In defense of the Polish language
Pucuł and Grzechu, a program about proper language usage, invites viewers to recognize language errors and shows how to avoid making them. Foreign participants at INPUT will learn some of the traps lurking in the Polish language.
For Poles their native tongue has always been important. Once, language used to be part of one’s national identity, subject to deliberate destruction by invaders. Today, the purity of norms are assailed ever more by translations from western languages, linguistic attacks from youth subculture, and the loss of attachment to history. Not long ago Pucuł and Grzechu joined the fight for linguistic correctness. They are very unusual competitors who can be seen on TVP.
Pucuł and Grzechu is a series of a dozen or so short, lasting barely 45 seconds, animated films that show in an absurd fashion the most common language errors made in Polish selected by Prof. Andrzej Markowski from the Polish Language Council. Drawn in a simple but distinctive style with the voices of some of Poland’s best actors (Wojciech Malajkat, Zbigniew Zamachowski, and Grażyna Torbicka), these film snippets show the errors and their consequences.
The characters are drawn in a classic, black and white style, without any 3D fireworks. Pucuł is a large, straightforward fellow while in contrast Grzechu is a skinny little runt. However it is Grzechu, thanks to his excellent knowledge of Polish grammar and pronunciation, who has “success at home and on the job,” the motto of every episode. The serial is not a preachy lecture on proper Polish, but is realized as a strange handbook where we learn how to get rid of the boss, how not to be childish, or how to reach the north pole.
For example, when Pucuł says “ain’t played” the computer devours him. When he addresses a lovely lady “Honey,” she changes in to Superwoman and hits him with her umbrella. When he asks for “them” nuts, he gets a huge boot into space. However, when Grzechu uses the correct forms, he is rewarded.
Jakub Osiejewski
For Poles their native tongue has always been important. Once, language used to be part of one’s national identity, subject to deliberate destruction by invaders. Today, the purity of norms are assailed ever more by translations from western languages, linguistic attacks from youth subculture, and the loss of attachment to history. Not long ago Pucuł and Grzechu joined the fight for linguistic correctness. They are very unusual competitors who can be seen on TVP.
Pucuł and Grzechu is a series of a dozen or so short, lasting barely 45 seconds, animated films that show in an absurd fashion the most common language errors made in Polish selected by Prof. Andrzej Markowski from the Polish Language Council. Drawn in a simple but distinctive style with the voices of some of Poland’s best actors (Wojciech Malajkat, Zbigniew Zamachowski, and Grażyna Torbicka), these film snippets show the errors and their consequences.
The characters are drawn in a classic, black and white style, without any 3D fireworks. Pucuł is a large, straightforward fellow while in contrast Grzechu is a skinny little runt. However it is Grzechu, thanks to his excellent knowledge of Polish grammar and pronunciation, who has “success at home and on the job,” the motto of every episode. The serial is not a preachy lecture on proper Polish, but is realized as a strange handbook where we learn how to get rid of the boss, how not to be childish, or how to reach the north pole.
For example, when Pucuł says “ain’t played” the computer devours him. When he addresses a lovely lady “Honey,” she changes in to Superwoman and hits him with her umbrella. When he asks for “them” nuts, he gets a huge boot into space. However, when Grzechu uses the correct forms, he is rewarded.
Jakub Osiejewski
