Parthemores in Poland

So this weekend I went to Madrid for the Olmsted Wives’ Weekend, which was fabulous!  More about that in a future entry…

Of course, I flew LOT (not Ryan Air this time!) to Warsaw and then on to Madrid.  On LOT flights, all of the in-flight communication is done first in Polish, and then in English.  Since I’ve flown so many times I could give the safety brief myself, I was pleased with my ability to follow along with the Polish version. 

About a half hour into the flight to Madrid, things got interesting.  The pilot comes on the radio and starts his routine in Polish about how high we are, how fast we’re going and when we will land, etc.  He then added something in Polish.  Given my limited capabilities, this is what I heard:

“Something something broken something trying to fix something something something please.”

Hmmm.  Nobody seems to be panicking.  Guess I’ll just wait for the English version.

“Ladies and gentlemen, we are flying at an altitude of blah, blah, blah…we will be landing in Madrid at 3:30.” 

Uhhhh, excuse me?  Something else perhaps?  Are you trying to figure out how to say “horrible, fiery death” in English? 

After a very long (for me, anyway) 20 seconds, he comes back on with:

“Oh, and, uh, yes, the toilet flush mechanism is broken and we are trying to fix it.  Please try to keep bathroom usage to a minimum.  Thank you.”

This is the burden of knowing “just enough” of another language.