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The article presents the history of Polish Studies at the University of Foreign Languages in Seul. The author, who is the Head of Polish Department, discusses its foundation and development. He presents also the activity of the Department over past twenty years – shaping of the curricula and their present form, activity of the staff in the field of academic research and translations, and international cooperation. Polish department at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies was founded in 1987 and it initiated Polish Studies in Korea. Currently, about 130 people are studying there. Classes are held by 10 teachers and scholars, two people from Poland among them. Graduates of the Department are likely to obtain employment, due to the good economic relations between Poland and Korea.

The article presents Yi Lijun’s translation and academic activity. Yi Lijun is a professor at the Polish Philology Faculty at Beijing Foreign Studies University and a translator of Polish literature into Chinese. She began her scholarly pursuit in this area in 1962 after graduating a university in Poland. During 50 years of this work she educated close to 200 graduates of Polish Philology Faculty. An important contribution of Professor Lijun is promoting among Chinese readers the canon of Polish literature as well as some important contemporary works. Yi Lijun has translated into Chinese works of Mickiewicz, Sienkiewicz, Gombrowicz. She is also an author of numerous critical works concerning Polish literature. Professor Yi Lijun’s merits have been highly appreciated by Chinese and Polish governments.

Article presents the laryngeal contrast of homo­‑organic plosives in Polish and Korean and its acquisition in Polish by Korean students. There are three laryngeal series of stops in Korean: fortis (tense), lenis (lax) and aspirated. All of them are phonologically voiceless, although the lenis series typically becomes voiced intervocalically. The three­‑way laryngeal contrast among voiceless stops is very unusual and Korean is regarded as the only language which makes use of such distinction. Polish, to obtain the phonological contrast between stops having the same place of articulation, exploits the binary system of presence or absence of laryngeal vibration during the closure stage of stop production. The results of the present study show that so­‑called long prevoicing of Polish voiced stops in word­‑initial position is difficult to acquire by Koreans. Polish word­‑initial voiced stops were produced by some Korean speakers as Korean lenis stops but by the majority of speakers as stops with intermediate VOT between typical values of VOT in L1 and L2. Koreans usually pronounce Polish voiceless stops with aspiration in order to contrast them with Polish voiced stop series which is unfortunately devoiced in word­‑initial position by these speakers.

The article is dedicated to some greeting formulae and some address forms in contemporary Chinese (more precisely Mandarin) language. It discusses general rules of grammatical and lexical system as well as pragmatics and language politeness both in official and unofficial speech. The text is partly of a comparative character (it presents how different expressions function within Polish and Chinese communication). It also underlines the glottodidactic aspect, which, in this case, refers to teaching not only a foreign language but also a foreign culture.

The history of translating Polish literature in South Korea goes almost 100 years back. In the article Polish literary works translated into Korean have been presented in chronological order. The first Polish literary work offered to Korean readers was Quo vadis by Henryk Sienkiewicz. It was translated from Japanese into Korean language in 1916. Since then Korean translators have been presenting Polish literature to their compatriots almost constantly and in many different ways. This also applies to the very difficult moments in the history of Korea such as Japanese occupation (1910–1940) or so called „cold war” period. Around 70 works of Polish literature have been published in Korea so far (not mentioning re­‑editions and several different translations of the same work). Some works have been published several times, translated by different people and published by different publishing houses (for example Quo vadis by Henryk Sienkiewicz, Eighth day of a week by Marek Hłasko, Solaris by Stanisław Lem).

The article is dedicated to introducing Polish children’s books into the publishing market in Korea. Before the generation of translators completed their education at Polish Philology Faculty at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies (founded in 1987), Polish works had been translated through different foreign languages. Poland is regarded as a country of interesting books for children, mostly because of the old tradition of Polish school of illustration, but also due to some illustrative works of young artists, or pictorial books such as the ones by Iwona Chmielewska. There are also interesting publications which came as the result of Polish­‑Korean cooperation – books that were created by Polish authors, edited by Koreans, published in Korea as Korean products. As cultural products created by many people from both countries (Korea and Poland) such books are able to cross the countries’ borders.

The author of the article – Yi Lijun, a distinguished translator of Polish literary works into Chinese – attempts to present the reception of Henryk Sienkiewicz’s works in China, concentrating on the issues concerning translations. She presents vignettes of the greatest scholars’ discussing Sienkiewicz’s works, the history of reception of Sienkiewicz’s writings, as well as the methods of popularizing his novels. She concentrates on problematics concerning the process of translating Trylogy from Polish language into Chinese, pointing out the difficulties and mistakes made by translators. She discusses her own work on translating the novels of the author of Quo vadis.

First Poles that appeared on the Korean Peninsula towards the end of the 19^th century and described their experiences were two scientists and travelers Jan Kalinowski and Władysław Kotowicz. The first writer who introduced Korea to Polish readers in the beginning of the 20^th century was Wacław Sieroszewski. Nowadays, there are very few Poles in Korea (about 130): the number is changing constantly as most of them are students participating in language courses or Korean Studies, employees on temporary work contracts, wives of foreigners working in Korea, Korean’s spouses, Catholic priests, Polish buddhist monks and lecturers at Korean universities. More or less regular meetings of Polish community in Korea are held on the occasion of Polish mass celebrated once a month by Pallottines. After the year 2000 the number of marriages between Poles and Koreans has grown, which resulted in the formation in the autumn of 2007 a club of Polish­‑Korean families called 7736 km.

The article is dedicated to the Polish colony in Manchuria, which came into being at the turn of the 19^th and 20^th centuries and lasted for over 50 years. In successive parts, the author discusses manifestations of cultural life of Poles in Manchuria. He concentrates mostly on Polish cultural institutions created by Poles, the magazines they published. The author points out the merits of some greatest representatives of the colony. The important role was also played by Polish Consulate in Harbin and its workers dedicated to their tasks. After the Second World War broke out, the situation of Polish community became more difficult, and the colony ceased to exist under communist regime in China. Poles left and material traces of their residence in Manchuria also ceased to exist.

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The author poses the question whether Polish literary canon that has been established since Romanticism through translations into French can be used in the joint­‑creation of the canon of European literature. Methodology used by the author is based on translatological theory of polysystem by I. Even­‑Zohar: it underlines the function of the translation in the target cultural system. The conclusions concerning establishing Polish literary canon in France are based on analyzing a series of examples, using the typical for French culture idea of what is „classic” and encyclopaedic tradition of popularizing general knowledge („culture générale”). From 19^th century till the turn of 20^th and 21^st centuries the canonic Polish authors in France have become: A. Mickiewicz and C. Miłosz (in poetry), H. Sienkiewicz and W. Gombrowicz (in prose), Witkacy, Mrożek, Kantor (in drama), S. Lem (in science­‑fiction literature) and R. Kapuściński (in reportage).

The author reads Adam Mickiewicz’s [Urywek Pamiętnika Polki] in the context of symbolic space of a house “from the basement to the attic” suggested by Gaston Bachelard. Fenomenological doubts of French critic provoke questions concerning “beloved space” and “shelter” in Mickiewicz’s text. Deconstrucion that leads to accepting Ludwisia’s perspective reveals vertical dimension of the house and enables to designate places for figures living there. The most important belongs to a modest servant girl.

The article attempts to explain the origin of some Polish names of non­‑basic colours. Lexemes that serve as bases for forming the names of colours in Polish have been divided into four semantic categories. The most numerous one consists of the names of colours derivative from the names of certain plants. Second most numerous group of lexemes is based on the names of minerals, metals, stones. The third one refers to the names of animals, birds, fish and reptiles. The last, and least numerous group consists of the names of colours that originate from the names of the staining substances. Among the names of the colours presented in the article some examples can be found that do not belong to any of the four groups. The name of the colour can also originate from grocery articles, atmospheric phenomena, drinks or proper nouns.

The author of the article analyzes Polish obituary notices published in „Gazeta Wyborcza” (the nationwide newspaper published daily). In the beginning the characteristic features and types of this genre has been discussed. The author attempts to explain also how valuation is understood in linguistic context and through which means it is realized. He has fully analyzed selected obituary notices regarding them from linguistic and axiological perspective. His aim has been to show what was being valuated in obituary notices and how it was manifested in different elements of such texts (initial formula, identification and characteristics of a person who died, the ending of the obituary notice).

The author analyzes the situation in the field of publishing Polish belles lettres in 2009. She selects ten books that in her opinion represent the most interesting achievements in prose and poetry. Books that are discussed in the article have been written by the authors representing different generations: Andrzej Bart (Rewers), Joanna Bator (Piaskowa Góra), Zbigniew Kruszyński (Ostatni raport), Janusz Rudnicki (Śmierć czeskiego psa), Andrzej Stasiuk (Taksim), Olga Tokarczuk (Prowadź swój pług przez kości umarłych), Bartosz Konstrat (Samochody i krew), Tadeusz Pióro (Abecadło), Piotr Sommer (Dni i noce), Piotr Szewc (Moje zdanie).

Bruno Schulz has recently been discovered as a writer in China. The first volume of his short stories Ulica Krokodyli [Crocodile Street] was published in 2009. From the very beginning Schulz’s writing became fascinating especially for young readers. Many Chinese experts claim that it is similar in some aspects to Kafka’s writing, although direct comparison of the works of these two writers reveals substantial differences. Yu Hua, young and popular writer in China, wrote an introduction to Ulica Krokodyli.

There were three conferences of Asian countries where Polish Philology faculties exist, held between 2007 and 2010. China, Korea, Japan and recently also Mongolia, became interested into closer cooperation in order to exchange experiences and facilitate students and teacher exchange program. The first conference was held in Seul, second in Tokio, the third one in Bejing. Each of them created an opportunity to design further cooperation. The author of the article concentrates mostly on the third conference.

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