Hi
guys!
It's
that time of the year again when cities get packed with university
students, schedules get tighter and days get shorter.
It's BACK TO SCHOOL time!!!
The
inspiration for this post comes from all the supermarket brochures that have been
recently delivered to my home. If you don't find yourself browsing
through them and thinking how you could use a new pen or
an agenda, well you must be from a different planet :P I have
such thoughts every time a new school year arrives.
schedules
get tighter – grafiki stają się bardziej napięte (you have more
things planned for the day)
to
browse through (brochures) – przeglądać (to to look through a
book or magazine without reading everything)
I
could use – przydałby mi się (It might be good to have ...)
an
agenda – terminarz (a planner)
Of
course not everyone is going back to school this autumn and thank god for that ;) After
completing a postgraduate course, I made a promise to myself
that I would think twice
before I enrol into
a new course. It's draining to juggle work in the week
and school on weekends. It's exhausting to explain to everyone why
you can't attend a
party Friday night and it's plain depressing when instead of
having a marathon of your favourite TV series you need to do your
homework (and you're over 24 in age) :D. But hey, I learnt a
lot and I by no means regret the decision to go back to
school. What I'm trying to say is: think really hard about the
postgraduate course you want to do and make sure that completing it
will help you pursue a career in the field of your choice.
Studying and working is hard. Especially if you have classes weekly
like I did.
a
postgraduate course – studia podyplomowe (studies for people who
already have a university degree)
to
enrol into a (course) – zapisać się (to have your name listed as
a participant)
draining
– wyczerpujące (extremely tiring)
to
juggle work and school– pogodzić pracę
i naukę (to
succeed in arranging your life so that you have time to involve
yourself in two or more different activities)
plain
(depressing) – completely (depressing)
24
in age – 24 years old
by
no means – w żadnym wypadku (not at all)
to
pursue a career in – dążyć do pracy w danej dziedzinie (to try
to work in)
CLASS
PRESIDENT/ CLASS CAPTAIN
When
in school, I never wanted to be a class president. It just seemed to me to involve too much responsibility, public speaking and being
serious. If I had been a class president, I would probably
have not taken it seriously and tried to crack a joke every
time I needed to work something out with my classmates :)
It's
important to remember that in the English-speaking world, a class
president (US) or a class captain (UK) represents all students from a
single grade (US)
or a single
year (UK) (e.g. 400 students as opposed to 25)
to
crack a joke – to tell a joke
to
work something out – rozwiązać jakiś problem (to solve a
problem)
a
grade (US)/ a year (UK) – klasa, jeden cały rocznik (a stage of someone's education)
as
opposed to – w przeciwieńswie do (in contrast to)
LUNCH
MONEY/ PACKED LUNCH
 |
| PACKED LUNCH |
 |
| JUICE BOX |
In
primary school I was of the opinion that cool kids got lunch money
and uncool ones got a packed lunch instead. You know me and my sense
of humour well enough now to know which group I was in. For me a
packed lunch consisted of a sandwich, an apple and a juice box. Back
then, I felt that I was missing out on something. Now I think
that I was just following a healthy lifestyle :)
The
English face of healthy meals in school canteens (cafeterias) is definitely the famous chef
Jamie Oliver, who campaigns against schools serving junk food and for
schools offering nutritious, cost-effective and delicious
options. In America it's the first lady, Michelle Obama, who is a
strong advocate of eating healthy.
to
miss out on something – coś nas omija (to lose an opportunity to
experience something)
nutritious
– pożywny (containing many of the substances needed for life and
growth)
cost-effective–
opłacalne (good value for money)
an
advocate – orędowniczka (a supporter)
PICTURE
DAY/ YEARBOOK
 |
| YEARBOOK PHOTOS |
A
picture day is when students have their photos taken. In some
schools, it happens once a year, in the autumn (fall), whereas in
other schools there is another picture opportunity in the spring.
Autumn pictures are more formal head-and-shoulders portraits and they
go into
the yearbook and
spring pictures are more
on the casual side with
students posing against colourful backgrounds. I was particularly
interested in what the American yearbook was. It seems that in some
schools it is an annual photo album of a single grade/year or the
whole school, but the name can also refer to the album of the
graduating
class/year like our Polish
'tablo'. Yearbooks may
have a student life section with special superlatives
such
as Most
Talkative, Class Clown,
Biggest Klutz, Class
Mooch, Best Laugh, Most likely
to Google their own name
and blank
pages for students to sign one another's yearbooks.
more
on the casual side – bardziej luźne, nieformalne (more casual,
informal)
graduating
– kończących naukę (finishing school)
a
superlative – tytuł (the most...., the biggest …)
Class
Clown – klasowy błazen :)
a
klutz – oferma, niezdara (a clumsy person)
a
mooch – sęp (a freeloader)
Best
Laugh – the funniest person
blank
– puste (empty)
DETENTION
School
detention is a form of punishment where students are required to
spend a given amount of time at a specific place. From American TV
series you might remember that all students with detention might be
asked to come to one classroom after the last school period
and either sit silently or do their homework. Harry Potter lovers
will know that students with detention might have to do some work
inside or outside school grounds. Harry, for example, is asked
to look for a wounded unicorn in the Forbidden Forest, help
professor Gilderoy Lockhart respond to his fan mail and do lines
for professor Umbridge.
detention
– zatrzymanie po lekcjach
be
required to – być zobowiązanym do (to be under the obligation to)
a
school period – godzina lekcyjna (a division of time in the day
when a subject is taught)
school
grounds – teren szkoły
wounded
– zraniony (injured, hurt)
do
lines – przepisywać za karę (when you write something many times
as punishment)
LETTERMAN
JACKET/ VARSITY JACKET/ JOCKS
Letterman
jackets (or varsity jackets) are worn by American high school or
college sportsmen. A letterman is a student who plays for a varsity,
which is a team of the most skilled level. Letterman jackets are worn
to represent school and team pride and to showcase the
sportsman’s achievements. For a given number of steals or
tackles or a given amount of time in the game, an athlete is
awarded a varsity letter – a special distinction but also a
letter patch (usually the school's initials), which is placed
on the left breast of the jacket. Varsity jackets are also the symbol
of 'jocks' – muscular guys who could never take part in the
Spelling Bee or a Maths contest.
to
showcase – demonstrować, przedstawiać (to present, to show off)
a steal – zdobycie
bazy, przechwyt (in baseball – stolen base; in
basketball
– an act of gaining possession of the ball from an opponent)
a
tackle – blok ( taking hold of the player on the opposing
team and causing them to fall in order to take the ball)
a
distinction – wyróżnienie (a
mark given to students who produce work of an excellent standard)
a
patch – łatka (a piece of fabric)
the
Spelling Bee – konkurs ortograficzny/ literowania (a competition in
which the winner is the person or group who is able to form correctly
the highest number of the words they are asked to form)
SCHOOL
UNIFORM
What's
a better place to look at school uniforms than England? Let's have a
bit of fun with it and look at a fictitious school. Smeltings
Academy is a Muggle public school attended by Dudley Dursley
from Harry Potter books.
fictitious
– fikcyjna (made up)
a
public school – szkoła prywatna (an expensive type of private
school)
That
evening, Dudley paraded around the living room for the family in his
brand-new uniform. Smeltings boys wore maroon tailcoats,
orange knickerbockers and flat straw hats called boaters.
a
tailcoat – (frak) an old-fashioned
type of man's coat, waist-length at the front and with the lower half
of the back divided into two pieces, now only worn on very formal
occasions
knickerbockers
– (pludry) short loose trousers that
fit tightly below the knee worn especially in the past or for
ceremonies
a
boater – (kanotier) a stiff hat made
of straw with
a flat top.
maroon
– kasztanowy (ciemny kolor wiśniowy zmieszany z brązowym) (a
dark red colour)
At
Harrow, a London boarding school for boys, students wear to
classes:
- a white shirt
- a black silk tie
- light grey trousers
- black shoes
- an optional blue jumper
- a dark blue woollen uniform jacket (a 'bluer')
- on cold days: the school blue and white scarf and a dark blue woolen overcoat
- the Harrow Hat.
In
the Priory Academy LSST, a comprehensive school in Lincoln,
Lincolnshire, students wear :
- a a sky blue shirt with the Academy tie
- a navy blazer with the Academy badge
- an optional navy blue v-necked jumper
- grey trousers (an optional grey skirt for girls with grey cotton or charcoal opaque tights)
black shoes.
a
boarding school – szkoła z internatem (a school where students live
and study)
a
comprehensive school – szkoła rejonowa, która przyjmuje uczniów
bez względu na wyniki w nauce (a school for children of all
abilities)
a
school badge – tarcza szkolna
a
v-necked jumper – sweter z dekoltem w szpic
charcoal
– grafitowy (the dark gray color of burnt wood)
opaque
– nieprzeźroczyste, kryjące (not transparent)
Hope you enjoyed :) It wasn't much, I guess, but I hope I got you into the back to school spirit :)
Today's
Facebook random word of the day is: SCHOOL SUPPLIES – przybory szkolne (things you
need for school such as notebooks, pens, pencils, post-it notes,
highlighters, etc.) (1) I want animal print and Hello Kitty school
supplies this year!!! (2) After a quick breakfast, Harry and Hagrid
head off to Diagon Alley in London to buy Harry's school supplies.
(3) Many Vermont families have tight /limited/ budgets with no room
for school supplies, but there's a program that can help.
For
more random words of the day visit:
To
learn about my work visit:
See
you in my next post!
Karola
