Monday, September 8, 2014

The humanity

Oh the humanity of using the public transport system on a daily basis. Over the summer, I had a chance to forget. Oh the sweet memory loss. Nothing particularly bad happened today – it wasn’t as bad as one shitty bus ride I had, but we did hit a few things you should not do on public transport.

Nikt nie hejtowałam dzisiaj ale bardzo chciałam. Here’s my list for today:

Hejtuje…

the countless number of people who blew cigarette smoke in my face today at various bus stops.

the elderly lady who passed up the empty seat reserved for elderly, disabled, and pregnant passengers as well as several other empty seats and leaned on me, deep in the bus, until I gave her my seat.

the ladies who thought their shopping deserved a seat and and I did not.

the bus stop nose-picker.

the disco-polo loving bus driver.

the middle school kids with their backpacks that they did not take off and slammed into me the whole ride home.

the middle school kid who most likely will be deaf by the end of the school year who put on his head phones and cranked up the volume on his disco-polo. I thought disco-polo was out?

the middle school kid who…

OK I see that I could go on hating on the gimbusy so I will end here. I hope tomorrow is a better day or at least gimbus-free.

 

Gimbus is slang for a middle-schooler who thinks he/she is so cool and grown-up. They like to swear in public and take drinking/smoking selfies and post them online.

Hejtować means to hate on somebody just like in English.

10 comments:

Zuzanka said...

Did I say that I love your Polish?

Chris said...

Which did you like the most Zuzanka, gimbus or hejtowac? :)

Me said...

"Cebulaki" ma taki sam wydźwięk jak stare już "buraki", za to do "bólu dupy" dopowiedziałbym, że to określenie przede wszystkim na efekt zazdrości. Tak na marginesie: nie ma co, kulturalny z nas naród. ;)

Chris, podzielam frustrację i myślę, że wyjściem jest zobojętnienie, choć ja sam nie potrafię go osiągnąć. Chamstwo, wandalizm, głupota, śmiecenie nieustannie doprowadzają mnie do irytacji.

Tak w ogóle, nie masz nic przeciwko, że piszemy w komentarzach po polsku?

Chris said...

Wojtek- I have heard about the "onions" only recently. Before that I knew only "beets". For those who don't know, you can call a country person an onion or a beet in Polish but it is reserved for country people with bad manners, not just any country person. I use it for my neighbors in the city who put their stinky garbage out in the hall in the evening because - it stinks and they are too lazy to go out to the dumpster - czyli buraki - they simply lack couth.
"Bólu dupy" is not the popular English "pain in the ass" but something entirely different. If somebody is a pain in the ass it means they are irritating. If something is a pain in the ass it means it is irritating or difficult to do, often not worth the trouble. "Bólu dupy", in English butthurt, is a kind of feeling of obraza in Polish. It is the feeling you get when somebody offends or insults you.

I use these and other phrases often, not to offend others, but to identify a person, a feeling, a behavior. I'd never say, "Hej ty buraku," to some country boy lost in the city. I would say, "Jeez look how those buraki dumped their garbage in the woods." There's a difference. So I guess you can count me in as one of those people who like to use such głupie określenia because I cannot think of a better or more appropriate way to call my neighbors who leave garbage in the hall or people who litter in the woods...or park in the disabled spot or pick their nose at the bus stop. The word burak just fits.

Me - Nie mam nic przeciwko, że piszecie po polsku. Proszę bardzo.

And about the stinky garbage in the halls, sometimes I just take it out. And about the garbage dumped in the woods, sometimes I go and collect it. I don't do it every time or even often but it is better than listening to myself complaining inside my own head.

Chris said...

Wojtek and Me -Any double explanation in my answer is not meant for you but for the non-Polish speakers...or the people who never heard butthurt before.

Me said...

Nie wiem jak u osób z innych stron kraju, ale u mnie w otoczeniu burak/cebulak to mniej więcej prostak albo gbur or someone between.
A "ból dupy" to synonim "żal ci dupę ściska" i wyraża zazdrość czyli odczuwa się "ból dupy", że się ma gorzej niż ktoś lub zawistnie, że ktoś ma lepiej niż my, np. odniósł sukces. Ewentualnie, że ktoś jest przewrażliwiony i przeszkadza mu coś, co innym nie przeszkadza.

Thank you for explanation of meaning of similar english sentences.

Przpomniały mi się Twoje początkowe wpisy z pobytu w Polsce. Wydaje mi się jakby mówiły o kimś innym. Choć nadal jesteś hardą, niezależną, pewną swojego kobietą, to sytuacja zmieniła się w ten sposób, że już jesteś w tej sytuacji, a nie opisujesz jej z zewnątrz. Taka mnie refleksja dopadła. Ja pamiętam swój tylko tygodniowy pobyt w Londynie, gdzie pomimo komunikatywnego angielskiego czułem się obco i samotnie. Byle tylko nikt się do mnie nie odzywał. Dobrze widzieć, że już swobodnie poruszasz się po swoim lokalnym świecie.

Pozdrawiam.

Wojtek said...

Zapomniałem wcześniej jeszcze czegoś dopisać w 1 poście .Często spotykam się z tym co ty hejtujesz i rozumiem irytację z tego powodu .Ciężko będzie to zmienić ponieważ pewna część osób traktuje autobusy jakby to była ich własność. Jak to mówi komunistyczne przysłowie "Czy się stoi czy się leży dwa tysiące się należy" .Nie każdy przejmuje się innymi osobami w autobusie .

off-topic .
Wcześniej wytłumaczyć co oznacza "pain in the ass" , to jak poprawnie wyjaśnić znaczenie słowa "swag" ? W słownikach Polsko-Angielskich nie ma , a często słowniki internetowe są niekompetentne i zawierają błędy

Chris said...

Me- Even though I wrote those posts about my first weeks in Poland 10 years after, I still recalled how I felt then. I did feel like an outsider and I felt that way pretty much throughout that whole year. I was very happy when I left that June.

Now I can say I've got one foot inside and one foot outside. I live the problems. I pay the taxes. I have PLN not $ in my pocket. Last weekend we met with another couple we have known for a long time - just like us, one American, one Polish. It was nice because I didn't have to explain anything to the American friend, he knows why American country music at a Polish festival (well, any festival) gets on my nerves. When he described some issues within the family it was like he was talking about us. No explanations necessary. Buuut, on the other hand, I understood the Polish mom when she was talking about issues with her child and school. So I guess I am a little bit Polish too in my views.

Chris said...

Wojtek - About "swag", I consulted an American teenager to get the story. Apparently swag means your style and your accessories - your cool clothes and shoes. You have swag or not. Maybe it comes from swagger, a way of walking particular to a person, a cool way of walking.

The internet tells me that due to the overuse of the word swag by suburban white kids, the word has lost its cool and is sometimes referred to as S.W.A.G. meaning secretly we are gay. Either way, I'm too old to use the word and I definitely don't have swag. I'm normcore all the way.

bilbo bagginski said...

;)

http://img.sadistic.pl/pics/1998ec4e3a54.jpg