Englishman Reacts to... 11 Odd Phrases Poles Love to Use 😁

What odd Polish phrases do I need to decipher today?
Original: • 11 Odd Phrases Poles L...
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[@RobReacts1]

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[@januszlepionko]

Rob, regarding the «Looking for a hole in the whole» - English translation looks like a wordplay HOLE vs. wHOLE. But the Polish original phrase does not contain such wordplay: English “hole” = Polish “dziura” ; English “whole” = Polish “cały”.

[@januszlepionko]

Regarding “Fall from the Christmas tree” : what you can find in the Christmas tree? Nothing very clever, I guess. So anything which fall from the Christmas tree would be disoriented, would not know much about what's going on, right?

[@januszlepionko]

Regarding “To jump at the Sun with a hoe” - you are 100% right.

[@januszlepionko]

Regarding “pears on a willow” - it is only part of the phrase. Full phrase would be like “he promised you pears on a willow”.

[@ukaszsimbiga4957]

I recomend you : MozART group - Classical Pop Music (Official Video, 2009) This is fantastick polend music-comedy

[@konradhenrykowicz1859]

Obracać kota ogonem does not mean "to turn the cat around its tail" but to "turn the cat tail forward" and means the manipulation or distortion of facts or arguments in order to make them serve our interests

[@martingorbush2944]

Exactly, and there is another similar expression: "stawiać coś na głowie" (Put something upside down).

[@tomeks3951]

Gaslighting

[@janfelchner1543]

I think 'odwracać Kota ogonem' has similar meaning as English 'wag the dog'

[@arekzawistowski2609]

​@@martingorbush2944 this is not a similar expression xD

[@xerpenta]

Interestingly, I've never actually heard it being used in this meaning. I always thought it means that someone is focusing on a certain aspect of a matter that is not important for the discussion at hand to turn the focus away. I guess that's similar but more specific.

[@konradhenrykowicz1859]

The problem is that the English translations and explanations of these phrases are inaccurate. Polish language is more compact and semantically dense, so translations should be more thoughtful

[@Parasiteve]

i think thats almost every language that isn't english. english wanted to make language sound less "caveman like". our sentences aren't like "bob go store" which other languages do, we would say "bob went to the store". we get the info we need in both languages but the non english one is straight to the point where the english one takes awhile to get to. thats what ive found when studying other languages anyways lol. its also why translations can take time.

[@mordozaur]

@@Parasiteve lmao, no, the English language is one of the most simplistic ones tbh. It's just that those translations are really bad.

[@mojyoqueen350]

Agree. The cat and pears ones were one of the worst. Drilling a hole in a belly was bad too, because it didn't provide the informatin who is drilling.

[@guciolini123]

@@Parasiteve 1- no declitantion. 2- almost no koniugation 3- almost no grammatical gender.... Most of English sentences sound really primitive translated to poish or greman or lattin word to word. In this case it is problem with small differences in word meaning. This is why google translator makes it's mistakes to.

[@VoidCosmonaut]

@@mordozaur Sam twój nick Cię dyskredytuje w każdej dyskusji, gimbusie.

[@sylwiawajda9866]

"to fall from a Christmas tree" actually means to be desoriented, to find yourself in a situation you know nothing about. It's like: "Why Tom does not drink with us?" "did you fall from a Christmas tree? He quit drinking 2 years ago. He was an adict" "oh"

[@_Syhmac]

Yes, true

[@nikivable]

Agree

[@ukaszsypien5267]

Its not just about height, you hang all sorts of oddities and fancy stuff on a christmast tree, thus someon who falls from it must be odd to begin with.

[@Bialy_1]

The translation is the problem here... it is more like "to break off from a christmas tree" and dolls hanging on the Christmas tree are usually not very inteligent + they are in the wrong place, when they are on the floor.

[@macabrescafresca]

I think is more like "living under the rock" sort of thing. You don't know what's going on

[@misoch]

1:50 Because an elephant is heavy and will crush your ear completely. And it's not about taste, more about the ability to learn to play an instrument.

[@Bialy_1]

There are people who have absolute pitch... it's the opposite case when someone is very bad at recognizing correct tone and because of that the music is not important to him, he/she struggle to sing in tone or he/she have no talent in this field.

[@marianodrobinski584]

bring a big guns is more appropriate to this this phrase, it reflex saying that someone has no talent to sing or singing to a wrong tune, if you say an insect stomp on your ear it would not make any effect,but if you bring an elephant to the picture it bring expected effect,

[@23markus]

Haha. In most cases it is used humorously when somebody listens to music or radio or watches tv so loudly that is not acceptable for other people. It is like "Come on man! Are you deaf?!"

[@kathyp4006]

It means to be tone deaf

[@SirBobBotsalot]

I always tought its beacouse its loud.

[@adamw.3409]

8:06 the Polish phrase is actually „to promise pears on a willow”, never heard this shortened form without a verb..

[@Qsalis]

You can summarise something as just pears on a willow as a comment, but the thing you're summarising has to be in some way promising or at least making false good claims. "Yup, total pears on a willow there"

[@adamw.3409]

@@Qsalis Yes, you are right, you can use the shortened version if there is a context . I just wrote that the full version includes the verb 'to promise'. If the full version of the idiom was used then it would be easier for Rob to guess what it means.

[@Qsalis]

@@adamw.3409 yeah, definitely. the original vid he watched wasn't the best linguistic quality and honestly didn't fully explain some things either

[@zuz15]

I see you don't remember kulfon 😄

[@astrolite.]

​@@zuz15 the first thing I thought! 😂

[@michalduda9365]

"Drill a hole in your belly" should be translated " To drill a hole in someone's belly". Maybe this way it makes more sense. When someone is anoying you can tell "Stop drilling a hole in my belly". "To turn a cat around by its tail" rather means to Twist the sense of the statement/situation. It does not mean to turn a cat while holding it's tail. It means to turn a cat back-to-front, so it's tail is facing the oposite direction. When you argue with someone, and he tries to avoid your arguments by giving them some other meanings you can say "Stop turning the cat around by it's tail".

[@karolgordon3799]

Why Drill and Belly? To better understand the meaning of this sentence: imagine that someone persistently pokes you in the stomach with his finger, trying to get your attention

[@Bialy_1]

It should be "to try to drill a hole in someone's belly"->you trying to force on someone something that the other person do not want at all(for example: borrow you something that is valuable and that person doesn't want to part with it/or you want someone to do something that this person do not want to do because she knows that he/she do not gonna like it ).

[@MaraMara89]

I do think that there shouldn't be "by" in turning a cat... It is more like "turning cat the way his tail is in front". Polish: "Odwracać kota ogonem (do frontu)", with english "by" it would be "Odwracać kota za ogon" which really don't make sense when we are talkin g about twisting words/situations

[@adamw.3409]

@@Bialy_1 the English verb you’re looking for is “to badger someone” or “to nag somebody”.. you’re welcome :)

[@swieka85]

Imagine someone poking your belly with a finger. Doing over and over again that it looks like using drill to drill a hole.

[@zardzewialy]

"Odwracać kota ogonem" even though is technically translated sort of correctly, the translation that keeps more sense of the original meaning would be "To present a cat with its tail forwards", so in other words it's like you're trying to convince someone that the cats butt is the front.

[@janfelchner1543]

True. And I think, English idiom would be: 'wag the dog'

[@jarosawbanaszek5510]

​@@janfelchner1543 No, it has other meaning. Talking about things in such way to avoid a real topic, showing incorrect side of thing. 😊

[@mayaniebieska8425]

The cat-tail phrase is about when someone turns an argument round on its head / denies the obvious / gaslights you / confuses you to win an argument etc

[@kikixchannel]

Sayings like that don't really need much literal 'sense'. Mostly the actual words don't matter much, for example the one about the cat. It doesn't matter that it refers to a cat at all. It matters that you are presenting forward something that is backwards. With the elephant stomping on the ear, I simply assume that it comes from the fact that your ear clearly won't work well if an elephant steps on it. The drill in a belly is a wrong translation as someone below commented. It's about drilling a hole in somebody else's belly, not your own. Clearly not a pleasant experience. When people get stressed out or annoyed, their stomach is often one of the first that goes haywire to show displeasure, hence why it refers to doing something to the belly. The Christmas tree is...well, the meaning presented is not correct. Christmas tree is important due to how it is often flashily, and pointlessly, decorated. This is a term "Did you fall from a Christmas tree?" for people that behave weirdly, out of place, often out of confusion...referring to those decorations that are misplaced on a tree and are more about being flashy than about substance. The hoe and sun one makes perfect sense, though it is clearly more exaggerated than biting off more than you can chew. The hole in a whole is a translation issue. It is translated literally, but 'whole' has more than one meaning in English version of this phrase, while in Polish the word used has only one possible meaning in this phrase. That is why you are losing context. It should be translated as "Looking for a hole in something that is whole" to show the context for the word 'whole', as in, not damaged. The peas against the wall is simply...if you throw peas against a wall, they will just bounce off without doing anything. A metaphor for saying something and it just 'bouncing off' of the person it is spoken to, without much of any 'change' happening to them, as if it was never said. It's just the way someone decided. You could say the same thing in a million ways.

[@niktniewiem4785]

best explanations possible.

[@beatamichalska6220]

Dobrze powiedziane!

[@Kubiak333333]

Yea sun and hoe is like other polish phase "walczyc z wiatrakami". In english something like "Trying to beat windmills". Thats when you start compare to something that you cant match with. Imagine one man attempting to hold with body strenght rotor mechanism, or destroying something that is quite good and produce flour. People are using that sentences to describe when somebody try to make something pointless, or overexhausting. For example "with hoe on sun" is good to say when somebody want to lose some weight and from garbage food, radicaly, switch to 2-weeks fast. "Trying to beat windmills" often refers to very long unwinnable fight.

[@boogypaul]

Dobrze napisane! Szacun

[@tymondabrowski12]

@@Kubiak333333 The windmills come from don Kichot (or however his surname is written in Spanish), it's a known piece of Spanish literature featuring a knight don Kichot and Sancho Pansa (the narrator, his page or whatever). So it's not exactly Polish.

[@Krokmaniak]

Problem with polish phrases like this is that many are puns. Like with "dull as tripe with oil". Nudny means boring but also causing nausea, so while tripe may not be boring eating a lot of it can make you nauseous

[@rafaszmuda669]

I remember the shock on the face of my sister when after her grandmother served us all with them for being late I was the only one who didn't politely decline but just ate the whole dish (I'm an extremely picky eater but didn't want to be rude... It was better than it looked but still bad)

[@MrDelix]

Dull as tripe in oil has second layer. Polish “nudny“ adjective literally means boring but at the same time “nudność” noun can have two meanings the second meaning is nausea. Thus by a bit metaphoric saying (because is not 100% correct usage) you get a combination of something that is so boring that it causes nausea.

[@darthbandi3026]

"Szukać dziury w całym" - I think the better translate is "looking for a hole in something undamaged" (easier to understand what that prase means in Polish)

[@Netsuki]

The whole means that something has no hole in it. Like it's whole. You try to find a hole in whole shirt or cloth. Whole cloth has no holes, because it's whole. When the hole appears the cloth is not whole anymore. And You try to find that hole when something is whole.

[@Shadow30.]

@@Netsuki wait didn't that mean looking for flaws in an perfect argumrnt

[@Netsuki]

@@Shadow30. It... does. Hole is metaphorically a flaw. But it doesn't exist, so it's looking for a flaw where there is no flaw at all.

[@DzeeTheQ]

Intact!!!

[@morfeo8787]

True, but "hole in the whole" sounds almost poetic :) I'm glad this phrase came up because I would never have translated it that way myself

[@kirinkrupa2612]

Actually, in Polish we call "choinka" not only Christmas trees but colloquially also other trees, often still growing, which have the shape of a Christmas tree. For example, instead of wondering if it's spruce, pine, larch or whatever - it looks like a Christmas tree so we'll call it that

[@chaoticnarcissus4857]

Hejka Kirin 😂

[@NewFalconerRecords]

I prefer so many of these Polish phrases to the English equivalents. I'm now using "Not my circus, not my monkeys" as opposed to "Nothing to do with me, keep me out of it", from your earlier video. "Throwing peas against a wall" is so much better than "Talking to a brick wall" -- way more descriptive in which you're throwing out ideas out there but they're met with nothing. "What's the difference between a windmill and gingerbread?" is brilliant as well. Poles obviously have an excellent sense of irony.

[@dzejrid]

The pea throwing refers to the fact that they just bounce off. Like your words bounce off someone.

[@jola2011able]

We love to play with words and twist them around.Other countries have that too, but I think polish language have more words and ways of saying them. And yes we love sarcasm and irony.

[@sensei1991]

Sorry, but "What's the difference between a windmill and gingerbread" is something that you just made up. The original phrase is (as in the video): "What gingerbread has to do with windmills?". Question is not about the differences, but about the similarities. It is a way to say to someone "The words you just said may be true, but your statement is irrelevant to general topic of disscusion".

[@elah1023]

Actually You got it wrong. It`s not: "What's the difference between a windmill and gingerbread?" It`s: "What gingerbread has to do with a windmill"? And witty answer to that question is "flour". And btw. correct version is "Not my circus, not my monkeys".

[@ontheline3421]

Each and every Pole will tell you gingerbread and windmill have flour in common XD

[@Carmel893]

There are a lot of sayings in the UK that don't make sense to me as a Pole it's called a cultural difference and I love it 😁😅

[@pwalk4160]

Yeah, like "Bob's your uncle" and "Happy as Larry". Who the hell are Bob and Larry?

[@cubex2160]

hair of the dog - is my favourite=least favourite one that sounds the dumbest im actually a little annoyed when i hear it even when i know what it means.

[@fandzejka9540]

The elephant one does not have anything to do with taste. Its about recognizing frequency, musical hearing.

[@pablop3076]

Te odcinki są absolutnie najlepsze na twoim kanale. Uwielbiam poznawać różnice kulturowe w taki sposób. Też często jestem zaskoczony kiedy nie potrafisz odgadnąć sensu 😉

[@user-ts9wu9ll3j]

Sarcasm and irony are rare in Chinese literature besides the sense of humor. Many thanks to Rob and many Poles who provided exquisite comments.

[@jamjest9021]

O man so you are missing a lot. Polish language without irony (or even autoirony in some causes) would be almost half of his ,,weight". To be more fun - even Poles do not always catch it, its eqivalent of intelligence of listener at some point. For example children below some kind of age are unable to understand most of it, because they are too thrustworthy and straight headed.

[@michdem100]

Pears on a willow should actually be "to promise pears on a willow" (obiecać gruszki na wierzbie). I guess it could be shortened to that form, but I'm not sure if I even heard it like that. Perhaps in a conversation - "That guy said he'll do X" and a response being "Right, right, pears on a willow". Though the full form is "to promise..."

[@Kali_Kali]

Try to figure out these phrases 😁 "Wyskoczył jak filip z konopi", "Musztarda po obiedzie", "Wpadł jak śliwka w kompot", "Gadał dziad do obrazu, a obraz do niego ani razu", "Nie chwal dnia przed zachodem słońca", "Baba z wozu, koniom lżej", "Gdzie diabeł nie może tam babę pośle", "Gadać z kimś jak ze ślepym o kolorach", "Co nagle to po diable", "Lepiej z mądrym zgubić niż z głupim znaleźć", "Lepszy wróbel w garści niż gołąb na dachu", "Jak Bóg Kubie tak Kuba Bogu", "Radosny jak skowronek na wiosnę", "Wybierać się jak sójka za morze" 🤪 OK, that's enough. I believe in You, you can do it and good luck 😂

[@anomomolia]

actually its "jak Kuba Bogu tak Bóg Jakubowi" what makes seanse to the meaning of future consequences

[@DremoraKynmarcher]

"Zasypiać gruszki w popiele"

[@Kali_Kali]

@@DremoraKynmarcher It should be: "Zasypywać gruszki w popiele" 🙂

[@DremoraKynmarcher]

@@Kali_Kali A common mistake. It is definitely "Zasypiać gruszki w popiele".

[@Kali_Kali]

@@DremoraKynmarcher You're right, it should be: "Zasypiać gruszki w popiele". Man learns all his life. Thank you 🙂

[@Diveyl]

"Urwać się z choinki." The problem is with word Choinka. It is translated as Christmass tree but you could also use Pine tree as a substitute and not be wrong.

[@bartekbard]

The point of this phrase is that the Christmas tree is "strange", is motley, has lots of ornaments and does not look normal. So what comes out of it is also weird.

[@Shadow30.]

@@bartekbard nope

[@LecherousLizard]

@@Shadow30. No, that's what the idiom means. Something that is normal on a Christmas tree stands out like a sore thumb anywhere else, thus the idiom is used to refer to people who behave in an outlandish or otherwise weird way not befitting the place or situation they are in.

[@presentalinkwalterbak2426]

The Christmas tree thing. The context is as such: Usually when decorating something, some sort of coordination is required such as colours, shapes, etc. Except when decorating a Christmas tree! Everything and anything goes there, as much as possible, rhyme and reason are way secondary :) There's another expression: Don't make a Christmas tree out of it, meaning hey, go easy on the style, you are overdoing it. So now. Did you fall from a Christmas tree suggests that you are too much with what you are saying, your are acting weird, you don't fit here with your dress code, you jumped into the conversation in a weird way - you are an odd ball, and not in a good way.

[@akhannar9368]

Actually that's not it. The reference is supposed to be that Christmas ornaments are traditionally empty glass bubbles. The phrase is a more polite way of calling somebody "empty-headed"

[@karenszelska]

​@@akhannar9368 No, for me it's about those weird ornaments which are colorful and shiny, but they fit perfectly only on the Christmas tree. In the normal world, they seems weird and not fitting to anything.

[@Axis-Libris]

11:00 funny thing, but when someone tells you "Co ma piernik do wiatraka", you can answer "7 liter" (7 letters, because piernik and wiatrak has 7 letters... "Wiatraka" is declined form) I used to answered when I was a child, that wiatrak is on a mill what makes flour for piernik and that's what they have common 😂

[@przemasp885]

Yup as a child I used to answer simply : flour :)

[@homisen]

wiatrak może się spierniczyć ale piernik nie może się zwiatraczyć. a mill can break down, screw up but a gingerbread can't mill itself( it's kinda silly and not commonly used)

[@Axis-Libris]

@@homisen też dobre

[@Tennouseijin]

"Szukać dziury w całym" in my experience usually refers to situations where someone is desperately trying to convince you that something is a bad idea, but they have no real arguments since you've accounted in your plans for all realistically plausible issues.

[@Wolfey_Volatile]

As a Pole I can approve that we love to use these phrases

[@vorpi]

Elephant is rather big and heavy, so him stomping on your ear would probably cause a serious damage to it, resulting bad hearing. I think that makes pretty much sense.

[@mayaniebieska8425]

The elephant-ear phrase is not about having rubbish taste in music, it's about being tone deaf 🎶🎶

[@AikidoVirtualDojo]

I tried once to explain to a (not Polish) colleague the phrase "wpuścić kogoś w maliny" => to make someone walk into a rasperry field :) In general it means to put someone in a situation he can't easily get out from.

[@ayamii37]

doesn't it just mean to mislead someone?

[@marekbalicki1094]

​@@ayamii37 Imagine racing with a friend and you convince him to use a shortcut, which leads through a raspberry field (they have thorns). That may be a literal explanation. So I guess it means to mislead, but it usually also conveys an idea, that it benefits you and puts someone in trouble.

[@darkestkhan]

​@@marekbalicki1094 moreover those thorns like to stick to the clothes entangling you in the process

[@Zobaczycswiat]

"To jump at the sun with a hoe" is not best translation. Better will be: "To fight with sun using hoe." I just realized "To turn the cat around by its tails" literally doesn't make sense even in polish, but every Pole will use it so natural like british people use "hot dog" - also it doesn't make sense :)

[@Bialy_1]

It is an old Polish proverb so it is using old form of Polish language... its about twisting the reality->you showing cat tail as his head... also Polish proverbs are often abstract ->force you to use your imagination more(if you try to analyze them).

[@Axis-Libris]

​@@Bialy_1 dokładnie!

[@Zobaczycswiat]

@@Bialy_1 Yes, my friend I know. I am polish guy, and for me as a Pole still makes sense similar to hot dog :)

[@xerpenta]

The "Looking in a hole in the whole" refers to something obviously complete and pristine. I think that the the "całym" could have been translated better than "whole", as in this idiom it means something undamaged rather than entirety of something.

[@dzejrid]

This ^

[@karolpalion2883]

Right, it's "whole" in the sense of "not broken" (that's the meaning of "whole" in "wholesome"). Trying to find a hole is something that is whole is the same as nitpicking.

[@PanMarekZKrakowa]

"Szukać dziury w całym" is used when person X done something and the other person Y is trying very very hard to find any single smallest flaw/defect at all which can allow Y to reject the result as completelly bad and rubish just becuase of that single flaw even if everything else is working perfect even if that defect is meaningless for the product

[@jentov7436]

Drill a hole in your belly - it refers more to the action of drilling. Primarily, when your neighbor is doing a renovation and drilling holes in walls in the morning, you get very annoyed. And if it were your belly, you can't escape from that. It's your belly, and he is performing an annoying action towards you.

[@kayakastek76]

"Looking for the hole in the whole" is kinda a reference to when you're looking for a tearing in the fabric before buying it. "Dziura" and "całe" are completely different and unrelated words, so I guess it might sound weird in English when "hole" is in fact in "whole" and sounds similar. Turning the cat by it's tail, I guess, is a reference to the cat's changing mood, when sometimes it's cooperative and sometimes a complite jerk. Hoe is a tool we use when we work on fields. It's usually a hard work and doing it on the hot, sunny days might be too challenging. The fraze has nothing to do with "jumping on the sun". More like "going outside, when it's hot and sunny", but in Poland we're saying in short "going on the sun". The elephant is seen as a big, heavy and clumsy. It gives the more meaning to "stepping on someones's ear", because you can imagine the damage it causes. The Christmas tree is full of decorations, sometimes so weird and bizarre, you have no idea where it came from. The meaning of this fraze is kinda like, when someone asks something obvious, outragous or stupid, that you wonder "what planet are you from?" I hope I translated it right... Thank you for the video, it was really fun!

[@cichy-mw8qw]

I am so happy you understood. Because a lot of people even in Poland are even swapping the sun for the moon, while it has actually nothing to do with space. Sun in this case means a hot and very sunny weather. There was actually a demon/creature in slavic mythology called "południca" which I would translate as "the noon-lady" i guess. This being would make you faint in the field around noon during summer and likely served as an explanation of a heatstroke.

[@inaanjakossowska6990]

Two last explainings are ok, first three not so much😉

[@kayakastek76]

@@cichy-mw8qw Yes, the frazing in Poland can be treaky, because we like to speak in less complicated maner, which is kinda weird because I think there are more Polish words for one English word(especially swears). For example, when you're saying "I'm going to ride a bike", in Polish you just say "Idę na rower", when the the right way to say would be "Ja idę pojeździć na rowerze". Also, slavic mythology is awesome. I studied it from a very young age, since the region I live in has even it's own book about the legends and stories from the nearby villages(Silver Land's Legends). There were południce, strzygi, płanetniki, diabły, boginki etc.

[@sensei1991]

@@kayakastek76 I can't agree with the sun one. "Porywać się" doesn't mean "to go on", it's more something like "trying to cope/deal with". So "porywać się z motyką na słońce" is about you are trying to dig or plow the Sun, which is impossible.

[@Chociewitka]

@@cichy-mw8qw "Lady Midday" is the "official" English translation for "południca" en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Midday but "Noonwraith" is a good desciption, too.

[@xawerytrabka8813]

Best regards from Poland 😆 Poprawiasz humor

[@Miodowy]

"Porywać się" is not "to jump", but more or less "to make a big effort/challenge".

[@Nouharel]

The meaning of whole here is something like not torn.

[@user-gu9ul6kx8t]

These were quite difficult examples 😁 As a matter of fact, most of the Polish people just got used to them, but they would also have some difficulties explaining what these phrases actually mean. And most of all: where they came from. Great video! My warm regards to you 🙂

[@remotepeak]

"Drill a hole in your belly". In my opinion, this comes from my (and maybe also yours) grandmother. When she want something from me, she approach near me and literally drill finger in my belly and said: "Did you went to shop? Did you clean kitchen? ...". :)

[@TehKrys]

Yes, it's like poking your belly with her finger for so long, you think it's going to drill a hole.

[@exactlyLondon]

You should do more things like that. That is really good direction for your channel. Briliant.

[@boguslawpiskorz2208]

Another challenge could be: "to walk on somebody's hand/palm" - PL: "iść komuś na rękę" and ever popular "to go sleep with hens" - PL "chodzić spać z kurami" :)

[@gizmo9290]

"To walk on somebody's hand" means "chodzić komuś po ręce / na ręce", a nie "iść komuś na rękę". I think closer translation would be "to go on somebody's hand" but I'm affraid it really makes no sens in English. Like many other idioms in many other languages.

[@olablc531]

​@@gizmo9290 It doesn't make sense in Polish either. I mean, can you imagine literally iść/pójście na rękę?

[@LongandWeirdName]

About the stomach hole drilling... How does it make you feel when you are holding back and getting more and more annoyed at the person asking you to do something? It ties my stomach in knots and gets my blood pressure and stomach acid levels up. Feels like someone literally just drilled a hole in your stomach. It is just descriptive.

[@dziqbardzozly]

"To drill a hole in somebody's stomach" is a torture - just as agonizing as getting bothered by someone time and time again.

[@bogdang.7627]

You're doing a great job on this channel and the reactions are funny too. I had a good time 😄

[@TomKot-ve9ut]

I suggest you see "Polish Legends" made by Tomek Bagiński. The British have their legends. The Poles and the Slavs in general are a bit different. I'm curious about the reaction. You make cool stuff. Interesting ideas. Congratulations on the outline.

[@1970wind]

Rob You show me how difficult Polish language is 😂

[@Axis-Libris]

Flaki z olejem (tripe in oil) are "nudne" (boring) because an old meaning of "nudzić" is also to feel sick. Today is only "to bore"

[@TzOk]

A hoe was historically used as a weapon, by village people. So the phrase "to jump at the sun with a hoe" means to be over-optimistic or to do something without the right knowledge/tools and without a chance for success.

[@miyu6514]

Kocham ten content

[@martingorbush2944]

A co ty tutaj za ponglish uprawiasz. ;)

[@mojyoqueen350]

As Polish person I know all of the phrases, but watching you trying to guess was more than enjoyable. + Drilling a hole in someone's belly is not comfortable for that someone, so when someone drills a hole in your belly that means they make you feel bad, uncomfortable, etc. + Pears on willows are not translated fully. It should be Promising pears on willows. Pears on willows withut the "promising" mean something beautiful, but unrealistic.

[@danielhounted6493]

Imo (I'm Polish) to understand "odrwacać kota ogonem" refers to other "social facts" wich are commonly just taken as a facts, as: cats always land on four feet, and cats use tails to stering as they are in air, and cause of that they land mostly on theirs feets, ergo if you turn cat with its tail, everything is upside down, reversed, so you reversing facts, good to bad, bad to good, messing something and turn it to other side like sides of the coins.

[@elzbietajukic905]

I love to watch you trying to make sens of polish proverbs. The thing is, that for us Poles all of those make perfect sense. Polish language is difficult. Over the years I had heard from a lot of my fellow co-workers (I'm a translator);" if I learned polish language perfectly, I could learn any other language.". There may be some truth to that statement.😁. Anyway, I enjoy your podcasts very much, so keep them coming.🎶🇵🇱

[@Parasiteve]

im part polish and i sadly dont know any except for some foods but my mom has a polish to english dictionary thats super old and like. i cannot read the polish at all lmao. i think it really is the hardest language to learn outside of english. they have K's all over but they're never the american "K" its like a P instead or a G and you're like "why does this K word sound like a G word? wtf is this?" one of the easiest languages to learn if you ask me is japanese.

[@elzbietajukic905]

@@Parasiteve Question is, do you wanna learn polish If so dictionary is not the best choice for starters. I suggest an audio for beginners, were you can repeat and learn proper pronaunciation. Also you didn't say where in the States you live, have you a possibility to buy polish for beginners. Maybe you can get something on line. Most important is "want". Polish is difficult but a beautiful language with a lot of great poetry and prose. So maybe give it a try👍🎶🇵🇱

[@KOCYK745]

"Rzucać grochem o Ściane" has the same meaning as "Gadać jak do Słupa" ("Talking to a Pole" Pun not intended)

[@argongas3536]

"Mówił dziad do obrazu...".

[@migupl]

Pole != pole. Ani w angielskim, ani w polskim nie piszemy zwykłych rzeczowników z wielkiej litery. A w tym konkretnym przypadku zupełnie przeinaczasz znaczenie

[@KOCYK745]

@@migupl Wyróżnienie wyrazów. Idź się uczyć

[@migupl]

@@KOCYK745 to się nazywa błąd ortograficzny 😂 wyróżniać to możesz się swoją głupotą

[@kialtielserioza2783]

"Drilling a hole in a belly" refers to being poked constantly by someone so often and hard it literally feels like drilling actual hole with a finger. Like "can u do it?" *poke*poke*poke*

[@talarzoon]

By the way, the funny thing about saying what does gingerbread to do with the windmill is that in the Polish language,,co ma piernik do wiatraka''.,,Piernik'' and ,,wiatrak'' They have the same number of letters, sounds and syllables, and in addition to the windmill is used to process flour for gingerbread cookies.

[@dicktracey6658]

Fall from Christmas tree is an equivalent to out of the blue. You are sitting at Christmas dinner and then out of the blue something falls down. It could translate as " Were you born yesterday or what?"

[@martingorbush2944]

8:50 That Rob's interpretation was hilarious. :) Probably because that saying is even harder to understand than "Falling from the Christmas tree". :)

[@leui21]

Greetings from Poland , Man you're the best 🇬🇧❤️🇵🇱

[@toppat_sans]

dzieki filip ze jacys polacy tu sa

[@onichan13ryba]

@@toppat_sans 99% komentarzy to polacy

[@toppat_sans]

@@onichan13ryba kurde "i forgor 💀"

[@gbartosz83]

Saying with elephant it's not about music taste. It's about singing abilities. Someone is not good at singing and do not hear that her/his singing is bad.

[@slavwal941]

Love your video mate.

[@anetasotys9334]

I just need to point out the obvious hilarious event of an englishman of all saying anyone elses sayings are odd 😂😂😂

[@martingorbush2944]

I have similar feeling about that. Especially because to this day I struggle to remember what "Bats in the belfry (bell tower)" means.

[@Cipher.618]

Drill a hole in your belly - wrong translation. It should be more like: "you're drilling a hole in my belly" (wiercisz mi dziurę w brzuchu). It is used when someone wants you to do something but you don't have time for it or just don't want do to it.

[@KamilazWarszawy]

Btw the "turning the cat tail forward" thing has an equivalent in Italian. Here in Italy they say "Rigirare la frittaat" that means literally "turning upside down a frittata (on the pan)", that means that during a discussion someone changes the focus and start discussing about something that is not the original point of the discussion, avoiding the central question and changing the main theme.

[@karolinakuc4783]

In English there are some absurdal phrases too like that saying "it rains cats and dogs". I heard of tornado swallowing animals but to use it as a saying. It is a very dreary picture. Polish saying "it pours as if one poured from a bucket" (leje jak z cebra). Has a way more sense don't you think

[@marekmaroo280]

Howabout : Better sparrow in the hand than pigeon on the roof ? :) I'll be more than happy to help you out.I love Polish history and culture=i'm proud of it ,

[@Goldenka]

7:24 I think in the translation of this phrase was incorrect, probably because the translator itself didn't understand the Polish one correctly. You never work on the land when it's too sunny/hot, because it's too dangerous for you.

[@artursiudak3411]

Exackly, "porywać się" means reather "to rush" (not "jump" like "attack something") - in this context "Don't rush into the field(works) when it's too hot to stand."

[@tymondabrowski12]

But it is "na słońce" not "na słońcu" or "w południe" or something like that. "Porywać się z patykiem na rycerza" would be imho similar in meaning, you're running into/trying to attack/handle/do something with a knight/sun using a stick/hoe. But I might be wrong.

[@artursiudak3411]

@@tymondabrowski12 forma "na" w nieco starszym polskim była używana do określenia generalnego obszaru. Stąd na przykład nieco inaczej funkcjonuje "idę na miasto" i "idę do miasta". Krakowiacy mówią też "na pole" (na generalnie dowolny otwarty teren) w odróżnieniu od "w pole" (pracować na roli). Trzeba też wziąć pod uwagę, że gwara wiejska obejmuje wiele gramatycznych nieścisłości jak np "iść do pługa = pracować przy pługu". Mogłem odrobinę nie zrozumieć, co jest obiektem twojej wątpliwości, więc jak coś skoryguj mnie proszę :)

[@lilianapekala7599]

your guesses are amazing! i'm from poland and i didn't know few of them...🤣

[@adunzoroq33]

Fall from a Christmas tree means finding yourself desoriented or lost in a topic or situation, the key word is 'urwać' - fall out of the Christmas tree, like a lost ornament sort of

[@gogar1202]

Zdanie z gruszkami powinno brzmieć: Obiecywać gruszki na wierzbie. 🙂 Fajne byłoby przetłumaczenie angielskiej frazy. 😉

[@adamis1962]

Dokładnie!

[@HarryWSRH]

"Promise pears in the willow" Nie dziękuj, użyłem tylko translatora google

[@gogar1202]

@@HarryWSRH Dzięki, ale nie o to chodziło.

[@LevelUp76]

I belive "choinka" in that phrase should be translated more like "conifer" actually, rather than literal christmas tree, since we often use it as linguist shortcut to call any conifer tree like pine, spruce etc

[@dickottel]

a ja nie mam pojęcia czemu akurat choinka czy drzewko iglaste jest w tym powiedzeniu 😄

[@LevelUp76]

@@dickottel Ja też nie, ale to mi się już prędzej kojarzy niż choinka świąteczna. Ona ma jeszcze mniej sensu 😅

[@sebq998]

its christmast tree literally. Its liek other phrase "to fall from the moon".

[@adaadowska9383]

Wiercić dziure w brzuchu - my children often "drill a hole in MY belly" (Because it's drilling in someone's belly, not in yours belly) when they keep saying: mommy can I watch a movie? When we will watch a movie? Mum is this a time for a movie? Mum, mum, mum.... - that's drilling a hole in my belly.

[@LimakXRobczuk]

It should be "stop drilling hole in my belly", meaning, „stop annoying me”. It also apply to "do not turn cat…", which i understand as „don't use „look at yourself” argument”.

[@PiotrPieszynski]

Hi! I'm from Poland! The saying about the elephant is not about taste in music, it's about someone who can't sing. The elephant makes sense because it's heavy, so it's stepping on is hard, so it damaged your ear in a significant way. You were right about the hoe saying, you can give yourself a point even though you guessed :D The saying about about drilling became translated wrongly. It is to drill a hole in someone's else stomach. For me, the saying about the cat makes sense. You show someone the wrong side of the cat. In the same way, you present the facts to someone in a wrong way.

[@toppat_sans]

polska :)

[@bartoszjasinski]

Translations are good but there is something in them that don't give exact concept. Like this christmas tree. I have no idea how to explain that, as I said, translation is ok but there is something missing, i don't know...

[@ja-nozreaper5865]

I live in Poland, and some of those areny used so often, but sometime someone use them.

[@airmagol]

To drill a hole in stomach. Actually means: When someone ask again and again about one topic. Might be wife telling: "Hang this painting" three days in a row 😂

[@slavstar6631]

Here's some more examples , now with whole nations "A Swedish Table" - "Szwedzki Stół" - An all-you-can-eat buffet "French doggie" - "Francuski piesek" - An extremely picky person "Once a Russian year" - "Raz na ruski rok" - Extremely rare "To go out the English way" - "Wyjść po angielsku" - To leave unnoticed "Czech mistake" - "Czeski błąd" - a typo "To behave like on a Turkish mass" - "Siedzieć jak na tureckim kazaniu" - To not understand 'To pretend to be Greek" - "Udawać greka" - Pretend, that you don't know something "Egyptian darkness" - "Egipska ciemność" - Really dark "English weather" - 'Pogoda angielska" - Horrible weather "The Pole is smarter after the loss" - "Mądry Polak po szkodzie" - Humans learn from their mistakes

[@Chociewitka]

that is "Turkish sermon" not "mass"

[@YQ-jerzy]

@@Chociewitka ... and "sit", not "behave".

[@DraconTorrin]

This video names should be Polish idioms (original video name - yours is fine) and it would much more sense - each language have their own idioms which sound silly for foreigners and for natives make perfect sense. Thank you for doing the reaction - I found it funny ;-)

[@gliderfan6196]

Nudne jak flaki z olejem: Nudne actually does not mean boring nor dull, it means sick-making. The correct similar English phrase would be: This makes me sick. But TBH most Poles does not know that and think it is about boredom

[@hynol]

5:00 IMHO it should be translated as "Looking for a hole in solid". It is closer to original. 6:21 - "Urwać się z choinki" means to be odd, not understand situation. It's not about stupidity per se. 6:40 - I wouldn't use word "jump". "Porywać się" means to make attempt. In this case - make attempt to fight the sun with a hoe. 10:34 - yes, it makes very little sense, but it is popular phrase :).

[@lamerekeklerek]

2:45 you were actually quite correct, that's the second meaning ^^ and the phrase "to turn the cat around by it's tail" usually refers to twisting the blame on someone else, so you present the fact i.e. "glass broke" but you put blame on someone else so "he did it/he pushed me/it was his fault" and then accused person might say: "do not turn the cat around by it's tail, it was you and only you, I was not involved at all"

[@sensei1991]

No nie do końca, to powiedzenie ma dużo szersze znaczenie. Akurat w filmie ma to dobrze wytłumaczone że chodzi o przedstawianie faktów w niewłaściwym świetle. Nie chodzi tylko o przerzucanie na kogoś winy, "nie odwracaj kota ogonem" możemy też przecież powiedzieć kiedy ktoś próbuje np. odwrócić naszą uwagę od czegoś.

[@lamerekeklerek]

@@sensei1991 oczywiście się zgadzam, podałem tylko taki przykład, który moim zdaniem jest najbardziej popularny w użyciu, ale zdecydowanie nie jest to jedyne zastosowanie. Tak czy inaczej, wydaję mi się, że wytłumaczenie tego przysłowia na takim przykładzie nadaje mu nieco więcej sensu i łatwiej to zapamiętać.

[@sylwiawajda9866]

"to turn a cat around by its tail" is used in a situation of an argument. If someone has no more arguments to support his point of view, he may start to lie about the facts (that's exactly "turning a cat around by its tail - changing its head - tail position, so completely changing facts to justify your point)

[@karolinakuc4783]

6:22 It is actually slightly simmilar to English one because we hang ginger breads on Christmast trees and they may fall from it.

[@DJReally]

7:32 A lot of Polish sayings have a folk tradition, some words do not directly mean a particular thing, but are a reference to how people lived. Especially before the war where Poland had an agricultural economy. To get carried away with a hoe to the sun means the time of day and work in the field. this type of work especially in the summer should start at 6 in the morning, and not at noon, which is when the sun is highest and hard physical work can end in sunstroke and rather not complete the work. so English equivalent is mostly accurate with addition that it is used also to describe a reckless and inconsiderate person.

[@danger6684]

with a hoe sentence, I would rather translate it as: craving to work with a hoe (on a field) when the sun heats the most.

[@joannabenisz574]

Actually, the translation in the video was more accurate. To attempt to do sth which is impossible/ too difficult

[@danger6684]

@@joannabenisz574 I always thought of it as want to do something that is difficult, unpleasant and is unnecessary. You know, you can start working on a field in the morning not in the afternoon

[@seboho6938]

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 człowiek- złap motykę i rzuć się na słońce- nie wierzę że można być aż tak głupim i nie rozumieć 🤣

[@_Syhmac]

@@danger6684 Translation on the video is accurate, but I would translate it like this: "To try conquer a sun with a hoe". I think that preserves more of the original sense of this phrase. It means something impossible or too hard to be done with an equipment you have.

[@_Syhmac]

@@seboho6938 Jesteś Polakiem, więc łatwo ci zrozumieć znaczenie tego zdania. Jakbym cię zapytał co oznacza hiszpańskie powiedzenie, które dosłownie się tłumaczy na "wypadną mu włosy" to też byś nie wiedziało co chodzi, mimo, że dla nich to jest oczywiste.

[@talarzoon]

in fact, with throwing a peas against the wall is your translation was good because like talking to the wall is a separate proverb in polish ,,mówić jak do ściany''

[@RIPek-rw3pk]

they all make sense in POLISH

[@stevenwilliams3038]

We should use what does a gingerbread have to do with a windmill? Im half tempted to use it when someone next says something with little relevence to the conversation

[@mateuszbanaszak4671]

6:27 "Porywać się z motyką na słońce" isnt about "jumping", but about doing something that you shouldn't. Working on the field when sun was in its peak was so common that people created demon/ghost "Południca", so people would stop working and dodge potential stroke.

[@piotrkowalski5301]

"Drill a hole in your belly" - in my opinion it refers to someone pushing you with a finger each time he asks you for something- so after a few pushes it creates a hole

[@sebastian-ic1mz]

Good video,as always 😉👍

[@kamildowejko2254]

About falling from Christmas tree it is exactly about height. It's just in Poland "choinka" does not necessarily mean Christmas tree, just any conifer, preferably spruce as it is the most popular one and gets to pretty big height

[@SmilingShadow-jl5tr]

“To drill a holes in somebody’s belly” basically means to torture them with persistent demands. For example if a child asks you 50 times if a friend can come over to play XBox, you would say: “Stop drilling a hole in my belly, I will let you know when I know my evening schedule.”

[@M4tIn]

In "Looking for a hole in a whole" there is some translation issue. In Polish "całe" can mean whole, but it also can mean "not broken", or "not damaged". So if you are looking for a hole in not damaged pair of jeans, then it can actually make sense. It definitelly should be "Looking for a hole in something not broken"

[@konradhenrykowicz1859]

"Urwać się z choinki" cannot be translated accurately because there is no way to translate the term "urwać się" directly, because in English this designator does not have a corresponding word. The word "urwać" imagines an aftermath of stretching a thread, rope or cord until it loses it's cohesiveness and refers precisely to the thread of the cord or rope. In English, the terms "break" or "snap" refer to many materials. In Polish, process of breaking the cohesiveness of various types of matter have more precise definitions. "Rwać" refers to strings, "łamać" is for a stick, board or other rigid material, "drzeć" is for fabric or paper" whilst "pękać" is cracking yet not parting. So to "urwać się z choinki", in it's spectrum of meaning, represents a CHRISTMASS TREE ORNAMENT, which "suddenly-and-unexpectedly-and-by-itself-lost-its-connection-with-the-branch" thus had lost it's purpose, connection with the agenda, thus abstracts from the frame of reference. By all means it does not describe a person who was standing on a Christmas tree and fell from it or jumped off.

[@Radical_Middle]

to drill a hole into someone's belly... my god those translations you have there are priceless.

[@soulofwoods2721]

The 'pears on the willow' always makes me giggle, because as a landscaping technician, I know for a fact that the is a type of pear tree that actually has willow-like leaves. Maybe we should reconsider using that one 😅

[@sytrostormlord3275]

7:15 You could also understand that as 'Trying to do something that's impossible to do or almost imposible to do'

[@olekperk7387]

As a Pole I never heard about "Nie dziel skóry na niedźwiedziu." (in english "Don't divide the skin while it's still on the bear."). It's much more common to hear "Nie mów hop zanim nie przeskoczysz." (english "Don't say hop before you jump.")

[@ravios7553]

In polish we have a funny response to "what does gingerbread has to do with a windmill". "Flour"

[@charko4191]

the fall off of christmas tree is more of being out of place looking being ricolous peculiar from outer space basically