Friday, September 11, 2009

9/11 and cousin Jan.


Gray day, slept until 10AM, a first in a long time. Today, of course, was a day of remembrance of 9/11 but also of cousin Jan Szumański who lives in New York. After the towers came down, his construction crew was one of the first crews to start searching under the buildings for anyone that could be found. PBS(Public Broadcasting System) in New York made a special program about him and I have it on VHS tape. He was back in Golina for a visit last month but I didn't have the chance to see him.

In the afternoon we went to Praktiker to look for a floor lamp for the dining room. The overhead lights are just too bright so we thought a light in the corner would be better. We didn't find what we wanted to we'll try Ikea tomorrow.

At 4PM we met with Zbyszek for coffee and conversation. He brought up an interesting question about the English language I couldn't answer. Maybe you can. Why do we say "the Ukraine" or "the Sudan" but don't say "the Russia or the Germany or the France, etc."?

Dzień szarości , spany aż do 10AM, pierwszego w długim czasie. Dzisiaj, oczywiście, była rocznica 9/11 ale też kuzyna Jana Szumański, który mieszka w Nowym Jorku. Gdy wieże obniżyły się, jego załoga budowy była jedna z pierwszych załóg by zacząć badanie pod budynkami dla kogoś, który mógłby być znaleziony. PB(Publiczny Transmitujący System) w Nowym Jorku zrobili specjalny program o nim i mam to na taśmie VHS. On był z powrotem w Golina dla wizyty ubiegły miesiąc ale nie miałem szansy by zobaczyć go.

Po południu poszliśmy do Praktiker by poszukać lampy stojącej dla jadalni. Ogólne światła są właśnie zbyt jasno tak pomyśleliśmy światło w kącie byłoby lepsze. Nie znaleźliśmy czego chcieliśmy do my spróbujemy jutro Ikea.

Przy 4PM spotkaliśmy się ze Zbyszek dla kawy i rozmowy. On wychował interesujące pytanie o języku angielskim nie mógłbym odpowiedzieć. Być może możesz. Dlaczego mówimy" Ukrainę" albo" Sudan" ale nie mówimy" Rosji albo Niemiec albo Francji, i tak dalej"?

6 comments:

  1. Anonymous11:16 PM

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Article_%28grammar%29#Geographic_uses

    Hope this helps :)

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  2. David,

    Great question about the countries. I have no idea. I would say that it sounds grammatically correct, but that isn't a reason to make it so.

    Interesting, though.

    Still reading your blog on a regular basis. Have you been to ours lately?

    John

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  3. I have a bit of an answer. "the" happens usually when a country is made up of parts that also have some independence or a government. Hence, we say the United States because the nation is made up of 50 states. We say the Netherlands because it is made up parts as well, Holland being only one part. I don't know if this explains "the Ukraine" but it helps with many of them. On the other hand, we don't say the Canada even though Canada has strong provincial governments. Maybe its name is left over from colonial days when England ruled Canada. Hope this helps.

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  4. Anna from Florida2:09 AM

    Dear Joan and David,

    Salute to your cousin and many thanks from all of us for his hard work and dedication to help on 9/11
    Many many thanks and best wishes.

    I found very nice Polish web site where you can see samples of different lamps and pick something you like.

    The name is oswietlenie sklep-lampy.pl, I hope you will be able ot find it and search for new lamp. Also take a look if you switch can be replaced to turn on just one bulb instead all of them or just replace the light bulb with smaller number of watts.

    As to your language question I have no idea or would not venture to explain.

    Best wishes

    ReplyDelete
  5. Lori and John,
    Thanks for your input on "the". I didn't have a good answer either for Zbyszek.

    John, yes, I read your blog also. Great to see your doing so much "exploring" of the area and other places. Lewis and Clark were two of my most interesting explorers. I read a lot about them some years ago while in my " I wish I had been alive in that time period" period.

    Ann, I will check out the website you gave me.

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  6. Anonymous5:46 PM

    As Lori mentioned, "the" was used before Ukraine and Sudan because of the concept of parts...

    As an indexer, since the dissolution of the USSR and the independence of Ukraine, that recent books have dropped the "the" from in front of "the Ukraine" and simply describe it as "Ukraine"... and I've noticed that many commentators on TV try to follow that new convention also.

    For me, it's difficult to change my patterns of thought and speech, and if I need to mention that country, I usually revert to "the Ukraine" incorrect as it is.

    Just my perspective on this.
    Lucie

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