{"id":609,"date":"2009-09-11T23:58:50","date_gmt":"2009-09-12T03:58:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/?p=609"},"modified":"2009-09-11T23:58:50","modified_gmt":"2009-09-12T03:58:50","slug":"do-polish-ducks-use-bad-language","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/do-polish-ducks-use-bad-language\/","title":{"rendered":"Do Polish Ducks Use Bad Language?"},"content":{"rendered":"

A few years ago, a \u201cPolish\u201d couple living in a certain English speaking country decided that what their small daughter truly needed was a real, \u201cstraight-off-the-boat\u201d Polish nanny. Though they themselves spoke some Polish (as much as can be expected of third and second generation Poles), it just wasn\u2019t the kind of Polish they wanted their daughter to speak. Enter the nanny \u2013 a young girl from a small village somewhere near Kielce<\/strong>. Or maybe Katowice<\/strong>. I\u2019m not 100% sure. \u015awie\u017co upieczona maturzystka<\/strong> (freshly graduated from high-school) with very basic English skills. But that suited the couple just fine. After all, they wanted a Polish speaking \u201creal\u201d Polish nanny.<\/p>\n

But just to be sure that everything was OK, they asked me to keep an eye on her for a few days. Show her around, explain why there were two refrigerators in the kitchen and why meat stuff went in one and dairy products in the other, make sure that she knew how to work the vacuum cleaner and tumble dryer, take her shopping, show her where the park, post office, library and what not were. That sort of stuff. So in effect, for a few days I found myself nannying the nanny.<\/p>\n

One day we decided to take the kid to the park. It was a beautiful day and the park was filled with mommies and nannies and all sorts of little ones running around and generally having a good time. \u201cOur\u201d little one wanted to feed the ducks (kaczki<\/strong>, there was a duck pond there), so I left her with the nanny and dutifully marched to the nearest store to buy some bread (chleb<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

When I got back the first thing I noticed was a group of mothers looking very uncomfortable. Some were dragging their offspring away from the duck pond. And then I saw, or rather heard, \u201cmy\u201d nanny and the little girl in her charge making their best duck noises. Polish duck noises. The little girl joyously clapped her hands and loudly shouted \u201ckfa, kfa, kfa!\u201d (it should be spelled \u201ckwa, kwa, kwa\u201d but since it sounds like \u201ckfa\u201d, it will be \u201ckfa\u201d for now.)
\n\u201cKfa, kfa, kfa!\u201d the smiling nanny kept making duck noises. The mothers looked at her in disgust, shook their heads and almost covered their children\u2019s ears. I finally realized what was happening and was laughing so hard that snot started to come out of my nose.<\/p>\n

You see, Polish ducks say \u201ckfa, kfa, kfa\u201d and if you say it fast a few times you end up with something that sounds like\u2026 well, just try it yourself, OK?<\/p>\n

I gently explained to the nanny that English-speaking ducks prefer to say what sounds like \u201ckua kua\u201d to a Pole, and that the Polish \u201ckfa kfa\u201d might be somewhat objectionable if used around children and in polite company.<\/p>\n

So while Polish ducks might like curse words, dogs (psy<\/strong>) in Poland simply ask \u201chow\u201d. Actually, it\u2019s written \u201chau\u201d in Polish, but it sounds just like \u201chow\u201d. Cats (koty<\/strong>) speak a universal cat language of \u201cmiau miau\u201d which despite its different spelling in Polish is the same as \u201cmeow meow\u201d in English.<\/p>\n

Horses (konie<\/strong>) go \u201cihahaha!\u201d, frogs (\u017caby<\/strong>) \u201crech rech\u201d, pigs \u2013 I\u2019m not sure.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s only them polskie kaczki<\/strong> that use bad language.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A few years ago, a \u201cPolish\u201d couple living in a certain English speaking country decided that what their small daughter truly needed was a real, \u201cstraight-off-the-boat\u201d Polish nanny. Though they themselves spoke some Polish (as much as can be expected of third and second generation Poles), it just wasn\u2019t the kind of Polish they wanted…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[7329,7383],"class_list":["post-609","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-culture","tag-animal-noises","tag-ducks"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/37"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=609"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}