Polish, as I understand it

Clue: Mała sterta siana - small pile of hay. I live in a semi-rural area of England but know a limited amount about farming practices.  Even if I did, this may well be an antiquated term in English   Kopa - large pile of hay - Haystack Kopka - small pile of hay - Haycock Answer: Kopka  Farming seems like good honest work, which brings us to the next clue: Clue: Żadna nie hańbi. Answer: Praca This answer I did not get until I had most of the letters.  I believe it refers to the proverb: żadna praca nie hańbo - no job is a disgrace.  Which, on the face of it and as it was intended, is an honourable sentiment.  Perhaps coined before the advent jobs like: the leader of UKIP, a position once held by Nigel Farage and currently, at the time of writing, held by Neil Hamilton.  Until I looked, I didn't realise that UKIP was still going.  Surely there is no need now that they have returned the UK to its glory days when we were the sick man of Europe....

More words and facts I have learned from crosswords (krzyżówki) A nice easy one to start off with.  A word very similar to our own. Clue: Wyspa wokół laguny - Island around a lagoon. A coral island consisting of a ring-shaped reef enclosing a lagoon is an atoll, in English. Answer: Atol . Very close to the English, which must mean they share the same origin.  Atoll is from the Divehi / Maldivian atolu , applied to the Maldive Islands, which are typical examples of this structure.  It seems atol  is given the same etymology and is closer to the origin word.  While we're on the subject: coral reef in Polish is rafa koralowa and The Great Barrier Reef is Wielka Rafa Koralowa .  Wielka being great (or huge), as in Wielka Brytania for Great Britain. Clue: ... Dmowski.   This clue suggests that purely by stating the surname, we should know the first name, or imię , of this person, so they must be very well known.  Also, I'm pretty sure we are talkin...

Polish words and more I have discovered through crosswords.  In a bid to expand my vocabulary and Polish general knowledge, I have started to, mainly by cheating with Google, complete crosswords (krzyżówki). Clue: Tam bój kościuszkowców - location of the Kościuszko battle. Answer: Lenino .   Lenino is a large village in Belarus and site of the 1943 Battle of Lenino, where the Polish 1st Tadeusz-Kościuszko Infantry Division fought along side the 33rd Soviet army against the Germans. Clue: "Pieprz i ...", z Tonym Halikiem - " Pepper and ..." with Tony Halik.   Answer: Wanilia   Tony Halik was a writer, explorer and documentary film maker.  He co-presented a long running programme with Elżbieta Dzikowska called Pieprz i Wanilia.   There were 300 episodes and they were broadcast over twenty years. The programmes were a way of seeing the world when foreign travel - and certainly travel outside the soviet bloc - was closely controlled by the com...