Nie wiedziałem, że braki były taki poważne!

[muckefuck]

Sorry it's been a while since I've had any passive-aggressive gems from Swan to post. Now that I'm at about the two-thirds mark, I've bogged down. Every chapter is packed with loads of new vocabulary and paradigms to memorise, but the dialogues are exactly the same (brief) length. Fortunately there are treasures to be found elsewhere in the lessons. In chapter XXII, we learn the words for Means of Conveyance, Bodies of Water, and Writing Implements and Materials. See if you find anything interesting in the last of these:

• pióro pen
• wieczne pióro fountain pen
• długopis ball-point pen
• ołówek pencil
• kreda chalk
• pisak (felt tip) marker
• atrament ink
• krew blood

Comments

[strongaxe.livejournal.com]

I found two interesting things in this list:

First off, I totally didn't get "atrament" - that is, until I put the stress on the right syllable, and when I did, my genetic memory kicked in, and said "Of course!"

Secondly, I find it curious (and amusing) that blood is listed with writing implements :)

[caprinus.livejournal.com]

Yeah, blood, what?? o_O Swan = Mephistopheles?

Did they mention what "ołów" in "ołówek" means? or what a "pióro" is in any other context?

("ołów" is vide Danish "bly/blyant". You should do one of your cross-language posts, I'd want to see how many other pencil words are related!)

[hanskramladen.blogspot.com (from livejournal.com)]

In German it's Blei / Bleistift as well. In Russian it's karandash, from the French brand Caran d'Ache.