My most popular post to date has been Why do I like and respect the Polish PrimeMinister Donald Tusk. Obviously,
when we blog about somebody or something popular it rubs off on the blogger.
Thank you Mr. Tusk, no more the Prime Minister of Poland, for my undeserved
popularity.
Mr. Tusk advanced to the President of the European
Council. This is international recognition of his talents and I, his fan, am
very happy about it. He took over his new post a couple of days ago and yesterday
gave his first speech in English.
I have attached a link. It takes about eight minutes and shows Donald Tusk as I knew him from
the past. Relaxed, even if he jokes about being nervous. If it is possible at
all, I think he appears relaxed and at the same a bit nervous. Apparently, he has been criticised for not speaking English or French. I think he made a
good progress in English. His German has been always fluent though, I hear.
This is not surprising for a person with Kashubian background. Kashubia is a northern part of
Poland with its own language which uses many German words. So, from the linguistic
point of view one should not criticise Mr. Tusk all that much. How he will
manage in his new post we’ll see and I think he will make a positive mark on
Europe. He is still my hero.
| Kashubia |
In my previous post I mentioned Jurata and its special
location on a very narrow peninsula. The attached map of Kashubia shows it well. Jurata belongs to the Kashubian district. I first heard Kashubian language during
my holidays in Jurata. I was surprised that in Poland people speak other languages
or dialects than pure Polish, but they still do.
Mr Tusk comes from Gdansk. That is the place where I
live during my visits in Poland. My Polish neighbour tells me that her son went
to school with Donald Tusk who would have been called those days - Donek, diminutive of Donald. My neighbour is no gossip so I do not have any juicy stories to tell.
I was happy to see Mr. Tusk giving Mr. Van Rompuy, the
previous President of European Council, a
piece of amber for luck. Polish like to offer presents and amber is a stone
from Gdansk. Sometimes Gdansk is even called an amber city. I love it myself
and each time I visit Gdansk I land up with a new piece of amber jewelry. The piece of raw
amber I bought this year got chipped, I think I need to replace it during my
next visit with a better looking and undamaged specimen. I will take care of it
better than I did in the case of the current, sadly chipped one.
