Month: February 2025

Where Are My Friends

A few days ago, while driving on Route 2 towards Sultan, my Spotify Daily Mix playlist suddenly played a song I hadn’t heard in years. It was Republika’s “Biała Flaga” (“White Flag”), and the first verse was “Where are my friends?” (“Gdzie są moi przyjaciele?”). When I got home, the song was still in my head, and I kept asking myself this question: Where are our friends?

We left them behind when we moved. They left us behind when they moved. There were a few friendships from high school that survived our turbulent times and all the departures. Some lasted for years, but we stopped responding to their Christmas cards, and they stopped sending them. Some just faded away as we had nothing in common and nothing to say.

Then we ended up in Seattle and heard about the Seattle Freeze.

Linguistic False Friends

False friends in language, much like in life, can lead to misunderstandings. These are words in two languages that look or sound similar but have different meanings. For instance, the Polish “konfident” means an informant or betrayer, while the English “confident” refers to someone who is self-assured. Being aware of such false friends helps avoid miscommunication, ensuring that we use words correctly in different contexts, whether in everyday conversation or professional settings, and makes cross-language exchanges smoother. Read the article and turn false friands to your conversational companions.

ParticipACTION

Years ago, when I lived in Montreal, the city would come alive once a year, with everyone getting out and moving. Since 1971, Canadians have been joining the ParticipACTION movement

Polish Home Election Results

At the annual meeting of the Polish Home Association held on January 26, 2025, Lidia Jasklowska has been re-elected as the PHA President, Erik Lidzbarski as the Senior Vice-President and