Thursday, March 7, 2013

Chorość nie radość

I know, I know, the original is starość nie radość which in English is old age is no joy but today I feel more sick than old. I know, I know chorość isn’t a word. It should be chorowanie but chorowanie nie radość (sickness is no joy) doesn’t sound as cool.

Chory, chorszy, trup (sick, sicker, dead) is another good one. I just recently found out why it is so funny. I had always concentrated on the trup part (trup actually means corpse) as the funny bit because I was unaware that chorszy is the wrong form. It should be bardziej chory. I’m pretty sure I have told the doctor that one of my children was bardziej chorza than the other, thus creating a new and even more interesting form. Feel free to incorporate it into your everyday speech. No charge.

All I need are books and tea and a new upper respiratory system and I’ll be fine.

Do you see the guy in the cartoon above? He’s my student and that’s why I’m sick. Or maybe not. It could be from the bus, or school, or the grocery store. Who knows? I will blame it on my student anyhow. I will get better faster if I can place the blame on his sick face. I really should not be taking any time off. I can’t really afford it. I guess that would put me in the 55% group above. I’m going to stuff myself with some OTC drugs and see if I can make it to my afternoon classes…and be like the guy in the cartoon- generously spreading my illness around the city.

In the meantime, I am going to drink some tea and try on dresses. No, that’s not what girls do when they are feeling down. It’s just one of the benefits of teaching a dress maker (the company, not the seamstresses). I get a lot of dresses every couple of months to take home and try on and then if I want I can buy them for a steal. They are all a bit short though. And I never wear dresses, but who cares? The chocolate factory never gave me free chocolate. The cosmetics company never gave me free make-up. The pharmaceutical company never gave me free drugs. I have to take it while they are giving it.

I’m off to make the tea. Take care and stay healthy!

Muuaaah!

19 comments:

papageno said...

"Chorość nie radość" - did you invent it by yourself? :)

Chris said...

Yep. If I need to make a noun I just add -ość and keep my fingers crossed that it's correct. Miłość - good. Wolność - good. Ciepłość - not good.

Chris said...

I googled chorość just now and I found another expression - chudość nie radość. It's so true.

zutor z Wrocławia said...

I might be boring, but can you tell me about terms of private lessons? Do you commute? How much do you charge per hour? Here's my e-mail if intrested: poff (at) poczta.onet.pl (skip spaces)

Justine-abroad said...

Hahaha... the guy from a pic would be a perfect description of any Dutch :D I gotta say, they really don't get the idea of "sick" here in the Netherlands.
Cross fingers and wish you lot of health!
Cheers
Justine

Anonymous said...

I don't know if you've written something about it - I found your blog couple of months ago. Do you speak polish fluently? I'm interested in it it because, honestly, I haven't met anyone who has had as much energy to learn this language. It's difficult I'm sure.

Nina from Kraków

czarownica said...

Since becoming a partner in the surgery, I also can't take time off sick with trivial things, so my sincere sympathy. Hope you'll get better soon.
But one needs to balance - once I read on the UK doctors' forum that one of colleagues has never taken day off for 40 years, and was posting that from the surgery doing some out-of-hours work on Saturday morning with a chest pain... Scary, really.
We all advised him to call 999 and stop joking about own health and he was stented few hours after.

On the other side I appreciate that hearing the same thing 1000 times when you've just come back from your sick leave, may really make you fed up.
It's a stupid question, but for some reason all patients think it's a marvellous joke: "To lekarze tez choruja?"
Every time I hear it, I want to answer: "Not really, we're bloody indestructible"...

Anonymous said...

Get better quickly!
Greetings from Cape Town
Krysia

Chris said...

zutor- I sent you an email. If it's not in your inbox, check your spam :)

Justine - Thanks for the healthy wishes. I remember that my father got an award for not taking any sick days for 15 years. He got a plaque and a big check like when people win the big lottery. It was in the company newsletter. He was so proud. Also when I was teaching in the US, I took the spot of a man who was retiring. Actually, he had saved up so many sick days that he had a year and a half off (of sick days) and then they paid out the rest of his accumulated days in cash. All 3 girls (Lizzie, Rosie and me)are home sick today so I had no choice but to stay home. No work = no pay :(

Nina - Umiem jak umiem albo potrafię jak potrafię. Compared to a Polish person, I'd have to say that I cannot speak Polish. Compared to other foreigners living in Poland, I speak very well. I guess punkt widzenia zależy od punktu siedzenia. Of course, I have been living in Poland almost 15 years. I should know some Polish by now. Also I read at least one article in Polish every day. I go to onet or to na temat webpages and choose something, even something that doesn't interest me personally so that I can learn more words. My latest new word is "ciamajda". I learned it from "Mikołajek" books and then it was on "Smerfs". I think it was Clumsy or Klutzy Smerf. New words are everywhere!

Czar - Doctors get sick? No way. Just kidding :) Our nephew in Poland (he's my age) is a doctor and he (and unfortunately) his children seem to catch everything. You know, I'm sure every patient would want the doctor who is operating on them to be at 100%. Yikes! Misiu teaches a few orthopedic surgeons. Here's their favorite joke: What's the difference between god and an orthopedic surgeon? God does not think he's an orthopedic surgeon.

Krysia from Cape Town - Thank you and greetings. It's amazing how KS readers are spread out all over the world. I know who to contact if my girls have to write a report about South Africa! Are there many other Polish folks living in South Africa?

Zoffia said...

Chris, you're fabulous!
A couple of days ago, in a supermarket- I was standing in a long queue, with only two or three things in my basket, half alive, actually(me, not the basket;). The lady at the till saw me and asked me to come forward due to the 'pregnant women go first' rule. Well, it appeared that the next person supposed to be served was an old lady. After shouting at me, in a very unpleasant way she asked the till lady, why on earth was she serving a damn queue jumper. when hearing the "well, as we can see the lady here is pregnant", the old lady replied: well, I'm old, too.
(though I still think Polish version is more from Bareja:
- widzi Pani, ze ta Pani w ciazy jest!
- ja tez jestem stara!
Actually, there were at least three exclamation marks in her answer ;))

I thinkmaybe we can come up with a new catchy slogan, like ciazowosc tez starosc or something;)

Kudos to you!

Anonymous said...

Czesc Chris
I have a good joke I`d like to share with you. What`s your e-mail address?
Greetings from rainy but warm Cape Town
Krysia

Anonymous said...

Sorry Chris, I forgot to give you mine.
ksherry111@gmail.com

Krysia from Cape Town

czarownica said...

All the other doctors' favourite joke is:
"What's a double blind trial? Two orthopods trying to read an ECG".
If I was Misiu, I wouldn't risk sharing it with students tho ;)

papageno said...

Chorość may not be the proper word, but when used in "chorość nie radość" it sounds uhm... cleverly humorous? It's even better than "rowerstwo", courtesy of the current US Ambassador to Poland.

I think I may even use it - that is, if your royalties aren't too high for me :)

Chris said...

Free of charge papageno.

I hope this comment appears. I've been having some blog problems and my last comments disappeared.

papageno said...

Thank you :)

How are you feeling? I hope it's not chorsza :)

Chris said...

Lepszejsza ;) Dzięks.

Anonymous said...

What`s up Chris?
Can`t wait for your next story.
All the best
Krysia from CT

Chris said...

Krysia from CT - I can't wait either but I am busy. Thanks for the interest :) Work is crazy right now or as I heard on TV in tween-speak "uber cray cray". I only have time to write something when we're home sick. It's a shame because I have so much I want to write about.I want to write about rekolekcje at school, about our Easter preparations, about the girls' upcoming birthdays. I'd also like to write about spring...if it ever comes. I promise I'll get something written soon :)