About Poland

POLAND - 20 interesting facts

FACT ONE
Officially, Poland is now 1038 years old. Its formal beginning is the year 966 when the ruling prince, Mieszko I, decided to adopt Christianity as the official religion of his people, thus establishing political bonds with the rest of civilised Europe.

FACT TWO
The name "Poland" - in Latin "Polonia" and in Polish "Polska" comes from the name of the tribe "Polanie", who used to inhabit the western part of today's country. It used to mean: people living in open fields.

FACT THREE
Our national colours are red and white. They can be seen on our flag and emblem. The emblem represents a white eagle on the red background and there is a nice legend about it. We wrote down the legend and put in on the website of the Global Coalition, in which we have been participating for over a year. You can read it here, alongside with some other Polish legends:
http://bcsd.k12ny.us/middle/Global/myths/
myths.htm

FACT FOUR

Here is what our country looks like now.
Its capital is Warszawa (Warsaw in English). It has the sea in the North and the mountains in the South. We live more to the south, in a city called Katowice, which is the capital city of a region called Silesia, in Polish - Slask.

FACT FIVE
The best known and most loved Polish city is Kraków, Cracow in English. It is in fact the real heart of the country, the city of unputdownable charm, history and atmosphere. Make sure you come to see it if you are one day in the area!

FACT SIX
There are many legends and stories about Cracow. The most famous ones are about the Dragon of Cracow and about how Princess Wanda saved the city. They can also be found as a part of our presentation, on the global Coalition website:
http://bcsd.k12.ny.us/middle/Global/myths/myths.htm

FACT SEVEN

Poland relly is situated in the VERY HEART of Europe. The geometrical central point of the whole continent can be found in a town of Schowola in the East of the country.

FACT EIGHT
The most famous Pole is - in our opinion - the most famous astronomer of all times, who also happens to be the patron of our school. His name is Mikotaj Kopernik, known to the world as Nicolaus Copernicus. His biggest merit is that he "stopped the Sun and moved the Earth".

FACT NINE
The best Polish sportspeople nowadays are Adam Malysz - a ski jumper and Otylia Jedrzejczak - a swimmer. We are VERY PROUD of them!
Otylia won three medals this year at the Olympic Games! One was silver and two were gold!

FACT TEN

Another famous Pole was Tadeusz Kosciuszko. We think many of you will have heard of him - at least our friends from the USA. Did you know that he had fought in the American Independence War and the one who built West Point?

FACT ELEVEN
Our friends in Australia may know the name, too. His name was also given to the highest mountain in Australia, Mount Kosciuszko, which is situated in Kosciuszco National Park! The man who is responsible por it is a famous Polish traveller and discoverer, Pawel Strzelecki, who spent a few years in Australia in the 19th century and explored a big part of the continent.

FACT TWELVE
One of the most famous places in Poland is the oldest Salt Mine in Wieliczca, near Kraków. It is a truly impresive place, in which salt has been excavated for over 700 years! Check our Global Coalition site to read how - according to a legend - salt was discovered there. End if you want to find out more abut the place, you can visit their oficial website at: http://www.kopalnia.pl/english/index.html

FACT THIRTEEN
We have twenty-three National Parks in Poland, so you can see we are concerned about protecting our wildlife and landscapes! In some of them there are some truly unique species of animals, like the European buffalo or white eagle for example. Here is a nice place to learn about our Polish Parks:
http://www.mos.gov.pl/kzpn/ind_gb.htm

FACT FOURTEEN
The population of Poland in the 10th century was about 1 -1,5 mln. Now it is over 38,2 mln.

FACT FIFTEEN

In our opinion, the most interesting building in Poland is Spodek in our city, Katowice. The name means "Saucer" and it really looks like a giant flying saucer, especially at night. It is a big sports and concert hall.

FACT SIXTEEN
Polish language belongs to the group of Western Slavonic languages. With us, there are two other languages in this group: Czech and Slovakian. Especially the Slovakian language is very easy for us to understand.

FACT SEVENTEEN
In Poland there are three main types of schools. You start in a primary school when you are seven and continue for six years. Then you go to a junior secondary, or middle school for three years and finally for three years to secondary school. At the end of it you are nineteen and if you pass your exams, you can go to university!

FACT EIGHTEEN
The Polish alphabet consists of 32 letters. Here they are:

We also use some dyphtongs to express the consonants which do not have a one-letter representation in the alphabet.

FACT NINETEEN
We have seven times in history won the Nobel Prize. Here are the winners from Poland: Literature - Henryk Sienkiewicz, Wladyslaw Reymont, Czeslaw Milosz and Wislawa Szymborska. Peace - Lech Walesa. Chemistry - Maria Sklodowska-Curie. Physics - Maria Sklodowska-Curie.

FACT TWENTY
This fact is about US. We are a small group of 10 students who belong to the school International Club. Our club is called "Fileas" ("Phileas" in English). We are all twelve years old and have been working for the club for three years. It's our last year in the school. Our school's name is 34 Nicholas Copernicus Primary School. Here is de website or our school, on which our club is also presented:
http://sp34_katowice.w.interia.pl

This is us!

Hello from Poland!

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