shrunk and wizened with hollowed cheeks so that after three months the second photos shows they were unrecognisable. Therefore prisoners were given identity numbers on their arms.

See suitcases with names painted on the outside, a pyramid of shoes, a mountain of children's toys - a small, dirty torn teddy bear.

Auschwitz gives you claustrophobia. Birkenau gives you agoraphobia.

Birkenau is a huge empty space surrounded by barbed wire. Walk inside two or three reconstructed aircraft size hangers, with tiered wooden bunks, no bedding, rebuilt by survivors who had built the originals.

The guide tells you: "This field is not the whole area. It's just the crematoria and the hangers housing Dutch people whose relatives have been gassed. This field for the men. The next field for the women. The next was for the French. The one after that for the Germans. The one after that for the Greeks. The one after that for the Romanians. The one after that for ..." All surrounded by watchtowers and barbed wire, for miles.  I may have got the countries in the wrong order, but you get the point, the horror of the sheer scale.

Why so much Jewish memorabilia in Poland? The Russian ruler, after the assassination of his father, pushed out the Jews over the Western border. So more Jews lived in Poland than any other European country. The Jews were forced from the continent-size area of Russia into the smaller country of Poland.

A century before Auschwitz, a small number of organized Jews set up textile factories and built mansions, whilst the poorer ones were the tailors, workers, scholars, painters and writers.

Anne Frank was in Auschwitz, and survived. Anne's mother passed her small rations to her daughters to keep them alive. The Germans retreated back to Germany, dropping off the skeletal Jews into Belsen, where the Red Cross food parcels were stored outside the camp. Inside, the prisoners starved to death or died of disease, like Anne after her sister. Some survived, you will know if you watch interviews with survivors in the documentary film Shoah, by eating dead bodies.

The Russians liberated Auschwitz in a cold January, celebrated, solemnly, as Holocaust Day. The Americans and British arrived in Belsen.

(The Jewish Museum in London has archives of photos available to historians but photos are not displayed because it is too upsetting for descendants. Instead the museum shows jollier exhibitions about happier, later times, such as designers, and singers such as Alma Cogan, Amy Winehouse in their heyday.)

Why is no mention made of Anne Frank in Auschwitz? Because she is already well demented where she lived in Amsterdam where she is a Dutch heroine. Her memorial wooden name marker is in Belsen where she died. Poland prefers to tell the story of Poles, such as the Polish priest who took the place of a man condemned to die, and not of one individual already so well documented elsewhere, when no trace of her is in Auschwitz. (I presume they have her photo on arrival at Auschwitz?)

What other cities and sights can you see and admire in Poland?

Answer
Here's an A-Z of cities' highlights:

Bialystok
In the nineteenth century it was home to many cultures and languages. Inspired the creation of Esperanto by Ludwig Zamenhof.

Bydgoszcz
1 Museum of Soap and the History of Dirt (Museum Mydla I Historii Brudu)

Gdansk - known for its
1 Amber Museum, and
2 Neptune fountain landmark in the old town.

You see amber everywhere in Poland, the shops along the streets of Warsaw. Little red yellow and green ovals set in 925 silver - or maybe silver plate, for under £100, in the UK.
Gdansk adjoins Sopot.

Amber Story
In the UK watch out for cheaper pieces which are very pretty but probably fake amber. I saw a bargain in a window in the UK. I asked for it to be shortened to fit my wrist. The shop did not charge for the time spent chopping and re-attaching the clasp, but kept the bit cut off to sell it.

I asked the shop for a receipt saying it's amber, for insurance - at a jewellery shop in Hay on Wye in Wales. After some reluctance, the shopkeeper wrote the receipt.

I grabbed the receipt and ran off to catch my coach. Later I read the receipt and found my bargain amber was described not as real amber but synthetic amber. Now you know why you are being asked to pay higher prices for larger pieces on pendants in the top hotels in Poland. (If it's beyond your budget, or you can't decide between two or more pieces, try to bargain for a reduction on buying two or more.)

Lodz
Physically, geographically, the heart or centre of Poland. Sad stories of WWII.

Lublin
Read The Tailor of Lublin - a short story in a collection of stories in  book of the same name by Isaac Bashevis Singer, was a Yiddish tale of a tailor, immortalised by a prolific author who went to the USA and wrote nostalgically about the characters from his former home in poorer areas of Poland.
That's why you feel you have heard of Lublin, and feel warmly towards it, even if you know nothing else about it. (Check for copies of The Tailor Of Lublin on Amazon if you like to read a proper paperback or hardback book.)

Olsztyn
1 Landmark St James's Basilica, is a bishop's seat, and towers over the town.
2 Astronomer Copernicus lived in the city as a church official. See his astronomical instruments in the castle.
3 Astronomical Observatory and Planetarium.
4 Gothic and art deco buildings and lakes.


Poznan

Rzeszów
Southeastern Poland. See the
Rzeszów Cellars (Rzeszówskie Piwnice) under the main square. The cellars were used for storage by merchants and under wartime attack as a place of refuge.

Sopot
Sopot seaside - part of the Tri-city with Gdansk and Gdynia
1 Poland's most photographed building is Sopot's Crooked House, a wonky pub, part of a shopping centre, in a pedestrianised outdoor street.

Everything is crooked, curved. The roofline is like a boat or spoon. The top edge of the windows dips. The doors curve in like a waist - not just the door but the whole, large centre section of the building. You wouldn't think it could stand, but it does.

Indoors are illustrations by the (Jewish) artist who inspired the building. His tombstone, which you can see on the internet, is dramatic.

 Sopot's other claim to fame is
2 Europe's longest pier. The pier extends back to a town square which becomes an
3 Ice rink in winter.
Spot adjoins Gdansk.

Szczecin (Pronounced Stetchin, hear it in Wikipedia)
1 Gingerbread biscuits with sea symbols such as sailors, ships, and anchors. Eat them.
2 Buy them as gifts or souvenirs They can be used to decorate Christmas trees.

Tarnów
Tiny Tarnów is warm, with narrow streets. In addition to
1 Jewish sights: trail: cemetery gates with stars; graves with blue ribbons and blue railings; plaques on walls; brick bimah (pulpit) in street mini park with inscription and protective roof. (Photos in TripAdvisor.)
2  The Ethnography museum has 'Europe's only exhibition on the Romanis', says the Poland Cities guidebook. (I thought Romania had something. I must check.)

Torun - Birthplace and home of astronomer Copernicus. World's capital of Gingerbread.
1 Copernicus Home Museum. Muzeum Mickolai Copernica.
1 Amber Museum, and
2 Neptune fountain landmark in the old town.

You see amber everywhere in Poland, the shops along the streets of Warsaw. Little red yellow and green ovals set in 925 silver - or maybe silver plate, for under £100, in the UK.

Amber Story
In the UK watch out for cheaper pieces which are very pretty but probably fake amber. I saw a bargain in a window in the UK. I asked for it to be shortened to fit my wrist. The shop did not charge for the time spent chopping and re-attaching the clasp, but kept the bit cut off to sell it.

I asked the shop for a receipt saying it's amber, for insurance - at a jewellery shop in Hay on Wye in Wales. After some reluctance, the shopkeeper wrote the receipt.

I grabbed the receipt and ran off to catch my coach. Later I read the receipt and found my bargain amber was described not as real amber but synthetic amber. Now you know why you are being asked to pay higher prices for larger pieces on pendants in the top hotels in Poland. (If it's beyond your budget, or you can't decide between two or more pieces, try to bargain for a reduction on buying two or more.)

2 Cosmopolis Fountain.
3 Gingerbread Walk Of Fame in Old Town Square. Brass plaques in the shape of gingerbread biscuits. Make gingerbread in shop's workshop.
4 Actors in 16th century costume walk the old town at night.

Wiki says: The precocious 15-year-old composer Frédéric Chopin stopped over in Toruń, where he  sampled the city's famous confection and grew so fond of it that he wrote a letter about it to his friends and colleagues. He even sent some to Warsaw. In honor of this, Poland's largest producer of Toruń gingerbread, the Kopernik Confectionery Company, has created a special heart-shaped gingerbread called Scherzo, bearing Chopin's likeness on the wrapper.

Toruń holds an annual celebration of gingerbread called Święto Piernika (the Gingerbread Festival). It's in
June.

Wroclaw
Wroclaw had the tallest and the smallest.
1 The tiny dwarves, statues, only knee high or smaller, beside little doorways or other delights. You can take a guided tour or buy a guidebook.
2 Salvador Dali sculpture, in front of the Sky tower.
3 The Sky Tower, Europe's tallest skyscraper.

Easy To Learn Polish Words
Polish - English
aquarium - aquarium
historii - history
i - and
Muzeum - museum
mydla - soap
stary - old (remember as old as the stars)

English - Polish
and - i
aquarium - aquarium
history - historii
Museum - Museum
old - stary
soap - mydla

Useful Websites
Pl at the end of the website name stands for Poland. EU stand for the EU or European Union.
en stands for encyclopaedia.
www.akwarium.gdynia.pl
www.planetarium.torun.en
www.poland.travel/en
www.rzeszow.pl
www.szczecin.eu/en / www.seaofadventure.eu
www.torumtips.com
www.visittorum.pl

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. See my later post on the dwarves. Please share links to your favourite posts.

Get a receipt which states whether you have real jade, amber, opal or synthetic stone

I love elephants, national symbol of Thailand and probably some other places. Jade in stronger colours is more prized than the paler wishy-washy colours. In Asia, Singapore, and countries such as Thailand, Nepal, Cambodia, like London shops and markets, you often see trinkets and Jewellery with stones. I like green jade, green, orange and yellow amber, and multicoloured opals.
    At a trip to Hay-on-Wye in Wales, I went into a jewellery shop which had second hand jewellery in the window including opals in silver. I bought a bracelet at what I thought was a good price. I asked for a receipt. When I received the receipt, I was disappointed to see that although the silver was listed as 925, not silver plate, I had just been sold synthetic opals.  
   Watch out for stalls, even those which have a proper shop elsewhere, if they don't want to give you a receipt. I carry my own receipt book. For insurance purposes, you need a receipt. To guard against loss and theft. Once I had my bag stolen in Spain. It was a leather bag and had nothing of great value, I thought. But the replacement cost of everything from a swimsuit at £40, to a lipstick at £10, a diary at £5, soon added up to well over £100.
    So, to avoid regrets and worries later, for peace of mind when buying jewellery with stones of jade, amber, or opal, check you are getting the real stone and not a coloured synthetic. Synthetics can be cheaper, and look very effective. You might prefer costume jewellery when travelling. So it's often just as good. But for a special gift, or if you are buying as an investment, just ask the seller causally,      
    Which pieces are synthetic with silver plate and which are real stones and 925 silver or sterling silver. I usually ask about the real silver or the quality of gold and silver first, then about the gemstones. I try to be friendly with the seller and explain what I want. It could be, 'I don't mind synthetics. I just want something as a souvenir, a cheap gift.' Or it could be, 'I want metal and stones of value for mother's birthday, but also just a synthetic for when I'm travelling'. If you are buying a proper stone for lots of money, the shop in Asia might give you a synthetic stone piece as a gift in addition.
    The seller wants a happy customer, a returning customer, and recommendations, and more business. Ask, chat, say what you want, ask what you are getting. Why not - keep everybody informed and happy.