Przed wielu laty znajomek będący marynarzem przypłynął do Hiszpanii i zobaczył w porcie slogan reklamowy: "Osram - toda mi luz." Absolutnie komiczne zdanko! Google tłumaczy to jako: osram - całe moje światło.

With those lightbulbs goes a polish joke: what's hanging up the ceiling and threatens you all the time? A Osram lightbulb!

I would also add the Spanish company "Yebane" :) very catchy name :)

Actually "Cipo" in Polish is exactly the vocative case of the word "cipa". "Cipo!" means "You pussy!". But in Polish it doesn't mean a "coward", it's a much harsher insult. "Osram" also is a complete word in Polish meaning "I will shit all over [sth]". Whereas "sram" is the present tense "I'm shitting".

Osram bulbs is a classic taught in every marketing class here in Poland. Basically everyone is laughing at this brand name but we take it with sense of humor so this - and product quality is probably the main reason it’s quite popular.

Not exactly related to your video but I remembered reading a foreigner's experience from visiting Poland years ago and they wrote how bizarre it is that we have a jewellery brand called Apart that sells wedding rings

"Dupa" in Romanian means "later, after". I remember a story once told by a Pole who visited Romania in the communist period. He saw a local (government-controlled) newspaper with an article titled "Dupa Ceausescu".

Great video! I also always laugh at the reverse situation with the polish store named "Fart" which means "Luck" in polish XD

My late Babacia told me that before World War II, sellers advertised Osram bulbs with the slogan - "It hangs, it shines, and it does not fulfill threats." ("Wisi, świeci, a groźby nie spełnia!") - Well! Each stick has two ends.

Years ago, when I was working on project in China, I met people from Chinese company which was name printed on their work clothes: "Jing Yebao Yang". The middle part of name was really hilarious for all Poles there!

I know of the one funeral home in southern Poland, where the owner imported Dodge Caravan in 90's and actually used it as hearse.

We have Osram lightbulbs in Australia, & my mother would always crack up laughing whenever we had to buy new bulbs.

Syfy or Sci Fi Channel - "syfy" in Polish is a plural form of "syf" which means "dirt, mess, syphilis" (that's why in Poland the channel decided not to change its name from Sci Fi to Syfy as it did in many other countries) =D Škoda - we pronounce it with an "s" sound at the beginning but the original version with Š pronounced as "sz/sh" actually means "damage / pity" in Polish :)

Quite the opposite case - years ago in Cracow, owners of tenement house restored the whole building and then called it "Boner Palace" - which derived from it's name "Bonerowski house" ('cause original owner from XVI century was Jan Boner).

Swego czasu pracowałem na słuchawce w pewnej pomarańczowej firmie. Kiedy mieliśmy zajęcia wprowadzające do pracy, jako anegdotę, jedna ze stałych pracownic opowiedziała nam,, że swego czasu zadzwonił pewien mężczyzna, który miał kłopoty z laptopem. Dla jasności pracownik zapytał, jakiej marki jest ten laptop. W odpowiedzi usłyszał, że jest to "dy". Głowił się nad tym dość długo. W końcu okazało się, że "dy", to tak na prawdę "hp". Co jest logiczne, kiedy się trzyma go "do góry nogami". Some time ago I worked on the handset in an orange company. When we had an introductory class, as an anecdote, one of the regular employees told us that once a man called who was having trouble with his laptop. For clarity, the employee asked what brand the laptop was. He replied that it was "dy". He thought about it for quite a while. In the end, it turned out that "dy" is actually "hp". Which is logical when you hold it upside down.

Hyundai Kona means literally "Hyundai is dying in agony" - that's right, not just death, but long and painful. As to pupa and siku - you'd use them when talking to children. I'd translate siku to "pee" rather than to "piss".

Its so damn hilarious...that last one is my favourite 😂

There is also SRAM brand of a company that makes derailleurs and other bicycle parts ;)

In Poland whe had similar fun of the chain sport store called "Athlete's Foot" which tried to imitate foregin brands😂

"Osram" itself has a full meaning in Polish - doesn't need to be spliced or altered. Osram means exactly "I will shit all over (something) "

The 1st thing that came to my mind after reading the video title was OSRAM :D There was also an old, dry joke: Klient pyta ekspedientkę w sklepie czy są żarówki, na co ona się pyta "zwykłe czy OSRAM?". Klient " zwykłe poproszę....w domu sam je sobie osram:".

Yeah, Osram is the worst of them all, because it's so commonly seen in almost every shop :D But this is not only a problem of international companies in Poland. It also applies to some pretty well-known Polish universities :D It's quite common to use shortcuts when referring to specific universities (UAM, UJ, UW) or to faculties/departments within those universities. When you realize what shortcut you "get" for Wydział CHemii Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego - you start smiling instantly. It's almost a meme :D

Pamiętam jak wiele lat temu oglądałem na Eurosport UK pucharowy mecz piłki nożnej z udziałem polskiego zespołu. Angielscy komentatorzy nie mogli powstrzymać się od śmiechu, ponieważ wokół murawy były duże banery firmy bukmacherskiej "FART" :-) Lucky farting 🙃

Russell, you made my evening, I didn't laugh today as much 😊😂😂👍🏼👍🏼

I love that you decided to change letter in every english curse word but not in polish ones. 😂😂 Great video btw i laughed a lot. 😄👍

Hyundai KONA = Hyundai IS DYING. The line above is the most strict translation.

After visiting America I came to Warsaw Airport and saw a huge name WINDY. I thought for a moment about the weather condition in Warsaw. "Why did they put this word here? Are three airport planes making wind with those huge engines?"

'Kurwa" in Polish has of lots of meanings than only prostitute.

I found it quite amusing when I learned that the developers of the once famous MMORPG Tibia called themselves CipSoft :x

"SRAM" - bicycle derailleurs (gears)

😂😂😂yes I live in Ireland and you can imagine my surprise when I show first time Penny's shop and only Polish, Spanish and rest of my language class 😂😂😂😂 when we start talking about the name my Irish friends now know what that means in some countries but here is normal. Have nice day

Haha! These jokes about Osram are very classic! Osram name comes from the chemical elements osm + wolfram. Similar souns a Hungarian company name Tungsram known back in the days from their vacum tubes and later from bulbs too. It comes from the tungsten + wolfram.

Brand of curtains "yebane" (similar to the word fuc...ing/ed) so in Polish yebane curtains means fuc...ing curtains..

Pamiętam sprzed lat, gdy ta marka wchodziła na polski rynek pojawiło się zdanie "Osram: W tej nazwie groźba jest ukryta!"

Long time ago (in 1970's) the light bulbs were manufactured in Poland by Polam. There was a commercial about those bulbs, going like this: Polam - i wszystko jasne! And now that commercialial could sound like this: Osram i wszystko jasne. Hmm.

In Poland in the 1990s there was a huge advertising post on the side of an express road near Mikołów, in Upper Silesian region in Poland. On this post was a picture of a Lightbulb and words "Żarówki Osram" - "Osram Lightbulbs". Someone very quickly took a spray to it and added "Ja też" - "Me too/Me also"

In the past, there was a slogan addressed to new family businesses "Small is beautiful" (małe jest piękne). These days, I always smile when walking around my city and seeing a mall called "FOCUS MALL"

Hi there, greetings from subcarpatia region 😊. One thing, "Siku" is more like "pee" or "pee pee" like kids say, less vulgar than piss I think.

Speaking of funny names, there's a shop in Gdynia with a name "Fart".

Haha, good, very good. I laughed like dumb and dumber. I have an anecdote with the Osram brand. Once upon a time, when the Osram brand entered Poland, on my way to work I passed a huge banner with the brand's advertising slogan, which I passed every day on my way to work, and the huge inscription was - OSRAM TANIEJ. That translates to English something like I'll defecate on you cheaper. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

SRAM - manufacturer of bicycle parts😂

Świetny wybór. Perfect selection 😂😂

Osram was present in Poland even before WWII. People say they used to have add like: "Osram, i wszystko jasne!". I hope it's not a fake.:) Another company name that sounds hillarious in Poland is SRAM (equipment for bikes).

It's said that Marshal Piłsudski, a man of wit and not shying away from soldierly language, greeted the king of Afghanistan with a shout: "Osram, Tungsram, Afghanistan!", which was meticulously translated to the esteemed guest as "Long live Afghanistan!". BTW Tungsram was also a very famous brand of incandescent bulbs but especially of electron tubes.

How could you forgot the endless possibilities of HUIWEI?! 😂

Nice list there! I might add that when it comes to brand names the Poles do have a sense of humour themselves. I always chuckle when seeing eggs from the brand "Ale jaja!"

I find those words what makes me laugh. How do you say Oreo in Polish and Dupo little city in Illinois 🤣 Being truck driver and driving all over the US, I see many strange names english to polish 🤣👍

W czołówce ma Pan Texas na Podlasiu. And I like it!

Some people in America do not want to eat shitake (shit ache) mushrooms. They refuse to eat anything that starts with shit.

Btw my British husband when he first came to Poland he had to take a picture outside of every shop called FART

Osram used to be the Hungarian brand - we always had a laugh about that one! I've got another one for You - much worse. In English you can say "who you are,,," - I think you already know what that sounds like when a Pole hears it?

Love your videos-- thanks for sharing!!

there is a store with woman's underware called NIPPLEX. So direct translation would be "sutex" ;-)

Hyundai Kona is funny too :)

It’s like the baby food brand “Gerber” in France…. Gerber literally vulgarly means “to puke” in french. It’s as a success there, as Osram is in Polish :D

EDITED: 😊 So nice to see you back uploading videos! You, Russell, are so missed by your viewer-fans. 😊

There's a rumor that they wanted to buy an oil company in Piła making the joint venture called "Osram i oleje".

my personal favorite must be polish word KANT

As a cycling fan I recall seeing photos from a mountain bike race in Poland with it's main sponsor "SRAM" (bicycle component manufacturer) proudly featured on banners around the course. Then again, if you watch any spring races in Belgium/Netherlands (I don't recall which), you're bound to witness the word "Huy" painted on the asphalt at places. I believe it is a name of a location or a difficult climb that is a part of those races.

There is a Kurwa Eye Center in California!😅

The reverse is also funny. In the 90s there was a soda drink called "Fart" sold in Poland. It even made it to Jay Leno's Tonight Show back then.

I’ll add one more up - car brand Grand Cherokee, which I and my kids pronounce as “wielki szeroki” which indicates that it’s high and wide, just as US cultural stereotype.

There is a big producer of bike parts - SRAM. And some scandinavian food producer (vegan food IIRC) - HUI

There's also a company called Sika (they produce some construction chemicals), which means "It's pissing" in Polish.

w mojej opinii żarówki Osram przyjęły się głównie ze względu na żarty - choćby w stylu "kupiłeś groźne/odgrażające się żarówki?", od razu wiadomo o jakie chodzi :D

That was really hilarious! Thank you : ) Still on the funny side: please remember that both equivalents of "ham" and "hui" begin with soft "ch" sound ; )

Mnie za młodu najwięcej śmieszyły przerzutki w moim rowerze firmy "Sram" 😉

To double down on the last item, there is renowned bike equipment brand "SRAM" (problably primary competitor for Japanese Shimano in recent years) which for reason explained probably is not most fortunate for Polish market, catchy but not good way... to have "I'm taking a ...." on your brake levers:) People already commented on that, I can see:) One item I would put on the list in car brand Škoda, very popular here (probably one big thing people here can be jalous about our favourite neigbours, they have strong car brand that survived comunism though technically being German now:) which in Czech shall be pronounced "szkoda"="shkoda" what means loss/damage, so is marketed in Poland pronounced "skoda", which is just a word w/o bad connotations:)

I got a good laugh out of that, thank you

That's fun! Now I know a lot of swears in polish!😂

I read somewhere that Osram did their homework and they knew the meaning of the name in in Polish, and used this name in on purpose. They decided to focus on brand recognition. The name is just combination of the names Wolfram and Osmium. Czytałem gdzieś, że firma Osram znała znaczenie nazwy i jej nazwy celowo. Zdecydowali się postawić na rozpoznawalność marki. A nazwa to połączenie nazw Wolfram i Osm.

It's not just Osram. There is also a pretty reputable and popular american brand that makes bicycle components, the main competitor of Shimano, which is called Sram.

I know something that goes other way round - years ago there was a soft drink named "fart" in Poland. And for poles it was quite innocent name - fart (mam/miałem fart/farta) means just a stroke of good luck, in English however... not so much ;). This drink made my western friends/colleagues chuckle and smirk all the time. And when the company producing this drink started exporting it to polish shops in the UK... yeah, one can imagine :).

American here. One that cracked me up when I lived there was a popular brand of toilet paper: “Asso”. Not sure if Polish people find that one funny. Love your smakowite videos :) Thanks!

On the reverse side, common name on polish corner shops selling buzze is: "Alkohole".

Happy Majuwa Russel, always glad to see your vid on feed.

Osram is the punchline to the old joke, what's hanging under the ceiling and threatening you?

There's a model of bicycle gear shift, manufactured by Shimano, called SRAM. It's kinda high end model but I wouldn't be too happy to have one in my bicycle...

Huion - name of the brand similar to that cosmetic one. They produce graphics tablets. Before the pandemic I didn't hear about it, but because of mu job I had to buy a tablet, and now I and many of my collegues have tablets with HUION brand name :) (and they aren't "chuj*we" but they work very well).

hi Russel! watching your channel for long time. love it! i would love you to make episode about your fav legends. im from Toruń so The leaning tower and Ginger bread... pls make one:)

There's also a fashion retailer called Curvissa 😂

These language quirks are hilarious. Many female Chinese students have "hui" in their names and the Polish-born teachers here in NYC have the hardest time with that.

About #5... Saying that the word "ku*wa" means just "a prostitute" is like saying nothing... Depending on the context / situation and voice intonation this very simple word can describe: disappointment, fear, wrath, happiness, joy, excitement, and whatever there is on a scale of human emotions... Also, in some situations (when said with the right amount of bitterness in your voice), description of all you're currently going through can be packed in just this one magic word. It holds such a power in Polish language :)

Wisi pod sufitem i straszy. Żarówka Osram.

Osram in Polish exactlly means: "I will shit on (something)". For example "osram to" means "I will shit on it"

Great video Russell! I had a nice giggle watching it. 😂Especially with the last brand name that you mentioned.😅

It's nice to see you again, nice video 😅

I moved from Poland to UK in 2006 and sometimes I forget for simple words can sound extremely rude in Polish 😂😂

This episode killed me. I was wondering if you'd be including Osram, but as soon as I hear you say "hardware store", I thought to my self "yes, it's coming." Cheers from Canada!

My in-laws have a red "Captur"and as I'm sure you can guess they call it "Czerwony Kapturek" or "Little Red Riding Hood" 😆

We have a Polish OSRAM (i'll sh#t) joke: Kowalski comes to the store and asks if there are light bulbs. The seller says they are: Philips and OSRAM (i'll sh#t). Kowalski replies: I'll take Philips, I'll sh#t a light bulb at home.

O Hui !! Mariola spójrz ale te kosmetyki drogie

I knew right from the start that no.1 will be OSRAM :D. I remember how many, many, many years ago, I saw a TV commercial with OSRAM bulbs. This was so bizarre that I was sure that somehow this must be April fools or maybe some comedy show. It turned out to be real, which blows my mind. I would translate it to "I will make shit over...", hence the popular dry joke "What is hanging over you and making a threat?" "The OSRAM lightbulb". I still can't believe they are still on the market. I guess people can adjust to anything... even a brand threatening to shit over you...

What about bicycle parts company "SRAM"? There is also brand of toys called "Kupa".

There is a joke about these Osram bulbs in Poland - "wisi i grozi" (hangs and threatens)

Remember when they changed the sci-fi channel to Syfy? Sounds kind of like syphilis, doesn't it? Or it could be just something really disgusting, like walking into a hoarder's house and seeing the mess. By the way, Eva and I have been to the OSRAM factory in Wellsboro, PA. It's not too far from our house, and there are abandoned rails there.

From a Polish native speaker's view- most hilarious are Osram, PUPA, SIKU, Captur, Caravan- precisely in this order.

This segment of Love My Poland is hilarious! 🤣

Gdzieś kiedyś widziałem taki wielki zwój kabla na drewnianej szpuli, podpisany "turbo cipa" I to nie, że spolszczyłęm zapis, było dosłownie tak zapisane:D (możecie wpisać to w google grafika). Z tego co pamiętam firma, czy produkt pochodzi z włoch a z włoskim wiąże się jeszcze jedna zabawna sprawa. Czy macie świadomość, jak po włosku nazywa się cebula? Też polecam sprawdzić:D Odkryłem to kiedyś przypadkiem, widząc "lodówkowy słowniczek" hiszpańsko-włoski w erazmusowym mieszkaniu. Chyba z pół dnia się z tego śmiałem:D

My husband worked with Mr. Hui. He told him what it meant before he retired 🤣🤣🤣