Day 70: Absence of Evidence
In a caf茅 in Sanok with a mural of the legend of Jerzy Kulczycki, who is said to have opened Vienna's first coffee house after the siege of 1683, Ilona (A), a history doctoral student, gets talking to the barista, Nadia (B).
How to study this lesson 3 steps
- Read the situation under the title. It says who is talking and how they know each other, which decides how politely they speak.
- Read the dialogue line by line with its translation, until every line makes sense. Point at (or tap) a Polish word to see what it means.
- Spend at least 30 minutes listening to native Polish, for example from the Resources page. It doesn't matter if you don't understand it yet.
Dialogue
Audio recordings are on the way. For now, each lesson is the dialogue with its English translation.
Keys: E hide English · ← → previous / next day · point at a word to see its meaning
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A
Przepraszam, czy pani wie, 偶e ta historia o kawiarni Kulczyckiego to legenda?
Excuse me, did you know that the story about Kulczycki's coffee house is a legend?
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B
Przecie偶 przedar艂szy si臋 przez ob贸z turecki, dosta艂 w nagrod臋 worki kawy. Tak pisz膮 wsz臋dzie.
But having slipped through the Turkish camp, he was given sacks of coffee as a reward. It says so everywhere.
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A
Wsz臋dzie, czyli w przewodnikach, kt贸re przepisuj膮 jeden od drugiego. Pierwsz膮 kawiarni臋 w Wiedniu otworzy艂 Ormianin Diodato.
Everywhere meaning guidebooks, which copy from one another. Vienna's first coffee house was opened by an Armenian called Diodato.
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B
A pani sk膮d to wie? Te偶 z jakiego艣 przewodnika?
And how do you know that? From some guidebook too?
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A
Z wiede艅skich archiw贸w, bo pisz臋 o tym doktorat. W dokumentach z epoki nie ma o tej kawiarni ani wzmianki.
From the archives in Vienna, because I'm writing my PhD on it. There isn't a single mention of that coffee house in any document from the period.
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B
A czy ktokolwiek udowodni艂, 偶e jej nie by艂o? Brak dokumentu to jeszcze nie dow贸d.
But has anyone ever proved that it didn't exist? A missing document doesn't prove anything.
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A
Na obronie taki wyw贸d by nie przeszed艂, ale przy kawie punkt dla pani. Poprosz臋 kaw臋 po wiede艅sku.
An argument like that wouldn't get past a thesis defence, but over coffee, I'll give you that one. A Viennese coffee, please.
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