Justin Royek
How do you say I am a ham in Polish? How do you say "I am a ham" in Polish? This question pertains to ham radio. In American English, we use the word "ham" for ham radio operators. Would it be Jestem szynką? That means I am a ham, as in the food. Who says that? MY callsign is W3AGF In case you look me up in the FCC ULS. How do you say callsign in Polish/? MY ham radio callsign. How do you say that? I am an American licensed ham radio operator. I communicate on 145.130 MHz on the W3MIE repeater back at home in Cochranton. The Oxford dictionary that I have in Polish is so confusing because it is a British centric dictionary and I do not think that they use ham in British slang for an amateur radio operator. It is so upper class and loaded with bloated English upper class ways of speaking, that I just do not like it that much. I do not like the Oxford dictionaries. They are so clunky and ham-fisted just to use the right words and more than one word for the same thing. Thank God for Italki
Jul 26, 2014 11:18 PM
Answers · 6
3
I'd explain it in simple terms instead of using slang or jargon. Try translating "I am an amateur radio operator." One nice little tip is to look up the topic on wikipedia, and switch languages. This gives you: http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kr%C3%B3tkofalarstwo Looking through the article, it seems the word you want is "krótkofalowiec". Perhaps even simply "radioamator" is clear enough.
July 26, 2014
Jestem szynką.
July 28, 2014
I wasn't talking about British people as a whole, just about the difficult to use Oxford dictionaries.
July 27, 2014
We may well all be confusing, bloated, upper class and clunky in Britain, but you will be pleased to hear that we also say 'ham' to refer to amateur radio operators, just as you do. God bless Italki and good luck with the Polish.
July 26, 2014
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Justin Royek
Language Skills
English, French, German, Latin, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Ukrainian, Welsh
Learning Language
French, German, Latin, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Ukrainian, Welsh